No title

Iranian Studies Journal of The Society for Iranian Studies

Volume IV (1971)

Ali Banuazizi,Editor Jerome W. Clinton, Associate Editor Jacqueline W. Mintz, Associate Editor Sharon Barr Stilo, Editorial Assistant

Published by The Society for Iranian Studies, P.O. Box 89, Village Station, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

The Society for Iranian Studies COUNCIL Amin Banani Ali Banuazizi James A. Bill Jerome W. Clinton Richard W. Cottam Farhad Kazemi, Executive Secretary Kenneth A. Luther Ann T. Schulz, ex officio, Treasurer Majid Tehranian

IRANIAN STUDIES Journal of The Society for Iranian Studies Contents: Volume IV (1971) ARTICLES Adamiyat, Fereydoun. Problems in Iranian Historiography (translated by Thomas M. Ricks). . .132-156 Banani, Amin. Comments on "Administrative Developments in Qajar Iran ..... . . . . . 118-119 Klitz,

Brian and Cherlin, Norma. Musical Acculturation in Iran ...... .. . . . .. . 157-166

Lorentz, John H. Iran's Great Reformer of the Nineteenth Century: An Analysis of Amir Kabir's Reforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. McDaniel, Robert A. Resiliency

85-103

Economic Change and Economic

in Nineteenth

Century

Persia.

. .

Meredith, Colin. Early Qajar Administration: An Analysis of Its Development and Functions. Millward, William G. Traditional Social Change in Iran ....

Values and lb .

.

36-49

59-84 2-35

Sheikholeslami, A. Reza. The Sale of Offices in Qajar Iran, 1858-1896 . . . . . . . . . . ..104-118

iii

BOOKREVIEWS Iran: Amuzegar, Jahangir and Fekrat, M. Ali. Economic Development Under DualisticConditions (reviewed by Manoucher Parvin) Gian Guido and Dall'Asen,

Belloni,

Iranian

Art (reviewed

. 123-128

Liliana.

by Guity Azarpay)

. .

50-52

A Modern Persian Prose Reader Kamshad, H. (Ed.). . 129-130 a (reviewed by Jerome W. Clinton) .. and Social Political Karpat, Kemal H. (Ed.). Middle East the in Contemporary Thought (reviewed by John Waterbury) ....... MacKenzie, D. N. (reviewed

A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary by A. J. E. Bodrogligeti)

Moorey, P. R. S. Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum . . reviewed by Oleg Grabar).

.

52-55 172-180

120-122

Iran Faces the Seventies Yar-Shater, Ehsan (Ed.). L. P. .167-171 Elwell-Sutton) (reviewed by MISCELLANEOUS Errata .

56

. . . . .

In Memoriam: Gustav Edmundvon Grunebaum, Amin ... Banani. Note from the Editor

.

..........

iv

. . ..

103 58

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_ I

1~~971

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COUNCIL Amin Banani University of California at Los Angeles All Banuazizi Boston College James A. Bill Un iversity of Texas at Austin Jerome W. Clinton University of Minnesota Richard W. Cottam University of Pittsburgh Farhad Kazemi, Executive Secretary New York University Kenneth A. Luther University of Michigan Jacqueline W. Mintz New Haven, Connecticut Ann T. Schulz, ex officio, Treasurer University of New Hampshire Majid Tehranian Tehran, Iran

IRANIAN STUDIES All Banuazizi, Editor Jerome W. Clinton, Associate Editor Jacqueline W. Mintz, Associate Editor Sharon Barr Stilo, Editorial Assistant

Jrwtan ritaC

Volume

Sttd7te s

f'Z1%iSoctefJfrf J5z

IV

Winter

Number 1

1971

ARTICLES

2

TRADITIONAL VALUES AND SOCIAL CHANGEIN IRAN

William

G. Millward

36

ECONOMICCHANGEAND ECONOMIC RESILIENCY IN 19TH CENTURY PERSIA

Robert

A. McDaniel

BOOKREVIEWS

50

BELLONI AND DALL'ASEN: Art

52

and Social KARPAT: Political Thought in the Contemporary Middle East

56

ERRATA

Iranian

Guitty

Azarpay

John Waterbury

TRADITIONALVALUESAND SOCIALCHANGEIN IRAN WILLIAMG. MILLWARD

The most obvious and compelling reality of the contemporary Middle East, as with most of Asia, is the passing of traditional through development and social change, society and the creation, of an entirely new scheme of life with new norms and patterns of of loyalty and new directions behavior, new forms of organization Iranians are waging their own As Middle Easterners, and interest. battle with the complex forces of change and are shaping a new orThe process of der in terms of their own values and preferences. modernization is generally granted to be stimulated and emanate is also now claimed from a foreign, not to say Western, source--but in the form indigenously--primarily to be partially self-generating and new systems of organizing new technologies of new industries, knowledge and data and putting them to use for the society at large. In the face of this onslaught of diverse and often unfamiliar forces At one end a wide range of responses and reactions may be noted. gharbzadegan--who so-called of the spectrum there are those-the maintain that if Iran is going to take over any of the fundamental it should go all the way and adopt of Western society, structures its

value

system

as well.

the more conservative say that whatever is

At the other

William G. Millward is the Director, in Cairo. American University An earlier

version

of

pole

are

who

this

paper

Center for Arabic Studies,

was presented

Conference, The Middle East Studies Association Toronto, Canada, November 15-16, 1969.

IRANIAN STUDIES

the sunnatparastln--

elements of the society and reactionary foreign is bad and should be resisted

2

at

the

Third

The

Annual

of North America,

Somewhere between these two extremes comes a typical implacably. moderate Iranian reaction which tends to accept the inevitability new techniques and of new forms and structures, of the acquisition rider is added: "We systems, but to this acceptance a significant will borrow the external forms, but we will keep our own values, our own heritage and traditions and infuse the new external structure with our own unique character and identity." For all that such comments are commonly encountered among Iranians of varying degrees of education and modernity and can sensitivity to what is forgenerally be ascribed to a situational To what raise some pertinent questions. eign, they nonetheless extent has this "outward form" already been received and a new exvalues, Can traditional ternal structure already been erected? beliefs and patterns of loyalty and behavior be accommodated withIf in this new structure and serve to secure and reinforce it? not, should they be changed or simply disposed of, and how? Most important of all, who will decide what the new social structure system shall be and how shall they and its value-belief-behavior be brought about? economic, cultural--can As the process of change--social, intermediate generally be conceded to have reached some indefinite may be said to be in a state of continuous stage, or alternatively, interval is an apposite point at which to flux, the transitional value formulation of the traditional stop and examine a theoretical system of pre-modern Iran, to see how this system actually worked to assess provisionally the potential in practice and thereafter One of the system for inhibiting or facilitating that process. values of Iran moral and spiritual might ask what the intellectual, were prior to the advent of the modern era and how these might have Which conditioned the people's response thus far to modernization. elements of the system have been and can continue to be retained, which elements have been or look like being disand conversely, carded? Alternatively, are there some factors which have proved Answers to these questions, pliable and capable of adaptation? Iran's future reswill be helpful in assessing however tentative, ponse as the process of modernization and social change accelerates. II the Given the long episodic expanse of Iranian history, fact that any such ethnic and cultural entity as "Irani" exists at all today is itself testimony to the remarkable tenacity of That Iran, as the cross-roads of the East in ancient this breed. 3

WINTER1971

and medieval times, was so often beset by the ravages of conquestMacedonian, Arab, Mongol--is enough to suggest that whatever the value system of the Achaemenid Persian, that of his early twentiThe rather different. eth century descendant would be necessarily circumstances in shaprole of environmental factors and historical and behavior patterns of Iranians has ing the values, attitudes and been emphasized by both foreign observers and domestic critics study argues that the Arab conA recent historical commentators. quest of Iran in the seventh century so altered and transformed the fabric of Sassanian society that two centuries of silence inreasserted itnew Iranian identity tervened until a distinctive and The same claims are sometimes made for the political self.1 social upheavals attendant on the Greek, Mongol and Turkish incuron the character and moral outsions into Iran and their effects In the absence of empirical studies of typilook of the people. various cal Iranian behavior patterns and their value sanctions, have been explained or excused supposed national characteristics change in the fundamental of disruptive as the cumulative effects For of Iranian society due to conquest from without.2 structures present purposes it would seem simpler to hypothesize that after the moral and ethical of twenty four centuries the vicissitudes precepts subscribed to by Iranians in general would represent a composite system made up of elements deriving from many different sources and that behavior will deviate from ideals in particular areas for a host of reasons including factors of history and environment. It is beyond the scope of this essay to provide even a or cultural history of the Iransketch of the moral, intellectual What is important is the obvious fact that traces ian peoples. play of late Zoroastrian times still of the folkways and beliefs of a part in the lives of the vast majority of the inhabitants system of that early time, The religio-ethical present-day Iran. the lives of those in somewhat altered form, presumably affects subscribe to that ancient faith, and what is Iranians who still adheres in varying dethe whole population still more, virtually and mystique of Nou Ruz. Some of the tradigrees to the rituals such as the supposed and folkways of this festival, tional beliefs may well antedate Zoroaster himself, but virtue of reconciliation, which represent later compromises with are more likely accretions Islam. The spiritual legacy of Islam in Iran could, until quite But be seen in almost every facet of the national life. recently, Islamic ethics and moral norms had not peras will be shown later,

IRANIANSTUDIES

4

meated the whole fabric of social and cultural action. Religious continued to preserve their own received moral traminorities dition except where it brought them into conflict with the Muslim Such tradition was transmitted by and large through majority. the some but also to some extent through the churches and synaor unofficially gogues that functioned on and off officially on a changing basis throughout the Muslim period. The mother lode of Islamic ethics is the Qur'an; it has been used by pious Muslims of all national and ethnic backgrounds as the starting point for the systematic codification of religious and ethical values from the earliest days of Islam to present times. Recent studies of the value system explicated, or more often, implied in the Qur'an have approached their subject either from the

point

of view

of

linguistic

and sematnic

analysis

and

comparison,3 or on a less systematic basis of search for passages alluding to arbitrarily chosen ethical and moral concepts.4 In both methods, although the obvious disadvantage of oversight inheres, the results have indicated that a number of pagan Arab preIslamic moral notions have been taken over in Islamic guise and thus may be presumed to have been added to the broad spectrum of Iranian-Muslim ideology. The corpus of moral-ethical writing in Islam is difficult to delineate sharply as such matters were, in the early period of Islamic scholarship, considered a department of theology. Under the influence of the incorporation of Greek philosophy into the domain of Islamic speculative thought, the tendency for ethics to be treated as a separate area of inquiry gained fashion. Limiting ourselves to representatives of the Persian part of the Islamic world, it is clear that one of the earliest and most important contributions to this tendency was that of Ahmad b. MuhammadMiskawayh (d. 421 A.H./1030 A.D.). Basing himself initially on the ideals of the Qur'an and the sunna of the Prophet, and ethical taking account of the views of Islamic theologians, philosophers of and Sufi masters, Miskawayh attempted to forge a synthesis these disparate trends on the metaphysical and psychological premises of neo-Platonism. While such an approach would necessarily mean that Miskawayh's achievement lay primarily in the region of philosophy and ethics in the abstract, he was also influenced by the general moral tone of the political, economic and social conditions of his time.5 Thus besides treating of the metaphysical foundations of ethics and morality, the nature of happiness and and delineating a scale of cardinal virtues including wisvirtue, and dom, social justice, courage, temperance, love, friendship

5

WINTER1971

love of God, Miskawayh addressed himself as well to the field of practical ethics and stressed the importance of inculcating virtue in both children and adults alike to preserve the and discipline moral well-being of the community. Miskawayh was not concerned with politics per se, but the relationship between his ethics and his conception of society and the state are implicit in his works. This conception of the state is essentially theocratic; the ideal relationship between ruler and ruled is paternal; it is the purpose of the state and its ruler to provide conditions under which religion, and through it happiness, can flourish. Moreover, it is the function of government to educate the populace to think and act correctly, i.e.,to be able to distinguish right and wrong. The emphasis in Miskawayh's scheme on the virtue of cooperation (taciwun)

underscores

his

conviction

that

man is

essentially

a

Within social being and that morality is social by definition. the social context, the primary purpose being to attain to individual and corporate happiness, the basic principle leading to social is equality justice Directions for the implementation (musiwat).6 of this principle are to be found in the sharlcah, the sacred code of Islam. Implicit in Miskawayh's conception of the state and have to society is the notion that evil rulers do not necessarily be obeyed, a notion whose converse was the generally accepted commonpracposition of orthodox Sunnite Islam and the unofficial tice in the Shi'ite world. "Miskawayh is not an advocate of the He emphasized the need for political passive acceptance of evil. reform and social action for restoring conditions that are indisWhen moral pensable for the attainment of collective sacidah.''7 are ignored, the ideal Islamic order will be threatened principles and eventually overturned. The danger of moral laxity in Miskawayh's view obtains first at the top of the social pyramid in the seat of and general political power. The example of corruption, injustice moral decadence in high places will be communicated to the lower levels of the social scale. In such cases conditions are ripe for a return to true religion, for adherence to its moral imperatives, of knowledge and truth and for the establishment for cultivation of a new and just government. This doctrine is generally considered of tajdid (renovaan extrapolation from the theological principle It is important to note however that Miskawayh is tion, renewal). of the ideal or restructuring not advocating a reorganization If the system Islamic theocratic system of government and society. breaks down from time to time it is due to the factor of human the system itself, and perversity; fallibility having been divinely What is required is a purge of the ordained, cannot be faulted. at the top - and its corrupt human factor -- a purification replacement with a new factor where commitment to the moral ideal

IRANIANSTUDIES

6

of true religion

is not in question.

ethical writings, Miskawayh then, in his collected covered a broad spectrum of ideology -- philosophical, political, moral, in a comprereligious and practical notions were all integrated hensive system intended to provide a guide to human behavior under This elaborate system, being the all situations and circumstances. first of its kind in Islamic circles, naturally had a profound influence on those subsequent authorities who addressed themselves to the same subject, including al-Ghazzali (d. 1111 A.D.), Naslr al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274) and Jalal al-Din al-Dawwani (d. 1501). The political segment of the ideological spectrum was given only indirect consideration by medieval Muslim authorities, normally in connection with the concept of justice and its role in human affairs. In this regard, as Professor Lambton has shown, two main theories of kingship existed, the so-called "classical-juristic" and the "medieval."1 The first of these was the most purely Islamic in the sense of being bound up with religion, the defense and propagation thereof and the keeping of the covenant with God. In the course of time the second theory gradually replaced the first and in its negaalthough the emphasis on justice was much diminished, tive aspect it remained an important reflex in the popular mind. On the whole,however, "the concept of the ruler in the medieval theory is autocratic rather than patriarchal." The latter theory gained prominence during the chaotic conditions that prevailed in the Mongol and Timurid periods and has continued to exercise its hegemony as the dominant element of political theory in the traditional Iranian ideology despite the rapprochement between religion and temporal power effected under the Safavids. Traditional theories of society and the social order have been much influenced both by religion and the aforementioned itself political notions. The same unsettled circumstances that made it also reinforced necessary for the ruler's power to be effective the tendency toward conservatism and the maintenance of the status quo. The desire for stability in turn led to a relatively static view of the social organism. In the medieval Persian theory of and the old kingship the influence of Zoroastrian religion In this theory there Sassanian theory of state has been detected.9 and the political was an intimate association between religion authority; they were regarded as two facets of the same essence, neither of which could be entirely The separated from the other. intimate association of Shi'ism with the rise to power of the of this power by official Safavid dynasty, the legitimization

7

WINTER1971

afin political and the continued influence of religion religion fairs gave rise to an Islamic version of this early Zoroastrian Zoroastrain society was usually divided Sassanian Erastian theory. bureaucrats or into four classes - those of clergy, soldiers, With the coming of Islam this and common people.10 secretaries structure was replaced by a new system which, though inflexible in It was characterized slow in emerging, proved more resilient. in the middle ranks of the general terms by greater differentiation greater mobility between classes and more tolerance of structure, This is not to say that these tendeviation and nonconformity. dencies found any sanction in theory, nor that there were no inWithin this and enforced conformity. stances of rigid intolerance was that the dominant operative principle new pattern theoretically of the "mean," a concept which came into the medieval IslamicPersian theory of state through the combined influence of ZoroasThe social structure was thus trian theory and Greek philosophy. and the maintenance of by an emphasis on stability characterized the status quo, "a just equipoise between excess and deficiency,"11 where everyone had his prescribed place and was expected to keep to it. III of the foregoing formulations however, for The limitation of values and their effect in conditiona practical appreciation is that they are behavior in Iranian society, ing and controlling They are derived chiefly from written much too theoretical. scheme was nearly always idealsources where the presentation In the purely religious oriented rather than practice-oriented. has long since been recognized as the difsphere the difficulty in the Islam as reflected ference between "orthodox" or "official" in the practice writings of the ulama, and "folk" Islam as reflected between the Great of the majority of the populace; the difference today great There are still Tradition and the Little Tradition. among sections of the population which may be presumed disparities The gap between what is printed in a to be tradition-minded. of and practices journal like Maktab-i Tashayyuc and the beliefs Iranian Muslims in the towns of Gilan and Mazandaran or the villages this discrepancy.12 of Khurasan illustrates is the obvious fact that the literary A further difficulty and morally homogenerecord suggests Iranian society was ethically ous and subscribed to a single Muslim standard, whereas it is clear From late Zoroastrian prevailed. that the opposite situation

IRANIAN STUDIES

8

Iranian that times, if not earlier, society was, to the extent and pluralreligio-ethical systems differ, morally heterogeneous -- Christian, that religious minorities The facts istic. Jewish, -- have existed within the framework of the Gnostic Zoroastrian Iranian-Islamic polity for virtually the whole of the Islamic era;

that Iranians are people of varied linguistic, ethnic and racial backgrounds; and that physically they lived (as many still live) either in towns as artisans and craftsmen, in villages as peasant farmers and cultivators, or on the open steppes and mountain slopes as nomadic tribesmen and shepherds, would necessarily mean that the overall moral system of what is now the Iranian people is historically derivative and composite. Several sets of ethical-moral value systems functioned coevally within the immediate pre-modern context competing for the allegiance of the individual. Depending on where

he lived,

how he earned his

living,

and what language he spoke,

the

average pre-modern Iranian might easily have subscribed to several sets of competing (or partially overlapping) value systems. This situation still applies today for many traditional and transitional types.13 The structure of values may be schematized as follows:

order are the peasant

village

then in traditional the basic elements

and the nomadic tribe,

Iranian society of the social

supplemented

in more productive areas by larger towns and cities. Within these three units fundamental loyalties tend to be local, to the family, to the tribe or sub-tribe, to the village unit or city quarter. In each case there was strong social pressure toward role ascription based on heredity and a concomitant lack of fluidity and social mobility. Political authority was exercised in each case by a elite in the group, clan and tribal chiefs in nomadic areas, a combination of feudal landowner and local kadkhuda (village and in the towns and cities of bureaucratic by a combination elements. of this total ward-boss sections Larger or smaller from time to time by a centralized structure were controlled often from tribal and setting the seat elements ity arising

eral

power in a strategic

narrow villages chief) and authorof fed-

urban center.

Stretching over this whole system was the broad canopy of structure which a separate but all-embracing religious sanction, the political order from top to bottom but, provided legitimized of power. checks or limits on the exercise few effective Religious in town and action of social filters sanction down into most facets of case many elements village life, accommodating in the latter

9

WINTER 1971

purely local over control automatically power central is blurred. can be quickly

and exercise able to integrate but is less tradition, order is Opposition to established nomadic elements. in times of strong especially religiously, heretical and politics between religion where the distinction source new power from whatever effective Nevertheless institution. by the religious legitimized

and of ethical Within this framework other sub-systems primarily affecting with Islam, coevally moral value functioned These subbehavior. and ritual relations and family personal toward diversity and regionalism reinforced the tendency systems of in the edifice weakness a permanent structural and constituted remained As long as the tribes value system. the Islamic social the reality, was an everyday isolation and village nonsedentarized totally system were never applied mores of the Islamic theoretical peoples. by Iranian the areas inhabited within and coextensively particulthese elements, of Islam to fully The inability integrate a permanent and provided value, of proximate arly at the level of the system as a validity compromise on the ultimate visible whole. IV

Since the granting

of the Constitution

in 1906, tradi-

in has accepted in the cities, especially society, Iranian tional A new educfrom without. and systems large measure new structures the throughout system has been adopted and implemented ational in keepand adjusted country and is now from time to time revised New codes of law have been needs. national ing with projected adopted and amendments to the system are being enacted more or less has been administration A new system of government continuously. the manifold and bureaus to administer created with giant ministries new New banking and credit systems, of the government. activities some primary and secondary trade policies, and domestic foreign All this in undreamed of national revenues. and hitherto industry the or three generations. Manifestly a maximum of sixty years, to change,14 and traditional values, is eminently receptive society any impediment on the face of it, would not seem to have represented But these changes are for the most part changes to this process. or the institutional-organizational structure in the external extended not uniformly throughalthough which, framework of society, forms. at present, are the dominant-aggressive out the country In the

same category

IRANIAN STUDIES

of

change

10

are

recent

alterations

in

of Iranian Recent studies the class structure have pointed society. of a new social to the emergence, since the early 1940s, class, but best characterized as the "professional variously styled bureaucratic or the "salaried intelligentsia",15 middle class composed of government bureaucrats, teachers technicians, army officers, and journalists."16 to this group in the middle level of the Allied social scale are "the would-be-salaried" who have the requisite to do these jobs but cannot secure qualifications employment. Further structural changes in the cultural ethos of Iranian society have been effected by such tendencies as the continuing trend of the breakup of the extended family and the provision of everexpanding facilities for single family housing, increased horizons and expectations through the expansion of education and greater mobility and communication as evidenced in such people-to-people contacts as the literacy corps, the health corps, rural cooperative advisors and agricultural extension workers. Revolutions of form and perspective have occurred as well in the domain of aesthetics. In architecture, Western styles and structural modes have been grafted onto traditional Iranian forms, the result being sometimes felicitous but more often, particularly in private housing and apartment cona garish hybrid known as "Middle East Modern." Iranian struction,

of late has whole-heartedly literature embraced new poetic canons of blank verse and free verse -- something unthinkable fifty years ago -- and has assimilated the novel form, the short story and playwriting in the Western sense of the term. It is important

to note that in the Iranian

context

this

is change of a completely new order, i.e., in Halpern's terminology, system-transforming change. Change of this kind and on this level has not been experienced in Iran since the Arab conquest nearly thirteen centuries ago. The degree and tempo of these changes have

resulted in a social system, in most of the major urban centers, that is generically from that of sixty years ago. But different what of the accompanying socio-cultural value system? Has this system, which conditions the content and quality of individual and group life, itself undergone similar changes in order to render it with the new structure compatible On the whole of Iranian society? the answer to this must be a qualified negative. The pace of structural change has far outstripped that of change in the social of the latter and comparative area has had value system, neglect of rendering as a whole morally the effect the society dysfuncconsensus No stable or viable tional and chaotic.17 of synthesis

social values exists at present to allow a smooth and rapid advance toward a modern society -- a society which will at the same time elements of Iranian identity. preserve the essential

11

WINTER 1971

v

to acvalue shifts Although there have been significant changes in Iranian society and its culcompany these structural feature of the society today the most characteristic tural milieu, and values attitudes of traditional persistence is the anachronistic framework. Despite the presence in its ideological-motivational with modernization, associated structures of new and established values can be seen in all spheres of traditional the persistence In some instances the values involved represent of endeavor. rules and rigidly applied by custom; norms sanctioned by religious customary usages that have grown up in in other cases they reflect Occasionally ideals. away from religious reaction to or by falling they may be folkways which are independent of or have no particular Some examples of these reference to the ethical norms of Islam. typical behavioral patterns still in traditional values as reflected of the society at large may be seen by reference to the following the family; and education; business-economics; four categories: the law. education tenor of traditional The prevailing Education: in Iran was its emphasis on authority and the value of imitation In pre-modern times, most formal education, in the learning process. and on the elementary level, was conducted by clerics especially moral and didactic subjectthe curriculum focused on religious, In matter, including the Qurtan and the poetry of Hafiz and Sa'dl. relied heavily on the method of instruction these maktabs (schools) was maintained by the and memorization, while discipline repetition of rote This tradition of physical punishment.18 ready application as well in the secondary level of learning had entrenched itself seminaries (madiris), where it continues education in the religious as the dominant teaching technique to this day. There is little toward teaching and learning was indigedoubt that this attitude and the with religion by its early association nized initially in the primarily Islam. Originating precepts of Shi'ite doctorinal with the desire of pious Muslims to avoid any taint of association of cardinal sin of innovation or heresy (bidcah), the principle spiritual taglid (voluntary submission of the will to a qualified to left the average believer with no responsibility authority) and conduct.19 reason or think for himself in matters of religion the average Having learned by heart the catechism of the faith, Muslim would then refer any questions or problems, often in writing, to the Marjac-i Taglid, a leading faqih or mu tahid, and would Carried over into generally act in accordance with his ruling.

