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History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

This is an advanced annotation of Ahmad Kasravi's History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

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روطه ایران - احمد کسروی دگرش های تاریخ

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Armenophilia among the Azerbaijani Intelligentsia

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Georgian Historiography of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (Reading Notes II).pdf

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Georgian Historiography of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (Reading Notes I)

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The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Näsr od-Din

Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began pu... more Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began publication in 1906. It was, indeed, the flagship and the vanguard of the efflorescence of Azerbaijani culture which was set off by the 1905 revolution which rocked the Tsarist Empire. Soviet Azeri scholarship of what might be called the Stalinist-nationalist school stressed the connection between the poets who had the dubious honor of becoming the literary icons of its scholarship, i.e. medieval poets who were either " Azerbaijani " by place of birth or by their language of choice on the one hand and what might be called the Molla Näsr od-Din school on the other. This is particularly pronounced in the study of the relation between Sabir, Molla Näsr od-Din's most celebrated poet, and the sixteenth-century poet Füzuli, in which Soviet Azeri scholars vie with each other in raising Sabir's relationship with Azeri Turkish classical literature to metaphysical heights, while the Molla Näsr od-Din school's debt to classical Persian poetry is virtually ignored. This reaches its apotheosis in a monograph on Sabir's predecessors 1 which amounts to a dialectical drama in which Sabir is formed under the spell of Füzuli, struggles with it, and, liberated by the 1905 revolution, transforms Füzuli in a revolutionary direction. 2 Sabir subsumes Füzuli by transforming him from the abstract to the concrete 3 and thus revives him, and the author concludes that " In this sense, Sabir was the twentieth century's Füzuli! (To be sure, if Füzuli, with his cleverness, had been born after the twentieth century revolutions, he would have been none other than Sabir!) " 4 The fact is that Sabir did draw heavily on Füzuli early in his career, 5 but he also used material from Persian poetry, particularlySàdi. 6 That he translatedSàdi in his youth is well-known; 7 a contemporary recalls 8 that when he was praised for a translation of a verse ofSàdi's, he modestly replied by quoting Hafez, who said that "Sàdi is the master of eloquence " and added that besides him we are just tinkers. The influence of Persian literature is even more apparent on other members of the circle around Molla Näsr od-Din, particularly its editor Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä. Despite his antipathy for things Iranian, Mirza Jälil was quite deft at weaving quotes from the Persian classics into his satires. Thus, although the relationship between the Molla Näsr od-Din school and Persian poetry is mentioned in the memoir literature and the annotations produced by Soviet Azeri scholarship, which are generally commendably honest, a systematic discussion of this school's ties to Persian culture seems to have been considered off limits. The paradox is that Molla Näsr od-Din was an ardent promoter of Westernization as the solution to the ills of the Muslims of the Caucasus. It stood for the development of an Azerbaijani culture which would be democratic and shorn of Persianizing and Ottomanizing affectations. In fact, the journal tended to depict Iran as a source of much of what was wrong with Caucasian Muslim society, and this included its literary impact on Azerbaijan. But despite its scorn of things Iranian, the parody of classical Persian poetry was as often used to satirize the Caucasian Muslims' ignorance and crudeness as to satirize the values perpetuated by this literature. In sum, Persian literature was used in Molla Näsr od-Din as 1) a sign of learning and refinement and the bearer of lofty values, 2) a more or less neutral source of material for parodies, and-more predictably-3) an object of satire of " Iranian " values.

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The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Näsr od-Din

Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began pu... more Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began publication in 1906. It was, indeed, the flagship and the vanguard of the efflorescence of Azerbaijani culture which was set off by the 1905 revolution which rocked the Tsarist Empire. Soviet Azeri scholarship of what might be called the Stalinist-nationalist school stressed the connection between the poets who had the dubious honor of becoming the literary icons of its scholarship, i.e. medieval poets who were either " Azerbaijani " by place of birth or by their language of choice on the one hand and what might be called the Molla Näsr od-Din school on the other. This is particularly pronounced in the study of the relation between Sabir, Molla Näsr od-Din's most celebrated poet, and the sixteenth-century poet Füzuli, in which Soviet Azeri scholars vie with each other in raising Sabir's relationship with Azeri Turkish classical literature to metaphysical heights, while the Molla Näsr od-Din school's debt to classical Persian poetry is virtually ignored. This reaches its apotheosis in a monograph on Sabir's predecessors 1 which amounts to a dialectical drama in which Sabir is formed under the spell of Füzuli, struggles with it, and, liberated by the 1905 revolution, transforms Füzuli in a revolutionary direction. 2 Sabir subsumes Füzuli by transforming him from the abstract to the concrete 3 and thus revives him, and the author concludes that " In this sense, Sabir was the twentieth century's Füzuli! (To be sure, if Füzuli, with his cleverness, had been born after the twentieth century revolutions, he would have been none other than Sabir!) " 4 The fact is that Sabir did draw heavily on Füzuli early in his career, 5 but he also used material from Persian poetry, particularlySàdi. 6 That he translatedSàdi in his youth is well-known; 7 a contemporary recalls 8 that when he was praised for a translation of a verse ofSàdi's, he modestly replied by quoting Hafez, who said that "Sàdi is the master of eloquence " and added that besides him we are just tinkers. The influence of Persian literature is even more apparent on other members of the circle around Molla Näsr od-Din, particularly its editor Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä. Despite his antipathy for things Iranian, Mirza Jälil was quite deft at weaving quotes from the Persian classics into his satires. Thus, although the relationship between the Molla Näsr od-Din school and Persian poetry is mentioned in the memoir literature and the annotations produced by Soviet Azeri scholarship, which are generally commendably honest, a systematic discussion of this school's ties to Persian culture seems to have been considered off limits. The paradox is that Molla Näsr od-Din was an ardent promoter of Westernization as the solution to the ills of the Muslims of the Caucasus. It stood for the development of an Azerbaijani culture which would be democratic and shorn of Persianizing and Ottomanizing affectations. In fact, the journal tended to depict Iran as a source of much of what was wrong with Caucasian Muslim society, and this included its literary impact on Azerbaijan. But despite its scorn of things Iranian, the parody of classical Persian poetry was as often used to satirize the Caucasian Muslims' ignorance and crudeness as to satirize the values perpetuated by this literature. In sum, Persian literature was used in Molla Näsr od-Din as 1) a sign of learning and refinement and the bearer of lofty values, 2) a more or less neutral source of material for parodies, and-more predictably-3) an object of satire of " Iranian " values.

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A Review of the Memoirs of Konstantin Nikolaevich Smirnov, Crown Prince Ahmad's Tutor

A review of the (Russian-language) memoirs of Mohammad Ali Shah's tutor.

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The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Näsr od-Din

Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began pu... more Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began publication in 1906. It was, indeed, the flagship and the vanguard of the efflorescence of Azerbaijani culture which was set off by the 1905 revolution which rocked the Tsarist Empire. Soviet Azeri scholarship of what might be called the Stalinist-nationalist school stressed the connection between the poets who had the dubious honor of becoming the literary icons of its scholarship, i.e. medieval poets who were either " Azerbaijani " by place of birth or by their language of choice on the one hand and what might be called the Molla Näsr od-Din school on the other. This is particularly pronounced in the study of the relation between Sabir, Molla Näsr od-Din's most celebrated poet, and the sixteenth-century poet Füzuli, in which Soviet Azeri scholars vie with each other in raising Sabir's relationship with Azeri Turkish classical literature to metaphysical heights, while the Molla Näsr od-Din school's debt to classical Persian poetry is virtually ignored. This reaches its apotheosis in a monograph on Sabir's predecessors 1 which amounts to a dialectical drama in which Sabir is formed under the spell of Füzuli, struggles with it, and, liberated by the 1905 revolution, transforms Füzuli in a revolutionary direction. 2 Sabir subsumes Füzuli by transforming him from the abstract to the concrete 3 and thus revives him, and the author concludes that " In this sense, Sabir was the twentieth century's Füzuli! (To be sure, if Füzuli, with his cleverness, had been born after the twentieth century revolutions, he would have been none other than Sabir!) " 4 The fact is that Sabir did draw heavily on Füzuli early in his career, 5 but he also used material from Persian poetry, particularlySàdi. 6 That he translatedSàdi in his youth is well-known; 7 a contemporary recalls 8 that when he was praised for a translation of a verse ofSàdi's, he modestly replied by quoting Hafez, who said that "Sàdi is the master of eloquence " and added that besides him we are just tinkers. The influence of Persian literature is even more apparent on other members of the circle around Molla Näsr od-Din, particularly its editor Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä. Despite his antipathy for things Iranian, Mirza Jälil was quite deft at weaving quotes from the Persian classics into his satires. Thus, although the relationship between the Molla Näsr od-Din school and Persian poetry is mentioned in the memoir literature and the annotations produced by Soviet Azeri scholarship, which are generally commendably honest, a systematic discussion of this school's ties to Persian culture seems to have been considered off limits. The paradox is that Molla Näsr od-Din was an ardent promoter of Westernization as the solution to the ills of the Muslims of the Caucasus. It stood for the development of an Azerbaijani culture which would be democratic and shorn of Persianizing and Ottomanizing affectations. In fact, the journal tended to depict Iran as a source of much of what was wrong with Caucasian Muslim society, and this included its literary impact on Azerbaijan. But despite its scorn of things Iranian, the parody of classical Persian poetry was as often used to satirize the Caucasian Muslims' ignorance and crudeness as to satirize the values perpetuated by this literature. In sum, Persian literature was used in Molla Näsr od-Din as 1) a sign of learning and refinement and the bearer of lofty values, 2) a more or less neutral source of material for parodies, and-more predictably-3) an object of satire of " Iranian " values.

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Ahmad Kasravi on Iran and Azerbaijan

Ahmad Kasravi was a prominent Iranian social and religious critic and historian. Among the issues... more Ahmad Kasravi was a prominent Iranian social and religious critic and historian. Among the issues he devoted himself to was that of the position of ethnic and religious minorities in Iranian society. He felt passionately that the chief obstacle facing Iran on its road to progress was th/e disunity of the country, its division into warring factions. One must begin a paper about Kasravi's view of the nationalities question with the first author to clearly examine the issue, Ervand Abrahamian's Ahmad Kasravi, the Integrative Nationalist of Iran. In this essay, he aptly sums up how Kasravi was understood by observers of Iranian politics: 1 To some, he was the 'theorist of modernization. To others he was a 'dangerous iconoclast' who was eventually and justly murdered for trying to destroy the foundations of traditional authority. For many he was the leading historian of the reform movement. To a few he used history both as a grab bag to peddle his theories, and as a weapon with which he carried out character assassinations of his opponents. For some he was a true philosophe, 'single-handedly bringing an age of reason and enlightenment to Iran'. For others he was a mulla in modern dress, attempting to replace the old superstitions with his own 'highly confused dogma'. He was considered broad-minded internationalist, a 'humanist' concerned with the problems of the world; or again, a narrow-minded nationalist, a xenophobe who wanted to purge all foreign words from the Persian language. Whereas as some saw in him a 'petit bourgeois idealist', an idealogue for the propertied classes, and an apologist for military dictatorship, at the same time others saw in him a 'militant constitutionalist', an uncompromising enemy of the political elite, and a subversive radical whose writings offered a halfway house to many intellectuals as they moved from their Shi'i backgrounds towards the revolutionary socialist movement. Abrahamian, for his part, finds "the essence of Kasravi" to be in the idea of "the transformation of unintegrated traditional Iran into ... an integrated modern Iran." But the problem, it seems to me, is not entirely with commentators on Kasravi's works as with the complexity and contradictory character of Kasravi's thought over the decades. A man who sought to resolve Iran's dilemmas, he himself was capable of holding conflicting views on various matters. This extends, I have found, to his attitude towards his native Azerbaijan and its place in an integrated Iran. 2 Kasravi's belief in the need for the Persianization of Iran's ethnic minorities is well-known. Although the biggest issue for him by far was religious rivalry and the role of the tribes, he occasionally felt compelled to analyze the position of Azerbaijan and the Azeris had in Iran. The answer he came up with reflected the complex experience of the constitutionalist revolution. On the one hand, the revolution marked the awakening of Iran to truly national existence, a spread among the masses of Iranians of national consciousness. This was no less true in Azerbaijan, where the constitutionalist press harped on this theme. Azerbaijan was the center of constitutionalist strength. Its deputies were recognize by one and all (including foreign observers such as E. G. Browne) as the most conscious and determined constitutionalists. Its capital, Tabriz, was the fortress of constitutionalism, holding out alone for almost a year of desperate street fighting against the absolutist and clericalist forcers besieging it. During this time, the Tabriz Anjoman was able to declare itself the successor of the Iranian national parliament or Majlis. This meant that the leading lights of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia lived their Azerbaijani identity through their Iranian identity: they were the best Iranians, they were the best, even the only true, defenders of the country in its time of peril. One only has to recall the the names of Kazemzade, Taqizade, Kasravi, Rezazade Shafaq, etc.

