Food, Hospitality and Medical Care in Ilkhanid Communities

Rab’-e Rashidi in Tabriz brought kitchens, guest lodging and medical care into one endowed complex. Founded by the minister and physician Rashid al-Din, it assigned staff, property income and supplies to keep these services running. The 1309 endowment deed and later additions describe bread, prepared dishes, accommodation and treatment in unusual detail.

On this page4 sections

Land, water and labour behind the kitchens

Rab’-e Rashidi depended on endowed property. A waqf, or charitable endowment, assigned property and its income to support specified religious or public purposes. At Rab’-e Rashidi, the deed provided for income to meet the foundation’s expenses. A trustee, the mutawalli, administered the endowment; a financial inspector, the mushrif, oversaw its accounts; and a nazir assisted the trustee. Revenues were kept in a guarded treasury, with the responsible officers jointly sealing the chests. This arrangement connected the foundation’s land and income to its kitchens, staff and services.

The complex had gardens, vineyards, mills, grain stores and water channels. Channels brought water from streams around Tabriz to irrigate its grounds. Storehouses held grain and other food supplies, while mills and bakeries helped turn those supplies into bread. The endowment specified separate summer and winter baking locations. Enslaved women also assisted with baking, alongside the appointed bakers. These provisions show food preparation as coordinated work involving water management, storage, milling and cooking, rather than simply the purchase of finished meals.

Enslaved labour was part of the system that maintained this supply. The foundation’s schedule counted 220 enslaved people, including about 150 gardeners. It assigned 20 Turkic enslaved workers to strenuous duties such as security and rent collection, and allowed them a larger bread ration than other enslaved workers. Salaried staff also received bread and other food in addition to their wages. The deed thus recorded both the resources used to feed the community and the sharply unequal conditions under which some of that food was produced.

The foundation’s bakery was instructed to make round wheat loaves of specified weight, with restrained salt and no barley except during famine. Bread allowances differed by post and status. A poorhouse outside the complex was to feed a hundred people daily, each receiving bread and pottage in an earthenware bowl. The bowls were counted after the meal, treating tableware as a resource to be recovered and reused.

Hospitality for residents, neighbours and travellers

Rab’-e Rashidi’s khanqah, a Sufi lodge, had an attached dining and hospitality house, the dar al-ziyafa. Its kitchens and stores supplied meals for lodge residents and visitors, with the arrangements distinguishing between the two groups. Travellers arriving from distant places could be hosted and fed for three days. The foundation also provided hospitality to neighbours. A separate kitchen served the poor in the nearby residential quarter, where some married employees lived with their families. This was a large endowed institution embedded in a neighbourhood, not simply a private household opening its doors to guests.

Hospitality required a range of staff as well as food. The deed listed cooks, servants responsible for laying out meals and serving guests, guards and workers who maintained the buildings. A second kitchen in the hospital supplied its own food needs. By assigning personnel and spaces to different groups, the foundation made hospitality part of its regular administration rather than an occasional act by its patron.

The hospice’s breakfast provisions included thick pottages made with grain, pulses and meat. One variety used wheat and groats, hulled or broken grains; another combined meat with sour ingredients such as pomegranate, sumac, vinegar or yogurt. A pea preparation supplied a further option. Combining these ingredients in a cooked dish made it possible to prepare portions for a group.

Visitors could stay for up to three days, receiving breakfast and another meal later in the day. The evening allowance included bread and a portion of the stew being prepared. Cooks therefore had to coordinate ingredients and quantities with the number of residents and temporary guests.

How the hospital organized care

The dar al-shifa, or hospital, occupied a group of buildings that included a pharmacy, a store for medicines, a kitchen, a rosewater-making room and space for medical instruction. Its staff included a physician, specialists in eye disease and surgery, two trainees, a pharmacist and attendants. Other workers carried water, cooked, cleaned and guarded the premises. The detailed list shows that care depended on practical support as well as the knowledge of physicians.

The physician treated patients and instructed the two trainees. The plan provided for a five-year period of training, after which trainees who had learned to prepare medicines could receive permission to leave and practise. The pharmacist prepared and supplied medicines prescribed by the physician. Attendants cared for patients and cleaned their clothing. Teaching and treatment therefore formed connected parts of the hospital’s work.

Medicine distribution followed an organised procedure. On Mondays and Thursdays, patients came to a screened opening where the physician wrote a prescription. A responsible officer obtained the medicine from the locked store and passed it back through the grille. The physician also made calls to sick residents, visitors and workers. This extended care beyond those staying in a ward.

State policy, local provision and later change

Food and care depended on property income, maintenance and trained people. Millers and bakers turned grain into bread, kitchen workers prepared dishes, and water carriers supplied the buildings. Physicians and attendants worked within that service community. If rents, stores or staffing failed, the effects reached the meal and the treatment room alike.

Rashid al-Din’s execution in 1318 disrupted the foundation. His son Ghiyas al-Din renewed its patronage in the 1330s, before his own death in 1336 brought further upheaval. The continued services depended on people who could collect income, oversee work and protect the endowment as well as on the original written provisions.

For the wider setting, see Food, Dress, Worship and Travel in the Ilkhanate: Everyday Practices and Institutions.