Javad Heyat ( fa, جواد هیئت; 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 Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...

's personal physician when the latter was

President of Iran The president of Iran ( fa, رئیس‌جمهور ایران, Rayis Jomhur-e Irān) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The president is the second highest-ranking official of Iran after the Supreme Leader. The president ...

in the 1980s. Heyat was the publisher and founding editor of ''

Varliq ''Varlyq'' ( ; az, وارلؽق, script=Arab, italic=no 'Existence') is a bilingual quarterly literary magazine in Azerbaijani and Persian languages published in Tehran, Iran. History and profile ''Varlyq'' was established by Javad Heyat with ...

'', which he established in 1979 in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

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

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and the Republic of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

Biography

Javad Heyat was born in 1925 in

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region between long ridges of vo ...

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

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...

. 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 ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and then

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

in order to specialize in

cardiology 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 disease, heart failure, valvular he ...

. 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 ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

(1979), he became professor of surgery at

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

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. 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

'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 ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...

and elsewhere".

Criticism

Heyat was a pan-Turkist. He held a Turkish nationalistic position in his academic writings on history and literature.

References

Sources

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Biography

Criticism

References

Sources

Further reading