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The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Näsr od-Din

Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began pu... more Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began publication in 1906. It was, indeed, the flagship and the vanguard of the efflorescence of Azerbaijani culture which was set off by the 1905 revolution which rocked the Tsarist Empire. Soviet Azeri scholarship of what might be called the Stalinist-nationalist school stressed the connection between the poets who had the dubious honor of becoming the literary icons of its scholarship, i.e. medieval poets who were either " Azerbaijani " by place of birth or by their language of choice on the one hand and what might be called the Molla Näsr od-Din school on the other. This is particularly pronounced in the study of the relation between Sabir, Molla Näsr od-Din's most celebrated poet, and the sixteenth-century poet Füzuli, in which Soviet Azeri scholars vie with each other in raising Sabir's relationship with Azeri Turkish classical literature to metaphysical heights, while the Molla Näsr od-Din school's debt to classical Persian poetry is virtually ignored. This reaches its apotheosis in a monograph on Sabir's predecessors 1 which amounts to a dialectical drama in which Sabir is formed under the spell of Füzuli, struggles with it, and, liberated by the 1905 revolution, transforms Füzuli in a revolutionary direction. 2 Sabir subsumes Füzuli by transforming him from the abstract to the concrete 3 and thus revives him, and the author concludes that " In this sense, Sabir was the twentieth century's Füzuli! (To be sure, if Füzuli, with his cleverness, had been born after the twentieth century revolutions, he would have been none other than Sabir!) " 4 The fact is that Sabir did draw heavily on Füzuli early in his career, 5 but he also used material from Persian poetry, particularlySàdi. 6 That he translatedSàdi in his youth is well-known; 7 a contemporary recalls 8 that when he was praised for a translation of a verse ofSàdi's, he modestly replied by quoting Hafez, who said that "Sàdi is the master of eloquence " and added that besides him we are just tinkers. The influence of Persian literature is even more apparent on other members of the circle around Molla Näsr od-Din, particularly its editor Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä. Despite his antipathy for things Iranian, Mirza Jälil was quite deft at weaving quotes from the Persian classics into his satires. Thus, although the relationship between the Molla Näsr od-Din school and Persian poetry is mentioned in the memoir literature and the annotations produced by Soviet Azeri scholarship, which are generally commendably honest, a systematic discussion of this school's ties to Persian culture seems to have been considered off limits. The paradox is that Molla Näsr od-Din was an ardent promoter of Westernization as the solution to the ills of the Muslims of the Caucasus. It stood for the development of an Azerbaijani culture which would be democratic and shorn of Persianizing and Ottomanizing affectations. In fact, the journal tended to depict Iran as a source of much of what was wrong with Caucasian Muslim society, and this included its literary impact on Azerbaijan. But despite its scorn of things Iranian, the parody of classical Persian poetry was as often used to satirize the Caucasian Muslims' ignorance and crudeness as to satirize the values perpetuated by this literature. In sum, Persian literature was used in Molla Näsr od-Din as 1) a sign of learning and refinement and the bearer of lofty values, 2) a more or less neutral source of material for parodies, and-more predictably-3) an object of satire of " Iranian " values.