IRANIANSTUDIES

12

the field of the education of children where the teacher was norinculcated mally a mulla or an akhund, this principle a strong sense of religious in the mind of the student to accept what obligation was said and to offer it back again word for word without question or alteration.21 Although in this way the faculty of memory was strengthened and the risk of exposure to bidcah minimized, the inclination on the part of the student to cultivate the faculties of reason, analysis, interpretation and evaluation were more or less completely stifled. It is no disservice to the educational system in Iran to say that it has not yet shaken off this ingrained tendency twoard rote learning. It is a residual reflex of many centuries of the traditional educational system at a time when, despite the presence of new educational structures in respect to physical plant, curriculum, teacher education and administration, the conservative tradition still very much influences matters of method and teachnique in teaching and learning through the vehicle of the older generation of teachers, inspectors and administrators.22 The cumulative effect of the persistence of these antiquated procedures is reflected in the incidence of anxiety about difficult lessons among contemporary university students and their haunting fear of failing examinations.23 It may be added that this attitude to learning should diminish significantly in time as more and more members of the teaching community in higher education and the second half of the highschool program (sikl-i dovvom) acquire experience in and exposure to more imaginative and innovative techniques. On the level of early secondary education (sikl-i avval), it is perhaps enough to hope that with expanded science coverage in the curriculum and with better equipment and facilities the emphasis on rote learning and parrot-like repetition will recede under the influence of scientific procedures. The fact that budgetary pressures limit the extent to which essential equipment for chemistry, physics and other sciences can be provided on a wider scale each year may be thought to qualify such an expectation with a note of pessimism. Business-Economics: and retarding effect The inhibiting of traditional values in contemporary Iran is most clearly reflecteconomics and industrial ed in the domain of business, development. have been espoused Since economic development and industrialization for the last as official public policy of the highest priority fifty-odd years, it is assumed that there exists something more than the pious hope that the desire for a better life and a few

13

WINTER1971

will imported tricks and techniques of technology and organization agency Government, as the instigating lead to the desired goal. may or may not be aware change in this direction, of deliberate for success is the generalization that an important precondition set of values and behavioral throughout the society of a specific values and norms to the sucnorms. The importance of particular cess of development projects has long been emphasized by social though there is no general agreement on the specific scientists The factors of individual model.24 components of a theoretical mobility and a placement system based on merit in performance may minimum requirement on which most scholars be taken as an essential the second That the changes involved in instituting have agreed. of these factors as an integral part of the value system in Iran with a number of widely supported pre-existent come into conflict to "the primacy of kinship position and obligation values relating as a moral virtue"25 is perhaps too obvious to require elaboration. than any But the state, although it may be more influential in regard to development, will not be abother social institution In the last few years great efforts have been sovereign. solutely expended by the government to persuade the private sector of the in the grand venture of development, a move economy to participate that may be taken as tacit admission that the government itself Since private it cannot accomplish the whole task alone. believes a mainstay of Iranian capital formation and holdings are still it is important to appreciate that value change economic philosophy, is the one area where the government can exert and distribution Businessmen, former if any control over the private sector. little and other entrepreneurs industrialists, landowners-turned-capitalist their money and time in development in Iran have been investing policy, by official schemes the range of which may be controlled effort and procedural modes are very often in acbut the particular raises business norms. This situation cordance with traditional some serious

questions

with

regard

to the

role

of wages

and profit

It applies Iranian ideology. in traditional rewards as incentives worker already employed and the potentialequally to the industrial a huge surplus of urban labor, ly employed who presently constitute in the capital, and to the Iranian businessman who may particularly Both groups, be partly modernized (and partly foreign-educated). have come to expect, in the conditioning, by virtue of traditional higher and higher rewards presently expanding economic conditions, that or capital investment without the realization for services No more effort in input is required beforehand. correspondingly is generated in part by the expectation doubt this unrealistic rise in the per capita income and the general rise in noticeable

IRANIANSTUDIES

14

industrial -- which tends to create profits everyone can have the same benefits without effort .26

that expectations the same or requisite

The Family -- Child-rearing: Another area of cultural lag vis-A-vis rapid modernization may be seen in the family and its Ideally in the toward raising children. traditional attitudes traditional Muslim household "the woman rules as queen and a Muslim man is in a sense guest of his wife at home."27 It is moreover the and to disresponsibility of the wife to run the house efficiently At the hands of the charge the duty of bringing up the children. young children, boys included, mother and other female relatives and to develop certain were supposed to learn habits of discipline Measured sympathy and affection. character traits as generosity, in the Muslim home, partiagainst this ideal, the real situation cularly among the economically disadvantaged elements of the society, authority of The unchallengeable was often strikingly different. the father as the absolute and final arbiter in the home was allowed and family to obtrude to such an extent that interpersonal relations tensions were not handled in accordance with this ideal scheme of Fathers tended to favor sons, as privileges and responsibilities. their principal heirs, to such an extent that their position in the This family hierarchy often surpassed that of the wife/mother.28 situation gave rise to the "spoiled son" syndrome, which is still Young male an all too prevalent feature of family life in Iran.29 children of three or four years are allowed to tyrannize over the of her husband should the child mother who fears the retribution bear him tales. Not only has this indulgence on the part of the cause of the generally depressed status father been a contributing of the female in the society but far more serious, it has also fosThe exof mind that is inimical to discipline. tered an attitude ample of the unrestrained hand of the father, when it is applied, engenders a sense of fear, rather than respect for discipline, No society committed to the principle either from within or without. of change and modernization can anticipate rapid progress without in the mass of its population. an ingrained sense of discipline norms, is in conAgain the cultural ideal, sanctioned by religious toward women General attitudes flict and at variance with reality. in the society will have to be improved if this and their position Iranian women is to have any hope of being rectified. situation are pressing more and more themselves, despite widespread passivity, strongly for improvement in this respect.30 The Law: Legal reform in Iran since 1906 has given the supersedes country a system_of jurisprudence which almost totally the

Islamic

sharicah.

The residue

15

of

Islamic

rules

that

remains

WINTER1971

is

Local custom still plays a large part in currently under seige. issues in rural and outof disputes and judicial the settlement and installalying areas, but wherever government organization tions are present the civil and criminal codes are enforced, at processes and the outlook they These judicial least in theory. to the extent that they are actually applied, undoubtedly reflect, With the withaffect a majority of the present-day population. drawal and replacement of the sharlcah as a normative legal strucfor Iran as for all Muslim ture, the crucial question arises, as to what should replace it as the basis of ethical countries, What should the new moral imperative practice and moral conduct. be and by what sanction should it be supported? This question was answered in Iran, at least in theory, Article Two of the Fundamental Law of before it had to be asked. 1907 vested renewed moral and legal authority in the Majlis by the of the Imam of the Age and with the "favor" "favor and assistance" In order to guarantee this authority of the Shahanshah of Iran. that the the continued sanction of Islam it was further stipulated ulama and the Proofs of Islam should be represented in the National Assembly at all times by no less than five mujtahids who could "discuss and consider all matters proposed in the Assembly and wholly or in part, any such proposal which reject and repudiate, is at variance with Sacred Law of Islam." In the eyes of many contemporary Iranians the actions of subsequent parliaments and the legal legerdemain performed by Reza of their moral authority and religiShah robbed both institutions The sharlCah was no longer to be the legal ideal of ous sanction. what a true Muslim society should be. The fact that several proof one degree minent members of the early parliaments were clerics or another who aided and abetted this process gave rise to popuThe moral authority. lar disenchantment with this institution's intended safeguard of Article Two, a remarkably prescient anticiClerical ineffective. pation of things to come, proved hopelessly from the steadily in the Majlis has been declining representation sessions beginning and in fact in the nineteenth and twenty-first there were none present whatever.31 Radical of

Iran

since

changes have been effected Constitutional

times.

in the legal

New laws

structure

to cope with

problems

governments and ratiold and new are being drafted by successive Legal experts and social commenfied by parliament and the king. tators have recognized as one of the more radical of these The Family Protection Law (Qiniin-i Eiimayat-i Khanivaideh) passed by the

IRANIANSTUDIES

16

ReacMajlis on June 15, 1967 and given royal assent on June 24th. tion to the new law depended very much on previously held positions toward the current issues of modernization, social and attitudes change and religion as the ultimate moral sanction for regulating human relationships. Traditional elements of the population were and varying degrees of criticism and condemopposed on principle nation were voiced in these quarters.32 Any tampering with the residue of the sharicah that still survives in the Civil Code of Supporters of Iran could be expected to bring vocal opposition. the government and authorities responsible for the bill were quoted publicly to the effect that it was a symbol of the dawn of a new day in Iranian family life.33 Foreign observers have viewed the bill with cautious approval tineed with a strong note of skepticism that it will be fully enforced. 4 In this case the skepticism may have been misplaced at least for the present. Notaries have been served warning that licences will be cancelled in cases of failure to comply with the new law. If the new law founders, it will be more likely due to lack of adequate staff and administrative resources to apply it. 11 and By virtue of a legal subterfuge based on Articles 17 lip service is still paid to the sharicah, and thus in theory, there has been no infringement of the Fundamental Law. But the fact remains that the traditional Iranian-Muslim divorce law has been abandonded since a husband no longer has the right to divorce opinion, his wife without cause. Rather than appeasing conservative this

legal

sations

device

seems

of hypocrisy

most

likely

to result

in sharpened

accu-

and bad intentions. VI

General dissatisfaction with the wide disparity between Islamic ethical theory and normal public practice reached its to the Constitutional Revpeak in Qajar Iran and led ultimately olution of 1905-06. Developments were Eresaged by the bloodthirsty start given the new dynasty by Aghi MuhammadShah, who had sworn at his coronation to uphold the Shi'ite religion. Whether the picture of the Persian character or the generally in Hajji Baba of corrupt social climate of Qajar Iran reflected Isfahan is more or less exaggerated misses the point that it symbolized for the Persian reader the final breakdown of the ideal Islamic polity and social order in Iran. The depredations of bankrupted Nasir al-Din Shah and his courtiers, which ultimately

17

WINTER1971

convinced numbers of the country and mortgaged it to foreigners, that the time was ripe for renewal in Iranian intellectuals Miskawayh's sense of the word, viz. for a return to authentic for cultivafor adherence to its moral imperatives, religion, of a new tion of knowledge and truth, and for the establishment and just government. to the gap between moral theory Generations of witnesses and practice naturally left a strong strain of cynicism toward An early lesson of life was the formalized ethics and values. of the enormous chasm between the moral theory and recognition possiand schoolmen and the practical ideals promoted by clerics induced a This situation open to one in daily living. bilities toward society as a whole; they wanted somewhat schizoid attitude and a social an ideal conceptual scheme for a ruling institution order based on Islam even if it could not be put into practice. What is rejected today is not so much the Islamic value system itbe felt by a majority of the population to self (which may still to which it lent its but the institutions be good in principle) sanction and the compromises that it permitted with customary practices. Few foreign or Iranian observers would be anxious to deny that generally speaking the overall moral tone of Iranian society, has been disrupted and in the larger urban centers, especially This is cerfurther attenuated over the last several decades. sources and the tainly the opinion commonly voiced by traditional The reasons for considered for the worse. change is invariably by Iranians themthis decline in moral standards are attributed to various

selves

causes,

among the most

frequent

being

the modern

the genereducational system, the cinema and modern publications, ally corrupt atmosphere of the local environment, the dislocation faith, unemployment, blind of the family, the weakness of religious and the lack of self-confidence, imitation of Western civilization Whatever the cause, the deleplots of foreigners.5 exploitative deplored. terious influence of such trends on the youth is especially committee of Maktab-i Islam gathered by the editorial Statistics students, merreceived from readers of all classes, from letters chants,

laborers,

craftsmen,

clerics,

male

and female,

over

a one-

year period show that the reasons for the generally corrupt condiin Iran are believed to be as follows: tion of current publications Basic Factor 1.

Profit-seeking

IRANIANSTUDIES

of magazine publishers

18

Percentage 25

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Desire of the populace for such publications Negligence of the Censorship Board despite full powers under the Press Law and The incompetence, social irresponsibility lack of faith on the part of many such journals' publishers Blind imitation of foreign publications readers and publishers Perversity of writers, A neo-colonialist plot by foreigners Unbridled freedom given to writers and publishers36

25 20 20 3 3 2 2

Doubtless the influence of foreign standards of public The number in recent years. morality has been felt increasingly of Westerners living and working in Iran in one capacity or another is higher now than at any previous time. The examples set by such culture which people, the custodians of languages and a technical many young Iranians are endeavoring to learn, often has an attending subconscious influence on the behavior and dress patterns of But if this foreign influence has been to impressionable youth. some extent responsible for alteration in norms of public behavior, it has also, in certain cases, struck a dormant but responsive chord in the Iranian character and served merely to revive and make habits prescribed by Islamic religious more widespread traditional the case with the custom of matalak, the ethic. This is certainly increased incidence of which has been noted of late on the streets of the capital.37 There is doubltess widespread readiness to adopt attitudes and behavior patterns which are deemed to be consonant with the of modern life. Such trends have their own inner momenexigencies of prevailing tum regardless What gives many Iranians conditions. pause in their readiness to adopt the deeper more internalized is their value structure that undergirds most Western societies and their exponents have awareness of the role that these societies played and continue to play in the internal life of their country. Without the slightest trace of conscious awareness many adopt and and follow modernizing behavioral patpractice modern attitudes that these may have terns but are quite indignant at the suggestion in them as a result of foreign influence. been instilled Regardless of the merits of their case, such people resolutely reject the morality and value system of people whom they firmly believe them in the past and who are allowed to go on doing have exploited When the new government formed after the deposo in the present. sition of Mossadeq claimed that a new contract negotiated with the

19

WINTER1971

of Iranian oil was Consortium for the purchase and distribution fair and equitable and had put and end to foreign exploitation, years later suddenly debut which successor governments fifteen one cannot and unjust and press for revision, clare inequitable Moreover it is pertinent to reasonably question their position. note that many of these people are not unaware of the present unrest and ferment in most Western nations and are cognizant of the at least in most verbal pronouncements, fact that this is directed, as as much against the received value system of these societies then It is not surprising structures. against their institutional Iranians are relucthat large numbers of modern and traditional tant to openly endorse the values of modern Western society when is being called into question by the youth this very system itself of those societies.

VII The question of who should decide the shape of the new Without of Iranian society can be answered unequivocally. edifice from change has been effected doubt, institutional-organizational beginning with Reza Shah and continuing under the above by fiat, planners, technical adpresent king, with the help of ministers, Matters of policy and priorities visers and foreign aid experts. economics, land tenure and developments in education, affecting every avenue of progress will and virtually use, industrialization steps No significant elite. be decided by the present political of modernization can take place without its apin the direction proval. But as to the value

system

that

will

breathe

vitality

and

and energize its capacity for self-genmeaning into this edifice it is much less clear where the initiaeration and perpetuation, measures have been or can tive will come from and what effective at least in Western sociThe process of socialization, be taken. and anthropological sociological, includes biological, eties, of educators, factors and is the focus of interest psychological Until fairly recently there has leaders and parents. religious been a reasonable consensus among these groups as to what constiapproved habits, In Iran culturally tutes proper socialization. been inculcated and moral notions have traditionally attitudes in the primarily system this role

and a situation

IRANIANSTUDIES

of the modern state Since the beginning home. has been taken over increasingly by the schools

now exists

where official

20

attempts

at socializing

children, including morally, terns learned in the home.

are at variance

with traditional

pat-

Obviously the government, through control of education, has felt the onus of attempting to inculcate a sense of national and community of interest identity in young minds regardless of ethnic or linguistic origin. Elementary school text books in Persian have for some time emphasized the common nationality of all Iranians be they Azeri, Baluchi, Turkaman, Qashqa'i, Bakhtlyari, Arab or whatever. In this manner an attempt is made to secure the loyalty of the individual by providing him with a focus for selfdefinition that will be shared by neighbors, fellow townsmen, inhabitants of the same tribal area or province and, even beyond these limited horizons, of the capital and other provincial cities. The process of political socialization in the early formative years is handled through the presentation of short didactic pieces in elementary social studies and religious knowledge books, which stress the importance of factors such as the national unity of ai the disparate tribal, ethnic and language groups in the country, the symbols of this unified nation-state being the Shah and the royal family whose pictures appear at the front of all primary and secondary school texts and very often also in books from university presses. The same themes are taken up again and again, each time in greater detail; by far the most recurrent and obtrusive of these is the preoccupation with the historical self-image as projected through surveys of the dynastic history of Iran and anecdotes from the lives of famous figures of the past, usually religious heroes but also men of letters and reputed scientific achievement. The importance of the monarchical institution as the permanent element of political authority in the social value system can hardly be missed; the fact that this material is presented in the same books along with religious and moral instruction tends further to reinforce the connection between the moral and spiritual authority of Islam and the ruling institution.39 But the Iranian government until quite recently has clearly given only casual attention to the problem of traditional values in a modernizing society. Apart from desultory efforts to achieve the usual socialization and social control, no concerted attempts on the part of government or any of its agencies have been made to formulate principles of value in a modern society and to show how these can be internalized in people. The few sallies of limited made in this direction have served largely to reinforce efficacy popular awareness of the discontinuity between official preachments of principle and the way these are carried out in practice.

