Dear Friends and Colleagues,
On behalf of the Turkish Society for the History of Pharmacy, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 42nd International Congress for the History of Pharmacy to be held in Istanbul in September 8-11, 2015.
Turkey possesses a rich medico-pharmaceutical heritage and a unique blend of Eastern and Western medical traditions due to its special location astride Asia and Europe. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the world in which a number of major civilizations reigned; including the Hittites, the Phrygians, the Byzantines, the Anatolian Seljuks, and the Ottomans.
Being a receptor of such a rich cultural inheritance, Turkey, previously referred to as Asia Minor, witnessed the emergence of a stimulating environment, especially for the fields of medicine and pharmacy; the works of Dioscorides of Anazarbus (1st century AD), Aretaeus of Cappadocia (2nd century AD), and Galen of Pergamon (2nd century AD) exemplify this.
For this congress to be held in the heart of this rich cultural heritage, we offer the following main theme: "Exchange of Pharmaceutical Knowledge between East and West."
We hope that this 42nd International Congress will not only give you the opportunity to enrich you scientifically, but also to discover the wonders of Istanbul, a beautiful city of the Ottoman Sultans.
Afife Mat
President of the Turkish Society for the History of Pharmacy