Current Events

Great Iranian Discoveries: Where Are They?

Check out this book about Iranian snakes - of which most Iranians know nothing about (even the educated ones).

//www.amazon.com/Snakes-Iran-Mahmoud-Latifi/d...

I think only ONE of those species is named for an Iranian discoverer (Dr. Latifi, of course).

Is that correct? 

So Iran has maybe 60 species of snake. If it is true that maybe only one was actually discovered by an Iranian, all I can say is:

Jeez.

lol@divaneh

You crack me up sometimes!

Also Jahan

We can even go further back in history and examine the invasion of ALexandra who was a backward Macedonian.   The entire western civilization owe its achievements of the time to the sudden gift of conquering the Persia and, with that, the gaining of the advanced achievements of the time ...

I suggest you take two ocurses

1- Western Civilization

2- Quest For Power  

They should be still teaching these in the colleges ...... Then you can find out what treasure once Iran was

BUT IT WAS .....  

JahanKhalili

In general the scientific achievements happens step by step. It is not an overnight event.  A discovery at one time under one Empire yields another discovery at another time under another Empire. 

The Islamic Empire contributions to the world of science has been the stepping stone for the western scientific achievements without which west couldn't have scientifically been here as it is today. Now in the heart of that Empire, there existed, the great Iranian scientists whom contributions to the world of science have always been acknowledged in the western scientific community.   

First ever University, First ever medical school, first ever hospital and many more have  been established in the countries under one Empire, The Islamic Empire. With Iran , the old Persia, being at the heart of that Empire ....

See it this way,  It is a torch that was handed to the west and YES, sadly we do not carry it anymore ..... 

I wish Westerners would do something about Comment Diarrhoea

This is a very painful condition and evidently highly contagious.

Yes, Oil = Standard of Living

Check out why people are worried about the looming oil crash, and why the price of oil has the power to either make an economy boom or crash.

There is no other readily exploitable, cheap energy source available. Every developing country that wishes to grow economically, can only do so by increasing its oil consumption. 

China has increased its oil consumption in direct proportion to its ecnomic growth.

So has India.

Iran is in dire economic straights partly because its of its population growth and partly because of a shrinking ability to have access to cheap refined petroluem products (remember the impact that the destruction of Iran's refineries in the Iran-Iraq war had?). 

It only began to modernize and develop after oil was discovered there. 

Japan's economic development has been directly related to its consumption of oil.

When oil runs out, transportation will be affected. Food production will be affected (oil is used to make fertilizers and pesticides, and for the refrigeration, packaging and transportation of food).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd3yaF2yYos

Oil

Oil does NOT mean standard of living. How about India; Japan; Switzerland. Are they floating on oil? India in particular was a backwards nation that got up and advanced. It makes money by WORKING. A concept alien to those addicted to oil. 

I Expect Better From Iranians

Iranian culture - with its emphasis on politeness - teaches the importance of saying "thank you".

Doesn't it? 

Smallpox

This was eradicated in modern times. It was done by the West. The Islamic world did not eradicate it.

Do I hear any "thank you"s? 

Audacity of Khamenei

Anyone who disputes the scientific and engineering production and magnificence of the middle east up until ~1600 has not read history.  By the same token those who just want to credit the pre-Islamic Iranians as the sources of all later sciences are wrong and should read history objectively.  All it takes is reading and I'm not going to argue about it here.  As a matter of fact, Jahankhalili, small pox was first developed (inoculation) in the Ottoman empire.  Sorry but you used a bad example:)  The audacity of Khamenei to compare the achievements of today's IRI with the Abbassids or the Safavids is what is striking.  The man clearly knows his history.  But to compare and suggest that Iran today is advanced is a testament to either ignorance or isolation from reality in Iran (Shah had the same disease), or outright lies.  Iran today is far more backward than South Korea with who they were on the same footing in the 70s.

How Many Iranians in Iran Have Intestinal Worms?

The percent is high, even now.

Back in the 1980s, I asked an Iranian doctor if a figure of 70% is likely - he said "yes". 

Western anti-helminth drugs - and Western training about the correct handling of food and proper sanitation - are the only things that keep the rate from being 100%.

Oil = Standard of Living

Probably none of you have ever lived in any other kind of economy, so what can you know about what life would be like without it? 

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY

You Guys Are Spoiled And Young

You belong to the generation of Iranians who take things like antibiotics and vaccinations for granted.

You never saw what Iran was like before those things - but I have talked to Iranians who are old enough to remember those times.

There were lots of diseases and epidemics in Iran that are no longer a big problem.

Go look up medical textbooks that show maps of different diseases, and see how decade-by-decade, they were largely eradicated in Iran only within the last 60 or 70 years.

Iran STILL needs medical expertise from the West, even right now.

When I was in Iran, I got Typhus and Shigellosis. Most people in the West have never even heard of those diseases, because they were eradicated here a long time ago. 

Many of these spoiled pampered Iranians here who exagerate Iranian achievements in their search for an identity, have parents who were educated in the West. Some of them are medical doctors.

Why did they come and study medicine in the West? 

Regarding Oil

I would much preferred if they left in undiscovered. The "West" did not discover oil for the good of Iranians. They did it for their own needs and it brought only harm to Iran. No thanks that was no favor to me; not a bit.

JahanKhalili

You stop being insulting. No there were no modern vaccines. But you bet there was surgery. In fact the birth of Rostam in Shahnameh is a very good description of a Cesarean.

Yes they did have hospitals and anesthetics called "opium".  The first medical school in Iran was built by the Sassanids in Gundeshapur. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundeshapur

Why don't you learn something before making blatantly wrong posts? It does your credibility no good. I am not going to say what I really think of you because it is against IC rules. Therefore I will stop here.