21

WINTER1971

The real dilemma of present-day Iran in the matter of the its march toward modernmoral background of the society vis-a-vis ization is the fact that the present regime purports to act in acIslam as the ofcordance with the tenets of Ithna cAshari Shi'ite and the ultimate moral sanction of the nation-state religion ficial of this posture are The disadvantages and actions. of its policies of its prorealization for the successful several and significant of value it does not acknowledge the diversity grams. Firstly, systems operating within the society according to the life-pattern The folk-memory of reof the citizen. allegiance or confessional spectrum to a factor in the attitude is still persecutions ligious The same are subject. and Christian citizens which Baha'i.Jewish placed on their reminded of the limitations are constantly citizens are beyond while high government and cabinet offices citizenship, Secondly, it ignores the fact that the institution their reach. since the Constitutional in Iran, especially religion of traditional by the younger and rejection period, has suffered a significant These elements take the view modernizing elements of the society. and its value system have been much discrereligion that official dited, chiefly as a result of the role played by its spokesmen in the return the early days of the Majlis and in helping to facilitate If not dissystem to the country. political of an authoritarian Islam is to an important extent ignored by the youth of credited, to their purposes and ambitions and the today as being irrelevant are Such attitudes style of life they want and intend to live. obviously encouraged by the external posture of the religious institution

in

the

society

today

and more importantly

by a look

at

Until recently -- when signs the condition of its inner spirit. of life have begun to appear again -- many young people have felt Islam had lost the inner the burden of the argument that Shi'ite any contact with modand dynamism necessary to establish vitality theological ernism or to reformulate and restate its traditional in terms meaningful in a modern context. and ethical positions Casual comparisons with attempts being made in other Muslim counsuch as Egypt and Pakistan, could only serve to reinforce tries, Thirdly, there is a grave lack of communication besuch ideas. estabreligious tween the modernizing elite and the traditional by The regime has sought to circumvent this difficulty lishment. training grounds and attempting to setting up its own religious has proven fruitThe last objective ones. control the traditional of a dialogue between less and not only is there now no possibility attempt to the two sides, but those who on their own initiative or subjected to relatively bridge the gap are either incarcerated precludes for This situation constant harrassment and surveillance. of achieving a greater all practical purposes the possibility

IRANIANSTUDIES

22

and a understanding of each other from which mutual recognition in cooperation on the problems of modernization common interest might be expected to arise. Fourthly, and most serious of all, is the continuing awarethat there is conscious citizens ness on the part of all socially an unbridgeable gap between the heady pronouncements of govstill and ideals and its actions ernment in terms of its social principles To give in implementing them, between its words and its deeds. as the attacks on students by only two examples, such incidents at Tehran University in January of 1963 and again on the soldiers throngs of people at the funeral rites for Takhti can hardly be good intentions. in the authorities' expected to encourage belief So long as government actions or the actions of its agents belie it proclaims, the majority of those aware will be the principles and hostile. at best cynical and more probably openly resentful experience convinces them Until such time as the general public's that there is a genuine congruency between the aims and ideals of the moral ambivalence of society at government and its actions, large will continue. VIII is loosely itself institution Islamic religious The Shi'ite of autoand informally organized in a variety of concentric circles Although there with one another. nomy overlapping and interacting (the present incumis a titular head to this amorphous structure bent having been banished by the regime several years ago), there is no formally constituted counterpart to the Church Council, Diocesan Board or General Convention, to which one might refer in reliof the traditional "official" positions order to ascertain a fairly high moral or otherwise. Nevertheless gious institution, degree of consensus and doctrinal uniformity does obtain from this centers and to see in certain religious system and it is possible in certain clerical personages foci of authority recognized by a In Iran itself the main center majority of active communicants. guidance and authority to which most believers look for spiritual is the city of Qum. Here is where many important mujtahids and the teach, write and publish. majority of the ulama reside, lications

of the views of orthodoxy, among many pubRepresentative issued regularly from various printing houses in Qum, is

23

WINTER1971

the journal Maktab-i Isl9m,40 which first appeared in 1958 (Azar 1337) and was %ubsequently issued monthly until, by recent report, one may expect to find therefore, early in 1969. 1 Fortuitously, reflected

in

its

pages,

among other

matters,

a record

of quasi-

on prevalent conditions and circumattitudes religious official stances in the society and certain major events in recent Iranian history -- a record coinciding with the period of rapidly accelerIt may be and general social unrest. ating change, value conflict to efforts example of religious taken as a typical authoritative on all levels on moral principles positions propound "official" or through commentary on current events, in a forum either directly reaching beyond the range of the mosque sermon or the inspirational to this exchanges of the anjumans. The majority of contributors of various ranks, a few are lay Muslims forum are ordained clerics leaders and all Editorials, training. with some theological Some appreciation board. are by the editorial unsigned articles of the role of this journal as it is envisaged by the editorship may be gleaned from the following statement of purpose: If you glance back two or three centuries and compare the world of those days with the world of today, carefully that in this short space of time astoundyou will realize have taken place in all facets of human ing transformations which would have been exceedingly transformations life, even to conceive of in the past. difficult It is perhaps unnecessary to note that the prime source that of this momentous transformation was the revolution thus creating vast difoccured in the world of industry, ferences in living conditions between the world of today and The closer one comes to the center of that of the past. are the more these differences revolution, this industrial felt. The present mode of life has removed all the former and replace them with unaccountable checks and restraints and unlimited freedom. of life have displaced On the other hand, new modalities created a feeling of has naturally the old; this situation aversion for all aspects of the forpessimism and particular and moral principles. beliefs mer life, religious especially Coincident with these developments we see that various have been put within reach of the gendegrading facilities eral public, and unchecked waves of lust which officially recognize no limit, boundary or law have been set in motion.

IRANIANSTUDIES

24

The combination of these causes has set loose a terand has encouraged rible flood of atheism and moral turpitude, to tear all ethical principles, some to reject entirely up the roots of faith and belief at one blow and to throw moral and spiritual treasures to the wind the priceless which are the result of several thousand years of effort on the part of men of God to tutor mankind..... There is no doubt that numerous hands and a variety of other factors have aided and abetted this situation, but that's another story .... from profligacy For all these reasons, an astonishing the moral point of view has prevailed in the society and as a consequence has borne the fruit of daily increasing outcome of this corruption -- the certain and inevitable moral upheaval. tyranny and oppression, Treachery and insouciance, and financial various criminal, pessimism and suspicion, and thousands of other misforpersonal transgressions, tunes we need not mention -- all the unfortunate result moral situation..... of this disaster-laden We believe that in order to cure all these ills and with the spirit of materialism that do away particularly pall on thinking and given rise has cast an inauspicious to all these misfortunes, it is necessary that the principles of faith and ethics come to life in the society and that the guiding precepts of the great prophets and the exalted rulings of the men of wisdom, particularly and peace be upon him!), Prophet of Islam (God's blessing which are in fact the most universal and comprehensive be really and truly implemented, rules for the happy life, and not merely for appearances and amusement, so that people will acquire moral character under their guiding light, of and that the spirit of reverence for God and feelings be awakened, and, in automatic personal responsibility fashion,

combat

all

...

corruption

this

is

the

only

way ...

there can be no doubt..... that comes from God Almighty, With the inspiration to this journal want, each according to the contributors to acquaint Muslims with the more sensitive his ability, points in the teachings of Islam, to reclaim those who

25

WINTER1971

to Islam, to introhave drifted away, to guide foreigners treasurers of Islam to the extent duce the scientific that such a publication may permit, and to defend the fundamental principles of Islamic legislation..... God is our support and our purpose is to lead society in his direction.42 specifically Clearly then this magazine came into existence in response to the current moral quandary which Iranian society religious faces, and it testifies to some awareness in official of the existence circles of social problems created by changing to conclude that the purtimes. Subjectively it would be logical many young Iranians topose as stated will very likely not satisfy day that might chance upon it. Those not acquainted with the Iranian milieu -- those foreigners the magazine hopes to introduce Islam to -- may well wonder what dark meanings lie behind the cryptic

allusions

of

the

seventh

paragraph.

The temptation

to dismiss

even the statement as naive in the extreme should be resisted, though it appears to ignore the fundamental question of motivation. How does one persuade a significant number of contemporary Iranian young people to take this journal in hand and read it through? Can Will its subthey be made aware of its existence on a wide scale? stance convince them it has the key to their future? Without prejudice to the rights of this generation to answer for themselves, there seems little room for optimism that the journal the contemporary moral will ever have much effect in influencing Its circulation scene. figures were in the one to two thousand copies range and the first several volumes are now all but unobtainable. Each issue normally contained at least one and sometimes two on ethical and moral subjects for the edification or three articles of the reader, normally under such headings as tarbiyat va takamul (training and development) or dars-i zendegi (lesson for life). too articles Islamic position Occasionally giving the traditional on current

social

issues

can be found,

especially

in economics

(iqti$ad dar maktab-i Islam - economics according to Islam - Vol. 1, No. 12) and in law (Iuqgq-i Islami - Islamic law; baz ham sar-o alag - once again the clamor over divorce - Vol. 1, Nos. geda-yi It is most unlikely that the dogmatic, hortatory and tho7, 12). will preroughly traditional tone of the majority of these articles sent much of an attraction to modern urban youth, despite the editorial claims that it has come to rank among "the greatest religious journals of the Islamic world" (8:1, p. 1).

IRANIANSTUDIES

26

Ix stemming from moral abuses in Iranian Social criticism but the trend society has yet to strike deep roots in literature Concern for the is growing despite censorship. in this direction espousal of modernization and industrial consequences of all-out development in the social and psychic spheres was given its classic This essay appeared first statement in Al A,hmad's Gharbzade.43 -- a fact in 1962 and was quickly proscribed by the authorities to do with its success among students and intellecthat had little Essentially the work sounds a warning -- not without exagtuals. of hisdangers for the dissolution geration - of the potential and torical of ceptance indirectly, on the part a threaten

acimplicit in the uncritical sensibilities cultural and Secondarily (p. 8 et passim). Western technology and attitudes of those policies it is an indictment which and private, official of groups and individuals, values. to Western material complete sellout

the The fact is that so long as we have not understood but basic quality of Western civilization and philosophy the like we are exactly appearance, only mimic its surface up like a lion -- and we all know his donkey who dressed that so long as we remain only confate.... It's obvious to continue sumers and not producers of machinery, we will to note here be prepossessed by the West, and it is ironic we in our turn ourselves, that as soon as we become producers like exactly will become possessed by those very machines, of forces the relentless the West whose protests against are even now being voiced and technology (pp. 7-8). machinery the historical Having enumerated and servile attitude ment of an envious in the area its consequences describes

factors for the toward the West, of values.

developthe author

a strange and imitating people, Now we are affecting which has no deep tradition and a culture an unfamiliar of our country and will environment roots in the physical Our daily there. not develop life, politics, naturally

and literally all our undertakings are aboreducation, Who are we, indeed? Some ninteen to twenty tive . perseventy-five million remnants of the human species, cent of whom live in villages or in tents -- with customs to left over from the beginning of creation -- oblivious the new system of values -- obliged to adhere to the

27

WINTER1971

of master and servant -- never having seen traditions fuel and food, clothing, machinery - with tools, The only two things from housing all of a primeaval sort. are the Western world that have influenced these villagers radio, service and the transistor (compulsory) military both of which are more noxious than dynamite (p. 43). Wholesale espousal of Western material culture and techhas resulted in an internal war nology by the Iranian authorities it generates affect both vilThe conflicts of opposing forces.44 disa totally alike, producing ultimately lager and city-dweller of opposites is most The conflict oriented and chaotic society. between the peasserious and dangerous in its effect on relations antry and the clergy, on the one hand, and the government on the To resolve these conflicts and restore a measure of balance other. of modern Al A1mad proposed accepting the inevitability to society, on the necessity of breaking the spell of technology but insisted This in turn would require a new spirit fear and awe towards it. and ethics in literature of philosophy, of curiosity, a restoration greater measure to the curriculum of the high schools and colleges and a greater degree of freedom and independence from the influence The of foreign manufacturers on the part of national governments. intellectuals (1) national leaders, of the piece are: villians bewitched by the West and who are thus and scholars who are totally and religious clerics (2) tradition-oriented false-modernizers, and (3) forleaders who stress outmoded customs and superstitions, and their governments, including their Eastern eign capitalists experts and Orientalists. Iranian society is presently in the grip of the conflict "Thus we can see that our time is a time of intenof opposites. " (p. 110). In such circumstances of social differences sification leadership is "to help and political the obligation of educational between the generations, and conflicts make clear the differences to between ways of thinking, and especially between the classes, assist in breaking down the wall of every obstacle that has inhicenter of the state" and leadership bited the decision-making What the society needs is not only men who are special(p. 110). ists in the modern sciences but men of character (bashakheiyyat) system The question is whether the present educational as well. can provide

such

IRANIANSTUDIES

people.

Al Ahmad himself

28

was very

pessimistic.

x

the dilemma of contemThe fate of Gharbzadegi illustrates porary Iranians who are aware of an acute sense of moral drift in It cannot be bought nor discussed openly and freely. their society. All serious attempts to air these problems without prejudice are One of the most eventually suppressed or proscribed by censorship. forums for the exchange of views on interesting and provocative Iran, a monthly review of Iranian problems these matters, MasVil-i The journals Blmshad has ceased to appear.45 and social studies, two years ago by order of the security and Khusheh were discontinued of social and moral issues and criOpen discussion organization. ticism of public policy cannot take place in the present political have either had to seek climate. As so often in the past, critics refuge abroad and publish their views there, or, if they chose to and metaphors not remain, to cloak their opinions in allusions is vividly exThe situation easily understood even by censors. pressed by these lines from a recent poem: Truly is it not a grave injustice That suddenly everywhere they divest The nightingale of his musical credentials?46 the moral ambivalence of the sociUnder present conditions Secularism ety is likely to continue and become more exacerbated. faciis advancing steadily with the spread of present educational No one lities and the heavy stress on science and technology. taking place expects a society facing the kind of change presently in Iran to be able to maintain a stable value structure and a and disbalanced moral climate. Even so the present dislocation and is bound to inhibit the society's proequilibrium is excessive The kinds of social inequities gress on the path of modernization. in a modernizing framework due to the obtrusive inthat persist those which the new values are precisely fluence of traditional peoteachers and professional class of technicians, bureaucrats, Such people are not likely ple will want to question and solve. to consider the political spectrum exempt segment of the ideological Unless the new ideals and values from scrutiny and criticism. can be demonstrated in actions, circles proclaimed by official and practice can be narrowed someunless the gap between principle the what, it is this group which will take the lead in questioning and capacity of the present system to manage tensions effectively If of value. to distribute according to the new criteria justice in the new value is accepted and internalized change as a principle 29

WINTER1971

structure, it is not reasonable to expect the political system to be considered immune. Where those attempts to discuss the whole problem of changing values in a changing society, from whatever angle, are stifled or prohibited, where no forum for discussion and exchange of views on these implications of social change exists, tension and dislocation are bound to increase and the process of modernization curtailed accordingly. NOTES 1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11. 12.

13.

Abdol-Hosein Zarrinkoob, Du Qarn Sokut (Tehran, 1344/1965). and The tendency to explain away negative moral attitudes factors is as being the result of historical characteristics In Iran some of the negative qualities still given currency. addictreated thus are: mendacity, exaggerated politeness, fear of the changeability, exhibitionism, tion to flattery, strong and oppression of the weak. See, Sacid Shaml-u, "Are IrBn, Vol. III, Nos. 6-7 Iranians Neurotic?" in Masa'il-i (Ordibehesht 1343/April 1964), pp. 295-96. S.H. al-Shamma, The Ethical System Underlying the Qur'an (Tubingen, 1959). M.A. Draz, La Morale du Coran (Cairo, 1954). M. Abdul-Haq Ansari, The Ethical Philosophy of Miskawaih pp. 11, 17. (Aligarh,*1964), Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, ed. by Zurayq (Beirut, 1966), pp. 126, 129, 131, 145. p. 137. Anqari, op. cit., A.K.S. Lambton, "Justice in the Medieval Persian Theory of Kingship," Studia Islamica, Vol. XVI (1962), pp. 92f. Ibid., p. 96. The last group could be subdivided into peasants, artisans L'Iran sous les Sassanides, A. Christensen, and small traders. 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1944), pp. 97-113, quoted in W. Montgomery Watt, Islam and the Integiration of Society (London 1961), p. 116, n. 3. Lambton, loc. cit. For a contemporary account of some aspects of folk Islam in these and other areas see, Brian J. Spooner, "The Function of Iran, Vol. 1 (1963), pp. 83-95, Religion an Persian Society," and comment thereon by Jalal Al Alhmad, ArzyabT-yi Shitabzadeh: Hiidah Maqileh (Tehran, 1344), pp. 191-96. on the level of local custom is a further Regional diversity of values and value substrucof this multiplicity reflection Cf. Jalil Xl Ahmad, Nafrin-i tures in contemporary Iran.

IRANIAN STUDIES

30

pp. 12. In the matter of social struca contemporary Iranian writer has provid-

Zamin (Tehran, 1336), ture and social class

to the theoretical formulations perspective ed an alternative traditional Iranian by interpreting al-Tusi of Nastr al-Din relationinterpersonal society in terms of its predominant -- within the and independent submissive ships -- dominant, and the urban, argricultural ways of life, three parallel Iranian describes the same writer tribal. On the moral level in the sense that the behavas being "multi-ethical" society or "wrong" "right" was considered ior of any given individual held by the group to which he belonged. in terms of the values Its characIranian Society: "Traditional See, Reza Arasteh, Review (April, The Islamic Pattern," and Educational teristics

1962), of

The description

May-June 1962, pp. 21-24.

pp. 10-13,

tribal

very

corresponds

conditions

to the

closely

evidence

furnished by the Qashqa'i chief Bahman Bahman-Beygi in cUrf-o French tranFars (Tehran, 1324/1945). cAdat dar cAsha'ir-i in Vincent Monteil, Les Tribus du Fars (Paris, 1966), slation pp. 97-152. 14.

For a detailed

15.

in Iran, see, Amin Banani, The Modernization (Stanford, 1961). "The Iranian Intelligentsia: James A. Bill,

16.

17.

18. 19.

account

of modernization

and this

type

of Iran,

of

Class and Change"

pp. 139-75. 1968), University, Princeton (Ph.D. Thesis, and Scope of the Social "The Character Manfred Halpern, Revolution: lution in Development in the Middle East," - The Middle East - South Asia ed. by W.R. Polk Africa

(Washington, 1963), p. 14. This is the diagnosis of many recent

change

1921-41

observers

RevoNorth

regardless

of

Iran (New Contemporary See, Donald Wilber, vantage point. 18:1 p. 34; Amin Banani, Middle East Journal, York, 1963), Iran, Masa'il-i 1964), p. 115; Ahmad Fatta ipur, (Winter, 1965), pp. 451344/July and Ordibehesht III; 2-3 (Farvardin 49. and Social Awakening in Iran (Leiden, Reza Arasteh, Education 1962), p. 6. of that this was the only principle It is not being suggested In theory everyknown in Islam or Islamic education. learning the prinand discover the facts one was free to investigate

ciples religion

method

(usil

is usually

Indeed it

they reveal.

obligatory

of learning

al-din)

about

according

considered

the major

to Shi'ite

principles

authorities.

the of

But

Muslims was to the custom of the mass of Shi'ite in practice and of their the fundamentals religion by catechism acquire and of the particular (furilc al-din) in respect requirements

31

WINTER 1971

20. 21. 22.

23.

24.

of Islam, to follow the mujtahid of the laws and regulations their choice, preferably a living one. Maktab-i IslEm, Vol. III, No. 3 (28) (Ordibehesht 1340), p. 60. Vaqt-i galgt is performed in unison so that there is no need changing the text. or unconsciously to worry about forgetting of this type of teaching of the persistence For recognition in the second half of the and learning and its obsolescence Iran, twentieth century, see, Ah.madFattahipur, MasVil-i Vol. III, No. 1 (Esfand 1343/February 1965), p. 5. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the majority of contemalong with the bureaucracy and students, porary university of themselves the conservatives constitute old guard faculty, structure and the major barrier to improvement the university see, A.S. For a popular report on this situation and change. June 15, 1969. p. 4. Bakhkhash, Keyhan International, Obviously this is not the only factor in the Iranian student's shortage of time, lack of adeanxiety about these matters: foreign language often unrealistic quate study facilities, pressure, and volume of work, are all financial requirements, But when it is said, as it frequently part of the picture. What shall I do I'm very uneasy. is, "My studies are hard. if I don't succeed?" students often mean, without perhaps it, that they are not used to thinking critically realizing of their studies as about the subject-matter or analytically on examrequired to do, particularly they are increasingly bitter when examinations Protests are especially inations. turn up questions which do not pertain exactly to work covered and modern standards exist side Where traditional in class. facilities the case in higher educational by side, as is still in Iran today, the new demands of the latter standard and the it raises in the student lead some of them to expectations lack the old standard for its imphasis on "lectures, criticize See, Lawrence M. and practical application." of discussion Students," Middle Brinner, "Problems of Iranian University East Journal, 18:4 (Autumn 1964), p. 466. of physical environment, social values, The interdependence and the need for a natural education and the economic life, econoIranian harmony among them, is a com,mon theme in recent dar cAmil-i Insani mic commentary. See, ManUchehr Tehrani, 1345/1966), (Tehran, Iran, pp. 295f; Matm7ud Sana'i, Iqtis8d-i

25.

in Mas'il-i Iran, OtZ-i Majalleh-yi (Tir 1345), p. 57. Wilbert E. Moore, 1963), p 93. For

IRANIAN STUDIES

Vol II, No. 2, pp. 62074; Reza cUlUmi, in Sanlyec va Macadin-i Iran, Vol. IV, No. 19 New Jersey, Social Change (Englewood Cliffs, management this and other irrational

32

26.

to the position of the worker in Iran, procedures relating see, E1san NarNghT, "The Meaning and Scope of Research on a paper prepared for the ConferContemporary Iranian Society," ence on "Iran in the 1960s: A Consideration of the Position Middle East Institute, Columbia University, and Prospects," Center for Iranian Studies, November 6-9, 1968. p. 23. of the years 1958-64 had the character "The economic crisis and aspects of attitudes of a dispute between contradictory ideas which had been ascendant during the previous years.... of development was The behavior of the state as the initiator mores, which remained with its administrative in contradiction traditionalist

....

The behavior

of

the

entrepreneurs

has

culture, linked with the traditional often characteristics and among the young there are many who have only transplanted Naraghi, into new fields of activities." the old attitudes of the same phenomena For a discussion pp. 29-30. op. cit., in Arab countries see, Yusif A. Sayigh, "Cultural problems and the Economic Development of the Arab World," in Religion and Progress in Modern Asia, ed. by R.N. Bellah, (New York, 1965), pp. 67f. failure of Iran to keep pace with other The relative such as Turkey, in economic advancement developing countries, explained, is variously and early sixties during the fifties but most observers stress the central role of national psychobehavioral norms and their tradicharacteristics, logical Several devices have been suggested tional value sanctions. behavior patterns and for breaking the hold of traditional modes so as to promote and encourage factors of psychological which are typical of "achievement" and "other-directedness," At least one of these -that develop more rapidly. societies the formation of a youth corps to get young men away from their and to create in them home influences fathers and traditional goals of high achievement -- was implemented in nationalistic See, David C. McClelland, Iran shortly after it was proposed. "National Character and Economic Growth in Turkey and Iran," Development, ed. by Lucian Pye in Communications and Political 1963). pp. 152-81. (Princeton, of Islam (London, 27. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ideals and Realities 1966), p. 113. Iranian fathers obvion the part of traditional 28. This attitude but it is wellously cannot be demonstrated empirically, in writing to suggest its incidence was fairly enough attested when a modern-day It is especially significant widespread. See, Sayyid Reza Sadr, will admit freely to it. traditionalist pp. 223, 225. Zan va Azadi (Qum, Dar al-Fikr 1343/1965),

33

WINTER 1971

29.

30.

31. 32.

33.

34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40.