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Äkinji and Azerbaijani Self-Definition

The first Azerbaijani Turkish newspaper and its relationship to Azerbaijani national consciousness.

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The Turkish Language in Iran

It is generally thought that in the land of Persia, nothing is spoken but Persian, and few are aw... more It is generally thought that in the land of Persia, nothing is spoken but Persian, and few are aware that Turkish is widespread throughout Iran. It is perhaps even more common than Persian, and many Iranians themselves, if asked if Turkish is spoken in their country, would reply, " Sure, in some provinces like Azerbaijan and Khamse, " and many of them would explain this by the proximity of these provinces to the Caucasus or to Ottoman territory. I have never seen, either among Iranians themselves or among foreigners who talk about Iran and its affairs, anyone who has discussed this, the truth of this matter. As for the Iranians, even those who speak Turkish claim that it is a foreign language which had penetrated their country during times of Turkish and Mongol rule and had spread and become popular at sword-point. They ceaselessly despise and loathe it and would love to eliminate it and wipe it out from their provinces and exchange it for sweet Persian. As for foreign books, the Orientalists who discuss Turkish and the peoples who speak it it limit their discussions to the Ottomans and the people of Turkestan and the Muslims of Russia known as the Tartars and rarely say a word about the Turkish speakers of Iran; and those who discuss Iran and the language spoken there talk about Persian and its dialects, such as Gilaki or Mazandarani or Lurish, etc., which are current in this or that province of that land. But as for Turkish, they neglect to mention it except rarely, when they say that it is popular particularly in Azerbaijan. Probably most of their information came from travelers or embassy staff or missionaries who generally witnessed nothing but the cities and provinces [sic], particularly the national and provincial capitals, and they rarely took the trouble to travel to the villages or the tent camps of the wandering tribes to discuss their languages or their other affairs. In addition, Persian includes works of art and the most precious literature, such as the poetry ofSàdi and Ferdawsi and the like. And so the commentators on Iranian affairs neglect to notice any other language spoken there, such as Turkish. Compared to Persian, Turkish is like a beautiful girl who sits idly beside an unveiled second wife who enchants the heart with her jewelry and bewitches the mind with her adornments. But we want to travel down this road not taken and open the gate never before opened. We do not claim that this article is perfect, nor do we attempt a thorough investigation. Rather, we are satisfied to limit our discussion and its subject matter to our travels in the provinces of Iran, and perhaps some of al-Irfan's readers will supply details to what we have summarized and perfect what we have left incomplete and call to our attention our errors. We have divided the article into four sections.

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An Azerbaijani Poets' Duel over Iranian Constitutionalism The Duel's Setting

The Iranian struggle for a constitution, which began in December 1905, stirred tremendous hopes t... more The Iranian struggle for a constitution, which began in December 1905, stirred tremendous hopes that Iran would shake itself out of its centuries-long " sleep of negligence " and join " the fortunate civilized peoples. " This ferment extended into the Muslim Caucasus, where the heavilyShìite population identified closely with Iran. This was reflected in the Caucasian Muslim press. This paper examines how two of these journals, Mülla Näsr üd-Din and Tazä Häyat, came to different understandings of this movement and some of the polemics which resulted. Mülla Näsr üd-Din In discussing Mülla Näsr üd-Din, we must recall here that after conquering the Caucasus, the Tsars recruited a layer of administrators, educators, and military officers from among their Muslim subjects and these assimilated various currents of Russian thought with greater or lesser intensity. This led to a struggle for the hearts and minds of their brothers in faith, who tended to gravitate to the two Islamic powers across the border. Since Iran was a source of traditionalShìism, it came to be identified by many Muslim liberals with much of what they were fighting against. This led some of these more assimilated Muslims to take a condescending view of the Iranian constitutionalist revolution, which was led by powerful elements of the old social classes and took the outward appearance of a mobilization of Islamic zeal. Among these were the circle around the famous Tbilisi satirical weekly, Mülla Näsr üd-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohammadqolizadä, which sought to inculcate sturdy bourgeois Western values into Caucasian Muslims society by satirizing traditional Islamic norms. 1 Tazä Häyat At the opposite end of the spectrum of Muslim modernist thought was Tazä Häyat, edited by Hashem bey Väzirov and bankrolled by the Baku oil millionaire and philanthropist Zayn ol-`Abedin Täqiev. Hashem bey posed as a defender of Islamic tradition against the modern Muslims (yäni musälmänlar). As a colleague recalls, Tazä Häyat: … adopted an attitude of exaggerated traditionalism due on the one hand to the mentality of its publisher and those associated with him, and on the other, to his desire for vengeance on Irshad, which had assumed leadership of the liberal and progressive Azeri youth movement. … [A] newspaper which, instead of encouraging its readers in the search of new social aspirations, ridiculed the rush towards liberalism, drawing a line between the " old " and " young " Muhammadans, could not fail to call down the thunder of the latter on the head of its editor, Hashim bey, who was accused not only of defending retrograde and pedantic ideas, but of attempting to divide the Azeri people against itself and cause dissension among the élite. 2 Thus, one of Tazä Häyat's writers insisted that the Ottoman Sultan must be addressed with full respect because 400 million Muslims of different nations mention His Highness the Sultan with honor in the khütbä preached on Friday in their mosques. It is an obligation of prayer that one pray for Islam's sultans during the khütbä. Moreover, exalted God has required, according to the noble Koranic verse, " Obey God and obey the

