Hristo Stambolski

Hristo Tanev Stambolski (1843 – 1932) was a Bulgarian physician, revolutionary, statesman, and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival. He was the first to translate medical terminology from Arabic to Turkish. [ [http://otves.org/bg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=194 .:ОТВЕС:. - ПРИНОСЪТ НА БЪЛГАРСКИТЕ ЛЕКАРИ-МАСОНИ В ЗДРАВЕОПАЗВАНЕТО НА БАЛКАНСКИТЕ СТРАНИ ДО ОСВОБОЖДЕНИЕТО ] at otves.org] [ [http://www.tourism.kazanlak.bg/fp-11.html Исторически данни ] at www.tourism.kazanlak.bg ( [http://www.tourism.kazanlak.bg/en/fp-11.html In English] )]

Biography

Hristo (or Christo) Stambolski was born on August 8, 1843 in Kazanlak. He was the first child of the teacher and dealer Stoencho Stambologlu and his wife Dafina. On August 14, 1852, the vigil of the Assumption of Mary, he was arrested because he helped the priest to use the new Semantron. At the request of rich people from Kazanlak he was released. After this event he started thinking about a free Bulgaria.

He began to study in Kazanlak and from 1858 he was a student in the Imperial medical school in Istanbul, which trained surgeons for the Ottoman army. While still a student he helped treat victims of the Istanbul cholera epidemic of 1865 [Yildirim, N., and Ulman, Y.I., [http://www.ishm2006.hu/abstracts/files/ishmpaper_085.doc "Great Cholera Epidemic of Istanbul in 1865"] describes the epidemic but doesn't mention Stambolski.] , and in 1867 he healed people sick with typhus, for which he was awarded the Turkish Medjidie-Medal.

He was very famous in Istanbul and knew many persons of high standing, so he had the opportunity to take a leading role in the struggle for an autonomous Bulgarian church. He was a member of the temporary counsel of the Bulgarian Exarchate and president of the Bulgarian chitalishte in Istanbul. He worked not only with the supporters of the church struggle, including Ilarion Makariopolski, but also with the revolutionaries Georgi Rakovski and Vassil Levski. In 1877 he was exiled to Yemen, where he described the disease Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease). [ Христо Стамболски: Автобиография, дневници и спомени. (Autobiography. Sofia : Dŭržavna pečatnica, 1927-1931) ]

After the liberation of Bulgaria in 1877–78 he returned to Kazanlak and became a deputy in the parliament of East Rumelia. In 1881 he was minister of the postal services and road traffic. During Stefan Stambolov's rule he was placed under house arrest. Later he worked in the Aleksandrovska Hospital and wrote the book "Old Bulgarian History". In 1931 the last part of his autobiography was published, and he died in 1932, aged 88.

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