The spoiled child is less often a girl, and then usually an only child. For the social consequences of spoiled upbringing and its relation to the Iranian scene, see, MuhammadHasan N?ir alDiDn Uahib al-Zamani, Kitab-i Rut-i Bashar, 3rd printing, (Tehran, 1343), pp. 130-32. Action in this direction began at least as long ago as 1932 See the and has continued to gather momentumever since. resolutions passed by the Oriental Feminine Congress held in Tehran that year as reported in Reza Arasteh, "The Struggle for Equality in Iran," Middle East Journal, 18:2, p. 195. Zohreh Shaji'T, Nemayandegln-i Majlis-i ShUrl-yi Milli dar pp. 180, Bist-o yek Dawreh-yi QanUngozari (Tehran, 1334/1965), 267. This statement is based on evidence gathered from the testimony of several respondents--students, lawyers, notaries and clerics, interviewed in the months of July and August, 1967. One writcritical. It is ten deposition from a notary was particularly from the worth noting that the bill also came in for criticism claimed that the presnon-traditional sector. Some critics social change in Iran sures exerted by rapid and extensive demand a more radical and comprehensive divorce reform and step in the family protection law. The bill was a progressive right direction, but it did not go far enough and was not based on adequate study and research. It needed much more public scrutiny and debate, and radical amendment to give it For this and other criticisms, social impact. see, significant "Family Code: only a half measure," by Shapour Rahbarl, Keyhan International, July 1967. Keyhan International, June 17, 1967. p. 2. Cf. Dr. Vali Allah "Laye14eh-yi llimayat-i KhEnivldeh" (The Family Tabitabi'i, Tran, Vol. IV, No. 8 (Farvardin Protection Law), Masa'il-i 1346 - March 1967), pp. 30-33. "The Iranian Family Protection Act," The Doreen Hinchcliffe, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 17:2 (April 1968), pp. 516-21. 12 (Dey 1339), pp. 66-67. Maktab-i Islam, II: 12 (Bahman 1340), p. 63. Ibid., III: Keyhan, 24 Mehr 1346, p. 10. Cf. Reza DorUdryln, "The Problem of Securing National Unity," MasV'il-i Iran, IV: 4 (Azar 1345/November 1966), pp. 69-73. See, for example, the series Tacdlmati-i Ijtimacl va Din! mizesh (Tehran: Sazman-i Kitabha-yi Darsi-yi Iran, Vizarat-i va Parvaresh, 1346/1967), for the second, third and fourth years of the primary school. is Darshi'i az Maktab-i Islam -- Maihnimeh- i The full title

IRANIAN STUDIES

34

frorq the School of Islam - A Scientific

CIlmI va Dini (Lessons and Religtous

41. 42. 43. 44.

45. 46.

.ikmat Press.

Monthly),

This journal was again on the newsstands (Issue No. 129). Vol. 1, No. 1 (Azar 1337), pp. 2-5.

in the summer of 1970

116 pp.) (Tehran: no publisher indicated, 1341/1962, The tragi-comic results of uncritical and indiscriminate of Western criteria cation and methods in education are described by ?amad-i Behrangi, Kand-o Kav dar Masa'il-i TarbiyatT-ye

Iran,

This

journal

too

III,

Nos.

Aresh,

II:

4-5,

(Tehran, was

Tir 2

(Esfand

back and

on

n.d.),

pp.

the

stands

Mordad 1346),

1349/July p.

35

5-22,

et

in

summer

and

August

appli-

passim. 1970

(Vol.

1970).

86.

WINTER 1971

CHANGEAND ECONOMIC ECONOMIC RESILIENCYIN 19TH CENTURYPERSIA ROBERTA. McDANIEL

The history of Iran in the years just before World War I is dominated by a general institutional crisis called the Persian Constitutional Revolution. Although the narrative line most often followed through those years is a sequence of political and military encounters, the revolution was in fact a systemic crisis which affected nearly all of the institutions that contained the Persian people. Like all revolutions, however, it had its own idea of what it was up to; in fact, it had several. In commonwith other that to be self-evident modern revolutions, it held the principle through the revolution a new freedom was being created and a corrupt tyranny destroyed. Such views were, of course,rationales not of history, but like the latter they extended backinterpretations In ward in time to describe the period before the revolution. themselves short, they explained not only what the revolutionaries were doing, but what much of the history of Qajar Persia amounted to. Few of these explanations of Persia in the nineteenth century have been throughly examined, although they continue to color even view the most recent writing on the Qajar period. The particular which will concern us here is one which had become common among It is the view the Persians by the end of the nineteenth century. that in the Qajar period and particularly during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah, Persia was a kind of economic wasteland, sucked dry by a corrupt political system and foreign exploitation. Persia did have her problems during those years, and they were big ones,

Robert A. McDaniel is Assistant University.

Professor

IRANIAN STUDIES

36

of History

at Purdue

but by and large the Persians in dealing with them.1

proved themselves

remarkably flexible

The economic problems which beset Persia in the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah (1848-96) were one aspect of the world-wide context in which Persia found herself in the last half of the nineteenth century. economy The development of what has been called an international after 1850 caused major adjustments in the internal economies of Things went especially and Persia was no exception. most nations, was hard for countries like Persia in which economic specialization That complex economic phenomenon confuslimited. still relatively ingly called the Great Depression brought a steady lowering of the to pay Persia for her produce prices which other nations were willing Since Persia derived in the years from 1873 to the mid-1890s. nearly all her foreign exchange from the export of agricultural areas produce she was just as severely affected as the agricultural At the same time, of Europe which also suffered during those years. Persian export trade was brought into competition with that of every other country of the world by advances in transport technology, by the opening of the Suez Canal, and by the railroads that followed The price of wheat on the the Russian advance into Central Asia. world market fell from $1.50 a bushel in 1871 to a low of $0.23 a bushel in 1894, so that the amount of exchange the Persians derived had they not greatly from its export would have declined steadily While the amount of wheat increased the amount they exported. exported from Bushire between 1869 and 1894 increased as much as eight times, the value of the wheat in terms of the exchange derived remained almost the same.2 Every facet of Iranian economic life had to adjust to these Persian currency fluctuated widely as the changing conditions. and the government responded by value of its silver base altered, an attempt to systematize coinage and by revising taxes upward. In taxes in Gilan, for example, the government completely reassessed The reassessment there was 1884 for the first time in a century. in part

precipitated

by special

Gilan began to fall after 1865. taxes and their upward revision, standard fell.3 Gilan: 1866-67

179,137

1874-75 1892-93

158,500 202,100

conditions.

Yet despite their value

The silk

crop

of

the redistribution against the world

of

Land Tax tumans " "

37

77,885 pounds 63,400 53,200

"

"

WINTER1971

In Khorasan the picture is similar, although there the special to the silk crop did not affect the taxes in conditions relating the intervening years.4 Total 1867-68 1892-93

tax revenues-Khorasan

227,000 739,588

tumans "

550,000 pounds 203,997 "

Changes in Persia's economic position vis-a-vis the rest of the world need not have affected her internal price structure, although one would expect that they would and, indeed, they seem to have done so. For example, the price of wheat in Tabriz moved as follows:5 Tabriz: 1858 1871 1894

Wheat Prices 5 tumans " 13.8 13.8 "

per 1,000 lbs. 2 pounds lOs Od 6 pounds Os Od 2 pounds 15s 5d

Although this seems to show the price of wheat remaining at the same level for the last quarter of the century, it did not. The figures for 1871 show the effect of a drought which had devastating consequences for the region for four years. In good years the price sometimes dropped to nearly the level of the 1850s. Yet by the 1890s the ordinary price of wheat was nearly that of the starvation years of the early '70s, while salaries lagged behind.6 It is not clear why internal prices were going up in the face of declining world prices, but one might speculate that (aside from income distribution problems) the receipts of foreign exchange were declining more rapidly than their expenditure so that the exchange rate was falling. This raised the price of imported goods along with major export items (such as wheat) and caused a decline in real wages. Whatever the cause, Tabriz was particularly hard hit. Changes in the flow of goods across Persia in the last years of the nineteenth century led to its economic debilitation. Goods, for example, which had once moved from Khorasan to Tabriz and out through the northwest to the Turkish port of Trabzond, were by the 1880s moving into southern Russia or out of southern Persia to be shipped to Europe by way of the Suez Canal. Yet, despite the increased use of the ports at the head of the Persian Gulf and the growth of trade on the inland routes that supported those ports, southern Persia was also hurt by what appear to be currency and exchange problems. By 189394, when there were bread riots in Shiraz, the merchants of Khuzistan

IRANIANSTUDIES

38

could ship their wheat down the gulf for a surer profit than they And a government embargo could ship over the mountains to Fars. did not deter them. Nor did it deter the merchants of Khorasan who in the same years sent their camel loads of wheat across the Russian border to the new Russian railheads in Central Asia.7 The problem of the value of Persian currency and its relationship to international exchange standards was much discussed in the The currency of Persia was last years of the nineteenth century. depreciating and, although the government made several attempts to Foreign merchants seem to susstabilize it, the trend continued. pect that it had something to do with the general moral degeneracy of the Persians, It and they complained about it a great deal. if not impossible, they made doing business with Persia difficult claimed, but that did not keep them from doing more and more of it. for foreign The depreciation of currency did make things difficult merchants. Part of the problem arose from the way in which transbetween the wholeactions took place. In general, transactions relied on long credits, i.e., a partial saler and the retailer payment by the retailer and a credit by the wholesaler of up to When the retailer paid, he received several years on the balance. a rebate on the price of the goods, thus accounting for changes in the price of the goods, but not the money. It was thus especially important for the trader to find trade goods into which to convert for the return trip to his own country. his own Persian profits is, for that matter-Aside from the fact that it was -- and still bad business to cart money from one country to another, banking systems which would allow the transfer of credits out of Persia until the last decade of the century. did not function effectively The international merchant did find the necessary goods into which In fact, that for transfer out of Persia. to convert his profits is one reason they expanded their trade with Persia across the last The goods were, of course, the traditional half of the century. Because of produce. produce, or at least part of that traditional to the the depreciation of Persian money, they were now available in order trader very cheaply and he sought them out systematically to balance his books. Before considering how he did so, however, there are several other adjustments in the economic life of the One of them is the problem of country which ought to be mentioned. silk. Silk had been a major industry in the north of Persia before the 1860s, but by 1864 the silkworm disease which had affected silk In the early production everywhere in the world invaded Gilan. sixties Persia exported more than 20,000 bales of silk a year, but by the end of the decade she was sending out hardly more than five

39

WINTER1971

or six thousand bales of low quality. The Persian government (in the person of officials whose incomes were affected) and the British consul at Rasht tried to introduce Pasteur's methods for the colof the graine (silkworm eggs), but with only lection and protection moderate success. The Gilaki peasants' standards of hygiene were not those of Louis Pasteur, and year after year the disease blighted the crop. Yet by pure dogged persistence the peasants managed to raise the production in good years to nearly half that of the good old days, even though the quality remained low. After 1889 the Persian silk industry revived as foreign capitalists undertook to do what no Persian official or altruistic British Consul could have done, that is, to keep tight control over the collection and distribution of graine.9 If northern Persia ended the sixties with a slackening of the staple silk industry, the years from 1869 to 1872 were years of disaster for most of Persia. Rainfall was light over the entire country and in some places it did not rain at all for five years. For the peasant that meant starvation; for the towns, political discontent; and for the economy in general, a steady outflow of silver in order to buy on the world market what was not being produced at home. Some of the tribes of the south were so devastated that they did not recover their population or get their flocks built back up to normal until the end of the century. Considering the disadvantageous position from which Persia began the last quarter of the century, it is amazing indeed that the country remained relatively stable until the end of the century and that it even showed some signs

of economic

resilience.10

The reasons

for

that

resilience

would seem to lie in the currency changes mentioned above, in and in the activichanges in the structure of the economy itself, ties of the Persian government, which was most keen to act where its

own interests,

that

is,

income,

were

involved.

areas of growth and change which must be further

It

is

these

examined.

It has been noted that there was a steady increase in the volume of the export of some Persian goods. The increase nearly made up for the decrease in the value of those goods, and as has The real been noted above, is not an unexpected development. question is where did those exports come from? Greater production of the means is one answer. Another is the steady systematization for collecting and the industrial both the agricultural goods for In agriculture, export. the peasant was more tightly squeezed The longeither by the tax collector or the landlord, or both. range effect of this pressure was to cause a steady accumulation of the land in the hands of the powerful. Although there are no

IRANIANSTUDIES

40

detailed studies of this phenomenon, the general trend of the period seems to indicate that the peasant proprietor could less and less The "friend" was stand on his own. Re needed a friend at court. influence and used that influence usually a man who had political to extend his landholdings which he had probably acquired in the In the past it influence. first place as a result of his political power was to say that the basis of political has been fashionable It is becoming more and more apparent that, the basis landholding. power -- not the other way around. for landholding was political Not all landlords were evil men who beat their peasants, but accumulators of crops which could be sold most were fairly effective for cash. They were met more than halfway by the "accumulators" of were all over Khorasan Russian grain speculators the outside world. These men were also at harvest time to buy wheat and other crops. tons of seed throughout who distributed often cotton speculators would the province with only the guarantee that the recipient deliver his crop to the speculator within a month after the harvest in the north of Persia These Russian activities at the market price. Russian supported by the Russian government. were enthusiastically knew as dogma that basic precept of the imperial mind: politicians like their fellows in Russian politicians, the flag follows trade. Western Europe, were not notable for their grasp of economics. The Russians were not the only ones to seek out the products Nor was the and industry at their source. of Persian agriculture show the Other activities open support of a government necessary. The silk buyers of European firms who had disappeared same pattern. from Rasht in 1871 reappeared there after 1890. European firms set of Persian carpets. collection for the systematic up organizations which, of European capital and organization It was this injection That is in fact, created Persian carpetmaking an export industry. not to say that the Persians have not been making their carpets for It is to say that nearly as long as there have been Persians. to Europe, began in European firms, seeking to return their profits notably the industry in several localities, the 1870s to systematize There were forty looms in Sultanabad in the 1870s; by Sultanabad. the 1890s there were nearly 3,000 in the city and its immediate By that time the system operated as a kind of urban vicinity.11 system, with local craftsmen picking up materials from putting-out the central warehouse of one of several European companies and returning the finished rug to the company's purchasers at the wareThe long-range effect was not only to provide ready cash house. quality for the growth of a native industry, but also to institute There was more than the much-discussed matter of dyes. control.

41

WINTER1971

It did not take the Persian weaver That soon took care of itself. that bad dyes brought bad prices. There were rather long to realize the more important matters of the quality of the weaving, the designs Persian carpet sizes differed used, and the size of the carpets. from Western needs and Persian concepts of Western tastes could and Odd sizes and pictures of did produce some very strange carpets. out and the entire business of knights in armor were soon filtered manufacturing carpets in Persia was oriented on the needs of the By the end Western market before the last decade of the century. of carpets of good and fairly quantities of the century increasing uniform quality were being sent to the growing markets of Europe and America. They greatly helped to balance the flow of exchange. It helped The growth of the carpet industry was fortuitous. that took place the de-industrialization in part to counterbalance in those areas of the economy which came into direct competition with imports from the West. Handlooming died in Persia in the last half of the nineteenth century, as it did elsewhere in the nonto absorb the Western world, and there were few other industries There is no evidence that workers migrated directly work force. from one endeavor to the other, but the general pressure was Had it not been for the growth of somewhat relieved. certainly of the economy to absorb the work force carpetmaking, the ability in handlooming would have been no longer able to support itself less. considerably Industry represented only a small part of the Persian economy, however, and as one might expect the greatest adjustment to the changes in the world economy took place in the area of greatest There, a whole host of adjustendeavor, that is, in agriculture. ments took place which were designed to give both the peasant and There are two major changes in this the landlord a better return. One of these was the widespread area which should be mentioned. By the 1890s the "American" of cotton. of new varieties introduction variety was becoming the standard variety in Khorasan. It produced it replaced and several times more cotton than the native varieties not only was there more cotton As a result, its staple was longer. of Russia but it was more saleable. to sell to the growing industries in introducing the seed The agency which was largely instrumental He traveled in north Persia was the Russian commercial speculator. the seed on contract to the peasant or landlord. and distributed The seed was given free Nor were the terms of the contract onerous. He simply guaranteed that he would deliver the crop to the grower. to the speculator at the market price within a month after the The market price was There were angles, of course. harvest.

IRANIANSTUDIES

42

through depressed at harvest time and if the seed was distributed a landlord, he could claim the return on the free seed as one of the But no matter how the process portions owing him from his peasants. the fact remains that Persian agriculture responded is qualified, to the combination of growing Russian immediately and positively networks, new seed technology and curindustry and transportation (see note 7). In 1896 Persian cotton rency and tarrif differentials sold in Russia for nearly two rubles per pud (unit of 36 lbs.) less The response than American cotton and a ruble less than Russian. was so vigorous that there was some concern in Khorasan that cotton cultivation was completely replacing grain and that in a bad year Khorasan would starve.12 The most significant new crop to be introduced into Persia's export trade was opium. Opium was not a new product to the Persians, but before the 1850s it had been of little commercial significance. Then the search for cash crops began and opium soon developed into one of the best. The product was easily transported over Persia's impossible roads and was of high value per pound. Khorasanian cotton could not have been exported if it had not been for Russian railroads. It was too bulky to transport far on the backs of camels. The compact, valuable cases of opium could be carried all the way bring a proacross Persia on the backs of pack animals and still fit. The caravans which brought it to the Persian gulf ports grew steadily in number and size in the last decades of the century:13 Year

Cases of opium exported 300 870 2,570 7,700 8,000

1859 1871 1876 1881 1886

of modern Persian nationalism One of the minor idiosyncrasies is the belief that the British government sent its agents into The Persia during the nineteenth century do distribute poppy seed. plot was to encourage the Persians to object of this imperialist It is use opium and thus to weaken the Persian national spirit. that the British traders who bought for the China and possible but the London markets encouraged the spread of poppy cultivation, Not in the 1880s were much more effective. good prices prevailing only did the peasant get a good price for his opium, but also the

43

WINTER1971

The peasant who grew opium did product was extremely hard to tax. better all around than those who stuck to wheat. The changes we have condidered above are only a few of those before the Constituthat took place in Persia in the half-century There ts neither time nor place to consider tional Revolution. them all. Nearly all of them, however, whether of quantity or of the ecoof the general reorientation quality, were reflections nomy of the country to the growing world economy. Some occurred The Russians developed the caviar largely at foreign initiative. along the Caspian coast and the olive industry near Rasht. fisheries Along with the wheat and cotton of Khorasan, they bought thousands of tons of wool annually in the markets of Mashhad and transshipped The British, it across Russia for eventual manufacture in France. bought horses and mules in Fars and the or their Indian subjects, They of the Persian Gulf. pearls which came from the fisheries also handled the tea trade that not only supplied Persia but also of native Some changes were at the initiative much of Central Asia. of dried fruits and nuts was almost as The exportation Persians. important to the development of the Persian economy as was the growth of the opium trade, and it remained largely in native hands. of tea had begun the cultivation By the 1890s Persian initiative by the Other changes were initiated along the Caspian shore. The central mint (1877)14was clearly such a Persian government. case, and in 1890 the Persian government attempted to bring system out of the tobacco industry by putting the collection, (and profit) The manufacture, and export of all tobacco under a single agency. but it would seem advantageous to view the Tobacco attempt failed, Concession of that year as an extension of a process already going a on in other areas of the economy rather than, as heretofore, Persian man greedy plot to squeeze more from the already distressed in the street. within the country, the balance of Despite all of the activity trade remained constantly against the Persians at a rate of two or Just how they worked out the magic that allowed them three to one. to balance their books without really seeming to do so is a phenomenon that is not much clearer today than it was at the turn of the century when the Italian economist, Eteocle Lorini, studied it. There One may advance a number of hypotheses regarding the subject. were, for example, many Persians working in Russia, and, although there is no sure way of finding out what they sent home, there is There are doubt that they did send money back to Persia. little the constant complaints of the foreign traders that Persian merchants declared bankruptcy on the smallest pretext and that the for-

IRANIANSTUDIES

44

eign merchant could not recover in the local courts. Since the figures available show only what was brought into the country and not how nor whether it was paid for, one is left free to speculate on the extent to which the value of the exports did cover the value of of the imports. there is the constant depreciation Finally, Persian money. At this time, it is not certain whether any of are sufficient these explanations to cover the ground.15 If there are large areas of the Persian economy in the nineteenth century that are still unclear, it is even less clear how and processes all of these alterations in the economic institutions or how of Persia worked themselves out in the realm of politics they altered social institutions. One may hazard several guesses. Certainly much of the groaning and moaning that issues forth from the Persian body politic toward the end of the century were emitted by those whose social status had been bent by financial levers or whose political articulations had been stiffened by economic arthriNo Persian official tis. could maintain his status without altering the charges he made for his services, meager though those services might have been. To stand still, he had to run very hard, and to make any progress came to seem impossible. To make matters worse, what there was had to be divided among more officials as the bureauto honor difficult cracy grew. Finally, it became increasingly commitments to those whose connection to the political system was only semi-official. The clergy were forced to fend for themselves and they did not like it. If it is not entirely clear how changes in the economy of the country worked themselves out in other institutional arrangements, it is clear that explanations which turn upon the greed and avarice of the rulers of Persia, greedy and avaricious though they may have been, will no longer suffice. NOTES 1.

A feeling of frustration came over Iran in and disillusionment If one compares the tone the last years of the 19th century. at the height of Nasir al-Din Shah's of works which originated reign (e.g. MuhammadHasan Khan Maraghi, I'timad al-Saltanah, Kitab al-Ma'asir va al-Asar) with works that come from the period around the end of the century (e.g. Amin al-Dawlah, The former are selfSiasI) the change is striking. Khatirat-i the latter convinced that the nation confident and expansive, For more recent is ill and that the disease will be fatal. of pessimist which just works which carry on the tradition see, e.g., Dlryafsh Ashgri and Rahim precedes the revolution

45

WINTER 1971

Raisnia, rutiyat-i

Zamineh-yi Iqtisadi va Ijtima'i-yi Inqilab-i MashIran (Tabriz, n.d.); Z.Y. Hershlag, Introduction to

the Modern Economic History of the Middle East (Brill, pp. 134-154; Iamid Algar, Religion and State in Iran, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969) pp. 122-123.

2.