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The Mullah and the Commissar: Molla Nasr od-Din in the Land of the Soviets

The satirical weekly Mulla Nasr ud-Din (founded 1906, Tbilisi) was an outspoken champion of Weste... more The satirical weekly Mulla Nasr ud-Din (founded 1906, Tbilisi) was an outspoken champion of Westernization as the solution to the problems faced by Caucasian Muslims. Written chiefly by members of the class of highly assimilated Muslims who had been integrated into the Tsar's administrative apparatus, the articles in this journal expressed acute pain for the suffering of the common Muslims combined with a sense of revulsion for their brutality and backwardness. Salvation could only come from outside and above this class of people. And come it did, in the form of the Russian revolutions of 1917. This article examines the complex reactions of this journal's editor, Mirza Jalil Muhammadquluzada, to the October revolution and its impact on the fate of the Azerbaijanis/Caucasian Muslims.

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Hamideh Khanum Javanshirs Memoirs of Iran

Hamideh Khanum, the wife of the great Azerbaijani satirist, Mirza Jalil, was a pioneer feminist a... more

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The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Näsr od-Din

Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began pu... more Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began publication in 1906. It was, indeed, the flagship and the vanguard of the efflorescence of Azerbaijani culture which was set off by the 1905 revolution which rocked the Tsarist Empire. Soviet Azeri scholarship of what might be called the Stalinist-nationalist school stressed the connection between the poets who had the dubious honor of becoming the literary icons of its scholarship, i.e. medieval poets who were either " Azerbaijani " by place of birth or by their language of choice on the one hand and what might be called the Molla Näsr od-Din school on the other. This is particularly pronounced in the study of the relation between Sabir, Molla Näsr od-Din's most celebrated poet, and the sixteenth-century poet Füzuli, in which Soviet Azeri scholars vie with each other in raising Sabir's relationship with Azeri Turkish classical literature to metaphysical heights, while the Molla Näsr od-Din school's debt to classical Persian poetry is virtually ignored. This reaches its apotheosis in a monograph on Sabir's predecessors 1 which amounts to a dialectical drama in which Sabir is formed under the spell of Füzuli, struggles with it, and, liberated by the 1905 revolution, transforms Füzuli in a revolutionary direction. 2 Sabir subsumes Füzuli by transforming him from the abstract to the concrete 3 and thus revives him, and the author concludes that " In this sense, Sabir was the twentieth century's Füzuli! (To be sure, if Füzuli, with his cleverness, had been born after the twentieth century revolutions, he would have been none other than Sabir!) " 4 The fact is that Sabir did draw heavily on Füzuli early in his career, 5 but he also used material from Persian poetry, particularlySàdi. 6 That he translatedSàdi in his youth is well-known; 7 a contemporary recalls 8 that when he was praised for a translation of a verse ofSàdi's, he modestly replied by quoting Hafez, who said that "Sàdi is the master of eloquence " and added that besides him we are just tinkers. The influence of Persian literature is even more apparent on other members of the circle around Molla Näsr od-Din, particularly its editor Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä. Despite his antipathy for things Iranian, Mirza Jälil was quite deft at weaving quotes from the Persian classics into his satires. Thus, although the relationship between the Molla Näsr od-Din school and Persian poetry is mentioned in the memoir literature and the annotations produced by Soviet Azeri scholarship, which are generally commendably honest, a systematic discussion of this school's ties to Persian culture seems to have been considered off limits. The paradox is that Molla Näsr od-Din was an ardent promoter of Westernization as the solution to the ills of the Muslims of the Caucasus. It stood for the development of an Azerbaijani culture which would be democratic and shorn of Persianizing and Ottomanizing affectations. In fact, the journal tended to depict Iran as a source of much of what was wrong with Caucasian Muslim society, and this included its literary impact on Azerbaijan. But despite its scorn of things Iranian, the parody of classical Persian poetry was as often used to satirize the Caucasian Muslims' ignorance and crudeness as to satirize the values perpetuated by this literature. In sum, Persian literature was used in Molla Näsr od-Din as 1) a sign of learning and refinement and the bearer of lofty values, 2) a more or less neutral source of material for parodies, and-more predictably-3) an object of satire of " Iranian " values.

