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 largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
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
Joseph Désiré Tholozan (9 October 1820 in Diego Garcia, Mauritius - 30 July 1897 in Tehran, Iran) was a Franco-Mauritians physician. A pioneer in epidemiology, he was notably the personal physician to Nasseredin Shah, the Qajar's 4th Shah, for ...
.
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">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