Discussions

of the "Great Depression"

1964), 1785-1906

or "long depression"

are to be found in any general economic history. The prices mentioned here are taken from Shepard Clough and Charles Cole, Economic History of Europe (Boston, 1952), p. 565. The figures on the export of wheat from Bushire are from Great Britain, Parliament, Parliamentary Papers_, 1871, Cmd. 456 "Copy of a Report Lately Made by Colonel Pelly to the Indian Government on the Trade of the Persian Gulf," p. 11, and represent in the

case of 1869 only the wheat carried

in B.I.S.N.

Company's

bottoms. Pelly's figures show a striking increase in wheat export in the years from 1866-69 to 1892, rising from 6,800 to 428,094 mans Tabriz, that is, from 878 bu. to 55,295 bu. In view of the fact that almost no wheat was exported from Persia in the years between 1870 and 1875 because of the severe

drought and famine,

it may be assumed that 1869 was a peak

For the economic conditions year. in Persia in 1870 and the export of wheat from the Persian Gulf ports, see Ibid., 1871, Cmd. 343, Commercial Reports Received at The Foreign Office from Her Majesty's Consuls, in 1869-70, "Persia-Tabriz," p. 961, and Ibid., 1876, Cmd. 1616, "Statement of the Trade of British India with British Possessions and Foreign Countries for the Five Years, 1870-71 to 1874-75," p. 199. The figures for the export of wheat in the 1890s are taken from Ibid., 1893, Cmd. 6855-139, Diplomatic and Consular Reports, "Report on the Trade of Bushire for 1892," (Annual Series No. 1252.) and Ibid., Annual Diplomatic and Consular Reports, 1895, Cmd. 7828-44, Series No. 1627 "Report on the Trade of Bushire for 1894," (Annual Series No. 1627). The export for 1892 was 241,498 there were bread riots C.W.T., or 450,786 in bu., although

Shiraz. The exchange produced by the wheat exports of that year only slightly exceeded the exchange produced by the the export of 1869. The figures for 1894 probably reflect embargo placed on the export of wheat during that and the of the The effect preceding year by the Persian government. less to diminish embargo was probably the flow of wheat from Persia, than to make it more difficult to collect statistics, although some reduction When the in outflow may be assumed. of these two latter average years is compared to 1869, it shows an overall still decrease in the amount of exchange volume of export. produced by a considerably enlarged Export

IRANIAN STUDIES

46

mans Tabriz and did leveled off at around 450,000 from Bushire after 1890 -- except in bad not vary much from that figure a net importer was usually of grains. years when Persia Wheat exported from Persia, foodstuff was never the most important relative the last half of the and it lost impQrtance across As a staple in the Iranian century as its value declined. sensitive item of export. it was a particularly diet, however, Indian ComReport on the Britlsh A. H. Gleadowne-Newcomen, to Southern Persia during 1904-1905, (Calcutta, mercial Mission 1906), p. 83. Papers, 1867, Cmd. Parliament, Parliamentary 3. Great Britain, Received from at The Foreign Office 3761, Commercial Reports The p. 110. Consuls in 1886, "Persia-Gilan," Her Majesty's tumans, or total revenue of Gilan in 1866 is given as 388,610 Foreign Office, Diplomatic lOd. Great Britain, 169,395,12s. No. Annual Series and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, va alp. 14. Compare Kitlb al-Ma'asir 1325, Persia-Resht, of in the revenues 242-244, where similar increases asar,pp. the comparison to a foreign the state are shown, but without standard. Parliament, Parliaare taken from Great Britain, 4. These figures Reports by Her Majesty's 1867-78, Cmd. 3967-IV, mentary Papers, and "Persia," p. 250-51, of Embassy and Legations, Secretaries and Consular Reports 1893-94, Cmd. 6855-155, Diplomatic Ibid., on Trade and Finance, (Annual Series No. 1268) "Persia-Meshed" pp. 8-9. to Consular 5. Ibid., 1872, Cmd. 544, Reports Relating Establishpart IV, p. 256; Ibid, ments 1858-71, 1895, Cmd. 1858-1871, on Trade and Finance, Diplomatic and Consular Reports 7581-109, p. 4. (Annual Series No. 1569), "Persia-Tabreez" As a British in 1896: "During 6. consul described the situation the last few years exchange has gone up with leaps and bounds The necesthe European goods have also advanced. consequently of life but not in in these parts have also advanced, sities In the meantime, the same ratio. the daily wages of the or I might and workman have practically stood still, peasant for some period of last year retrograded, say, have absolutely owing to the flood of copper money, which could only be or its equivalent in goods at 25 percent, into silver exchanged 50 percent or even at one time, reaching Ibid., 1899, discount," and Consular Reports on Trade and Cmd. 8277-171, Diplomatic 1953), p. 3. "Persia-Ispahan," (Annual Series Finance, Commercial Relations, 1828Russo-Persian Marvin L. Entner, 7. demonhas recently 1914 (Gainesville, Fla., 1965), pp. 6 ff., that the Treaty of Turkmanchai worked to Persia's strated

47

WINTER 1971

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

This continued to advantage throughout most of the century. For be true in some respects until the end of the century. Persian cotton could enter Central Asia for manuinstance, low duty set by Turkmanchai, facture in Russia at the relatively paid a relatively while American and Egyptian long-staples high duty to enter from the West. Since the American and Egypcheapened across the last half of the tian cotton steadily century, the Persian would have been unable to compete if it That, had not been for the advantage of the low duty it paid. and of course the fact that Russian railroads in Central Asia gave it access to a market, as it did all the products of Khorasan. Great Britain, Parliament, Parliamentary Papers, 1895, Cmd, 7828-24, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade (Annual Series No. 1607), and Finance,"Persia-Khorasan" pp. 13-14. Clough and Cole, Economic History of Europe, p. 627; Great Parliament, Parliamentary Papers, 1890, Cmd. 6205Britain, 29, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, (Annual Series No. 798) p. 8, and, Ibid., "Persia-Tabreez," 1895. Cmd. 7581-14, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade (Annual Series No. 1474), pp. 13and Finance, "Persia-Shiraz" 14. Eteocle Lorini, La Persia Economica Contemporanea E La Lorini studied the Sua Questione Monetaria (Rome, 1900). P. 366 hope of reform. problem in detail but held out little The rate of exchange was about 20 gran to the pound sterff. By the 1890s the rate had sunk to well over ling in the 1860s. For the most part, this corre50 gran to the pound sterling. value of the coinage. sponded to changes in the intrinsic Lornini, p. 428 ff. The British consular reports from northern Persia for the years after 1865 record in some detail the diminution of the that accompanied it, together silk trade and the difficulties See attempts to overcome the disease. with the frustrating Cmd. 343 and Great Britain, Parliament, Parliamenexpecially tary Papers, 1877, Cmd. 1772, Reports from Her Majesty's Consuls on the Manufactures, Commerce, etc. of Their Consular "Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad," pp. 748-761. Districts. Cmd. 343, pp. 237 ff. and J. C. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia (Calcutta, 1915), p. 395. (Simal, Also, Arnold T. Wilson, Report on Fars (Confidential) 1916), p. 51. Great Britain, Parliament, Parliamentary Papers, 1894, Cmd. 7293-46, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, (Annual Series No. 1376) p. 58. "Persia-Ispahan" Cmd. 7828-24, pp. 13-14.

IRANIA STUDIES

48

13.

Great

Britain,

Parliament,

Parliamentary

Papers,

1882,

Cmd.

3409, Reports From Her Majesty's Secretary of Embassies etc., on Commerce. "Report by Mr. Baring on Trade and Cultivation of Opium in Persia," p. 49; Ibid., 1886, Cmd. 4781, Reports From Her Majesty's Secretary of Embassies, etc., on Commerce, Part IV, "Per:q.a," p. 313. 14.

Most of the British from 1870 to the beginConsular reports ning of the war discuss money and taxation problems - espeas they affected cially trade. Since it is not the purpose here to trace in detail the financial problems of late nineteenth-century Persia, no tabulations are presented. The information is easily available, however, although it would constitute a study in itself. See especially, Great Britain, Parliament, 1875, Cmd. 1132, Reports Parliamentary Papers, from Her Majesty's Consuls on Commerce, etc., of Their Consular Districts, Part I, "Persia-Tabreez", p. 207; Ibid., 1893-94, Cmd. 6855-212, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, "Persia-Resht," (Annual Series No. 1325),

p. 14; Cmd. 7581-14, pp. 3-5, 13-15; Amin al-Dawlah set up the mint, which he describes with some pride in his Khltirlt, p. 58, for a more neutral view of its operation see, Cmd. 3836, pp. 36-37. The mint brought its farmer at least 10 percent 15.

profit. Cmd. 7828-44. Abbffs Mtrzr, Mulk Ara, shark-i lijl, Abd al-Husein Novi 'i, ed. (Tehran, 1325/1946), p. 121. Entner, pp. 59-62 discusses the balance of payments problem in some detail. One might add to the list of hidden off-sets on the credit side of the ledger of Persian imports a factor which he treats.in other context--the Goods imported bankruptcy. but not paid for did not enter the balance of payments problem, but they did enter the statistics to the debit of Persia.

49

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BOOK REVIEWS By Gian Guido Belloni and Liliana Dall'Asen. New Iranian Art. 29pp., 45 color 1969. York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, 1 map, 1 chronological 60 black and white illustrations, plates, table. $18.50. GUITTYAZARPAY and ceramic arts, Over five thousand years of pictorial period to the seventeenth century, are ranging from the Neolithic work on Iranian art condensed in this short but richly illustrated director of the Archaeological Museum in Milan, by G. G. Belloni, some typical highlight The illustrations and L. F. Dall'Asen. contained in various examples of Iranian works of art and artifacts The main asset of this book is the museums and private collections. which are accompanied by a brief fine reproductions, exceptionally text intended to amplify the captions. remarks are Some of the formal analyses and interpretive Thus an animal-shaped Iron Age ceramic quite detailed and vivid. vessel from the northern part of the Iranian plateau is described as: "a vase in the form of a moufflon, and in it the long muzzle happy comis made into the spout of the vase with a particularly It is at once a spout bination of the organic and the abstract. in the way it changes beand a jawbone, and is most illuminating combination This is an extraordinary fore us from one to the other. on a merely logical of two diverse natural elements, irreconcilable imagination which here with the liveliest plane, but interpreted yet wholly renders them capable of expressing something indefinable It is a concrete demonstration of the way art essentially valid...

Guitty Azarpay is currently Research Associate in the Department of Berkeley. Near Eastern Languages at the University of California,

IRANIAN STUDIES

50

and discovers its disregards the coherence and reason of reality, Elsewhere, own coherence and reason't (p. 15; see also pp. 17, 18). are described as an "enormous pile...fixed reliefs the Persepolis itself with the same spirit of weariness that insinuates into all charsuch creations whose dimensions are beyond the human scale-a It was, it seems, preorof so many Asiatic cultures... acteristic of dained to turn the minds of students from art in the direction history" (p. 23). must be questioned, of certain contentions The validity at representation in figurative established the priority e.g., of the of the domestication Sialk I (p. 6:12), or the attribution of all The categoric designation horse to the Mitanni (p. 8:30). B.C. Luristan bronzes and south Caspian material to IX-VII cent. in view of the presence of earlier especially is unacceptable, of some of these bronzes.1 Tribal movements are coninscriptions Some will disagree with the fused and unclear (pp. 8, 20, 25). that "Elamite art was not simply a branch of Mesopotamian, belief part of it, so that the term 'Elamite' but an indistinguishable factor rather than an aesthetic implies a geographical or historical There is no evidence for the assumptions that (1) one" (p. 13).2 (2) Scythe Ziwiye treasure was a Scythian cremation type burial; thians generally cremated the dead; (3) Scythians had no gold work of their own, and "in their original homelands had access only to Existing data, at least on the last humbler materials" (p. 20). two questions, suggest the contrary. of personal and place names are frequently The spellings "Kohotu" for Hotu, "Masanderane" for Mazandaran, inaccurate, e.g., as in "Atyan" "Gari-Kamarband" for Ghar-i Kamarband; or misleading, for Hattian (?), Aryan (?) (pp. 5, 8, 11, 15), "Sumerian" for CimFrom a basketry motif on an early ceramic bowl the merian (p. 8). that "the imaginauthors reach the doubtful and unclear conclusion ation of Iranian man had at this stage failed beyond a certain to him to omit reality point, as if it did not appear possible where

it

gave

the

illusion

of being

imitable

. . ."

(p.

12).

What

period of Greek art did the authors have in mind when they distinguished between the harmony of the latter and the barbaric spirit from Amlash? (p. 15; also of the Iron Age animal representations p. 26). the following Finally, Plate plates should be noted: the name of Lilul of Akkad, is Plate 42: an enigmatic bronze

to the captions of the corrections 1: a bronze bowl, inscribed with dated half a millennium too late.3 "disc" in Tehran is here assigned to

51

WINTER1971

the seventh to sixth century B.C. Plate 49: a bronze mirror assigned here to the Achaemenid age, displays a curious inconsistency in the arrangement of the lions which would appear reversed if the object were correctly held by the handle. Plate 59: Shami is unconfirmed as place of origin of the stone representation of a Parthian nobleman in a private collection in New York. In presentation and organization, Iranian Art by Belloni and Dall'Asen is comparable to an exhibition catalogue (cf. 7000 ans d'art en Iran, Paris, 1961-1962) and, on this level, the book deserves attention for the impressive array of its large fine reproductions. NOTES 1. 2. 3.

und KirmanSee p. Calmeyer, Datierbare Bronzen aus Luristan shah (Berlin, 1969). Cf. E. Porada, Ancient Iran: The Art of Pre-Islamic Times (London, 1965), P. 45ff. Cf. Th. Jacobsen, The Sumerian King List (Chicago, 1939), p. 206 ff.

and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East. Political Edited by Kemal H. Karpat. New York: Praeger Library of Middle 397pp. $10.00. 1968. Eastern Affairs, JOHNWATERBURY Kemal Karpat has presented us with the most comprehensive thought currently available, anthology of Middle Eastern political Whereas to and for that fact alone, his effort is praiseworthy.

John Waterbury is Assistant of Michigan. University

IRANIANSTUDIES

Professor

52

of Political

Science

at the

available date most editors have confined themselves to literature in only one language, Karpat has taken the long-needed step in and bringing together some of the major writings in the political social spheres in Persian, Turkish and Arabic. The work under that can scarcely be review is premised on the assumption--one areas questioned--that the Turkish, Persian, and Arabic-speaking of the Middle East have undergone a fundamentally similar course of ideological development in the twentieth century as a result of a fundamentally similar confrontation with Europe and/or modern and cultural industrial societies. There are of course historic Anatolia factors that distinguish this process in various regions: never fell under direct colonial control and thus the thrust of be its Republican Turkish political thought would necessarily direction of the consolidation rather than of the winning of sovereignty; or again, the fact that Iran is the only self-proclaimed and social Shi'ite state in the area has obviously colored political thought in that country; or finally, the fact that North Africa was subjected not only to European imperial control but also to the relatively massive infusion of European settlers into the indigenous society brought about a qualitative difference in the nature of political change in the Maghreb that is reflected in the Arab East only in the experience of the Palestinians. However, these variations, while of great significance, should not obscure the common experiences and themes that run throughout the entire area. Although Karpat never explicitly states his objectives as such, I have assumed that he sought to emphasize these common themes. state He does explicitly to examine Middle Eastern ideology in terms of (p. 6) his intentions identity, "three basic functions": (1) the creation of political (2) economic and educational programs, and (3) the enlargement of cultural and intellectual horizons. Both in terms of the objectives I have assumed Karpat sought to achieve, and in terms of illustrating his tri-functional and Social Thought approach to ideology, Political in the Contemporary Middle East falls far short of the mark. The major problem, as in any anthology, is what to include and exclude, Inasmuch as Karpat undertook a fairly ambitious and extensive effort, it would have raised the quality of the work had he included more authors. I am not really competent to judge the section on Turkish thought, but my impression is that it is rich and representative of someone as expert as as befits the selections Karpat. The other sections of the book however are far weaker; to reflect either failing important intellectual currents of thought or geographic areas (for example, communism and national liberation) As regards Iran, Karpat fails of thought (North Africa especially). on both counts.

53

WINTER1971

East,

Out of a total of about 400 pages for the rest of the Middle there are 15 pages on Iranian thought which consist of an

interesting piece by Ehsan Tabari, "Reaction or Revolutionary Change in Iran," preceded by the text of "The Shah's Proclamation on Reform" (1961) and "Statement of the National Front" (1961), plus three indroductory pages by Karpat. In and of themselves, the first two pieces are meaningless, and Karpat's introduction scarcely places them in context. His failure to give adequate treatment to Iran is certainly not explained by his enigmatic disclaimer that "Iran has not been treated extensively, first, because political thought in that country pertains basically to the establishment of a truly constitutional monarchy [?] and, second, because I was unable to undertake field research in Iran and so gain personal insight into the problems of that country..." (pp. vi-vii). Certainly Karpat could have consulted some Iranians, without undue risk, as to appropriate texts to be included. Is ther nothing from Jamal al-Din alAfghani and the early constitutional movement that would have been

appropriate

for the book?

Has nothing

of significance

been written

about one of the most important experiences in Third World Liberation, that of the Mosadeq period? Is there no ideological underpinning to the Shah's white revolution: Has no Iranian written critically or approvingly of what Huntington calls "Stolypinism"? Typically an absolute monarch supported by clements from his bureaucracy attempts to impose reforms on a recalcitrant landowning aristocracy. Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs, Stolypin's reforms, and the Amini-Arsanjani reforms of 1961-62 in Iran are examples of change imposed through traditional political institutions.1 One also wonders why nothing dealing with the so-called "Persian mystique," i.e., the curious interaction of Shi'ism and Persian/Iranian national identity, is included in the text. In the same vein, while Karpat does pay some attention to the Ikhwan of al-Muslimin in Egypt, he fails to include any of the writings for the Fedayan-i the section Islam in Iran. In short, ideologues out of the on Iran as it stands might just as well have been left book entirely. on Arab political The section is good as far as it thought It updates two and complements goes, but it does not go far enough. Hazem Z. Nuseibeh, earlier The Ideas of Arab Nationalanthologies: HowismM2 and Sylvia G. Haim, Arab Nationalism: An Anthology.3 the imaginative and ever, Karpat in no way equals presentation

breadth of Anouar Abdel-Malek's poraine,4 analysis

La Pense'e Politique

nor does he even mention an important arabe by Abdulllh Laroui, L'Ideologie

IRANIANSTUDIES

54

Arabe Contem-

interpretative contemporaine.5

lacunae in Karpat's Some of the curious and inexplicable presentation include the absence of anything by Afghani, Abduh or Rashid Rida, all three of whom are crucial to any understanding of Of a later thought in the Middle East. twentieth century political and more secular school, the work of the Egyptian nationalist, Salama Mustafa Kamil are ignored, and the Egyptian socialist, Khalid Bakdash, the leading figure Moussa is given but one entry. From my point of of Arab communism, appears nowhere in the text. the most unforin North African politics, view, being a specialist could tunate omission concerns the Maghreb. Not even Allah al-Fassi (like the find his way into the book. The Algerian revolution Palestinian movement) is not represented by a single spokesman. Farhat Abbas, Ahmed Ben Bella, MuhammadHarbi, Amar Ouzegane, MuhammadLebjaoui, Mostefa Lacheraf, to mention but a few names, And why not include Frantz Fanon, whose simply do not appear. thought in the Middle East has impact on contemporary political been enormous? The fact that he did not write in Arabic seems to me irrelevant. The same reproach can be made with regard to Tunisia Ali Bach Hamba, Sheik and Morocco where, in the first instance, Thaalibi, Bourguiba, Tahar Haddad, and in the second, Ben Barka, Laroui, and Messouak all slip through Karpat's filter. in a It may be that an anthology, to be representative geographic and thematic sense, should be the product of the selection wisdom process of several scholars who can pool their collective to bring balance, breadth and perception to a region that has never been chary in its production of the written work. Failing that, however, Professor Karpat's book is the best we have; unfortunately that is not good enough. NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Order in Changing Societies Samuel P. Huntington, Political (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press), p. 387. Cornell University Press, 1956. Ithaca, N.Y.: Press, 1962. of California University Berkeley, Calif.: Seuil, 1970. Paris: Maspero, 1967. Paris:

55

WINTER 1971

ERRATA The following two corrections should be made in Professor Slobin's article, "Persian Folksong Texts from Afghan Badakhshan," which appeared in Vol. III, No. 2 (Spring, 1970). The following passage should be inserted at the top of page 102: Another relative of the felak rubai style within Afghanistan is the charbaiti of the Kabul area, described by Farhadi (1955), who presents seventyseven examples. Farhadi clearly identifies the charbaiti as being of rural origin, and notes that they generally serve as song texts (Ibid., 2). He also remarks (Ibid., 3) that literary Persian has a feaapparently influenced the Kabul charbaiti, ture we have previously observed in the Badakhshani quatrains. Farhadi, A. Appendix to Le Persan Librarie C. Klincksieck, 1955).

And the added reference is: Parle en Afghanistan (Paris:

*

IRANIANSTUDIES

*

56

*

Iranian Studies is published quarterly by The Society for Iranian Studies. It is distributed to members of the Society as part of their membership. The annual subscription rate for non-members is $5.00; the price of single copies is $1.25 per issue. For institutions the subscription rate is $8.00 per annum. The opinions expressed by the contributors are of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the Society or the editors of Iranian Studies Articles for publication and all other communications should be sent to the Editor, Iranian Studies, Box E-154, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167, U.S.A. Communications concerning the affairs of the Society should be addressed to the Secretary, The Society for Iranian Studies, P.O. Box 89, Village Station, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Cover: From the Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museun by P.R.S. Moorey (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).

