Isolating the Threat: The Ottoman Quarantine System in Gaza and Al-Khalil during the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire established a centralized quarantine system to control epidemic diseases across its territories, including Anatolia, the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East. This article examines the quarantine stations in Gaza and Al-Khalil, in historic Palestine, as key examples of Ottoman public health architecture. Constructed in the same years, 1847-1848, these stations shared planning principles while displaying distinct architectural features shaped by their urban and geographic contexts. Based on archival sources, original documents, and architectural analysis, the study explores how these stations embodied the spatial implementation of Ottoman medical policy in provincial settings. It argues that these facilities served not only as barriers to disease but also as symbols of a systematic, state-directed public health strategy. As an early output of a PhD thesis, this article contributes to the limited literature on the architectural history of Ottoman healthcare systems and their role in managing pandemics.