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Ahmad Kasravi on Iran and Azerbaijan

Ahmad Kasravi was a prominent Iranian social and religious critic and historian. Among the issues... more Ahmad Kasravi was a prominent Iranian social and religious critic and historian. Among the issues he devoted himself to was that of the position of ethnic and religious minorities in Iranian society. He felt passionately that the chief obstacle facing Iran on its road to progress was th/e disunity of the country, its division into warring factions. One must begin a paper about Kasravi's view of the nationalities question with the first author to clearly examine the issue, Ervand Abrahamian's Ahmad Kasravi, the Integrative Nationalist of Iran. In this essay, he aptly sums up how Kasravi was understood by observers of Iranian politics: 1 To some, he was the 'theorist of modernization. To others he was a 'dangerous iconoclast' who was eventually and justly murdered for trying to destroy the foundations of traditional authority. For many he was the leading historian of the reform movement. To a few he used history both as a grab bag to peddle his theories, and as a weapon with which he carried out character assassinations of his opponents. For some he was a true philosophe, 'single-handedly bringing an age of reason and enlightenment to Iran'. For others he was a mulla in modern dress, attempting to replace the old superstitions with his own 'highly confused dogma'. He was considered broad-minded internationalist, a 'humanist' concerned with the problems of the world; or again, a narrow-minded nationalist, a xenophobe who wanted to purge all foreign words from the Persian language. Whereas as some saw in him a 'petit bourgeois idealist', an idealogue for the propertied classes, and an apologist for military dictatorship, at the same time others saw in him a 'militant constitutionalist', an uncompromising enemy of the political elite, and a subversive radical whose writings offered a halfway house to many intellectuals as they moved from their Shi'i backgrounds towards the revolutionary socialist movement. Abrahamian, for his part, finds "the essence of Kasravi" to be in the idea of "the transformation of unintegrated traditional Iran into ... an integrated modern Iran." But the problem, it seems to me, is not entirely with commentators on Kasravi's works as with the complexity and contradictory character of Kasravi's thought over the decades. A man who sought to resolve Iran's dilemmas, he himself was capable of holding conflicting views on various matters. This extends, I have found, to his attitude towards his native Azerbaijan and its place in an integrated Iran. 2 Kasravi's belief in the need for the Persianization of Iran's ethnic minorities is well-known. Although the biggest issue for him by far was religious rivalry and the role of the tribes, he occasionally felt compelled to analyze the position of Azerbaijan and the Azeris had in Iran. The answer he came up with reflected the complex experience of the constitutionalist revolution. On the one hand, the revolution marked the awakening of Iran to truly national existence, a spread among the masses of Iranians of national consciousness. This was no less true in Azerbaijan, where the constitutionalist press harped on this theme. Azerbaijan was the center of constitutionalist strength. Its deputies were recognize by one and all (including foreign observers such as E. G. Browne) as the most conscious and determined constitutionalists. Its capital, Tabriz, was the fortress of constitutionalism, holding out alone for almost a year of desperate street fighting against the absolutist and clericalist forcers besieging it. During this time, the Tabriz Anjoman was able to declare itself the successor of the Iranian national parliament or Majlis. This meant that the leading lights of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia lived their Azerbaijani identity through their Iranian identity: they were the best Iranians, they were the best, even the only true, defenders of the country in its time of peril. One only has to recall the the names of Kazemzade, Taqizade, Kasravi, Rezazade Shafaq, etc.