Iranian Studies Journal of The Society for Iranian Studies

Spring-Summer 1971

Volume IV

Numbers 2-3

Bso &crjoras

COUNCIL Amin Banani University of California at Los Angeles Ali Banuazizi Boston College James A. Bill University of Texas at Austin Jerome W. Clinton University of Minnesota Richard W. Cottam University of Pittsburgh Farhad Kazemi, Executive Secretary New York University Kenneth A. Luther University of Michigan Jacqueline W. Mintz New Haven, Connecticut Ann T. Schulz, ec officio, Treasurer University of New Hampsbire Majid Tehranian Tebran, Iran

IRANIAN STUDIES Ali Banuazizi, Editor Jerome W. Clinton, Associate Editor Jacqueline W. Mintz, Associate Editor

Copyright, 1972, The Society for Iranian Studies

Urwtan

7fritTfc Volume IV

58

?,Sct5

Sti&Ws

fr

~~wd

Spring-Summer 1971

Numbers 2-3

NTE FROMTHE EDITOR ADMINISTRATIVE IN gJAR IRAN DEVELOPMENTS

59

EARLYQAJARADMINISTRATION:AN ANALYSISOF ITS DEVELOPET AND FUNCTIONS

Colin Meredith

85

IRAN'S GREATREPORMER OF THE NINEIEENTHCENTURT: AN ANALYSIS OF ANTRKABIR'S REPORMS

John H. Lorentz

104

TE SALE OF OFFICES IN QAJAR IRAN, 1858-1896

118

COMMENTS

As Roza Sheikholeslami Ain Banani

BOOKREVIEWS 120

P. R. S. MOOREY:Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum

123

JAHANGIRAMJZEGAR ANDM. ALI FEKEAT: Iran: Economic Developuent Under Dualistic Conditions

Manoucher Parvin

129

H. KANSHAD: A Modern Persian Prose Reader

Jerome W. Clinton

103

IN MEMORIAl: (IJSTAVEDMUND VONGRUNEBAUM

Oleg Grabar

NlOTEFROMTHE EDITOR

This issue of the Journal is devoted to the publication of three papers which were delivered at the Fifth Annual Meeting of The Society for Iranian Studies in a panel on The panel, coDevelopments in Qajar Iran." "Administrative sponsored by the Society and the Middle East Studies Assowas organized by Professor Ervand Abrahamian and ciation, were The discussants chaired by Professor Nikki R. Keddie. Hamid Algar and Amin Banani. Professors eviof the conference, organization The successful the attendance of denced by the quality of papers presented, that and the lively discussion many scholars in the field, the long-standing fulfilled followed the presentations, sponsor scholarly of the Society to regularly objective of the papers, we As for the publication seminars on Iran. are most pleased to be able to devote an entire issue to to Iran, theme relating articles dealing with one particular that deal with for periodicals an endeavor not often feasible several countries. We hope that in the future we will be able to continue and of examining single themes from different the practice sponsored by the varied points of view, both in conferences Society and in forthcoming issues of Iranian Studies.

Ali Banuazizi

IRANIANSTUDIES

58

AN ANALYSIS EARLYQAJAR ADMINISTRATION: AND FUNCTIONS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT COLIN EREDITH

of the degree and extent of governmental Any discussion authority in early Qajar Iran involves an examination of the basic administrative structure as well as the more important restraints imposed by the nature of traditional society on the exercise of such authority. This study will focus, therefore, on the development and functioning of administration at the central and provincial levels, including the methods and machinery employed by the early Qajar state in the collection and distribution of taxable revenues. the probIn addition, lem faced by the first two Qajar monarchs in obtaining popular concensus with regard to the legitimacy of their rule and acceptance of their edicts will be examined. The Creation

of a Mstique

of Authority

as well as ideological means were Certain technical employed by the Qajar monarch to achieve at least a measure of political conmunity or consensus regarding the legitimacy of his rule. It was within the limits allowed by the success

Colin Meredith is a doctoral candidate History at Princeton University. An earlier version on "Administrative by The Society for held Association,

in the Department of

of this article was presented at a panel Developments in Qajar Iran," cosponsored Iranian Studies and the Middle East Studies in Denver, Colorado, November, 1971.

59

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

of these means that the Qajar state could operate accompaniment of general social approval.

to the

In company with other traditional Islamic monarchs, Fath cAll Shah could rely for support on a religiously derived and philosophically contrived view of the nature of society which emphasized the function of political rule as the means by which a heavenly sanctioned balance of social forces was maintained. Society, seen as consisting of four natural order, i.e., men of the pen, of the sword, and merchants and peasants, relied on the ruler to prevent the transgression (tajavuz) Royal of one order upon another.1 actions bent toward this end were legitimate; on the other hand, failure to effectively perform this mediatory role tarnished royal legitimacy. Although tMe Qajars were unable to claim descent from the Twelfth Imnan, they did not neglect to borrow many of the forms of addresses that had been used to represent the Safavid monarchs to their subjects as beings of semi-divine origin.3 Thus, even though they were deprived of an impressive geneological claim to legitimacy, the Qajars were able, as were all traditional monarchs within Islam, to assume the title of Shadow of God Upon Earth.4 Apart from the need to provide a theoretical justifiof cation for Qajar rule, there was the absolute necessity claims in concrete form embodying its various legitimizing The eye secured. before mass credence could be effectively of the masses had to be captured and retained and their visual of wealth, power, and splensense assaulted by the spectacle dor which approached their own vision of the celestial. Malcolm perceived the contrivance necessary to produce such an effect: Nothing can exceed the splendour of the Persian court It presents a scene of on extraordinary occasions. the greatest magnificence, regulated by the exactest To no part of the government is so much order. maintenance of those attention paid as to the strict to forms and ceremonies which are deemed essential the power and glory of the monarch; and the high to whom this duty is alloted are armed officers

IRANIANSTUDIES

60

with the fullest authority and are always attended by a number of inferiors who carry their commands into the most prompt execution.5 The Shah formed the center of a revolving pageant which he himself seemed to illuminate. The same observor remarked that "The ground of his [Fath CAll Shih'8s robe was white; but he was so covered with jewels of an extraordinary size and their splendour from his being seated where the rays of the sun played upon them, was so dazzling, that it was impossible to distinguish the minute parts which cogbined to give such amazing brilliance to his whole figure." divine

Government officials paid public character of the ruler.

lip

service

to the

If a firmaun, or mandate, is written by the monarch to any of the officials of government, this is also met at a distance by the person it is addressed to, who after raising it to his head, gives it to his secretary to read, and all stand in respectful silence till the perusal is finished.7 Even the Qajar kinsmen of the Shah were careful to manifest at least as much respect and seeming adoration. One of these on receipt from the lips of the Shah himself of his dismissal from a lucrative and important governorship felt it incumbent to conceal his real emotion under a spate of praise for the ruler's wisdom ang concluded by equating the royal decision with that of God. Lord Curzon, later in the nineteenth century, clearly recognized that in fact a gap existed between formal recognition of Iranian autocracy and the actual effective range of its dictates. It is a maxim that the king can do as he chooses and is completely except from responsibility. He can appoint and dismiss ministers, judges, and officers of all ranks. He can also take away the property or the life of any one of his subjects; it would be considered as treason to affirm that he is controlled by any checks except such as may be imposed

61

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

by his prudence, his wisdom or his consciousness. canto which he is liable, The exact limitations not be easily defined; they are equally dependent and upon the chaupon his personal disposition, particularly of his subjects; ractr and situation of government of them who, by their condition are of his arbitrary the mo t exempt from the effects power. Indeed, any treatment of the basic social structure of traditional Iran suggest that all social groups, even those most distant from the power center, were capable of exerting inwithin fluence upon the Shah and that the tribes especially their own areas possessed more than a semblance of internal limitaas well as external autonomy. Perhaps a more telling however, was that imposed upon autocracy, tion on traditional it by the requirements of its role as guardian of the social of one order upon The prevention of the transgression order. dreadful the right of another allowed the Shah to inflict upon offenders and these purely negative acts of chastisement On the other hand, power seldom aroused popular discontent.10 nature might well result in royal action of a more positive boundaries on its own part of the traditional the infringement which separated it from its subjects or might be such as to Thus, the need such action on the part of others. facilitate the judifavored for its exercise to secure popular consensus of royal power; the interpretation cial over the constructive Shadow of God Upon Earth was, after all, conceived of as judge not innovator. Central

Administration

determined by The level of social conduct is basically are able to lessen the extent to which governing institutions as displayed by its particularly the element of arbitrariness, Thus, Samuel P. toward the population at large. officials Huntington with reference to the connection between political observes: and public spiritedness institutions trust involves predictabiMorality requires trust, and inrequires regularized lity and predictability Without patterns of behavior. stitutionalized

IRANIANSTUDIES

62

strong political means to define

institutions, and to realize

society lacks the its common interests.

There is no doubt that the frequently observed amorality in Iranian society was basically a function of weak governing agencies and that a major cause of their ineffectiveness was their lack of institutionalization. Of these agencies those whose conduct bore most directly on the level of social conwere the central and provincial sciousness, administration. Views differ regarding the chief influences on the formation of the Qajar administrative apparatus. Ann Lambton has tended to stress its classical Islamic characterl2 while others have either pointed out continuities with particular dynastic models or have flatly denied that Iran has ever possessed a continuous administrative elite or tradition of administration .1l Whichever of these views approximate nearest to the truth, Qajar rule in Iran certainly began under Aqia MuhammadKhian with very little centralized management and with hardly any administrative functionaries. Aq7aMuhammadappears to have employed only three principal officer8: a lashkarnivis or revenue officer to the army, a mustawfi or accountant who arranged and collected taxes, and a vizier who never seems to have enjoyed the title of sadr-i All the other principal functions ac;am (prime minister).14 of government were carried out by the Shah himself, who dispensed with the keeping of all but financial records. As described by Mustawfi, "Aqa Muiammadwas his own treasurer, minister of finance and lahib dIvan."l5 At the lower administrative level, however, there were at least continuities of procedure with the government of the Zands since the latter's administrative personnel were literally hauled off to Tehran when the Zand capital of Shiraz wa surrendered by its kalantar (mayor) to Aqa Mu4ammad.1 An enlargement of both the royal household and the bureaucratic apparatus carried on at an extremely rapid rate and, in conscious imitation of Safavid practice, took place in the early years of Path cAli Sh h.17 In this period were created the offices of (1) mustawfl al-mamalik, head of the department of public finances; lashkar, an up(2) vazlr-i

63

SPRING-SU

1971

i.e., graded version of the previous office gf lashkarnivis, (3) munsht al-mamalik, head of the army's accounting branch;l and (4) ia_ib d1van, head of the administrative secretariat;,Y the watchdog over the accounts of each department and overseer The office of ?adr-i aczam was of the secretarial output.20 on its incumbent a general recognized as conferring officially power over the whole central administration.21 supervisory Fath cAll Shah began, assemblage and inexperienced whose

instincts

certainly

with a largely untried therefore, personnel of high bureaucratic

were to

jealously

guard

their

still

against attempts to promote uncertain powers particularly of greater adminisrearrangements in the interest functional lack of flexibility The resultant effectiveness. trative is, of most new bodies wherein instituof course, characteristic However, the or nothing. tional loyalty counts for little between the functions of all bureaulack of differentiation while governing institutions, in traditional cratic officers system acting as a useful checks-and-balances incidentally and promoted the exalso added to the constant duplication energies in endless petty rivalries haustion of administrative and intrigues. Fath CAli Shah also faced the perennial problem of which was further exacerbated by his over-heated supervision exThe administrative rate of expansion of its personnel. had been brought on by an early relaxed polipansion itself for the new Shah to which made it possible tical situation On the other hand, pursuits. devote more time to non-military demands which were subsequently placed on his additional government involved the Shah, in an effort to provide for an At the same time he had to extension of its functions. from slipping struggle to keep the enlarged administration On the level this struggle was waged within out of control. as different groups and the ranks of the bureaucracy itself, and, interest factions sought to advance their own particular between it amounted to a conflict at a higher level still, servant as to who was the Shah and his top administrative control. overriding going to exercise attempt to solve the problem Fath CAl Shbh's initial involved the creation bureaucratic supbrvision of centralized of the office of padr-i acfam and the delegation of considerable

IRANIAN STUDIES

64

overall powers to its first incumbent, Eij"I Ibrahim ShlrazI. fashion, however, this minister proceeded to In traditional make use of his powerful office to further increase his perhis and to feather the nests of himself, sonal influence These actions immediate family and a host of hangers-on.22 of the ruler who brought on him the suspicions eventually for the Thereafter, deprived him of both office and life. remainder of his long reign, Fati cAlT Shah appointed more men to the less independently-minded pliable and considerably overall office of Xadr-i aCzam and attempted to exercise Thus, Malcolm, who had witnessed the supervisioEif2Z3 Muhammad under iijI Ibrahim and his successor, situation was led to the conclusion that: Shifi, of the It is impossible to give an exact description duties which the prime minister has to perform; they depend upon the favour and confidence he enjoys, and and energy, or indolence and inupon the activity competency of his sovereign ... the prime minister is sometimes placed at the head of every department; other times this great power is divided, and a se arate minister has charge of the public revenues. routine in Despite what amounted to a busy official the early years of his reign, Fat4 CAll Shiah's problem in the of control grew larger with every extension of the exercise and royal household and, since his later years administration were characterized by a decrease in his actual concern for adequate management, the problem remained to harass all his successors. Certainly throughout the reign of the second Qajar monarch no middle course appeared possible between conof authority in the hands of the autocrat or his centration chief minister and its near fragmentation between competing of the bureaucracy who, in the absence of effective factions control, proceeded each with abandon to carve out his own independent sphere of influence. such a system of administration Within the traditional since office was equated not with functrend was inevitable For the same reason, because it tionso much as ownership.25 in practice, the assumption of ultimate proved least efficient by the Shah was more welcome to authority over administration than the enlargement of the controlling his administrators

65

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

powers of the ,adr-i aczam, whose personal ambitions and were more feared, as a threat to their greater expertise activities. various empire-building hand and in the presence of Without a firm controlling an arbitrary source of rewards and punishments, the Qajar vulnerable to outside pressures office holders were painfully whether from within the royal household, from and influences, powerful figures in society, or indeed as became increasingly Perhaps with the case from the agents of foreign powers. one French observor remarked that an bitterness justifiable Iranian government could never be able to direct a lggical interests.2 with its own objective policy consistent Provincial

Administration

government under Fath CAli Shah involved a Provincial by the Shah of his local powers to abdication considerable In this respect the Shah's governors-general. the provincial of his counter to that of the greatest policy ran directly who had sought to diminish both local Safavid predecessors milia slave-based and tribal power by the establishment The Qajars went at establishment.2 tary and administrative least as far as the early Safavid rulers in their toleration and actually promoted it decentralization of administrative princes to all important appointing of practice the royal by Certain procedures were, of course, estagovernorships. blished to ensure a degree of central control but the usual lack of success of these measures can be determined by the rebellious conduct of many of the prince governors.

o5

in their various The courts of these royal offspring were carbon copies of the court at Tehran capitals provincial However, its strengths and weaknesses. and usually duplicated sought fresh means constantly since their royal mainsprings by which they might enlarge their own spheres of independent models of obedience to high they hardly constituted action, might measure their own authority by which their subordinates from the resultant display of The chief sufferers conduct. at practically every level and self-seeking irresponsibility of provincial government were, of course, the social groups who, because of their extreme distance from the center of

IRANIANSTUDIES

66

power, were authority.

least

able

to

invoke

its

protection

against

local

to of appointing close The practice family relatives began with Aqa Muhammad Shah, who governorships provincial Under this Fars to his heir-presumptive, trusted Babl KhIn. became common what had been merely a tendency successor 8 The remarkable of Fath CAll Sh-ah alone fecundity practice. in selfto place the numerous royal princes made it tempting so they would no longer be an extra burpositions supporting Already by 1805 those who had treasury. den on the central lucrative posts by the royal offspring of their been deprived continuing however, complaints;29 were loud in their demand on the Shah's made the stronger royal over-gopulation to on one occasion Fath cAll Shih was pleased attention.3 his motives in terms of the good of the state. rationalize of the precedent he indicated the fatal To Gaspard Drouville, he possessed many sons, kept ruler who, although last Safavid at court so that, when the Afghans besieged them all inactive sons who managed the only one of these the capital of Isfahan, in his an escape was unable to rouse the rest of the country was not known cause because he, like his brothers, father's to the people at large.31 on the power to some extent Fath cAll Shih also relied to his family, in particular of his patriarchal relationship had an unquestioned fathers to his sons. Within the tribe, On children. of their over the lives and property authority Malcolm inrelationship, of this royal paternal the subject precedents: voked the tribal by law or recognized have no rights ...they [sons] between No mediatory power can interpose by custom. they are Born on a precipice, parent. them and their and are alike every moment in danger of destruction, crimes.32 and their virtues to fall by their subject found On the other hand, once a royal prince of some of the sinews of power, the likelihood continuing to his father relationship abject nished.

67

in control himself of his former was much dimi-

SPRING-SUMMER1971

certain measures were adopted As under the Safavids, over provincial to insure central government surveillance The vizier of each royal governor was a central governors.33 government appointee. 34 Since many of the princes were given appointments at tender ages, these were accompanied to their seats of government by tutors who assumed the real burdens of As in the case of CAbbas Mlrza for government. responsibility in Azarbayjan, some of these royal pupils retained the serto their former vices of their tutors who became viziers were changed freIn most cases, however, viziers charges. between the power of plays victims became they as quently at the provin;ey to intrigues prince and the Shah or fell cial or central court levels A further central government appointee was the mustawfi in charge of the auditing and overall collection (accountant) duly submitted copies of This officer revenues. of provincial his records to the office of the mustawfi al-mamilik in Tehzan. of This appointment was even more exposed to the crossfire aim of each prince governor since the principal power factions to his personal wealth in order was to add as much as possible to succeed or survive in a future struggle for the succession. Thus, constant pressure was brought to bear on the mustawfi to in the effort made by the prince to add to his collaborate own share of the revenues by depriving the Shah of his legiRefusal brought instant demands by the timate portion. seems usually to prince for his recall while collaboration have been discovered with perhaps worse consequences for the unhappy mustawfi.36 easy going nature and Fath CAl Shah's own relatively led him all for his offspring his often touching affection inaction in face o the too often into a seemingly helpless of the royal governors.*3 overly independent activities one son was tempted to encroach on the When, for instance, of a brother or to pursue a line of action which territory a mild royal with her neighbors, endangered Iran's relations reprimand was all that usually followed and when such actions This restraint, promised success not even this was employed. appraisal of had its real roots in the monarch's realistic state of the empire. his own resources and the technical Without an adequate system of communications and in line view of the ruler's main function as a with the traditional

IRANIANSTUDIES

68

keeper of the social balance, diplomacy and not too outward a show of force seemed to be called for in his relationships with the congeries of power centers which made up the patrimony of himself and his sons. The result of the loose central control over local irresponsibility as well as the resultant administration at every level of local government was to emphasize exercised to all its the arbitrary nature of Qajar rule in relation subjects and to reduce to minimal levels popular willingness to cooperate with authority. of provincial salaries The miserably low official were invariably padded by presents reofficials (cimils) ceived from those to whom they offered redress or advantage. Viziers milked the sub-governors of their provinces and they, in turn, recuperated their losses from their own subordinates. flrzi Buzurg, as vizier to CAbbas Mirza in this manner supplemented his official salary of seven hundred tumins by a 38 further forty thousand tumans received from immediate circle. In addition, bribes in the form of presents were available from local khans or the agents of foreign powers interested astonishment was evinced by Thus, considerable in the area. an agent of the British goverment when the above-mentioned offering turned down a considerable once actually official on grounds of his prior loyalty to the prince governor.39 Governmental Capacity

to Tax Resources

Due to the lack of economic growth as well as the wrought during the previous physical and economic destruction and ambitious century by domestic upheaval, foreign invasion, tax system of Iran adventures abroad, the traditional military inadequate as inherited by Path CAll ShJ.h, proved increasingly Thus, the to provide for the growing needs of government. income from regular taxes (mialTat) was added to by an increase in imposed taxes which, in the number of arbitrarily 61 governand distrust turn, magnified popular uncertainty ment. fiscal

of these The popular view of the injustice levies was further colored by an increased

69

ad hoc use of

SPRING-S

1971

until it became the chief means of revenue tax-farming, shown by the government's and the rapaciousness collection, (Cimils). own revenue officials of the injection the most serious effects Possibly, system were upon the enterinto the fiscal of arbitrariness elements of the prise of both commercial and agricultural population and on the level of social morality. possible

Despite the increase in general destructive by these socially characterized

decentralization

which

self

prevented

effectively

the central

revenue which was made means, the degree of the

revenue

system

it-

government from being

reached which finally Also the trickle beneficiary. the chief as much as in Tehran was channeled of government the coffers rather than the d1vin into the royal (khassah) possible a condition of affairs which under Fath treasuries, (state) needs very much at the mercy of a mocA`1 Shah left public was proverbial. narch whose miserliness from (1) the real derived Mal1at had been customarily (2) priof the crown (khaligah), and landed property estate consigned (3) land and other property (mulk),40 vate property or family endowments (awqaf), (4) as public in perpetuity or in entering and (5) commodities owned flocks, tribally land On the other hand, state the empire. within transit to be exempt held as fiefs (tuy ls) were considered (dlvan) were enthemselves the tuylil holders since from such taxes the revenue previously to receive from tpe cultivators titled

Taxes on land were based either on paid to the government.4 the size of the crop or according to the area under cultivaDue to the limited operation of the cash nexus, taxes tion. although in were frequently accepted in kind (irtif-acit),42 were in areas close to urban centers where market conditions cash was often demanded. In areas of irrigation operation, the revenue exacted by the crown from its own lands amounted to one-tenth of the produce as well as one-tenth of the straw Dry farming crown land paid only one-half of this produced. rate. Crown-owned gardens paid either in cash or kind oneowned fifth of the value of their output while similarly baths (pammEms), bazaars, and shops paid in accordance with their size and the numbers they employed.43

IRANIANSTUDIES

70

The actual totals of revenue derived from crown lands and other properties will probably always remain uncertain since it is not clear whether such revenue was remitted in whole or in part to the dTvian or whether some at least was received as part of the total revenue contributions of the provincial governments. 44 Both a and mulk contributed in taxes at least onetenth of the value of their crops.45 Tribal dues were based on the size of their herds and411 but one-fifth of their contribution At the ports of the empire was paid in kind. a five-percent duty was collected on all imports.47 Also within Iran there was established a profusion of internal customs posts established by either the Shah or his provincial governors and manned by revenue officials (riahdars) operating under contract. Part of their function was to secure the safety of the highways from the depredations of robbers. Detachments of rahdars were to be met at regular distances so as to lend each other assistance in case of alarm...they scrupulously examine all travellers who appear suspicious, and are the more interested in performing their duty properly, as they are made perfor the robberies 4 ommitted in sonally responsible the districts confided to their care. Irregular were according to one source exlevies tended under Fath cA1 Shlh to cover all classes of the population and were intended to finance any of a variety of government needs. If

an addition

is

made to the

army-if

the

king

de-

sires to construct an aqueduct or build a palace-if troops are marching through the country and require to be furnished with provisions-if a foreign mission arrives in Persia-if one of the royal family is married, in short, on any occurrence more than ordinary, an impost is laid, sometimes on the whole kingdom, at others only on particular provinces.49 Early in the reign of Fath cAlt Shah is recorded raise the dues on crown land from one- to two-tenths

71

an attempt to f the value of

SPRING-SUMER1971

However, while the addition was made and retheir produce. or unable to the Shah continued unwilling mained in effect, levies on his subjects.50 stem the further tide of illegal were determined fiscal impositions Such arbitrarily Town-dwellers likely to fall on town as well as country. means were usually not taxed according to their individual but a lump sum was exacted from the town based on its number this amount also was only a part of Generally, of dwellings. in which the town happened a levy placed on the entire district Thus, to be placed. Ispahan,

which

has Koom [QUm] and Kashan within

its

is required to furnish a specified administration sum, of which it pays part, and divides the rest among the second rate towns, which again subdivide their own around; and collect among the villages proportions the appointed amount of the each in their gradations, and transfer the whole to the royal treasury. tribute, of any The government requires that the collector should supply a stated sum, but it given district whatto add as his own profit, permits him likewise Most of these offices ever he can further exact. By the amount of the purchase are bought and sold. The scale deis regulated the rate of oppression. scends; every minor agent is expected to accomplish an appointed task; but is left to choose his own means, an to have no other control but his own conscience.

government that It was, however, at the level of provincial received their and downright extortion arbitrariness fiscal expression. fullest Aq Muiiammad's fairly limited use of tax-farming was much extended by his successor so that the revenues from moai.of under contract (mucimalah).' the crown lands were collected Owners of private landed property preferred to avoid the undue of corrupt fiscal agents by making their own agreed exactions with government, while tribes also paid settlements directly In governors through their khins. their dues to provincial or the either 1khians dealt with the governor prince Mrs, The actual collection at his court. their agents (vakils)

IRANIANSTUDIES

72

among the tribesmen was undertaken by their local elected heads. According to Morier,

rlsh-saflds

or

Each tribe or subdivision of a tribe has its reish safid, who is a man chosen among them as their head, who travels with them....The head reish safid of a tribe appoints inferior ones, one of whom presides at each encampment, and it is thus, through the means of his agents that the tribute is collected and passes through his hands into that of the great chief, who accounts

stipulated

with

the

Prince's

treasury

for

its

amount.53

where in villages use was made of kadkhudas (headmen) and, in the cities, guild officials managed the actual collection, a certain buffer was interposed between the population and the most rapacious agents of officialdom. However, these elected officials

had no control

over

the

actual

assessment

process.

