The mandatory hospital quarantine of special groups…

The mandatory hospital quarantine of special groups of patients, including those with leprosy, starts early in Islamic history.

Between 706 and 707 the sixth Umayyad caliph, Al-Walid I, builds the first hospital in Damascus and issued an order to isolate those infected with leprosy from other patients in the hospital.

The practice of mandatory quarantine of leprosy in general hospitals will continue until the year 1431, when the Ottomans build a leprosy hospital in Edirne.

Incidents of quarantine will occur throughout the Muslim world, with evidence of voluntary community quarantine in some of these reported incidents.