Investigating the role of prayer and recitation in medicine and medicine of the Qajar period

 Despite the introduction of new medical and therapeutic methods in the Qajar period's medical history, traditional medicine continued to live alongside it, and various groups in this period dealt with medical and therapeutic matters. One of these groups active in health and treatment provided medical services based on prayer, remembrance, spells, and superstitions. This study aims to investigate the medical and therapeutic function of various types of prayers and dhikr in the Qajar period. In this regard, this study seeks to answer the following question: To what extent and in what form was the role of supplication and dhikr in the folk medicine of the Qajar period?

 This research's statistical population includes historical books, medical history, and travelogues of the Qajar period. This research is based on the descriptive-analytical method and by collecting research files from library sources.

 Therapeutic methods based on the use of prayer and dhikr have been common in Qajar medicine, and prayers and dhikr have been used to treat, cure and even prevent various infectious and non-communicable diseases. This has not been limited to the common class but has also been used among courtiers and property classes.

 This study shows that during the Qajar period, prayer writers were one of the traditional treatment groups. They used various prayer and remembrance methods to treat various mental and physical ailments. And this group was also accepted by the general public. Reasons for their acceptance include poverty, lack of government medical services, the infancy of modern medical practices, lack of trust in Western physicians, worldviews, and people's destiny. Of course, the scope of activities and treatment methods of prayer writers and supplicants are harmed, such as the spread of infectious and dangerous diseases due to gathering in religious and respected places, not paying attention to health orders due to destiny, the prevalence of determinism. They were wasting people's money by deceiving sellers of spells.