Abuse of their authority by other types of revenue collectors was commonplace. Rihdias frequently extorted money from the travellers and merchants they were supposed to protect,54 while a provincial governor would often appoint as his revenue collectors those of his minor officials whose pay had long been in arrears. The brazenness of this latter type of official was commented on by Frazer who travelled the Iranian countryside in 1822. I have heard of some of these fellows cooly charging a sum of money for the tear and wear of their teeth, in eating victuals provided for them free of cost on such expeditions, if they were such as particularly did not quite meet their approbation. 5 Fiscal arbitrariness and extortion had predictably bad effects on individual enterprise and placed a heavy restricticm on the spread of a market economy. If a new branch of commerce is discovered the gains of those who embark in it are likely to be overand they become exposed to the cupidity estimated, of power. If an individual exhibits superior skill as a manufacturer, his labor is liable to bS seized by the monarch or by the provincial despot.

73

SPRING-SUXMER 1971

Agricultural

production

also

suffered

from the tax system.

a piece of ground, No man will undertake to cultivate fall because he knows that its produce will ultimately into any hands but his own, he is therefore contented to live from hand to mouth without permitting himself to indulge in any hopes that he may lay up a store for himself to serve in times of scarcity.57 were rendered both over long distances Trading operations Iranand expensive by the myriad of rahdir posts. difficult information regarding their ian sources contain no specific on the other hand, the Russian military occupation operations; of forces in the Transcaucasus region complained bitterly In their effect on the market for Russian imported goods. the Russian Commander-in-Chief one report (1803), Tsitsianov, in the Caucasus, advocated a project for the systematization territory. customs posts within Russian-held of such internal by rahdars separate duties collected fifteen The report listed including those on imported wares, cotton, fish, meat, wine, tax was imposed An additional madder, hemp, iron, and tallow. The Iranian governor (khan) on the weight of goods inspected. transported of Shikl levied his own dues on seventeen articles imported through his province, these included all articles soap, cotton thread, leather, livestock from Iran, textiles, grape juice, and wax candles.56 The central government's proportion of total fiscal through its own agents and also revenues reached it directly governorof its provincial through the annual contributions endless of the were amounts subject The latter generals. bargaining between the Shah and his governors who were supposed to be allowed to keep only that part of their total deemed necessary to meet the expenses of collection fiscal the remainder was to be earmarked for local administration; In fact, a minimum the use of the ruler and his government. was usually agreed upon which could be increased contribution but never diminished by any governor who wished to keep his The occasion of nawriiz (Iranian new year) was position.59 and, at the of these contributions used for the presentation same time, their donors were invested by the Shah with robes in their confirmation of honor (khalcat) which s nified for a further year. office

IRANIANSTUDIES

74

Anxiety to retain or increase standing with the Shah accounted for attempts by prince governors to add to their Thus, before the expenses of minimum agreed contributions. war with the Russian invaders of his province rendered such cAbbas Mtirza strove to out-match the impossible, efforts of his brothers in other provinces and confirm his offerings to the royal father in support for his future succession In 1803, from Azarblyjan was sents throne. Ten horses with hoofs of steel and slender loins, as many strings of camels, one thousand purses of Chinese brocades, and impergold, Egyptian silks, besides other valuable objects and ial satins, of which exceeds all powers the enutration stuffs, of computation. which Due to foreign invasion or internal disturbances of the revenue producing capabilities particularly affected Azarbayjin and Khurasin, Fath cAll Shlh was forced to waive As for the other proover many years. their contributions probably less than half of their total revenue vinces, were sent to the Shah.62 Only Iraq, whose recollections for the government by Amln alvenues were managed directly remained Dawlah, the mustawfT al-mamalik (finance minister), to the costs of central always as a3 important contributor One estimate valued the annual total of nawrtiz government. to the Shah as approximately two million one presentations hundred thousand tumans of which just under half figured as Anrevenue collection. from provincial agreed contributions other fi've hundred thousand tumans was said to have been governors at other times received by the Shah from provincial which was less the revenue deof the year.64 This total, prived by the dIvan from fines imposed by curf courts and roughly with two other tallies from the sale of offices, which help the Shah's total income to be between calculations to four million tumins, two-and-one-half three-and-one-half derived from direct or indirect million of this total68eing contributions. fiscal whatsoever seems Under Aqa NM4ammadShah no distinction The key to have been made between privy and public purses. to the one treasury was kept by the Shah himself and during were kept under the campaigns, the crown jewels, at least,

75

1971 SPRING-SUMMER

His nephew recognized a formal distinction Shah's bed. between public and private calls upon the revenue and a state to receive incoming revenues and to treasury was established retain such sums as were needed to meet current expenditures, the remainder passing to the royal treasury. Amin al-Dawlah as mustawfi al-mamalik was thus in charge of all current refrom the state treasury and also his ceipts and expenditures department kept records of the disbursements of provincial governments.U6( Disbursements from the royal private treasury however, by the Shah himself. (kh7aVah) were controlled, Under Fath cAll Shah, this treasury was under the supervision capable member of his of Kahazan al-Dawlah a financially on received her title harem who, formerly a slave girl, This female head treasurer was assisted marriage to the ruler. by KhaJyral-Nisi Khanunm,a daughter of Fath CAll Sh-ah, and by a large body of mlrzis headed by MirzI Maryam, the gpn of Mirzai alih Tihranl, an eminent member of the ulama.00 is indicated by the Royal control over both treasuries relationship close, almost personal, always maintained between An Amin al-Dawlah.69 Fath cAlt Shah and his finance minister, incident which involved close members of the royal family with officials of the state treasury also indicated the Shah's When, on manipulation of the amounts held in this treasury. one occasion, the Shah was informed by Amin al-Dawlah that one lent had on his own responsibility of his senior subordinates an inlarge sums from the dtvin treasury to several princes, On the eve vestigation of its contents was at once called. of this investigation, however, the accused was received in private audience by the Shah and given permission to order a transfer of funds from the royal treasury to the state treato cover the missing funds.70 sury sufficient afte, According to one source, the surplus available had been met was usually pretty slim. current expenditures which charNevertheless, despite the mounting expenditures the period of Iran's struggle with Russian imperacterized desire for specie and Fath cAll Shah's insatiable ialism, gems robbed the public treasury of sorely needed funds and of continued to swell the royal treasury with a collection expensive baubels which in its present display in the vaults of Iran's national bank arouses both awe and a certain amusement. Behind the monarch's avarice lay also a lack of

IRANIANSTUDIES

76

confidence in the future and perhaps a deeper fear that personal and public loyalty to himself was easier obtained in emergencies through the agency of money than by the manipulation of any existing lever of government. Conclusion of the Federalist In number fifty-one Papers, James Madison opined that "you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself." Yet, in Qajar Iran, the feeble hand of government was in considerable measure due to a lack of adequate means by which the Shah could exercise control over its immediate agents, many of whom, in fact, if not in theory, the government of the land. constituted Doubtless, the young Qajar governing apparatus suffered greatly from an earlier breakdown in the Shulim (slave) institution, which in both the classical Safavid and Ottoman Bnpires had secured to the ruler's service a tightly knit, socially insulated, dependent group of bureaucrats, administrators, and soldiers. In the absence of this group, the Qajar Shahs possessed a practical, if unacknowledged, dependence on the secretaries who were much more exposed to the pressures and vested interests which opeboth within and without their society. rated The result of government's inability to control itself was reflected in the most natural manner so that an atmosphere which was characterized by an extreme display of amorality and indifference toward public issues and concerns pervaded all groups in When, in an unruly ocean, each crew member in the society. storm-tossed boat clings to his berth, the prospects of the captain being able to effect a general rescue operation are The problems ahead of Iran's masters were extremely slim. made even more difficult by the traditional terms which applied to their royal incumbency. Vested in the popular mind with the duty of acting as guardians of divinely ordained existing society, they possessed no popular mandate to engage in courses which might upset that traditional balance of society. Thus, Iran emerged into the light shed by the modern era with a government unable to exercise either sufficient control over itself or adequate to manipulate the responses of its subjects.

77

SPRING-SUMMR1971

NOTES 1.

of this view see, Nasir al-Dln Tusl, For an elaboration Also, J. Akhliq-i Nasiri (Tehran, 1329), pp. 180-181. A. Boyle, ea., Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5 (London, 1968), p. 210.

2.

Through Musa al-Kazim.

3.

Chevalier Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse, Vol. 9, ed. by L. Langles (Paris, 1805), pp. 488of the Shi'ite exposition concep9. For a theoretical " Shicah va Ptrayah-yi see, tion of divine right, Shabani Purmaga," in Musannifat, ed. by M. Minuvi (Tehran, 1331), pp. 44Tff.

4.

which was applied to Fat4 CAlT Shih in a raa This title confirmed MTrza Rafi as vakil of AzarbyjIn, 1214f1799, dar alreproduced in Nidir Mlrzi, Tiar3kh va Jughrafi-yi 274. p. 1323/1905), (Tehran, Tabrlz Sallanah-i

5.

Sir John Malcolm, History 1829), p. 303.

6.

Sir John Malcolm, Sketches 1929), p. 129.

7.

Malcolm, History,

8.

Mtrzi Atman CAAudal-Dawlah, TirTkh-i cAzudi (Tehran, 1327), p. 10. Hereafter referred to as T.A.

9.

Lord G. Curzon, Persia and the Persian (London, 1892), p. 391.

10.

Vol.

of Persia,

Vol.

of Persia,

Vol.

2 (London, 2 (London,

2, pp. 407-8.

Question,

Vol.

immediately Failure by any Shah to punish transgressors to rule. called forth popular doubts as to his ability This was pointed out to Shah Tahmasb by Muzaffar alIusaynl al-Tabib al-Kashan1, Akhliq-i ShifaIT, British Museum, OR3546, Folio l9a.

IRANIANSTUDIES

78

1

11.

Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, 1968), p. 24.

12.

Ann K. S. Lambton, "Persian Society under the Qajars," Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, Vol. 48 (1961), p. 123.

13.

Cf. view of CAbdullEh Mustawfi, Tarlkh-i Idari va Ijtim0ac-yi Man, Vol. Q7ajrIyah ya Sharh-i Zindigani-yi 1 (Tehran, 1321), p. 26, with that of Gavin Hambly, "An Introduction to the Economic Organisation of Early Qajar Iran," Iran, Vol. I (1964), p. 71.

14.

Mustawfi,

15.

Ibid.

16.

Among those conveyed by Aqia Muhammadto Tehran was Muhammad.Husayn Farahini, vizier to the last Zand monarch. He courageously refused service with the new ruler but persuaded Aqi Muiamad to retain the services of his nephew and son-in-law (dim-d), Mtrzi Csis (Kirzi Mir Husayn Yikrangiln, Buzurg). STsI va Zindiaji Adabi-yi Maqi (Tehran, 1224),pp.l-2. Qa'yim

17.

See,

18.

A number of lashkarnivises him.

19.

His department

20.

This officer was described by MustawfT as "pusht-i farmianhi va barathi-yi 4avalah-ha--yi vujUhI-yi dawlati," franker of farmans and barats for sums drawn on i.e., Another of his duties was to check the the state. omissions in farmans.

21.

The office of adri aczam had been established by the Safavids to control their religious institution. Among of royal aw if the isr'8 functions were the collection

p. 12.

MustawfT, p. 26. were appointed

drew up farmins

79

(royal

to serve under

decrees).

SPRING-sU

1971

revenues

and the distribution

dar Munshl,

Tirickh-i

of such funds.

CAlinA r--yi

CAbbasi

See,

(Tehran,

Iskan1314),

p. 107; Uasan Rumnl, san al-Tavlarlkh, ed. by C. N. Sneddon (Baroda, 1931-4 , Persian text, pp. 190-1. Under Nadir Shah, the existing sadr was pensioned off following the expropriation of tFwgaf by the state. His position as official head of the religion was taken over by Mulla B-ashi. Jonas Hanway, An Historical Account of British Trade over the Caspian, Vol. 2 London, 1754), p. 343. Fath CAll Sh-ah revived the title and gave it new functions which made the adr equivalent to a head of the bureaucracy but with wer less than that of an Ottoman grand vizier. With the office originally went the title of ICtimad al-Dawlah. MustawfT, p. 27. 22.

In the words of Haijl Ibriahim's detractors, he "wore the kingdom of Iran like a ring on his finger." Mf4ammad Vol. 1, Taqi Sipihr Lisan al-Mulk, Nasikh al-Tavarikh, new edition (Tehran, 1967), p. 112. Hereafter cited as N.T.

23.

"Feth-Aly-Chah dirige tout par lui-mgme. Ses, ministres ne sont charges que du detail des affaires. " P. A. Jaubert, Voyage en Armenie et en Perse, Vol. 2 (Paris, ?), P. 309.

24.

Malcolm, History,

25.

of office was The attitude of personal proprietorship encouraged by the absence of formal bureaucratic surroundings. "The bureau is set up at whatever spot the minister happens to be, whether in his house, an ante-room or a court of the Royal Palace, perchance in the street or in the pockets of such a mirza are a coffee house...in often to be found the documents of a series of years of little past consisting scraps of paper which he has and in no sense, official come to regard as private, property. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, Vol. 1, p. 450.

IRANIANSTUDIES

Vol.

2, p. 309.

80

26.

Oliver to Lubert du Bayet, Correspondence Politique:

9, Sivose, l'an Perse, Vol. 8.

27.

N. V. Pigulevskaya et al., Bistin ti PEiyin-i Sadah-yi

Tlrikh-i Iran az Dawrah-yi Hijdahum (Tehran, 1346),

5, France

pp. 544-6.

28.

One source lists twenty major governorships held by Princes in 1822; J. B. Fraser, Narrative of a Journey into Khorassan (London, 1825), p. 203 fn. However, even small districts "The extraordipossessed their quota: nary number of his progeny has admitted his [Pat# cAll Shih's] carrying this system to a most harmful extent. They have been appointed to govern not only the ancient of the Empire but even small districts divisions andpetty towns," Henry Willock to Canning, Dec. 19, 1825, India Office, Factory Records, Persia and the Persian Gulf, VoL51.

29.

'Jaubert,

30.

The precise number of Fath cAll Shiah's offsprings may never be known. The author of T-arTkh-i AEudl lists 57 sons by name, pp. 26-8. AnotherTIranian source also mentions that 47 sons survived their royal father. This 260 children and over 1000 wives} source lists N.T., Vol. 3, p. 210. A modern biographer of Fati CAll Shaih states that he took to wife an average of six ladies annually from age 18 until his death 34 years later. Mahdl Bimd-ad, Shar4-i UIlEl-i Rijal-i Ire, Vol. 3 (Tehran, 1969), p. 43.

31.

Gaspard Drouville, Voyage en Perse fait (Paris, 1825), p. 2.

32.

Malcolm, History,

33.

The Safavid rulers appointed province; i.e., the ianishln,

p. 213.

Vol.

en 1812, Vol.

2

2, p. 306.

Chardin, Vol. 5, pp. 257-8.

81

three officials to each vasir, and fiqgiahnivis.

1971 SPRING-SJMMER

34.

"...ne One opinion maintained that the princely viziers du roi, sont a bien dire que les espions des ministres en condont ils tiennent leur emploi, ils instruilent sequence de toutes les actions de leurs maitres, et a le'egard de l'autorite surtout de leur dispositions Vol. 2, pp. 3-4. royale. " Drouville,

35.

It was very dangerous for a vizier to leave the provincial court for any length of time, even on official business for as the Second Qa'im Maqzamremarked, when he was forced to leave his master alone with his other spoke of me like the people "they [his rivals] ministers, of Israel about Moses when he was absent on the Mount." Quoted in Qa'aim Maqnamf,p. 20.

36.

Tension between the ambitious H1usayn cAll Mlrzi, governor in dismustawfls resulted of Fars and his successive Jah-agnr See particularly, grace for many of the latter. IHusayn cAll Mirzi Farminfarma Qa'im Maqam, 'Tawticah-yi dar Fars," Yaghma, 5th year, pp. 34-5.

37.

homily: Fath cAll Sh-ah is credited with this versified ones you converse, When with little verse. T.A., p. 44. Please resort to child-like

38.

Ibid.

39.

Drouville,

40.

Legally, private property in land could result inheritance, purchase, crown gift or reclaimed

41.

two tenths Holders of tuyil exacted from the cultivators have been paid as of the produce, which would ordinarily one tenth due to government taxes, plus an additional them as rent. Fraser, p. 211.

42.

For the variety of methods adopted for fixing these dues, see A. K. S. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant in Persia (Oxford, 1953), pp. 31 ff.

43.

Fraser,

Vol.

2, p. 4.

pp. 211-12.

IRANIANSTUDIES

82

only from waste land.

44.

Ibid., p. 127; also E. S. Waring, A Tour to Sheeraz, by the Route of ICazroon and Feerozabad (London, 1807), p. 148.

45.

Fraser,

46.

Ibid.,

47.

Fraser,

48.

J. M. Tancoigne, A Narrative (London, 1820), p. 23.

49.

Malcolm, History,

50.

Fraser,

51.

Ibid.

52.

Path CAll Shiah's attitude toward the revenues drew forth the remark that "...he [the Shah] treats the whole country...like a conquered nation; and his only concern is how to extort from them the greatest possible amount of money." Fraser, p. 199.

53.

Morier,

54.

Sir Harford Jones-Brydges, Dynasty of the Kajars (London, 1833), p. civiii, hereafter referred to as lynasty of Kiajars.

55.

Praser,

56.

Malcolm, Historj,

57.

Morier,

58.

Quoted in M. K. Rozhkova, "Iz Istorii Ekonomicheskoy Politiki Rossiyskogo Tsarizma V 7akavkazye Pervaya Polovina XIX Veka," (From a History of the Economic Policy of Russian Tsarism in Transcaucasia During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century), Istoricheski Zapiski, Vol. 18, 1946, p. 2.

p. 211. p. 212; Jaubert,

p. 270.

p. 213.

Vol.

of a Journey into

Persia

2, p. 342.

p. 211.

Journal,

Vol.

2, pp. 20-1.

p. 121.

Journal,

Vol. Vol.

2, p. 378. 2, pp. 31-3.

83

1971 SPRINGOSlJMMER

59.

"L'Iran au XIXe. siecle," CAl1 Akbar Shasi, pp. 646-7; Vol. 2 (1954-5), World Histor, Journey, p. 110.

60.

Presented

61.

Sultaniyah CAbd al-Razzaq Dunbuli, Ma'asir-i pp. 91-2; Dynasty of the Kajars, 1242/1826),

62.

Fraser,

63.

Ibid.,

p. 214.

64.

Ibid.,

pp. 214-17.

65.

Mustawfi,

66.

N.T.,

67.

Mustawfi,

68.

T.A.,

69.

Mustawff,

70.

T.A.,

71.

Fraser,

on 6th day of nawruz, Tancoigne,

pp. 217-18.

pp. 269-70.

p. 26; Jaubert, 1, p. 48.

Vol.

p. 26.

pp. 12-13. p. 26.

pp. 52-53. p. 220.

IRANIANSTUDIES

84

Journal of also, Morier, p. 223. (Tabriz, p. 165.

