The book under review is a welcome research tool for the study of medicine and public health in modern Iran, focusing for the most part on the late Qajar period. The book consists of a Preface (pp. 13–14), an Introduction (pp. 15–81), an Historical Overview (pp. 83–110), followed by Selections from medical periodicals (pp. 111–86), plus one Appendix on Veterinary Medicine (pp. 187–89), and a general Index (pp. 191–202). It also reproduces a selection of sample pages and the cover page of the early medical periodicals (pp. 203–25).Footnote ¹

The book’s focus is mainly on the early phases of medical periodicals relating to topics on public health. The book’s point of departure in the study of medical journalism in Iran is around 1319 AH (1901), during the reign of Mozaffar al-Din Shah (r. 1895–1907). The book then goes on to discuss the total of fifteen periodicals that appeared intermittently during the first twenty-five years of medical journals till the first year of the Pahlavi period (1926) (p. 14).

In the next section, these fifteen periodicals are briefly introduced in chronological order, as follows: two separate periodicals with the same title Hefz al-Sehheh (Healthcare), they were both published in Tehran and were relatively short-lived; Sehhat (Health); Tebābat (Medication); Tebb-e Mosavvar (Illustrated Medicine); and Tebbi (Medical) that were also published in Tehran; Tebb-e Konuni (Contemporary Medicine) that was published in Mashhad; Majalleh-ye Sehhiyeh va Omur-e Kheyriyeh (Journal of Healthcare and Public Service); Rāport-e ʿAmaliyāt-e Edāreh-ye Anstitu Pāstur Dowlat-e ʿAlliyeh Iran (Administrative Report of the Pasteur Institute, Iranian Government); Tebb (Medicine); Sehhat-e Iran (Iran’s [public] Health); ʿĀlam-e Tebb (The World of Medicine), and Tebb-e Jadid (Modern Medicine) all of which were published in Tehran; and two separate periodicals with the same name Sehhat (Health), that were published respectively in Mashhad and in Isfahan (pp. 83–109).

This volume is by no means an exhaustive survey, yet it offers valuable information on the editorial composition of various periodicals together with their contributors, their publication frequency and distribution, and also the broad range of topics that they covered such as topics relating to hygiene, diet and digestion, disease prevention, gout, venereal ailments, and also possible (as well as affordable) ways of medication. In addition the book provides references to a number of bookshops in Tehran and elsewhere in the country that carried medical publications—such as, for example, Hājj Mollā Bāqer Ketābforush (p. 19), Hājj Musā Ketābforush (p. 19), Mirza Mohammad Tājer Ketābforush Shirazi (p. 21), and Hājj Āqā Ketābforush (in Tabriz) (p. 186), among others. In addition ample reference is given to those who supplied medication and drugs, both Iranian and European (farangi) products (pp. 64–6). The volume is also a valuable resource in showing the gradual development and shaping of Persian terminology and modern discourse on medicine and public health—a trend that had already begun in earlier periods such as the contributions that were made by those who were associated with the Dār al-Fonun college in the early 1850s and after. This includes not only terms relating to diagnosis and general healthcare but also to narrower areas such as coronary reports that were expected to infuse medical description with legal terminology and syntax (see, for example, pp. 19–20).

Although the book does not delve into much detail on individual practitioners and their personal or professional backgrounds, it does provide significant leads to many of those who were involved in and contributed to a gradual dissemination of medical knowledge and medical discourse in Iran whose work could be viewed and appraised within a broader cosmopolitan and transregional context—linking not only the transmission of texts, terminologies, and techniques but also personal encounters. For instance, we frequently come across medical cases that involved foreign officials and military officers as well as missionaries who, in one way or another, were involved in medical practice, which is also indicative of a relative acceptance of modern medicine by the society at large—religious and ethnic boundaries notwithstanding. For example, in one such case we are informed of a medical hearing that was held (c. 1917) by the Medical Board (Anjoman-e Hefz al-Sehheh) at the Caspian port of Anzali. It involved the family of a minor patient who had complained that Dr. Pango (sic) [Panagiotis?] Papadopoulos, a certain Greek physician with a medical practice in the nearby town of Rasht, had allegedly issued an overdose prescription which resulted in worsening the child’s condition. Members of the hearing board, which ultimately settled the case and cleared the Greek doctor, included a mix group of five Iranian and Russian military as well as civilian physicians (p. 181).

Through a broad range of periodicals that it lists, the book also offers ample leads to local histories of medical practices in late Qajar period. These leads are particularly informative with regard to identifying individual practitioners and briefly describing their patterns of practice and social settings. Nevertheless, the book does not elaborate any overarching analytical framework in order to better connect its various factual and documentary details; nor does it engage, albeit briefly and selectively, with the wealth of published research on the history of medicine in modern Iran.Footnote ²

It does, however, provide a broad range of personal and social information relating to medicine and, for this reason alone, it offers a valuable resource for the study of modern medicine and public health in Iran as reflected in medical periodicals during the late Qajar period—a period which had a significant range of practical, institutional, and semantic impact on Iran’s medicine and public health in the twentieth century.

Figure 1. Ruznāmeh-ye Mellati, No. 22, 13 Rajab 1285 AH (30 October 1968).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 206.

Figure 2. Hefz al-Sehheh, No. 1, Safar 1324 AH (April 1906).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 210.

Figure 3. Tebābat, Vol. 1, No. 1, 29 Moharram 1326 AH (3 March 1908).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 214.

Figure 4. Sehhat, No. 3, 21 Jumādā II 1325 (1 August 1907), p. 17.

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 213.

Figure 5. Tebb-e Mosavvar, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1 Shawwāl 1335 AH (21 July 1917), p. 1.

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 215.

Figure 6. Tebb-e Konuni, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jumādā II 1339 AH (January 1921).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 216.

Figure 7. Tebb-e Konuni, Vol. 1, No. 1, [p. 1].

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 217.

Figure 8. Tebb-e Konuni, Vol. 1, No. 6, Dhu al-Hijja 1339 AH (August 1921).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 219.

Figure 9. Majalleh-ye Sehhiyeh va Omur-e Kheyriyeh, Vol. 1, No. 1 [Dhu al-Qaʿda 1339 AH (July 1921)].

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 220.

Figure 10. Majalleh-ye Sehhiyeh va Omur-e Kheyriyeh, Vol. 1, No. 1, Dhu al-Qaʿda 1339 AH (July 1921).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshkinegāri-ye Matbuʿāti, p. 221.

Figure 11. Tebb, Vol. 1, No. 1, 26 Dey 1304 (16 January 1926).

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshki-negāriye Matbuʿāti, p. 222.

Figure 12. Sehhat, No. 7, Mehr 1304 (October 1925), cover page.

Source: Qāsemi, ed., Sarāghāz-e Pezeshki-negāriye Matbuʿāti, p. 224.