Javad Heyat (; 25 May 1925 – 12 August 2014) was an Iranian surgeon and writer. He performed the first open heart surgery in Iran and was Ayatollah Khamenei's personal physician when the latter was

President of Iran The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran () is the head of government of the Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran and the second highest-ranking official, after the Supreme Leader of Iran, supreme leader. The 1980 Iranian presidential election, fi ...

in the 1980s. Heyat was the publisher and founding editor of '' Varliq'', which he established in 1979 in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from universities in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and the Republic of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Biography

Javad Heyat was born in 1925 in

Tabriz Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...

, northwestern Iran, and belonged to an aristocratic Iranian Azerbaijani family. His father, Ali Heyat, was Chief Justice under the

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty () is an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian royal dynasty that was the Pahlavi Iran, last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah, Reza S ...

. Javad attended elementary and secondary school in Tabriz, and subsequently moved to the capital

where he attended medical school. He then attended medical school abroad, first in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and then

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in order to specialize in

cardiology Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

. Back in the Iranian capital Tehran, Heyat pursued a remarkable medical career at Hedayat hospital, where he performed the first open heart surgery in Iran. Javad Heyat was the author of over 80 articles in Persian and 20 articles in English and French for medical journals. Following the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

(1979), he became professor of surgery at

Islamic Azad University The Islamic Azad University (IAU; , ''Dāneshgāh-e Āzād-e Eslāmi'') is a Private university, private university system Headquarters, headquartered in Tehran, Iran. It is one of the largest comprehensive systems of university, universities in ...

in Tehran where he published three surgery manuals. He simoultaneously wrote several books on the history of and language of Iran's historic

region. In 1983, Heyat briefly moved to the United States in order to participate in the first Conference of Turkic studies at the

University of Indiana Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IU Indianapolis. The flagship campus of In ...

. There, Heyat presented a paper which dealt with the Azeri Turkish language and literature, before and after the Revolution. Heyat was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from universities in Turkey and the Republic of

: University of Medicine in Istanbul, Medical School of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkish Language Academy in Ankara, Academy of the Republic of Azerbaijan. He also was Ayatollah Khamenei's personal physician when the latter was

(1981–1989). According to Gilles Riaux, Heyat was a "leading figure in the Iranian medical community", and a "recognized expert on Turkish affairs, in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

and elsewhere".

Criticism

Heyat was a pan-Turkist. He held a Turkish nationalistic position in his academic writings on history and literature. In his works, he claimed that Persian poet

Nizami Ganjavi Nizami Ganjavi (; c. 1141 – 1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī,Mo'in, Muhammad(2006), "Tahlil-i Haft Paykar-i Nezami", Tehran.: p. 2: Some commentators h ...

was Turkish.

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Biography

Criticism

References

Sources

Further reading