#even if that was supposedly real practice with marriages in greece then | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fymagnificentwomcn · 5 years

Quote

The author of the sixteenth-century ‘Viaje de Turquía’, a book of travel in Spanish, was one such foreign physician, called in after the local physicians supposedly failed to provide treatment. There is controversy regarding the author’s identity, but even if we are not sure of his name, we can learn from his text about the circumstances in the Ottoman Empire. The text is in the format of a discussion between several Spaniards. The narrator, Pedro, tells his companions how he was captured and served as physician in the household of the Ottoman Admiral Sinan Paşa. Sinan was Rüstem Paşa’s brother, the powerful grand vizier to Sultan Süleyman I (reigned 1520–66). Rüstem was also a damad, a sultanic son-in-law due to his marriage to Mihrimah Sultan, Süleyman and Hürrem Sultan’s daughter—something which partly accounted for his power. The Spanish physician claims to have treated his patron heroically and successfully. He gained such respect that even after the patron’s death he was not released, and Mihrimah Sultan wished to present him as a gift to her father. He was sent to Süleyman who at that time stayed in Amasya, an important provincial city in northern Anatolia. The Spaniard escaped during the journey and returned home through Greece. Back in Spain he presented himself as a witness to the medical practices in the Ottoman imperial family, stating that he treated both brothers, Sinan and Rüstem, and the latter’s wife, Mihrimah. The 'Viaje de Turquía’ includes a detailed description of Mihrimah Sultan’s treatment by the Spaniard, and the complex process that facilitated this treatment. After all senior Ottoman physicians failed to treat the sultan’s daughter, who was on her death bed for several months, the Spanish physician was summoned for a lengthy interview with Sinan, his patron and Mihrimah’s brother-in-law. In the mediation of an interpreter, he was presented with the case and with her medical symptoms. Sinan emphasized that the patient in question was a grand lady, and that their position was dependent on her. Sinan then asked his Spanish slave-physician, who had previously treated him for dropsy and other ailments, to treat his relative as successfully as he did Sinan. He further clarified that, due to her position, the physician would not be able to see her. The physician declined. Sinan and his entourage pressed him to agree. They worried that his refusal was due to the fact he wanted to bargain Mihrimah’s treatment for his release. Hence they urged him to forget that he was a captive. However, as he later explained to his friends, he could not have been of real help to a patient—especially in a grave medical situation—unless he was allowed to check and diagnose her, and hence there was no point in taking on the responsibility. Eventually he was admitted to the sick woman’s room, not before Hürrem, the Sultan’s wife and Mihrimah’s mother, gave her permission. Inside the room he diagnosed his patient under the watchful eye of numerous physicians and a furious husband (being leery of a foreign male physician, who was a non-Muslim and non-Turk, touching his wife). The fact the Spanish physician was brought to his patient in disguise, wearing the clothes of a Muslim to conceal his true identity, illustrates this was not a regular occurrence. However, even under such unique circumstances, including a special imperial permission, and given the pressing medical condition, the patient was covered from head to toe. Only her arm was bare for him to take her pulse, and when he demanded to see the other hand and inspect the patient’s tongue—he was met with refusal.

from: A Sick Sultana in the Ottoman Imperial Palace: Male Doctors, Female Healers and Female Patients in the Early Modern Period by Miri Shefer-Mossensohn

#mihrimah sultan #historicalquotes #history #ottoman history #quotes

63 notes · View notes