Journal of - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

The American Hospital in Gaziantep, The History of the Connected Medical
School and Nursing School and Their Effects on Their Enviroment
Gülkızılca YÜRÜR
of the Beirut College and the medical department of the
French, Jesuit St. Joseph’s College also in Beirut. That the
second Protestant medical school was opened in Antep can
be connected to the economical success of the Armenian
protestant population here, and their high willingness and
cooperation for training modern professionals well-acquinted
with the American Protestant culture from among
their youth. However, the Muslim community also seems
to have supported the effort. Barlas reports that the donations
of the Antep Muslims, especially of Taha efendi, who
donated the ground on which the college and the hospital
clinics were built, was a great incentive for the missionaries
in choosing this city as the home of the College (18).
The college provided education in medicine and in surgery
and even though there weren’t any Muslim students,
the official language of education was Turkish (18). In a
report presented to the Rockefelelr Foundation by the AB-
CFM, entitled, “Medical Education and Medical Practice in
Turkey”, the school, holding medical education in a native
language, is described to be “some kind of Tuskegee”, due
to its experimental nature. The goal hereby is described as
“giving space to the local culture as far as possible, and at
the same time, educating students to have the potential to
create better social conditions in their environments” (19).
In the medical department, the academic year was
divide into three semesters. At the end of each semester,
which covered three and half months, the students had
15 days of free. The medical education took 4 years. The
school also had departments of dentistry and pharmacy, in
which the education covered three years (19).
The diploma of the medical department of the Central
Turkey College was not acknowledged by the Ottoman
Government, for the entire time of its existence. In
1888, a big famine brought the Antep populations to their
knees (14). The Suez Channel, opened in 1869, severely
weakened the land route from Caucasia, the Persian high
lands and the Far East, to the Arab Peninsula and beyond,
a route on which Antep was one of the main stations.
Commercial life flattened in the city. Familiesi trying to
survive, had less to spend for the education of their children
and they did not have much interest in investing in a
medical education, which did not even provide an official
diploma. The financial support for the school diminishing,
the medical school with its higher costs of training
was closed in 1888, the year in which the director of the
College, Trowbridge, died (12).
In the report presented to the Rockefeller Foundation
by the ABCFM in 1917, the medical department is marked
as “temporarily closed”. According to the report, during this
interval, the students of the department were transferred to
the medical department of the American College in Beirut
and they had to pay only half of the normal fee there(19).
Te report states that, while it operated, the school gave 21
graduates with an MD title (19).
Antep American Hospital
The Antep American Hospital, due to financial problems,
was built piecewise, and completed in 5 years (20).
In 1878, a polyclinic also used for training purposes of
the medical department, a dispansery and a men’s ward of
10 people formed the core of the coming hospital (14). In
1880, with donations from the Cilican Evangelist Union
and from international donors, the structure which forms
the eastern wing of the hospital today was built, and health
care services as well as medical education was carried out
here (20).
According to the biography of Dr. Shepard written by
his daughter, Alice Shepard Riggs, from its early days on,
the hospital had to wrest with financial and practical difficulties.
The basic equipment of the hospital consisted of a
wooden operation table, covered with zinc, and produced
in Maraş according to the doctor’s instructions, just like the
sterilization cattle and the forceps (14).
The medicine and medical raw material with which
medication was produced dispersed in the polyclinic and
given to the patients during house and village visits, were
bought from England and the USA. Pharmacists from
among the Armenian population were trained, to produce
the needed mixtures (14). The pharmacist of the hospital
was preparing, according to Dr. Shepard’s estimation, over
twenty thousand medications in a year (14).
After the I. World War broke out in 1914, the Ottoman
government asked the hospital administration to reserve
the hospital for military cases and in 1915, 47 beds were
used exclusively for cases from the Ottoman army.(18). In
1917, the hospital was given over entirely to military use. In
December 1918, the English army started the occupation
of Antep and the English soldiers established themselves in
the Central Turkey College as their main base, giving back
the hospital to the American missionary crew (12). In 19
1 9, the French army overtook the city from the English
and the College building became their base, the hospital
being run from then on by the American Near East Relief.
The main duty of the hospital now was to take care of the
victims of war, especially from among the Christian populations
(12).
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