Name Johann Honigberger | ||
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Books Thirty-five Years in the East: Adventures, Discoveries, Experiments, and Historical Sketches, Relating to the Punjab and Cashmere; in Connection with Medicine, Botany, Pharmacy, &c | ||
Johann Martin Honigberger (10 March 1795 – 1869) was an Imperial Austrian physician and traveller. He travelled through Asia to India and wrote a book on his experiences in the east. A novel based on his life, written by Mircea Eliade in 1940, The Secret of Dr. Honigberger, became popular.
Honigberger, a Transylvanian Saxon, was born in Kronstadt (now Brașov, Romania). Following training in medicine, he travelled to Constantinople (1815) and on through the Levant, Egypt, Arabia and Persia to arrive in Lahore in 1829. He worked for a while for Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1834 he returned to Europe, and on this visit he met Samuel Hahnemann and was influenced by the idea of homeopathy. Between 1836 and 1838 he practiced medicine in Constatinople, experimenting with homoeopathic remedies. In 1838 he set off again for Lahore.