A Brief History of Ancient Iranian Medicine

71D\HUQRXUL History of Medicine in Iran A Brief History of Ancient Iranian Medicine Touraj Nayernouri MD FRCS1 Cite this article as: Nayernouri T. A Brief History of Ancient Iranian Medicine. Arch Iran Med. 2015; 18(8): 549 – 551. Introduction ers. These Magis were adept in astrology, herbal medications and magical acts. It is probable that these Median Magi (the he origins of Iranian medicine, like most ‘origins’, are three wise men from the East of Biblical fame; The Gospel ac- T lost in mists of time, but we can surmise some of the cording to Mathew 2:1) and from whom the word magic is de- practices of healers of prehistoric times from anthropo- rived, later formed the Zoroastrian hereditary priesthood known logical studies in extant primitive societies. as the mobeds who directed the ritual religious rites as well as Medicine has always been intertwined with magical rites and acting as the healers of the soul. Later, a special class of physi- rituals including incantations, dance and the use of talismans to cians and surgeons were formed but the power of healing with thwart off evil intentions as a preventative measure. Some of prayers and the incantations of religious texts remained within these rituals can be seen in the practices of Witch Doctors of the domain of the Magis and Mobeds and was considered as the Africa, the Medicine Men of North American Indians and the superior method of healing.1 Shamans of Siberia and Mongolia. The administration of herbal remedies as well as psychoactive plants and mushrooms was Avestan or Zoroastrian Medicine also part of their practice. Surgery, however, remained a distinct specialty till much later What is known as Avestan or Zoroastrian medicine, the es- periods. The setting of broken bones, extraction of arrowheads sence of which has been gleaned from the extant religious texts, and spear points, repair of open wounds and even trephination is an extension of the ancient Aryan World View in which pre- of skulls are well attested to from prehistoric skeletal remains. vention of mental and physical illness was of paramount im- portance and was achieved through religious observance of Ancient Iranian Medicine moral purity and physical hygiene. These important tasks were supervised by the religious high cast Mobeds and Magi priests Iran, the land of the Aryans, has had an ancient and turbulent and in case of illness, the reading of religious mantras and pre- history. It has been invaded many times by Central Asian tribes scription of herbal medications were administered by the same to the North, by ancient Mesopotamians from the West, by the Magi healers. Macedonian Alexander and by the Arabs from the South, and 7KHUH ZHUH VWULFW DGPRQLWLRQV DJDLQVW SROOXWLRQ RI ÀRZLQJ at times of strength, it has invaded neighboring countries form- ZDWHUDQGWKHDLUZDVWREHNHSWSXUL¿HGE\EXUQLQJRIZLOG ing several vast empires. During these bilateral invasions, it has Rue and Frankincense. The soil was to be cultivated with food EHHQLQÀXHQFHGDQGKDVLQÀXHQFHGVRPHRIWKHPRVWGLYHUVH FURSVDQGIUXLWWUHHVDQGNHSWIUHHRISXWUHI\LQJPDWWHUDQG¿UH cultures of the world with which the Iranians have come in con- DV\PERORISXULW\RIWKH'HLW\NHSWLQHWHUQDOÀDPHVDQGIUHH tact throughout these millennia. But despite all these vicissi- from contamination. tudes of fortune, Iran has during the past 2,500 years, managed According to Vidaevadata (Vendidad), the fourth section of to maintain a continuous thread of culture which has remained the Avesta (the Zoroastrian holy Book),2 there were two other uniquely Iranian, yet enriched by foreign acquisitions. types of healer-physicians: The history of Iranian medicine can be traced back to Zoro- - The Kard Pezeshk or Surgeons astrian teachings which maintained many of its original Aryan - The Gyah Pezeshk or Herbalists traditions and beliefs. These latter two groups of physicians were of lower cast than $URXQG \HDUV DJR GXULQJ RQH RI WKH ¿QDO ZDYHV RI the Mobeds. The surgeons had to pass an examination wherein Aryan migrations, two groups of Aryans, the Medes and the WKH\KDGWRGHPRQVWUDWHWKHLUVNLOOVZLWKWKHNQLIHE\¿UVWFXU- Persians, settled in the Iranian plateau to the East of the Zagros ing three non-Zoroastrian patients before they were licensed to Mountains. Some two centuries later these two groups united practice surgery. As for the Herbalists, it is again mentioned in and formed the Persian Empire. The Medes were formed of six the Vidaevadata (Fargard VII, 44) that Ahura Mazda (the Zoro- tribes, one of which, the Magi, consisted of a hereditary priestly DVWULDQ'HLW\ KDGJLYHQ7KULWDWKH¿UVWSK\VLFLDQKHUEV cast and were probably derived from the Central Asian Sha- to combat diseases, and this same Thrita is mentioned in the mans that still exist in Central and North-Eastern Asia as heal- Yasna 9.7 (the second and more ancient section of Avesta) to KDYHEHHQWKH¿UVWSULHVWRIWKH+DRPD 9HGLF6RPD WKHVDFUHG $XWKRU¶VDI¿OLDWLRQAcademy of Medical Sciences of I. R. of Iran, Tehran, plant which bestowed eternal