Medicine in Azerbaijan
Women easily observed the influence of fruits, vegetables and medicinal tea upon the organism and their effects upon the cough, bleeding, ache, diarrhea and other illnesses.
For instance, Nariman Narimanov found a human skull dated from the 4th millennium BC (Eneolithic) with traces of trepanning on it in Erefli village of Agdam Rayon.
[1] In 1971, archeologist H.Kesemenli found a skull dated from the late Bronze and early Iron Ages on which a trepanation was performed in Khachbulag village of Dashkasan Rayon.
[1] In 1958, pitchers dated from the 6th century BC with burned rues used as medicine to treat rheumatism, fever and prophylactics of various illnesses were found in Garakepektepe village of Mugan plain during archeological excavations.
For instance, polished marble vessels for antimony and golden brushes for applying it, used as anti-cough and antiemetic medicine in the Middle Ages, were found.
[1] According to Farid Alakbarli, a historian, Turkish traditional medicine called “Turkachare” and was similar to shamanism and treatment by wizardry and herbs began to be spread in the 4th century AD with the entering of Turkic tribes into Azerbaijan.
At that time, madrasa, where Arabic and Persian languages, religion, math, calligraphy, history and literature were taught, functioned in Azerbaijan.
[7] Manuscript copy of “Al-Magala as-Salasun” (“The thirteenth treatise”) written in the 13th century by Abu al-Gasim al-Zahravi, an eminent scientist from Andalusia, who famed in Europe as Abulgasis (died in 1013) also came from Azerbaijan.
[9][11] According to Kōichirō Matsuura, the former Director-General of UNESCO, “this collection shows the role of Azerbaijan in the development of world medicine”.
[9] “About treatment science” work by Mahmud ibn Ilyas (the 14th century) in which fundamental ideas of medicine, symptoms and reasons of specific illnesses are described also famed.
[4] Mir Muhammad Momin, palatial figure at Suleyman the Safavid, wrote several instructive works in Persian, including “Tohfat al Mominin” in 1669.
Being a palatial doctor, Shirvani advised using natural minerals for treatment, for example, rubbing an orange peel for tiredness in the neck.
In this work, it's also written that the resting place of sick men should be decorated with flowers in light-blue, green, and white tints.
Generally, in the 17th-18th centuries, a number of works had been written in the sphere of medicine and pharmacology by Azerbaijani scientists such as Murtuzagulu Shamlu (sexual pathologist), Abdulhasan Maraghai, pharmacologists such as Hasan Rza oglu Shirvani, Haji Suleyman Iravani, and others.
[8] In the early 19th century when northern khanates of Azerbaijan (Shirvan, Baku, Nakhchivan, Quba, Talysh, Karabakh, Shaki, Derbend and other) were joined to Russia and the southern (Tabriz, Khoy, Ardabil and others) ones to Iran, Azerbaijani community in Iran continued to exist under the influence of Persian and generally, the whole Islamic culture, but Azerbaijani community in the Russian Empire (later the USSR) was developing under the influence of Europeanized secular Russian culture (mainly in the Soviet times).
Abdulkhalig studied and translated the famous pharmaceutics encyclopedia written by Abu Mansur Kharavi in the 9th century from Persian into German.
[8] Hasan bey Zardabi and Mirza Fatali Akhundov used knowledge in medicine in their works for expression of philosophical ideas.
Such pharmacies were in every city of Azerbaijan – Baku, Shamakhi, Shusha, Aghdam, Nakhchivan, Lahij, Ordubad, Salyan, Lankaran etc.
Mir-Baba Mir-Abdulla oglu, father of eminent Azerbaijani literary man Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli had a pharmacy in Aghdam.
Chamanzaminli himself, being the son of the pharmacist, described everyday life and practices of Azerbaijani healers of the 19th century in his narrative called “The Doctor”.
Many students of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic sent for educating abroad, mainly to Germany, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and other cities, learned medicine there.
[14] On August 2, 1922, there were only three Azerbaijanis – A.Alakbarov, Jeyran Sultanova, and Adliya Shahtakhtinskaya-Babayeva, who became the Doctor of Sciences and Professor – among the first 29 alumni of medicine faculty.
[2] After establishment of the Soviet Power, during the 1920s, pharmacies, where herbs were sold, were closed, and manuscripts written with Arabic alphabet were burned.
Academicians such as Mirasadulla Mirgasimov and Mustafa Topchubashov, and professors such as Alibey Alibeyov, Kamil Balakishiyev, and others were world-famous scientists and doctors of Azerbaijan.
In March 1998, Heydar Aliyev, former president of Azerbaijan, signed a direction “About establishment of State Committee of reforms in the sphere of health-care”.
[8] In recent years Heydar Aliyev Foundation has launched a number of projects on the treatment of diabetes, thalassemia, blood donation campaigns, and the protection of maternal and child health.
An Action Plan covering 2013–2020 on combating non-infectious diseases (such as tobacco smoking, obesity, physical activity, alcohol use disorder, etc.)
In 2009, a new approach was introduced which seeks to define the number and type of staff needed in the system based on demographic criteria.
The activity of the Service also include control over state sanitary surveillance and epidemiological investigation, social-hygienic monitoring, preventing and eliminating infectious and parasitic diseases and food poisoning, planning sanitary-hygienic and anti-epidemic activities, reviewing the sanitary-epidemiological situation, controlling quality of environment, physical development of and morbidity among the population, implementing programs on health of the population.
The first one controls the activity of the specialized hygiene and epidemiology centers as well as carries out implementation of state sanitary surveillance.
