One reason may be a reluctance to grapple with medical issues that they might feel exceed their expertise. Another explanation, one frequently offered by medical historians, is the lack of reported clinical information on patients due to rules of medical confidentiality to which their physicians were bound. While aversion to grappling with medical terminology is understandable, the unwillingness of historians of Iran to explore the illnesses of their subjects might also stem from cultural sensibilities with respect to medical privacy and traditional notions of a leader’s stoicism in the face of disease.[2] As a result, Iranian scholars, until recently, have even steered clear of some of easily interpretable psychological motivations that have shaped political developments.[3]
