The Azodi Hospital of the Buyid dynasty

Under the rule of the Buyid dynasty in the tenth century CE, Shiraz was the capital of and largest city in the Persian province of Fars. today, it is located in central Iran. The Buyid ruler Azod al-Dowleh, who ruled from 936 to 983 CE, endowed a large hospital in Shiraz known as Dar al- Shafa, but that building fell into ruins during the anarchy of the late Buyid and early Seljuk periods. This hospital is also referred to as the Azodi Hospital and was constructed between 971 and 973 CE in Shiraz. Furthermore, Azod al-Dowleh ordered the construction of another hospital referred to as the Azodi Hospital in Baghdad in 979 CE.

This Hospital was affiliated with the University of the City in Shiraz. Shahab al-Din abi al-Kheir Zarkoub Shirazi writes in Shiraznameh that the hospital functioned as an important health center until the fourteenth century. Remains from the Buyid dynasty still exist in and near Shiraz, but the Azodi Hospital, or Dar al-Shafa, is not among them; however, the name Dar al-Shafa has persisted as the name of a part of the old city.

Noteworthy, the extant literature employs the term Dar al-Shafa as a proper noun that refers to either the Azodi Hospital, the site in Shiraz on which the Azodi Hospital was built and the area in the vicinity of that site, or the Mozzafari Hospital built by Shah Shoja during the Mozzafarid dynasty. The use of the term Dar al-Shafa to refer to the site of the Azodi Hospital following the hospital’s decline reflects the prominence of that hospital.

Reference:

Golshani A, Bosmia AN, Ahmadi A, Adloo S, Tubbs RS, Bayazidi A, Golshani AH, Shoja MM. The Mozzafari Hospital of Shiraz, Persia. Child’s Nervous System. 2014 May;30(5):801-5.