Medicine in Qajar Iran Based on Western Travelers Itineraries

Subject Areas : Epistemological and methodological researcher of historical research

mohammad tayebi ¹ , hamid kavyani ²

1 - استادیار گروه تاریخ دانشگاه شهید باهنر کرمان
2 - استادیار گروه تاریخ دانشگاه شهید باهنر کرمان

Received: 2016-02-09 Accepted : 2016-02-09 Published : 2015-01-21

Keywords: Medicine, Physicians, Qajar Iran, Itinerary, and Western Travelers,

Abstract :

Based on western travellersitineraries, Iranian physicians of 19th century all diseases, medications and nourishments into four groups of Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic and Phlegmatic and superstition was ruling over the realm of disease causes and their treatment. They thought that magic and charm could be of more benefit in disease prevention than clever care. However, setting aside the unaware and untrained pseudo-physicians, it is to be noted that there were physicians all around Qajar Iran who had been attending to scientific methods of medicine education and had gone so much further than their own time but lack of supervision over physicians’ activities, unaccounted entry of greedy people into the realm of medicine, and disappearance of specialization in treatment led the medicine science to superstition and being unscientific and left the scientific medicine in a weak and helpless position. The superstitious and reactionary ideas about Iranian medicine and treatment methods are cited in this research to show the general condition of Iranian physicians and medicine during Qajar era so that we could find out the why and how of regression in medicine and treatment methods of Iranian during the said era and its lagging behind the modern medicine. Therefore, through a comparative method and comparing the existing sources this research aimed to reflect the reality of medicine in Qajar Iran.