Jakob Eduard Polak (12 November 1818 – 8 October 1891) was an Austrian physician, born to a Jewish family from Bohemia, who played an important role in introducing modern medicine in Iran.
Life
Polak studied Medicine in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
and Vienna. He was one of the six Austrian teachers invited by
Amir Kabir
Mirza Taghi Khan-e Farahani ( fa, میرزا تقیخان فراهانی), better known as Amir Kabir (Persian: , 9 January 1807 – 10 January 1852), also known by the title of ''Amir-e Nezam'' or ''Amir Nezam'' (), was chief minister t ...
, the Persian chief minister, as the instructors of
Dar ul-Fonun, the first modern higher education institution in Iran. By his own account, he entered Iran on 24 November 1851, before the inauguration of the Dar ul-Fonun.
From 1851 to 1860, he taught medicine at Dar ul-Fonun. In the beginning, he taught in French and used a translator. Soon, the incompetence of the translators motivated him to learn Persian. He learned Persian in six months, and then taught his course in Persian.
In 1885, he funded
Otto Stapf, a Viennese botanist, to undertake a botanical expedition to South- and Western Persia.
Franz Speta 2000, Warum Otto STAPF (1857–1933) Wien verlassen hat. Phyton (Horn, Austria) 40/1, 89-113
/ref> This led to the discovery of numerous new species of plants.
From 1855 to 1860, he served as personal physician of Naser-al-din Shah
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدینشاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek ...
. In this capacity he was succeeded by French physician Joseph Désiré Tholozan.
Works
Polak published his Persian experiences in: "Persien, das Land und seine Bewohner; Ethnograpische Schilderungen" (Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1865), which belongs to the outstanding ethnographic works about 19th-century Iran.
See also
* Dar ul-Funun
Bibliography
* Afsaneh GÄCHTER: ''Briefe aus Persien. Jacob E. Polaks medizinische Berichte.'' With an English Summary and Translation of Polak’s „Letters from Persia“. New Academic Press, Vienna 2013, .
* Christoph WERNER:
Polak, Jakob Eduard
' In: ''Encyclopædia Iranica.'' 2009
* Obituary: ''Encyclopædia_Iranica''_Website_Full-text_access_to_the_Encyclopædia_Iranica.html" "title=".
References
Further reading
* Gächter, A. (2015) “Medicine and Anthropology: the ‘Ambassador-Physician’ Jacob Eduard Polak (1818–1891) as a Mediator of Modernity in Iran,” in Krasnowolska, A. and Rusek-Kowalska, R. (eds) Studies on the Iranian World: Medieval and Modern. Jagiellonian University Press, pp. 329–340.
External links
*
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' Website Full-text access to the Encyclopædia Iranica">Encyclopædia
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
as it currently exists.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polak, Jakob Eduard
1818 births
1891 deaths
19th-century Austrian physicians
Austrian Jews
Universities in Iran
Austrian expatriates in Iran
Medicine in Iran
People of Qajar Iran