Abstract. Noah Gordon’s historical novel The Physician (1986) stages a long journey from medieval England to Persia, using the contrast between “West” and “East” as a central organizing principle of plot, character, and theme. This article examines “Eastern motives” in the novel - both the protagonist’s motives for travelling east and the eastern motifs that shape his development. Using qualitative textual analysis and contextual information about the Islamic Golden Age of medicine, the study identifies three main functions of the East: (1) as a privileged space of medical knowledge and rational inquiry; (2) as a site of religious and cultural plurality that challenges Christian Europe’s dogmatism; and (3) as an arena of identity transformation for Rob Cole, who disguises himself as a Jew to study in the Persian medical school at Isfahan. The results suggest that Gordon both idealizes and exoticizes the East: Persia and Islamic medicine are represented as more human and scientifically advanced than contemporaneous Europe, yet they are also filtered through a Western gaze that emphasizes spectacle and difference. The discussion argues that these Eastern motives and motifs ultimately serve to critique western ignorance and religious rigidity, while still returning the protagonist - and medical authority - back to Europe.