Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

The most important conditions necessitating Hajj are financial affordability, physical, and psychological capacity. Most persons who become bound to make the Hajj ignore the psychological capacity. Each year many persons lacking psychological capacity, go on Hajj and cause other mentally qualified people deprived of travel. A number of these pilgrims undergo medical treatment or are hospitalized during their travel and some of them are returned back to the country. No study has been carried out so far on these special conditions, psychological capacity, of Hajj. In quantitative part of this study, information of all records existing in the medical center of Hajj during 2012-2015 was extracted. The information was analyzed by assistant psychiatrist, professor, and physicians based on DSM-IV-TR standards. In qualitative part, systematic information was extracted from authorities of Hajj organization. From studied records related to psychiatric disorders, cases of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders were identified as lacking mental and psychological capacity. The results of this study showed that about 16% of the people with mental disorders such as schizophrenia and psychotic disorders, and that their dispatch to Hajj's journey was in contradiction with the principles of jurisprudence and ethics. This study can be regarded as a religious and ethical guide for identifying the examples of people who have been deprived, to help policy makers of the Hajj system to apply more strict monitoring of the dispatch of pilgrims, eliminating the time spent by other pilgrims and defusing national pride, and helping to replace eligible people instead of those who are not qualified for Hajj.

In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Iran was involved with epidemics such as plague and cholera, affecting the population and economy of the country. The spread of these diseases, on the one hand, was the result of the government's inability to organize health centers and, on the other hand, the inability to prevent these diseases by the quarantine of the borders. The southern borders of the country were one of the most important ways of transmitting diseases. Iran was exposed to these diseases through the Persian Gulf. It was possible that the diseases with origin in Iran transmitted from this waterway to the neighboring countries as well. These diseases were transmitted in two ways. The merchant ships’ entering Iran's ports from India was one way, especially the cities of Calcutta and Mumbai. The other was via the Hajj caravans (pilgrimage) rout. The opening of the Suez Canal and subsequently increase in voyage of steamships, lead to expansion of trade in the southern ports of the country, and frequent and more convenient transportation of the Hajjis (pilgrims). Thus, this also increased the spread of the diseases in that era.