Dr. Massoud Karshenas is Professor of Economics at the University of London. He is also a Fellow of the Economic Research Forum for Arab Countries, Turkey and Iran (ERF). His research interests include, political economy of the Middle East, poverty and environment in Least Developed Countries, economics of technological change, and intersectoral resource flows.   His publications inc...

October 1851, when Darolfonoon opened its doors to its first class of medical students, is as good a date as any to mark the beginning of the successful diffusion of modern medicine in Iran. Over the next hundred years, ordinary Iranians replaced their faith in healers with doctors and abandoned folk for modern medicine. Thus Iranians pa...