life and whose rites and rituals Iran. ZHUHVDQFWL¿HGE\$U\DQFXVWRPV &RUUHVSRQGLQJDXWKRUDQGUHSULQWVTouraj Nayernouri MD FRCS, Acad- emy of Medical Sciences of I. R. of Iran, Tehran, Iran. This Avestan system of medical practice, which has been ex- Accepted for publication: 22 July 2015 tracted from extant Zoroastrian religious texts, is all that re- Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 18, Number 8, August 2015 549 $QFLHQW,UDQLDQ0HGLFLQH PDLQVRIDQ\ZULWWHQVFLHQWL¿FPHGLFDORUSKLORVRSKLFDOWUHD- there was a medico-philosophical disputation convened at tise which must have existed throughout the 1,200 years from Gondeshapur by the order of Khosrow II (the Sassanid King) the beginning of the Achaemenid dynasty in 553 B.C.E. to the in which the Drustbed (Chief Physician) Gabriel of Siggar par- end of the Sassanid dynasty in 651 C.E., before the Arab in- ticipated. vasion of Iran. Early Islamic zeal condemned all non Koranic $ ¿UP UHIHUHQFH WR WKH *RQGHVKDSXU +RVSLWDO LV ZKHQ LQ texts to be destroyed. 765 C.E. the Caliph al-Mansur summoned Jewarjis bn Jebrail Several physicians are mentioned in the Avesta, including Bokhtisu, the then Christian head of Gondeshapur Hospital, to ‘Vivangahan’ who brought the sacred and magical herb ‘Ha- Baghdad. The Bokhtisu family remained in Baghdad as physi- oma’ or ‘Soma’ to humans followed by Abtin, Atrat and Pur- cians and translators for many generations. shaspa who was the father of the prophet Zoroaster. Later Arab and Iranian historians including Ibn Nadim, al A particular Magi called Se’na or Sen-Murv lived on a lofty Ghefti and Ibn Abi Usaibia wrote accounts of the activities in mountain, probably Damavand, and for this reason, he came to the Gondeshapur Hospital relating how that center became the be known as Se’na Morgh (morgh meaning bird) or Simorgh. hub of medical learning where Greek, Nestorian Christians, As legend has it and as mentioned in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh Indian and Iranian Physicians gathered to teach and practice (The Book of Kings, written over a 1000 years ago), it was this medicine, surgery and pharmacology. At that center, many same physician, Simorgh, who performed The ‘Rostamineh’ medical treatise were translated into Pahlavi from Indian and operation to deliver Rostam from the womb of his mother, Greek texts including the writings of Hippocrates and Galen. Roodabeh, as the child was so large that he could not be de- With the conquests of Islam, medical centers shifted to Bagh- livered normally. This operation which has become known as dad, the capital of the Caliphate, and Gondeshapur gradually the ‘Caesarian Section’ is erroneously attributed to the birth of descended into oblivion. Julius Caesar by such a procedure. At the time of the Greeks In historical retrospect, perhaps the most important legacy of and the Romans, no woman survived such an operation and it Gondeshapur was the transmission of Greek, Iranian and Indian was performed to deliver the baby once the mother had died or medical knowledge of the time to the Islamic world, centered was dying. The procedure was associated with the name of Ju- in Baghdad, which translated and compiled this knowledge into lius Caesar through the writings of the Roman historian ‘Pliny Arabic. These writings remained as a treasure store to be re- WKH(OGHU¶LQWKH¿UVWFHQWXU\&(ZKRKDGFODLPHGWKDWRQHRI discovered and retranslated into Latin by the European world Julius Caesar’s ancestors was delivered in this manner and not, during the Renaissance. in fact, Julius himself. In Greek mythology, it is said that Asclepius, the father and The Golden Age of Persia symbol of Greek medicine was delivered in such a manner when his father, the God Apollo, had in a jealous rage killed After the Islamic conquest of Iran, in mid-7th century C.E., the maiden Coronis who was pregnant with his son Asclepius, Iranian science and culture was plunged into a two hundred- and later Apollo was repentant and rips open the side of the year slumber. dead Coronis and snatches his son from the burning pyre. In all With the ascendance of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 C.E., the these myths and stories, the mother does not survive the surgery Islamic world entered a ‘Golden Age of Learning’. The Caliph- except in the story of Rostam where his mother, Roodabeh, sur- ate moved to Baghdad, established the ‘Houses of Wisdom’, vives and recovers after the surgery performed by Simorgh.4 and gathered all the learned men of the Islamic Empire to those centers where ancient works of science and philosophy were The Sassanian Era and Gondeshapur translated into Arabic by Greek, Jewish, Syrian and Iranian scholars. The Abbasids, who were sympathetic to the Iranian There was, however, a major leap in Iranian medicine during culture and their system of governance, became reliant on Ira- the Sassanian era from the 3rd to the 7th centuries C.E., when the nian bureaucrats for the organization of their Empire.

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