Shahs, Doctors, Diplomats and Missionaries in 19th Century Iran

Abstract

By the mid-nineteenth century the impact of the West was felt in many walks of life in Persia, ranging from the intellectual, cultural, political, social to the economic sphere. In general it was the ideas and ideologies emanating from the West which finally affected every social institution and outlook on life. One of the fields affected was that of traditional medicine. The main agents of this impact were the European doctors of the Qajar Shahs and the nobility, the doctors assigned to diplomatic missions, medical members of Christian missions and the students who were sent abroad to study medicine and who returned to Iran to practice it. This paper will explore some aspects of the history of the introduction of Western medicine to Persia and simultaneously it will also examine the hypothesis that the role of the foreign powers and missionaries in introducing Western medicine into Persia was not entirely altruistic but related to non-medical objectives.