Üç başkent beş hastane: Erken dönem Osmanlı ve geç dönem Bizans hastaneleri üzerine karşılaştırmalı bir çalışma

Apart from being a distinctive architectural form that reflects the artistic inclinations and traditions of its period, a hospital is a social structure, and it gives significant hints about the society in which it is founded. This thesis scrutinizes early Ottoman (the Yıldırım Bayezid Darüşşifa, the Fatih Darüşşifa, and the Bayezid II Darüşşifa) and late Byzantine hospitals (the Pantokrator Xenon, the Lips Xenon) through a comparative approach, focusing on their social and institutional structures. Since the Byzantine hospitals under study no longer exist, it is not possible to come to a concrete conclusion regarding the comparison of their physical features. However, evidence that might give an idea about their architectural features, decorative programs, as well their spatial designs will be presented since their physical features also say a lot about the hospital founding practices of the two cultures. Since the aim of this study is to investigate certain similarities, differences, and possible interactions, the hospitals chosen for this study include those that operated during the so-called decline period of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, when the contacts between Islamic and eastern Christian traditions were at their highest. However, instead of presenting Byzantine and Ottoman hospitals as institutions that belonged to two distinct worlds, this thesis aims to contextualize the differences and similarities of their social and institutional structures, as well as their physical features to a certain extent as the outcome of the more than a hundred years of shared history and cultural interactions.