HYDERABAD: The four hundred-year-old Darul Shifa, the first hospital in South Asia, is not only an important heritage of the city but also a principal religious site, especially for Shias during Muharram. One would think, given its significance, that it would have been meticulously preserved. However, its condition speaks of monumental apathy with encroachments inside its premises and walls peeling off.
Built by the Qutub Shahi king Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah in 1592, the royal hospital used to provide free treatment of illnesses with ancient unani medicines and also housed a medical college. The hospital compound also houses Alawa-e-Sartauk Mubarak, an ashoorkhana which has a piece of the tauq that was put around Imam Zainul Abideen, son of Imam Hussein, after the Battle of Karbala.
The tauq was brought by Hazrat Agha Mohsin Khurasani from Iran, and whose descendants still look after the ashoorkhana. Speaking to Express, Mohammad Ali, a descendant and whose father Mirza Asad Ali Baig is the present mutawali of the ashoorkhana, said, “There hasn’t been a single iota of help from the government. We use our personal funds to maintain the ashoorkhana.”
Ali said that they have spent close to Rs 1 lakh behind the repairs and for applying a fresh coat of paint ahead of the Muharram procession. Every year, for paying homage to the the tauq present in the ashoorkhana, the Muharram procession stops at Darul Shifa for five minutes before proceeding towards Chaderghat.Encroachments have also cropped up inside the premises. The U-shaped hospital had 12 rooms on two of its sides. The entrance to the rooms have been closed but has opened on the other side. “They have been captured by rowdysheeters who rent them to shopkeepers.”