‘Pinel of Istanbul’: Dr Luigi Mongeri (1815–82) and the birth of modern psychiatry in the Ottoman Empire

Italian physician/alienist Dr Luigi Mongeri (1815–82), who graduated from the School of Medicine in Pavia and worked as chief physician at Süleymaniye and Toptaşı Lunatic Asylums, introduced important reforms that shaped modern psychiatry in the Ottoman Empire. Because of his projects and practices he was likened to Philippe Pinel (1745–1826), and was called the ‘Pinel of Istanbul’ or ‘Pinel of the Turks’. This article aims to examine the birth of modern psychiatry in the Ottoman Empire, through the biography of Luigi Mongeri and his writings on insanity.