Occupation Austrian physician Name Jakob Polak | Died 1891, Vienna, Austria | |
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Born 1818 Gros-Morzin/Morina, Bohemia | ||
Jakob Eduard Polak (12 November 1818 in Mořina; – 8 October 1891 in Vienna) was an Austrian physician, born to a Jewish family from Bohemia, who played an important role in introducing modern medicine in Iran.
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Life
Polak studied Medicine in Prague and Vienna. He was one of the six Austrian teachers invited by Amir Kabir, the Persian chief minister, as the instructors of Dar ul-Fonun, the first modern higher education institution in Iran. By his own account, he entered Iran on 24 November 1851, before the inauguration of the Dar ul-Fonun.
From 1851 to 1860, he taught medicine at Dar ul-Fonun. In the beginning, he taught in French and used a translator. Soon, the incompetence of the translators motivated him to learn Persian. He learned Persian in six months, and then taught his course in Persian.
In 1885, he funded Otto Stapf, a Viennese Botanist, to undertake a botanical expedition to South- and Western Persia. This led to the discovery of numerous new species of plants.
From 1855 to 1860, he served as personal physician of Naser-al-din Shah. In this capacity he was succeeded by French physician Joseph Désiré Tholozan.
Works
Polak published his Persian experiences in: "Persien, das Land und seine Bewohner; Ethnograpische Schilderungen" (Leipzig, Brockhaus 1865), which belongs to the outstanding ethnographic works about 19th-century Iran.
His other works include: