travelogue

 This research studies the health status and its dimensions in the Iranian society of the Naseri period from the perspective of two female orientalists who traveled to different cities during their stay in Iran and wrote about their experiences. It aims to get familiar with the health status, the design of its components and dependents, which will be a foundation for future researches on social studies of health.

 The research method is qualitative and based on the analysis of the travelogues of Dieulafoy and Bell as a document.

Ethical Considerations:

 In this research, honesty and trustworthiness in the use of historical sources have been fully respected.

 Introduction of fatal and epidemic diseases such as cholera, malaria, tuberculosis and typhoid and other common diseases such as digestive diseases, pinworm infection and skin diseases and paying attention to environmental health focusing on water pollution and sewage disposal are among the findings of the research. In addition, it also provides information on the eating habits, nutritional status and physical structure of Iranians of that period.

 Bell and Dieulafoy’s travelogues provide useful information about the general health status and the incidence of various diseases in certain groups (including children) and deepen the population trends in terms of the resulting mortality statistics. Certainly, the respective governments of these orientalists have paid attention to the health dimensions of Iranians in their political and economic evaluations in order to communicate with the Iranian government. Considering the place of public health in the Iranian lifestyle, it can be clearly seen that the lifestyle, including manners, customs, eating habits, clothing and etc. have acted as social components that determine the health of Iranians.

From the travelogues of Western tourists, physicians, etc. physicians in the Qajar era can be deduced as follows: that throughout the geography of Iran, the situation of all types of diseases and patients did not have the same conditions. Due to the geographical dispersion as well as cultural facilities and resistance, the health and treatment of Iranians in different parts of Iran was in very different conditions. The proximity to the capital and the western and maritime borders provided special conditions that varied greatly in the incidence and severity of the disease and its lethality. If we want to list one by one the problems faced by the Qajar kings, it has been one of the most important health problems and treatment of various diseases. The increasing prevalence of infectious diseases on the one hand and the ineffectiveness of traditional medicine methods on the other hand And the occasional outbreak of infectious diseases put a lot of pressure on different strata. In this article, by studying the western travelogues of the Qajar period, we intend to study the health of Iran in that period and the position of traditional physicians and their type of treatment (which was based on Galenian medicine of four natures) and its degree of fusion with superstition magic. Let's examine the extent of the deviations and errors of traditional medicine in the treatment of society's diseases, and why traditional physicians have insisted on these errors and the ways they went wrong. What harms they did to individuals and society, and along with it medicine. What has been the basis of modern treatment methods and the reasons for its acceptance by society? To what extent has the role of Europeans and, above all, European physicians in the process of modernization of traditional medicine? And what have been the most important deterrents and facilitators of society in the modernization of traditional medicine? How has modern medicine been more successful over time than traditional medicine? Finally, we can use library resources to study modern and traditional medicine in the Qajar period based on Western travelogues and with a descriptive and analytical method to compare and observe the available resources and facts and unspoken facts about the role of European physicians and the need We recounted the people who could not be met by traditional medicine in order to reach the correct reasons for accepting traditional medicine in the society of Iran at that time.