Originally commissioned by Sultan Mahmud II in 1827 to be operated by the military, it was the empire's first medical school,[2] modeled on those in the West.[3] Ottoman Muslims did not often study abroad, and most of the faculty's founding staff were religious minorities from non-Muslim Ottoman families. Their foreign language skills and study at European institutions laid the foundation for the establishment of medicine in the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed]
^Strauss, Johann. "Twenty Years in the Ottoman Capital: The Memoirs of Dr. Hristo Tanev Stambolski of Kazanlik (1843-1932) from an Ottoman Point of View." In: Herzog, Christoph and Richard Wittmann (editors). Istanbul - Kushta - Constantinople: Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital, 1830-1930. Routledge, 10 October 2018. ISBN1351805223, 9781351805223. Google Books PT 263 (actually circa p. 267)
^Strauss, Johann. "Language and power in the late Ottoman Empire" (Chapter 7). In: Murphey, Rhoads (editor). Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean: Recording the Imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Rule. Routledge, July 7, 2016. ISBN1317118456, 9781317118459. Start: p. 115. CITED: p. 122.