A Medical Man in the Persia of Nāṣir Al-Dīn Shāh; C.J. Wills' Reminiscences of his Fifteen Years' Work in the Persian Provinces, 1866–81

Abstract

The English physician C.J. Wills (1842–1912) left an account of his fifteen years' experiences, from 1866 to 1881, as a medical officer for the Indo-European Telegraph Department, mainly in Hamadan, Isfahan and Shiraz. It gives much information on Persian provincial social life in the middle years of Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh's reign, with sidelights on the local customs, religious communities and popular attitudes, and various items of this information are set out in this paper.