In the past, ninety or a hundred years ago, diseases that emerged would suddenly engulf a region, because there were no medicines or treatments available, and prevention was not possible. One of the diseases that became widespread at that time was smallpox; the problem with smallpox is that it would pockmark the entire face and cause the body to itch, a very severe itch. I was one year old when this disease came to our village, and I got infected; as my mother used to say, most of the children had caught it, a lot had died, and some had survived; those who recovered would not catch this disease again.
My mother used to say that children who got smallpox would have their hands tied to endure the itching by any means and not scratch their faces; she tied my hands, but it seems she didn’t know they should be tied from behind, not from the sides; this led to one morning, when she woke up, she found me covered in blood; it appears I had injured my entire face due to the itching; my mother rushed to her mother’s place; she smoked donkey dung, and the itching subsided; eventually, I got better.
Smallpox, cholera, and malaria were diseases that, if they hit a region, would cause many casualties.
I was two years old when I got anthrax; they called this disease “Chorkhon,” meaning bloody urine. Chorkhon was transmitted from animals; once someone got infected, they became immune to the disease. Its symptom was a black boil that appeared on my shoulder. Then, my mother took me to her mother’s house so she could find a cure; apparently, my grandmother said, “Take him to your aunt; she knows what to do.” My mother’s aunt’s diagnosis was that “since the disease has just started and is not yet severe, we should apply heat so it does not grow.”
I was playing on the roof with the children; I saw they brought a brazier full of fire there, thinking they were going to make kebabs; they put a copper spoon in the fire until it was red hot, then they took me aside, held me tight, and placed the red-hot copper spoon on the wound; my screams were loud, but after a week, the disease was completely cured; the scar is still visible, only its location has shifted.
During those years in the village, I also caught whooping cough; I coughed so much that blood came from my throat; I got over that too.
There was also a time when I got malaria; it was a difficult and severe disease; my aunt and her child got infected and died. Malaria arises from stagnant water and spreads. In Karaj, Mehrshahr, and Mardabad, water would collect and create marshes; those areas were breeding grounds for malaria and contaminated the region; for this reason, Karaj was a malaria-prone area; this also made the lands in Karaj worthless at that time, and people preferred living in mountain villages. I got infected with this disease in Karaj, after migrating; at two in the afternoon, I would go across the street, in front of our shop, lay down a mat under the sun, and sleep; I knew the time, around two, my body would shiver for a quarter of an hour, then I would sweat profusely and then feel thirsty; I had learned to bring a container of water with me for the thirst after shivering; it was very distressing; I did this every day until I finally got better and got over this too.
At that time, each of these diseases caused heavy casualties, but God helped, and I survived these diseases in these ninety years.
During World War II, initially, the Germans and Russians were allies; they divided Poland between them, Russia took one half, and Germany took the other. As the war prolonged, the situation changed, the Germans clashed with the Russians, and this caused dire conditions in Russia, to the extent that there was no food; following these events, the Russians could no longer feed the Polish prisoners, so they brought them to Iran. The Polish brought with them the disease typhus, which soon became widespread here.
In 1321, I also got infected with typhus; one of its symptoms was that I had no appetite. We were in Dorvan at the time; my grandmother tried to force-feed me; once, I grabbed the food and threw it out; she got upset and took me to Baraghan to my father. In Baraghan, Aziz (my stepmother) treated me; he knew traditional medicine; he gave me a medicine that was very bitter and foul-smelling, he would hold basil under my nose so I could somehow consume that medicine; eventually, I recovered from that disease as well.
During my military service, at one point, I suddenly became night-blind, so much so that I couldn’t see anything at night. Someone suggested cooking white liver, inhaling its steam while cooking and then eat it, both the cooked liver and its juice. I went outside the city, got a white liver, and cooked it in a yaghlaqi; yaghlaqi are containers used specifically for soldiers’ food in barracks, a copper bowl; as the liver was cooking on the Primus stove, I draped a blanket over my head and inhaled the steam; that one time was enough; I got better; from the next night on, I could see again; I have witnessed a miracle with this white liver.
Around 1332, I got jaundice, what is called today. At that time, I was smoking, which had weakened my liver; jaundice is a liver disease; my face looked as if it had been smeared with turmeric. Mr. Kamali knew someone who was a doctor at the French embassy in Tehran and sometimes came to Karaj; he took me to him. The doctor wrote two prescriptions that were very effective, and I quickly recovered; I still have those prescriptions. Additionally, he made a recommendation that I also followed; there were very small specific fish that I had to swallow; they were effective in eliminating jaundice; I would catch those fish and throw them raw into my throat.