Jakob Eduard Polak
Jakob Eduard Polak (12 November 1818 in Bohemia (Mořina); † 8 October 1891 in Vienna) was an Austrian physician, born to a Jewish family from Bohemia, who played an important role in introducing modern medicine in Iran.[1]
He was one of the six Austrian teachers invited by Amir Kabir, the Persian chief minister, as the instructors of Dar ul-Funun, the first modern higher education institution in Iran. By his own account, he entered Iran on 24 November 1851, before the inauguration of the Dal al-fonun.
From 1851 to 1860, he taught medicine at Dar al-fonun. At the beginning he taught in French and used a translator. Soon, the incompetence of the translators motivated him to learn Persian. As a result, he learned Persian in six months, and then he taught his course in Persian.From 1855 to 1860, he served as personal physician of Naser-al-din Shah.[2]
He published the result of his Persien experience in: Das Land und seine Bewohner (1865) belongs to the outstanding ethnographic works about 19th-century Iran.[3]
His other works include:
- Jakob Eduard Polak, Bimari i vaba (Tehran: Nast’aliq, 1269).
- Jakob Eduard Polak, “La médicine militaire en Perse. Par le do cteur J. E. Polak, ancien médecin particulier du schah de Perse,” Revue scientifique et administrative des médecins des armées de terre et de mer vii (1865).
See also
References
- ↑ "POLAK, Jakob Eduard" Encyclopaedia Iranica
- ↑ "Ekhtiar, Maryam, 1994, "The Dar al-Funun: Educational reform and cultural development in Qajar Iran", Ph.D Dissertation, New York University, USA."
- ↑
External links
- Encyclopædia Iranica Website. Full-text access to the Encyclopædia as it currently exists.
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