Tārīkh-i pizishkī (i.e., History of Medicine)

Abstract

In many cases in the past, Britain and Russia had tried to apply health and medicine as a tool for expanding their political and economic influence in Iran. These interventions included the entrance of religious missionaries as a physician and with the aim of religious propaganda, occupying the islands in the Persian Gulf in southern Iran or possession of certain places and hospitals in northern Iran under the pretext of restoring health quarantines. These issues, however, are among the cases that have been even neglected in historical literatures.

Specifically, the most important example of Iran's medical history books that is written by English author Cyril Elgood, despite the valuable information that offers to the reader, has exaggerated stands on the role and positive impact of Britain in Iran's medical and health developments. Of course, it is clear that when historical developments of a country are being written by foreign authors, their personal judgments and verdicts will undoubtedly be manifested in the scripts.   

In this article, following to a summary of medical developments in the Qajar era, some examples of documents taken from Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs that reveal these two political powers' apparent efforts to increase their influences in Iran is presented.