Aintab American Hospital And Its Effect On The Region People (1880-1920)

ABCFM (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions) which was founded in the USA in 1810 began its mission work in Otto-man lands after 1820. This mission organization showed its efficacy on health studies as well as religious, educational and media activities in the Ottoman geography. One of the centers that American Board organi-zations carried out health studies was Aintab. With the establishing Azariah Smith Memorial Hospital in Aintab missionaries continued to work in line with their targets. American Board was continuing of health studies in Aintab in a dispensary which was established in 1876. Azariah Smith's classmates at Yale University began creating a fund to collect donations for the es-tablishment of a hospital in his memory. Hospital whose construction began in 1879 was completed in 1880. The hospital also has been the administration hospital of the Central Turkey College of Medicine De-partment. In Azariah Smith Memorial Hospital which was serving a 10-bed in 1884 with the addition of women's and children's section the number later was found 42. In hospital services were provided without distinction of religion, race and gender. Ethnic distribution of patients which was treated in hospital were Turks, Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, Greeks, Circassians, German, Syrian and Jewish. The religious distribution were; Muslims, Gregorian, Protestant, Greek Catholic, Jewish and Mormon. The subject of this paper is Aintab American Hospital and its effect on the region people in the framework of missionary activity. In this con-text, American Board's activities will be discussed referring to the mis-sionary activities, social and ethnic structure of the region. This study which includes the 1880-1920 date range was prepared utilizing ar-chives, microfilm, annual reports and hospital catalog of the American Board. American Hospital in Aintab continues its works as Gaziantep American Hospital today.

Keywords

Antep, American Board, Ottoman Empire, physician, missionary, Arme-nians, Muslims, Social Structure.