This paper traces the debate about prostitution and sexual diseases in late 19th century Iran. The debate at the time hinged on a critical article published by Jakob Eduard Polak (1818-1891 Austrian physician at the Dar al-Fonun since 1851, personal physician of Nasir al-Din Shah (1855-1860) ), entitled “Prostitution in Persia,” (published in the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, in 1861). This article is the starting point of this paper's discussion. The first part will debate the content, purpose and wider, complex Perso-Austrian context of this article, arguing it can only be understood on the background of the Austrian establishment and its concerns with issues of prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, prohibition, mobility, and the administration of hygiene and public morality. The paper will explore to what extent these considerations and principles were transposed or filtered into the Iranian context. The second part, connecting to questions about Polak's article and its contextualization in Austrian medical circles and Iran, will pose questions about this particular article's specific context, underlying ideas and ramifications for categories like prostitution, sexual practices, gender and sex in Iran. The discussion also addresses historiographical and archival issues as well as Polak's direct personal and indirect legacy in Iranian history. In medical and ethnological circles Polak has been known through his reports in the Viennese medical and ethnographical journals (not only but chiefly about his work and experiences in Iran) and among historians and anthropologists he has been well known through his ethnographic account on Iran (Persien, das Land und Seine Bewohner, translated into by K. Jah?nd?r?.in 1982), with a lasting positive reputation, freed of charges of “Orientalism” and hailed as a paragon in the “transfer of knowledge.” His work in and on Iran influenced Iranian medical students till the 1960s, which is why his ideas on 'prostitution' posed in this article, was relevant for the concept and connotation of the term and practice in late Qajar Iran. This paper will be based on published Persian texts, but chiefly draws on unpublished archival as well as published European sources.