El legado islámico en los cuidados psiquiátricos. El Maristán de Granada

Abstract

During the Middle Ages, Muslims influenced significantly in the health sciences, initiating a process of clumping of existing knowledge and the inclusion of new contributions. The aim of this article is to contextualize the conception of madness and care realised in medieval Islamic culture and to analize the structure and organization of the Maristan of Granada, main health sanitary institution of al-Andalus and founded in 1367 by the emir Muhammad V. In order to get as much relevant data available to provide details of the enriched Arab-Islamic society of the Middle Ages vision, various historical documents and other literature sources they were examined. The findings of this review show the importance of Bimaristan of Granada as a promoter of health quality care to psychiatric patients in the Iberian Peninsula, including dietary-based therapies, hydrotherapy, massage, bloodletting and drug prescriptions. Decent and honorable treatment of the psychiatric patients would be imitated by some Christian psychiatric institutions in the peninsula since the 15th century.