Intellectual Trends In Twentieth Century Iran

"This book is the first collection of its kind. It brings together articles by historians, sociologists and political scientists as well as contributions by intellectuals and essayists currently engaged in the intellectual scene in Iran, thus outlining not only a range of intellectual concerns and trends in the tumultuous 20th century but also presenting authentic insights from a number of present-day participants."--Ahmad Ashraf, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University Intellectual Trends in Twentieth-Century Iran, a collection of essays by journalists and Iranian scholars based in both North America and the Middle East, examines the major intellectual trends in twentieth-century Iran and explores the role that the intellectual has played in shaping the debates and political culture in both prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary Iran. The issues discussed in this collection are among the most provocative in contemporary Iran and range from the hermeneutics of Mojtahed-Shabestari to the movement of the reformist press to clerical discourses on the subject of women's rights. Additionally, Intellectual Trends discusses broader issues such as Iranian liberalism and the relationship between tradition and modernity with a depth and insight that is essential in understanding the diverse issues facing a contemporary Middle East. Together, the collection provides a valuable account and analysis of the intellectual currents in this pivotal state across the last century. Contents Introduction Part I. Intellectual Discourse in Pahlavi Iran 1. The Ambivalent Modernity of Iranian Intellectuals, by Mehrzad Boroujerdi 2. Khalil Maleki: The Odd Intellectual Out, by Homa Katouzian 3. Ahmad Shamlu and the Contingency of Our Future, by Hamid Dabashi and Golriz Dahdel 4. The Discourse of "Authentic Culture" in Iran of the 1960s and 1970s, by Negin Nabavi Part II. Intellectual Expressions and Dynamics in Postrevolutionary Iran 5. Crossing the Desert: Iranian Intellectuals after the Islamic Revolution, by Morad Saghafi 6. Religious Intellectuals and Political Action in the Reform Movement, by Hamidreza Jalaeipour 7. Improvising in Public: Transgressive Politics of the Reformist Press in Postrevolutionary Iran, by Farideh Farhi 8. Sacral Defense of Secularism: Dissident Political Theology in Iran, by Mahmoud Sadri 9. Women's Rights and Clerical Discourses: The Legacy of 'Allameh Tabataba'i, by Ziba Mir-Hosseini Negin Nabavi is assistant professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University.

This book presents a cultural history of modern Iran from the point of view of Shiraz, a city famous for its poetry and its traditions of scholarship. Exploring the relationship among history, poetry and politics, the book analyses how Shiraz came to be defined as the country’s cultural capital, and explains how Iranians have used the concept of culture as a way of thinking about themselves, their past and their relationship with the rest of the world. Weaving together a theoretical approach with extensive ethnographic research, the book suggests a model to integrate broad concerns with a nuanced analysis of Iran’s cultural traditions and practices. The author’s interdisciplinary approach sheds light on how contemporary Iranians relate to classical Persian poetry; on the relationship between expressive forms and the political imagination; and on the different ways teachers, professors, cultural managers, poets and scholars think and work. He describes how history and poetry are the two dominant modes to talk about the past, present and future of the town and demonstrates that the question of knowledge is crucial to an understanding of the political and existential dimensions of life in Iran today. This book will be a major contribution to the current effort to move away from nationalist views of Iranian history and culture, and as such will be of great interest to scholars of cultural anthropology, history, Middle Eastern studies and Iranian studies.

Studying intellectual trends in Iran in a global historical context, this new intellectual history challenges many dominant paradigms in Iranian historiography and offers a new revisionist interpretation of Iranian modernity.

Political upheaval has marked Iran's history throughout the twentieth century. Wars, revolutions, coups and the impact of modernism have shaped Iran's historiography, as they have the country's history. Originally based on oral and written sources, which underpinned traditional genealogical and dynastic history, Iran's historiography was transformed in the early 20th century with the development of a 'new' school of presenting history. Here emphasis shifted from the anecdotal story-telling genre to social, political, economic, cultural and religious history-writing. A new understanding of the nation state and the importance of identity and foreign relations in defining Iran's place in the modern world all served to transform the perspective of Iranian historiography. Touraj Atabaki here brings together a range of rich contributions from international scholars who cover the leading themes of the historiography of 20th-century Iran, including constitutional reform and revolution, literature and architecture, identity, women and gender, nationalism, modernism, Orientalism, Marxism and Islamism.

This book offers a view of Iran through politics, history and literature, showing how the three angles combine. Iran, being a revolutionary society, experienced two great revolutions within the short span of just seventy years, from the 1900s to the 1970s. Both were massive revolts of the society against the state; the main objective of the first being to establish lawful government to make modernisation possible, and the second, to overthrow the absolute and arbitrary state, though this time mainly under the banner of religion and Marxism-Leninism and anti-Westernism. Neither of them succeeded in their lofty ideals for reasons that are explained and analysed within. The author also offers a detailed description of Iran’s short-term society, examining the political and intellectual lives of two of the most remarkable intellectuals-cum-politicians of the twentieth century. This book provides an overview of modern Persian literature, both poetry and prose, and discusses the works of three of the most remarkable Persian poets and writers of the period. It considers classical Persian literature through the great variety of its form and substance, and neo-classical literary developments in the nineteenth century, covering the whole history of Persian literature. This is crowned in the last chapter by the love poetry of one of the greatest Persian poets. Iran will be of interest to students and scholars of Iranian studies and Middle East Politics.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, Iranian intellectuals have been preoccupied by issues of political and social reform, Iran's relation with the modern West, and autocracy, or arbitrary rule. Drawing from a close reading of a broad array of primary sources, this book offers a thematic account of the Iranian intelligentsia from the Constitutional movement of 1905 to the post-1979 revolution. Ali Gheissari shows how in Iran, as in many other countries, intellectuals have been the prime mediators between the forces of tradition and modernity and have contributed significantly to the formation of the modern Iranian self image. His analysis of intellectuals' response to a number of fundamental questions, such as nationalism, identity, and the relation between Islam and modern politics, sheds new light on the factors that led to the Iranian Revolution—the twentieth century's first major departure from Western political ideals—and helps explain the complexities surrounding the reception of Western ideologies in the Middle East.

A masterfully researched and compelling history of Iran from 1501 to 2009 This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation. It offers a revealing look at how events, people, and institutions are shaped by currents that sometimes reach back hundreds of years. The book covers the complex history of the diverse societies and economies of Iran against the background of dynastic changes, revolutions, civil wars, foreign occupation, and the rise of the Islamic Republic. Abbas Amanat combines chronological and thematic approaches, exploring events with lasting implications for modern Iran and the world. Drawing on diverse historical scholarship and emphasizing the twentieth century, he addresses debates about Iran’s culture and politics. Political history is the driving narrative force, given impetus by Amanat's decades of research and study. He layers the book with discussions of literature, music, and the arts; ideology and religion; economy and society; and cultural identity and heritage.