A Historical Account of Medical Translation in Qajar Era

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the history of medical translation in Qajar era. In order to carry out this research, data was collected from the available bibliographies or other sources, and after extracting the titles of related books, each book was checked in the libraries or on the Internet. The gathered data was analyzed based on Pym’s (1998) model. The findings of this study showed that in the early years of Qajar era, traditional medicine was commonly practiced but under the influence of modernization movements, traditional medicine gave way to modern methods. Moreover, factors such as the establishment of scientific centers, especially Dar-al-fonūn, sending students abroad and employing foreign professors played a role in institutionalization of modern medicine. Translation played an important part in dissemination of new medical knowledge. The collected data revealed that during Qajar era about 446 medical books were translated, primarily from Arabic and then French, Latin, Indian and English, under 19 medical subjects. Thematic review of these books showed that the field of internal medicine with 100 titles had the highest frequency, followed by traditional medicine with 86 titles, pharmacology, anatomy and surgery, infectious illnesses, medicinal plants, sexually transmitted diseases, obstetrics and gynaecology and finally pathology and ophthalmology. In addition, Persian was the primary target language for translation, followed by Arabic, Urdu, and Turkish.