Theory and practice in nineteenth-century Persian medicine: Intellectual and institutional reforms

History of Science

Volumn 38, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 171-178

  Ebrahimnejad, Hormoz ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; IRAN; MEDICINE; PHILOSOPHY;

HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; IRAN; MEDICINE; PERSIA; PHILOSOPHY, MEDICAL;

EID: 0041759709     PISSN: 00732753     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/007327530003800202     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Anonymous, Resâleh dar khosus-e ta'sis-e mariz-khâneh (Treatise on the establishment of hospital), Tehran, Majles Library (Parliament), no. 505, undated, pp. 12-13.
2. - Tholozan, Prophylaxie du choléra en Orient: L'hygiène et la réforme sanitaire en Perse (Tehran, 1869), 11ff.
3. Mohammad Râzi Kani Fakhrol Atebbâ, Meftâhol-amân (Key of the safety), National Library (Tehran, 1277/1862-63).
4. Founded by Hülegü, one of the grandsons of Chingiz-Khan the Mongol (1206-27), the Ilkhânid dynasty ruled in various parts of Iran and Central Asia from the middle of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century. Amoli taught at the School of Soltânieh in North-East Iran, under the reigns of Soltân Mohammad Khodâbandeh (1304-17) and Abu Sa'id (1317-35).
5. 'Allâmeh Shamsod-din Mohammad b. Mahmud-e Amoli, Nafâyes ol-fonun fi 'arâyes ol-'oyun (The precious branches of learning in the quintessential sources of knowledge), edited by Hâj Mirzâ Abol-Hasan-e She'râni, Library Eslâmiyeh (3 vols, Tehran, 1377/1958), i, 16.
6. Ibid., iii, 110ff.
7. Ibid., i, 20.
8. For a treatise on the benefits and techniques of using baths, see: Resâleh-ye dallâkiyeh (Treatise on the art of taking baths), National Library (St Petersburg, 1290/1873), no. Tl.H.C.434.
9. These terms are used by no less a person than Aghili, one of the most important sources for the physicians in the nineteenth century. See his Majma' ol-javâme', written in five volumes in the second part of the eighteenth century.
10. In addition to a large number of manuals written in previous centuries, for the nineteenth century see for example: Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3); Shari'atmadâr Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (Noah's Ark), 1310/1892, Library of Ayatollâh Mar'ashi, Qom, Iran; Aqâ Mirzâ Mohammad-e Tehrâni, Resâleh dar vabâ (Treatise on cholera), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852); Mirzâ Abdol-karim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (Symptoms of diseases), Tehran (Sepahsâlâr Library, 1284/1867); Fakhrol-hokamâ, Mirzâ Musâ Sâveji, Dasturol-atebbâ fi 'alâj al-vabâ (Prescription of doctors on the cure of epidemics), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852-53).
11. In addition to a large number of manuals written in previous centuries, for the nineteenth century see for example: Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3); Shari'atmadâr Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (Noah's Ark), 1310/1892, Library of Ayatollâh Mar'ashi, Qom, Iran; Aqâ Mirzâ Mohammad-e Tehrâni, Resâleh dar vabâ (Treatise on cholera), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852); Mirzâ Abdol-karim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (Symptoms of diseases), Tehran (Sepahsâlâr Library, 1284/1867); Fakhrol-hokamâ, Mirzâ Musâ Sâveji, Dasturol-atebbâ fi 'alâj al-vabâ (Prescription of doctors on the cure of epidemics), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852-53).
12. In addition to a large number of manuals written in previous centuries, for the nineteenth century see for example: Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3); Shari'atmadâr Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (Noah's Ark), 1310/1892, Library of Ayatollâh Mar'ashi, Qom, Iran; Aqâ Mirzâ Mohammad-e Tehrâni, Resâleh dar vabâ (Treatise on cholera), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852); Mirzâ Abdol-karim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (Symptoms of diseases), Tehran (Sepahsâlâr Library, 1284/1867); Fakhrol-hokamâ, Mirzâ Musâ Sâveji, Dasturol-atebbâ fi 'alâj al-vabâ (Prescription of doctors on the cure of epidemics), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852-53).
13. In addition to a large number of manuals written in previous centuries, for the nineteenth century see for example: Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3); Shari'atmadâr Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (Noah's Ark), 1310/1892, Library of Ayatollâh Mar'ashi, Qom, Iran; Aqâ Mirzâ Mohammad-e Tehrâni, Resâleh dar vabâ (Treatise on cholera), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852); Mirzâ Abdol-karim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (Symptoms of diseases), Tehran (Sepahsâlâr Library, 1284/1867); Fakhrol-hokamâ, Mirzâ Musâ Sâveji, Dasturol-atebbâ fi 'alâj al-vabâ (Prescription of doctors on the cure of epidemics), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852-53).
