A Female Surgeon in the 17th Century: Kupeli Saliha Hatun and an Evaluation of Consent Forms Related to Her Surgeries

Abstract

Objective: As in many places in the world, surgical practices in the Ottoman Empire as well were performed not by physicians but surgeons. Even it seems that males from their appearance have dominated medicine and surgery, the literature shows that the appearances of female physicians and surgeons date back to old times. in this Study, based on the knowledge achieved on Saliha Hatun, lived in the 17th century and known with the name Kupeli, and on documents available in Uskudar Shari'a Court Records, consent notes of surgical interventions were evaluated in this study. Methods: the consent documents of Saliha Hatun from Uskudar Shari'a Court Records were examined. the transcriptions of selected consent documents of Saliha Hatun were translated into Turkish and assorted. the documents were separately evaluated. Results: Saliha Hatun was hazik in surgery and had a superior position among her peers. the consent forms we examined for the purpose of this study show that there was a female surgeon practicing in the 17th century, and she was performing surgeries and signing consent forms with her patients. the majority of patients visited her for the treatment of hernia. Saliha Hatun's patients were both Muslim and non Muslim. Shari'a records reveal that she requested minimum 400 and maximum 3000 akches for the surgical intervention concerned. Conclusions: the documents of consent notes, supplied from Court Records, provides evidence of the presence of a female surgeon named Saliha Hatun in the 17th century. the consent forms examined for the purpose of this study show that Saliha Hatun was adept at hernia operations This evidence also shows that Ottoman females had effective roles and positions in these eras.