So....

... hospitals, sterile surgery, antibiotics and vaccinations were all already in existence in Iran - before it made contact with the West.

Which Iranian scientist came up with the smallpox vaccine?

Why did Iran need the West to build its first medical school, if it had no need for them? 

Come on. Stop being stupid. 

come on you guys NO banning of XOXO

XOXO remarks are sometimes ( not all the time) as much hateful towards certain group that some of the other IC commentators remarks are towards other certain groups ..... now if hers is annoying so do the other ones. At least she is only one commentator but the other side of the extreme has many more commentators.... if JJ banns her it would also be fair to ban the rest. If so, then more than half of the commentators will be gone. 

One thing I find about her is that she is not rude to anybody but she has been attacked so badly by many. Well...  I have not been following every single post of hers but for a few that I have had, this seems to be the case.  

I just do not know what did happen to a few blogs of hers which I commented, discussing things and stating my arguments ... they are all gone ...  !!!

JahanKhalili

Please stop insulting people use logic. Iran owes nothing to the "West". By the way the best text on medicine for centuries was the book " The Canon of Medicine" by the Iranian Abu Ali Sina:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine

Your statement about West creating medicine is nonsense. Medicine just as all other knowledge is a combination of many cultures. All from China to India included.

I agree as well

How much energy (and time) can one have for posting so much on one site?? Incredible.
But this is the attention-seeking kind of troll, so the best way to counter is just not to budge to any of her (I think it's a she) provocation(s).
Just don't reply. Either she'll die out, or she'll get it.
I'm not for banning anyone.

You Guys Are Chicken

You can't even acknowledge the debt you owe the West.

This shows that you folks have an inferiority complex. 

I agree with Souri and Faramarz about BoosBoos

I wanted to comment also but Souri's blog was closed for commenting. This BoosBoos or "maachmooch" as I saw Faramarz called it, is really annoying. Now it is going to post a comment and quote this comment of mine. However, I think one way of combatting the trolls is that we need to counter them with more content from our side. So the effect is at least deluted.

Souri Jon, What a Troll!

Your blog was closed to comments, so I comment here.

I agree with you completely. This unrelenting barrage of spam and nonsense with no facts or content and loaded with hate speech is unprecedented and should stop.

Islam definitely

put Iran back big time. The real punch was the Safavids who institutionalized ignorance. By making Shia and its superstitions "law" they hammered stupidity in people. That was the worst of the thing. But then the Mongols and their murder of many educated people did not help. The subsequent Ghajars just made it worse. In fact the initial Islamic rulers were not nearly as bad as the Safavids. They did burn a lot of books but it took a long time to make people stupid.

However IRI has reversed much of the damage. Not intentionally rather by unexpected consequence of their actions. By pushing Islam and Shia on people they have made the youth to rebel; once Islamic Republic is gone there will be a no love for Shia.

Iran is Iran before or after the invasion by arabs!!!

Islam was never the source of Iran`s developments or desins or what you have, It was iranians that are the source of all sorts of achievements!

Islam went to other countries too Like Egypt and Syria and so on but in Egypt it never was the source of anything but decline! If islam was the source then why wasn`t the cause in other islamic states?

Even Taj mahal was designed and built by an Iranian "Me`maar".

What Khameneii said is simply forging history or the cause of anything in the past.

White lords and oriental subjects!

Are we now supposed to owe the British for plundering our oil? In that case, the entire continent of Africa owes a huge debt to European colonialism for the basket case they left behind! If we owe the Westerners for science and medicine, which BTW they had us pay for with our blood and sweat, they owe us for building the foundations for those sciences by the likes of Avi Sina, Omar Khayam, Razi, Biruni, Hayyan...! When these great scientists weere breaking new grounds in science and medicine, Europe was over-run by savages! Yet, that should not keep us from acknowledging the culpabillity of Islam and Shiism as the catalyst to the Western colonization of our land!

................

P.S. BoosBoos, perhaps I was giving you more credit as a sharp person than was due; I was talking about the notion of "everyone" which you brought up and later on requested to be defined.

He is Talking about the Ottoman Empire

Just check out the maps of Persian Empire through the ages and you will see the gradual decline after Islam came.

Iranians lived that history -- to live it means to discover it

by JahanKhalili on Tue Aug 30, 2011 01:40 PM PDT when someone can't even discover their own ancient history

Its Pretty Sad...

... when someone can't even discover their own ancient history, and foreigners have to do it for them.

The Truth Hurts

That's why Iranians spend so much time pretending and keeping up appearances.

Thankfully, we have Westerners - who do have it in their culture to value the truth more than pretending - to write books about Iran's history, and to study Iran's archeology and to decypher and translate its cuniform alphabet.

Why didn't Iranians do it, if they are so great?

 //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behistun_Inscription 

They had plenty of time to do it, and they failed.

Very impressive. 

Trying to teach Iranians to be ignorant of their own history?

"by JahanKhalili on Tue Aug 30, 2011 01:17 PM PDT If not for the West, Iran would have no modern medicine. ""JahanKhalili": That shows me your level of education:

1. 5,000 years ago Iranians were already developing medical prosthetics when the rest of the world was shitting in the woods and living in caves.

//www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253221,00.html

2. Iranians invented animation 5,200 years ago on a revolving bowl that caused the figure of a Ram to jump.

//boingboing.net/2008/03/12/animation-discove...

... The list is long. The world borrowed much. My sense after reading your drivel, "JahanKhalili," (which I doubt is your real name) is that you don't like Iranians. If that's the case, just go and attach yourself to the apron strings of your Mc-Culture and leave the Iranian community alone.