14. In addition to a large number of manuals written in previous centuries, for the nineteenth century see for example: Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3); Shari'atmadâr Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (Noah's Ark), 1310/1892, Library of Ayatollâh Mar'ashi, Qom, Iran; Aqâ Mirzâ Mohammad-e Tehrâni, Resâleh dar vabâ (Treatise on cholera), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852); Mirzâ Abdol-karim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (Symptoms of diseases), Tehran (Sepahsâlâr Library, 1284/1867); Fakhrol-hokamâ, Mirzâ Musâ Sâveji, Dasturol-atebbâ fi 'alâj al-vabâ (Prescription of doctors on the cure of epidemics), Tehran (Majles Library, 1269/1852-53).
15. This is discussed in my paper "Translation and transmission of modern medicine in nineteenth century Persia", presented at the International Round Table "The Mechanisms of Scientific Transmission and the Emergence of a Modern Scientific Language: Egypt, Turkey, Iran, China and Japan in the 19th Century", 5-6 October 1999, Paris.
16. Mirzâ Ali-Naqi, Resâleh-ye mo'âlejeh-ye maraz-e vabâ (Treatise on the cure of cholera), Tehran (National Library, 1269/1852), no. 2533; Muhammad Hosein Afshar, Resâleh-ye mo'âlejeh-ye maraz-e vabâ, Tehran (National Library, 1852), no. 2479.
17. Mirzâ Ali-Naqi, Resâleh-ye mo'âlejeh-ye maraz-e vabâ (Treatise on the cure of cholera), Tehran (National Library, 1269/1852), no. 2533; Muhammad Hosein Afshar, Resâleh-ye mo'âlejeh-ye maraz-e vabâ, Tehran (National Library, 1852), no. 2479.
18. 'Allâmeh Shamsod-din Amoli, op. cit. (ref. 5), iii, 116ff.
19. Abdorrazâq, Kholâsato-tashrih (The gist of anatomy), dated 1181/1767 but probably written in an earlier century, National Library, St Petersburg, XAH.154, f. 3.
20. The use of the bodies of criminals condemned to death according to the shari'at is recommended by 'Aghili for the experimentation of dangerous drugs. See his Mo'âlejât-e amrâz-e mokhtalefeh az sar tâ qadam (Treatments of general diseases from head to toes), lithograph copy (Lenin Library, Moscow, 1278/1860), no. 3B(17-16/12), p. 11.
21. Astarâbâdi, op. cit. (ref. 10), f. 4.
22. Roy Porter, The greatest benefit to mankind: A medical history of humanity from Antiquity to the present (London, 1997), 83ff.
23. Mirzâ Ali-Naqi, op. cit. (ref. 12), ff. 1-2.
24. See: Allâmeh Shamsod-din Amoli, op. cit. (ref. 5), i, Preface of She'râni, p. 11.
25. Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, Medicine of the Prophet, transl. by Penelope Johnstone (The Islamic Texts Sociey, Cambridge, 1998), 250.
26. The term 'disaster' (French désastre), signifying any calamity or serious destruction, has its origin in the astronomical notion of abnormal constellation of asters, provoking calamity or cataclysmic events.
27. Astarâbâdi, opt. cit. (ref. 10).
28. Sâveji, Dastorol-atebbâ (ref. 10).
29. The use of 'quack' today to designate 'doctor' is in this respect significant! It goes back to the last centuries when the distinction between medicine and quackery was uncertain.
30. See especially: Hormoz Ebrahimnejad: "La médecine d'observation en Iran du XIXe siècle", Gesnerus, lv (1998), 33-57; idem, "Un traité d'épidémiologie de la médecine traditionnelle persane: Mofarraqol-heyzeh va'l-vabâ de Mirzâ Mohammad-Tqi Shirâzi (ca. 1800-1873)", Studia Iranica, xxvii (1998), 83-107.
31. See especially: Hormoz Ebrahimnejad: "La médecine d'observation en Iran du XIXe siècle", Gesnerus, lv (1998), 33-57; idem, "Un traité d'épidémiologie de la médecine traditionnelle persane: Mofarraqol-heyzeh va'l-vabâ de Mirzâ Mohammad-Tqi Shirâzi (ca. 1800-1873)", Studia Iranica, xxvii (1998), 83-107.
32. See for example: Anonymous book written against lectures and methods of Dr Edward Joseph Polak, Professor of Anatomy at Dârol-fonun (Majles Library, 1857), no. 506; Mirzâ Abdolkarim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (ref. 10); Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (ref. 10); Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3).
33. See for example: Anonymous book written against lectures and methods of Dr Edward Joseph Polak, Professor of Anatomy at Dârol-fonun (Majles Library, 1857), no. 506; Mirzâ Abdolkarim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (ref. 10); Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (ref. 10); Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3).
34. See for example: Anonymous book written against lectures and methods of Dr Edward Joseph Polak, Professor of Anatomy at Dârol-fonun (Majles Library, 1857), no. 506; Mirzâ Abdolkarim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (ref. 10); Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (ref. 10); Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3).
35. See for example: Anonymous book written against lectures and methods of Dr Edward Joseph Polak, Professor of Anatomy at Dârol-fonun (Majles Library, 1857), no. 506; Mirzâ Abdolkarim Tehrâni, 'Alâyemol-amrâz (ref. 10); Astarâbâdi, Safineh-ye nuh (ref. 10); Râzi Kani, Meftâhol-amân (ref. 3).
36. See: Afshâr, Resâleh-ye mo'âlejeh-ye maraz-e vabâ (ref. 12).
37. On this subject see my paper "La modernisation de la santé publique en Iran entre évolution locale et intervention occidentale", delivered to the 4th European Conference of Iranian Studies, 6-10 September 1999, Paris.
38. Archive du ministère des affaires étrangères, Affaires Diverses Politiques, ii, no. 68, 14 May 1891.
39. "Le choléra et la peste en Perse sans les quarantaines", Extrait des Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris, 24 August 1885.
40. See his Tashrihol-javâher, a translation of modern anatomy from various French books (lithograph edn, Tehran, 1883-84).
41. e siècle", Hist. Sci., xxxviii (2000)