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_i_Molla Nasr od-Din__i_ and Iran Journalism.pdf

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The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Näsr od-Din

Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began pu... more Molla Näsr od-Din, edited by Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä, was a satirical journal which began publication in 1906. It was, indeed, the flagship and the vanguard of the efflorescence of Azerbaijani culture which was set off by the 1905 revolution which rocked the Tsarist Empire. Soviet Azeri scholarship of what might be called the Stalinist-nationalist school stressed the connection between the poets who had the dubious honor of becoming the literary icons of its scholarship, i.e. medieval poets who were either " Azerbaijani " by place of birth or by their language of choice on the one hand and what might be called the Molla Näsr od-Din school on the other. This is particularly pronounced in the study of the relation between Sabir, Molla Näsr od-Din's most celebrated poet, and the sixteenth-century poet Füzuli, in which Soviet Azeri scholars vie with each other in raising Sabir's relationship with Azeri Turkish classical literature to metaphysical heights, while the Molla Näsr od-Din school's debt to classical Persian poetry is virtually ignored. This reaches its apotheosis in a monograph on Sabir's predecessors 1 which amounts to a dialectical drama in which Sabir is formed under the spell of Füzuli, struggles with it, and, liberated by the 1905 revolution, transforms Füzuli in a revolutionary direction. 2 Sabir subsumes Füzuli by transforming him from the abstract to the concrete 3 and thus revives him, and the author concludes that " In this sense, Sabir was the twentieth century's Füzuli! (To be sure, if Füzuli, with his cleverness, had been born after the twentieth century revolutions, he would have been none other than Sabir!) " 4 The fact is that Sabir did draw heavily on Füzuli early in his career, 5 but he also used material from Persian poetry, particularlySàdi. 6 That he translatedSàdi in his youth is well-known; 7 a contemporary recalls 8 that when he was praised for a translation of a verse ofSàdi's, he modestly replied by quoting Hafez, who said that "Sàdi is the master of eloquence " and added that besides him we are just tinkers. The influence of Persian literature is even more apparent on other members of the circle around Molla Näsr od-Din, particularly its editor Mirza Jälil Mohämmädquluzadä. Despite his antipathy for things Iranian, Mirza Jälil was quite deft at weaving quotes from the Persian classics into his satires. Thus, although the relationship between the Molla Näsr od-Din school and Persian poetry is mentioned in the memoir literature and the annotations produced by Soviet Azeri scholarship, which are generally commendably honest, a systematic discussion of this school's ties to Persian culture seems to have been considered off limits. The paradox is that Molla Näsr od-Din was an ardent promoter of Westernization as the solution to the ills of the Muslims of the Caucasus. It stood for the development of an Azerbaijani culture which would be democratic and shorn of Persianizing and Ottomanizing affectations. In fact, the journal tended to depict Iran as a source of much of what was wrong with Caucasian Muslim society, and this included its literary impact on Azerbaijan. But despite its scorn of things Iranian, the parody of classical Persian poetry was as often used to satirize the Caucasian Muslims' ignorance and crudeness as to satirize the values perpetuated by this literature. In sum, Persian literature was used in Molla Näsr od-Din as 1) a sign of learning and refinement and the bearer of lofty values, 2) a more or less neutral source of material for parodies, and-more predictably-3) an object of satire of " Iranian " values.

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