IRAN'S GREATREFORMER OF THE NINETEENTHCENTURY: AN ANALYSISOF AMIR KABIR'SREFORMS JOHNH. LORENTZ

One of the more pervasive implicit assumptions about Amir Kablr in both Persian and Western sources is that he was an innovator who wished to transform Iranian society. Not unrepresentative of such an assumption are comments like the following: "If AmTr Kablr had not been killed at the hands of Nasir al-DTn ShN.h's executioners, how much he would have entangled the fateof Iran in a significant transformation."1 In the same vein there is a tendency to view Amir Kablr as a visionary of political freedom. This tendency is perhaps most evident in two rather popularized Persian accounts of his life a~d career, that of Hashimi Rafsanjini and that of But with the advantage of hindsight, many less MakkT. Vusayn more to the intentions exaggerated accounts, also, attribute of AmIr KabTr than can perhaps stand up under scrutiny. It is not uncommon, as Algar points out, for AmTr Kabir to be Revolureckoled among the precursors of the Constitutional Even that doyen of Persianists, tion. E.G. Browne, saw Amir Kabir as being in some ways a forerunner of the Constitutional

John H. Lorentz is Assistant Professor History at Portland State University.

of Persian

Language and

was presented at a panel on An earlier version of this article "Administrative Developments in Qajar Iran," cosponsored by The Society for Iranian Studies and the Middle East Studies held in Denver, Colorado, November, 1971. Association,

85

SPRING-SJMMER 1971

Browne, however, qualified Movement of a half century later. his view by stating that while Amtr Kabir may have been the Movement, historiforerunner of the Constitutional spiritual Even this cally he belonged to the "Days of Autocracy."4 is perhaps not enough. No less than other condistinction ceptions of the Qajar period as of yet unexplored in new of nineteenth the role of Amlr Kablr in the politics light, and perhaps reintercentury Iran needs to be scrutinized step in is intended as a tentative This article preted. that direction. II Mirzi MuhammadTaqi Khgn Farahini, better known as Amir KabIr, was the first and one of the most capable of Nasir He assumed ( c acams). al-Din Shiah's chief ministers in October, 1848, upon the ascension to the throne of office three Nayir al-Din Shiah and held office until his dismissal was soon folHis dismissal years later in November, 1851. and in January, 1852, his death at the lowed by his exile, hands of royally appointed assassins. The exact dateof AmIr Kabir's birth is unknown. However, on the basis of a notation on a sketch which depicts AmTr KabTr and which is dated at the time of his vizierate, the year 1222 A.H. specified one source has convincingly is known about the early life Likewise, little (1806 A.D.).5 of Amir Kabir except that he was born at Hizivah which is near Farahin in Iraq-i cAjam and that his father was a cook and later a steward in the household of Mirzi Buzurg Qa'im Maqcm. In the service of Mirzl Buzurg the family of Aziiir Mirzi Kabir moved from Farah-n to Tehran and then to Tabriz. Buzurg was the chief vizier of CAbbas MTrz`, son of FathcAli As was customary for the crown Sh7ah and the crown prince. prince in the Qajar period, CAbbls MTrzi was appointed goverIn nor of the province of Azarblyjin and resided in TabrIz. master at Tabriz, Astlr Kabir the household of his father's and but exhibited such brightness served as a food courier, that Mirzi Buzurg allowed him to study with the intelligence Having thus gained the opportunity to tutor of his own sons. learn how to read and write, Amlr Kabir rapidly rose in the He first entered the service ranks of government service.

IRANIANSTUDIES

86

of Abi; al-iasim Qa'im Maqam, known also as Mirzi Sini, the death in 1821 Mirzi son of Mirzi Busurg. Upon the latter's Sani succeeded his father as vaslr to CAbbis Mlirzi. Later in the adminisAmir Kabir became a scribe or lashManivis tration of the Azarblyjin Army headed by Ihamad Khin Zanganah ir In 1835 he became an accountant in the Nizai. Azarblyjin Army and several years later he was appointed as of the same army. The the chief administrative official long experience of Amir Kabir in various stages of the admiinfluence nistration of the isarbayjin Army was of appreciable on his later career as Qadr-i aczam to Nlqir al-Dfn Shib in central focus of his reforms that, as we shall see later, was the army. Other early influences on the later career of Amir Kabir can be traced to the education and experience he obof Abil al-Qi;sim QI' im Xaqlm. His tained under the tutelage effort, for example, to clarify and simplify the style and documents vocabulary of diplomatic correspondence and official was essentially a continuance of Qi'im Maqim's move in that direct ion. Equally important in accounting for some of Air Kabirs In 1829 reform character were the trips that he made abroad. he accompanied KhuasrawMTrsz, a son of CAbbis Xirzi, on an The mission was sent to official mission to St. Petersburg. apologize for the February, 1829 massacre of the Russian minister, A. S. Griboyedov, and other members of the Russian Embassy in Tehran. As junior member of the mission, Amir Kabir had no significant part to pla1y in the negotiations over what was to be done about Griboyedov's death though he was received by Tsar Nicholas I along with other members of In the little the mission. less than a year that the mission was in progress, however, Amir Kabir did have the opportunity to visit and cultural a wide variety of Russian educational and other fruits of institutions, industrial enterprises Russian "Westernization." Amongst the places that the Prince Khusraw mission visited technical and were public, private, a an arsenal, a mint, a carriage factory, military schools, and an observatory, factory, crystal glass and a silk textile the grand theaters of St. Petersburg.6

87

SPRING-SUMNE1971

opportunity for foreign exposure occurred An additional in 1837 when he accompanied Nair al-DIn Nlirzi on a trip to Yerevan to meet Tsar Nicholas I who was touring the Caucasian provinces of the Russian EBnpire. Apparently Amir Kablr had learned a smattering of Russian on his first trip north. Iqbll records that he spoke with Nicholas I in Russian exBut, was used.7 talks when a translator cept in official exposure that Amir Kabtr had perhaps the most significant in neighboring states was his efforts to modernization lengthy residence at Erzerum in the mid-1840s as chief delegate of the Persian Commission to the Erzerum Conference. of Iran, This conference was convened with representatives border the Ottoman Enpire, England and Russia to establish between Iran and the Ottoman mnpire, points more precisely disputes having occurred regularly between these two states During a residence of nearly despite previous agreements. three years in Erzerum, Amtr KabYr had occasion to witness Avery contends that he of the tanjimat reforms. the results reforms while at Erzerum, tanimat became acquainted whthe to having already had a glimpse of Europe when he travelled to Russia "...impressed The visit upon his St. Petersburg. mind Iran's need for reform; while the movement in Turkey had shown him that reform of an Oriental and Islamic government true It is certainly was within the bounds of possibility."0 in the that his experience in foreign lands was instrumental formation of AmIr Kabtr's reform ideas and left a definite for exThis is evidenced, stamp on his own reform efforts. that enterprises of many industrial ample, in the similarity Amir KabTr had encouraged and founded in Iran during his tenure as padr-i ac;am to those that he witnessed on his will be Tis and other such relationships trips abroa. reexplored in detail below when we deal with the specific forms of Amir Kabir. concluding the Treaty of Erzerum After successfully The following year he in 1846, AmIr Kabir returned to Iran. or chief tutor to the new crown was appointed lalah-bashi, prince whom he accompanied to Tabriz. NaVir al-DIn !irz', only 15 years of age, had been designated to replace his and failed, older brother, Bahman Mlrza, who had revolted, Shlh died. been exiled. Only a year later Mu.hammad

IRANIANSTUDIES

88

the case between two rulers, the As was generally between MutammadSha-h and his successor period of transition as various claimants to was a time of unrest and rebellion In this the throne and their supporters vied for position. case the general confusion was perhaps multiplied arising In of the Muhalinad Shlh period. out of the stormy politics Tehran itself, there was a popular uprising against V-aji Mirzi Aqasi, the "Sufi" adr-i aCzam of MuhammadShah, who deposed. The affairs was hastily of state were, in the meantime, handled by the Queen Mother who along with a group of nobles formed an interim regency council until Niair al-Din M;rzi could be brought from Tabrlz to Tehran for his coronation.

In Tabrlz, meanwhile, Nisir al-Din M!rzA was short of on the funds for the customary show of pomp and generosity of Azarbayjan, Mlrzi Fazl Alllh The vizier trip to Tehran. responsible for Nasir al-Hulk cAlt lbiadi, was technically raising funds and making the necessary arrangements, but he Amir KAabir, however, was unable to cope with the situation.9 succeeded in both locating liquid funds and. organizing the He then accompanied royal party for the journey to Tehran. On the night of his arrival Nasir al-Din Mirzi to Tehran. after his coronation, the new Shah appointed and imediately Amir Kabir to be the 8adr-i aczam. Mirza Taqi Khan was of amir kabir and atibak ac;am. The granted also the titles of the contintitle atiabak aczam was apparently a reflection between Amir Kabir and the relationship uing teacher-student was But, the former title only 16 years old. new Sh-ah, still and is the one which became inhis most common appellation stamped in the minds of his contemporaries and later delibly historians.

The appointment of Amir Kabir as padr-i aczam came as india disappointment to many. As one source pute it, were expectantly viduals who considered themselves morejrthy Amongst these aczam." awaiting to be appointed 8adri was Mlirzi Aqa*Khan Nurn who the Queen Mother was individuals thanks in large part When Amir Kabir was dismissed, backing. of his patron, Aq Khian NurI did attain to the harem intrigue the

position

of

sadr-i

aCzam.

89

SPRINO-SUMMER 1971

Amir Kabir was, thus, faced with a multitude of probThere was unrest in several areas lems in his new position. of the country, most notably in IVfah7an and Mashhad. The led by Silir latter city was the site of an open rebellion challenged the control of the central governwhich seriously ment. The standing army had degenerated since the time of The treasury was not only CAbbas Mirza into a sorry state. empty,

but deep

in debt

due to the

financial

excesses

and

The Shah was a poliof HujI Mirzu Aqas;. misadministration support tical babe, and Amlr kabir himself had no political other than the Shah, surrounded as he was with jealous courQueen Mother. In spite of hostile tiers and a steadfastly AmIr Kabir succeeded in regulathese formidable obstacles, in introducing some new nzing some areas of administration, in and, most significantly, elements into Iranian society, central control throughout the country. reestablishing Kabir's

One need only consider the scope and dimension of AmIr in domestic policy to see what a master activities

statesman

he was.

Few major

areas

remained

untouched.

Des-

an important however, of his activity pite the extent, question posed by his career is whether Amir Kablr represented he an innothat is-was from traditionalism, a discontinuity vator in the sense of breaking from the past and laying for future growth at the expense of traditional foundations whether he was simply a man of unusual ability society-or of the old order, introducing dedicated to the preservation A only what he saw as the necessary means for strength. will shed of the measures AmTr Kabir instituted consideration light

on this

fundamental

question.

III In the field of industry AmIr Kabir stimulated a He encouraged the development number of new developments. a center for analyzing of a mining industry by establishing mineral deposits and by opening up new lands for prospecting Actax exemptions to developers.el five-year and offering tax exemption was not cording to Adamlyat t he five-year limited to mining, but was a general law which applied to In other specific areas, Persian all new enterprises.12 such foreign were induced to imitate and duplicate artisans

IRANIANSTUDIES

90

items as samovars, carriages and American round stoves, In addition, industries in beginning those industries.13 Tehran for the making of calico, broadcloth, and spun thread owed their inspiration to Amir Kabir'8 measures.14 And, to Amir promote the products of these new Iranian factories, Kablr went so far as to organize an exhibition of Iranian industrial goods in Tehran.15 of Amir Kablr were undoubtedly a The foreign visits key influence on his drive to establish new factories since he generally proceeded by sending groups of craftsmen and entrepreneurs abroad for study, work, or observation missions in foreign industries. For example, in cooperation with the Russian government he sent a group to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1851 to work in Russian factories and develop skills in their respective trades. These trades included the following fields: paper making, crystal glass making, casting of iron, sugar refining and lump sugar production, carpentry, After three years of training the six and wheel making.16 members of that group returned and established their own in Igfahln, Tehran and Sari. factories Also in 1851, in an effort to improve the silk industry he sent two Kashan silk weavers to Istanbul to acquire new techniques.17 Thus, the Ottoman Enpire and Russia, the two regions with which AmTr Kabir had had personal acquaintance, served as areas to emulate in the industrial realm, though neither was notably advanced in that field. And, as previously mentioned, the industries emulated were similar to the ones that AmIr KabTr himself had observed on his own trips abroad. Though Russia and the Ottoman Empire were the principal industrial models, Austria was also looked to for guidance and equipment. AmTr Kabir sent an envoy there to purchase the of a necessary tools and machinery for the establishment flannel industry in Iran and requested that he hire two workmen skilled in the working of flannel material to set the industry up.18 The flannel industry proved to be unsuccessful in Iran, but the intent conforms to a larger pattern. Many of the

industrial

enterprises

Amir

Kabir

encouraged

had a

more or less direct relevance to the army: flannel, epaulets a factory having also been set up for the and insignias, latter two items, for uniforms; mining for the necessary metal and minerals used to manufacture powder and weapons;

91

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

carriages, iron casting, lumber, glass and others. The impact of the West in the early nineteenth century had first been felt as a military challenge and by mid-century the sharpest point of need to modernize was still perceived in the military sphere. Consequently, the army was a crucial modernizing influence and industrial, as well as other reforms, were undertaken primarily, though not entirely, in response to military need. The response, however, was much more sophisticated under Amir ICabTr, in view of the extent of his reform activity, than the more singular-minded CAbbls Mirzi before him. Amir Kabir made significant contributions to a variety of areas in Iranian society. Trade felt his beneficent hand when he secured trade routes by restoring a semblance of order in the country, built caravansaries, and had construca center of comnercial ted thegreat bazaar at Tehran, still when Amir Kabir entered office the In finance, activity. state treasury was swamped with an enormous number of liabilities, mostly grants and pensions of the previous reign. Upon assuming office the new sadr-i aczam ordered a full situation review of the financial by a committee of accountants. They discovered that expenditures were one million tumlns service had above revenues and that the ranks of the civil been swollen during the reign of MuhammadSh-ah by legions of bureaucrats and pensioners, many of whom did no government work at all. In Western sources which discuss financial reforms there is some discrepancy as to what AmTr Kabtr did with regard to the extravagant number of grants that his Rawlinson states predecessor, IjjI Mirzi Aqasl, had issued. that he revoked many of them, whereas Avery says that he all creditors. strove to satisfy Watson, on the other hand, implies that Amir Kabir honored all of the outstanding grants, but nicely dodges the issue by specifying only that Amir Kabir 9 Persian sources, preferred to boldly face the difficulty. fashion chahowever, generally agree that in the decisive racteristic of his tenure in office Amur Kabir checked the deficit by cutting down on pensioners and on the salaries of Nasikh al-Tav-arikh, of civil servants. The chronicler "the of civil records that salaries for instance, servants, great and the small and the strong and the weak," were cut anywhere from ten to fifty percent. Lisan al-Mulk goes on the history of the to complain that even he "who translated

IRANIANSTUDIES

92

from ten languages" was seven climes and the five continents move of not immune from the salary cuts under the austerity AmnirKabir.20 reforms of Amrlr Kablr reestablished the The financial the revenues of the state on a sound footing and established credit of the Shah. It does not appear, however, that he structure of the introduced any new ideas into the financial but rather regularized the existing system to a relastate, He reassessed land taxes, tively high state of efficiency. reducing assessments in some cases, and brought dead lands He also sought to increase agricultural into cultivation. the basis of taxation, by carrying out irrigation production, and introducinf works, having several small dams constructed, several new plants, such as American cotton and sugar cane.2 The major change Amir KabTr introduced on the land, in the ictac system. however, was an important alteration Under this system the government granted assignments of land on the basis of which the grantee was to provide as his service in return a military contingent when called upon by the Amir Kabir kept the system, but shifted its government. features. For raising army contingents outside of tribal areas, "It was made incumbent upon each area to provide, in or, in some so many soldiers addition to its tax assessment, to the wages of so many soldiers."*22 cases, a sum equivalent were the basis of assignment and the landowner was Tax lists of this conand support the families to provide a contingent Contrary to previous tingent in return for tax credits. practice, however, the grantee himself did not normally His main task was to expedite accompany the contingent. their dispatch to the designated encampment, usually the Thus, theoretically, the or provincial capital.23 capital central government would command the loyalty of these solthe land diers instead of the local grantee. Historically, grant system was intended to defray the cost of the contingents the assignee was obligated to provide, but this system toward decentralization because the loytended to gravitate not to alty of each contingent was, in the first instance, In order the central government, but to the land grantee. a strong for the system to function at all necessitated Thus, Amlr KabTr's move strengthened central government. forces and the central government vis-a-vis decentralizing

93

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regularized governmental control of the army by transferring the duty of military service from an assignee on a piece of land to the land itself. As MustawfT points out, the operation of this method of army raising required reform in taxation since taxation of each village was related to the number of troops they supplied. And, in places like KishiLn and Yazd which didn't supply any troops, their taxation in cash was to be increased accordingly. Thus, in connection with his having the financial situation of the country fully reviewed, mentioned above in dealing with financial reform, Amlir Kabir bad carried out a universal auditing of accounts and tax assessments in order to make administratively feasible the intimate relation of revenue collection and army recruitment.24 This reordering tended to preserve the traditional the autocratic society by strengthening power of the Shah via more effective means of centralized control. That preservation was the probable intention is suggested by the fact that there was no substantive change in land tenure or taxation other than the ictiC system which itself was directly pertinentto the army, the one field in which change was an accepted of "self-strengthening." corollary

IV The army has thus far been viewed primarily as an Of course, the army itself was affecinstrument of change. tedby the reforms of Amir Kabir as well as exerting an effifor modernization on the whole of Iranian cacious influence more than rabble when The standing army was little society. Amir Kabir assumed office and "within a few years he formed a standing army of 20,000 disciplined infantry, cavalry and men."25 There is some discrepancy in the sources artillery regarding the figures involved. According to Mustawfi, for example, Amir KabTr put into the service of the government, and 30,000 cavalry as well as an addi100,000 foot soldiers tional number of artillerymen. These sums, however, apparent recruitment at full mobilization reflect the total possible Whatever the and not a permanent corps of standing troops.26 clear that a relatively it is, nonetheless, exact figurs well organized standing army was molded into being during of regular pay The institution the vizierate of Amir Kabir. in recruitment was probably most instrumental and systematic

IRANIANSTUDIES

94

creating at least a semblance of armed strength, but the feat was quite remarkable given the almost continual succession of uprisings and insurrections with which Amir Kabir had to deal. Amongst others, the rebellion of Salir at Mashhad, and the BabI insurrections at Yazd-Nayriz in the spring of 1850 and at Zanjin in the summer of 1850 were serious challenges to the authority of the central government. Yet, Amir IabTr managed to handle those threats while at the same time reorganizing the army and carrying out numerous reforms. Neverit remains true that the army never became a source theless, of national strength and in fact again degenerated after the death of Amir Kablr. But, a modernizing influence it was, and where the traditional society could not provide the necessary accouterments and knowledge for the new army, modifications were introduced. The army gave a direct impetus to the setting up of the first modern institution of higher learning in Iran. The old religious schools (madlris) were clearly not equipped to provide the type of education needed by army officers. the dlr al-funUn (the Abode of Sciences) Accordingly, was established. The course of study at this polytechnic school represented such disciplines as artillery, infantry, cavalry, military engineering, mineralogy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, medicine, and surgery.27 The military emphasis is obvious, but though the primary purpose was to train officers for the army, "Such schools in which European sciences were taught contribuAed considerably to the growing intellectual enlightenment"2 Such a by-product was ultimately more significant and important than any contribution to the army, but this is an unintended effect which we cannot trace here. Additional momentum to the spread of modern knowledge was provided by the founding of the first official Persian newspaper, the ruznamah-i vagaic-i ittifaqiyah (The News paper of Current Events"). This paper was started by Amir Klibir in 1850 prior to the opening of the dar al-funurn, but was printed in that school's print shop after it opened. He placed the newspaper "...under an English editor whose duty was to republish judicious or interesting extracts from European journals."29 The dissemination of European ideas contained in the paper was assured by the expedient of requiring, so Curzon tells us, the entire Civil Service above

95

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a certain rank to become regular subscribers. The paper subsequently expired, but along with the dar al-fun7n it undoubtedly contributed to the extension of Western conceptions of society. ArimrKabir staffed the dar al-funin with Austrian professors, seeking educational as well as industrial assistance from Austria. This choice can no doubt be attributed to the Anglo-Russian rivalry of interests in Iran, mention of which leads us to a brief consideration of Amir Kabir's international policy. Amilr KabIr entertained the notion that Iran should refuse the demands of both great rival powers, Britain and Russia, so as to be impartial between the two. Ramazani calls this an innovation in Iranian diplomacy which he terms the "policy of equilibrium." "Since 1800 Shahs had thrown in their lot first with one and then the other power, but Amir Nizam [AnimirKabir] introduced the concept of equilibrium in combatting Anglo-Russian rivalry. He consistently opposed European pressures."30 An example of this policy in action was provided by his refusal of "...the proposed good offices of both the Russian and E'nglish representatives at Tehran for the purpose of bringing about a satisfactory compromise between the government and the rebels of Khorassan."31 Amir to European Kabir undoubtedly displayed impartial opposition but such a policy was nearly impossible diplomatic pressure, to implement in a positive manner, that is, in the dimishment of the influence in Iran by foreign interests. exercised Whereas Amilr Kablr withstood the demands of the Great Powers as far as he was able, his freedom to maneuver was limited. Perhaps the best that can be said is that he was inmensely more successful than his successors. V

to preserve and enhance in his efforts Domestically, the power of the central government Amlr Kabir was faced not only with a serious threat from the Babi religious heresy, of orthodox rebut also hostility from the representatives ligion. The complex episode of religious upheaval which occurred at that time in the form of the Babi movement is beyond the scope of this paper,32 but it should be mentioned but that Amir Kabir dealt blows to not only heretical,

IRANIANSTUDIES

96

orthodox religious influences. The bli movement was a clear political threat to the regime. On the other hand, the spokesmen for orthodoxy opposed the changes prompted by AmTr Kabir, primarily it seems because any extension of government premeant a corresponding decline in their own political rogatives positions in Iranian society. The diar al-funjun, for instance, was aimed at strengthening the army thereby enhancing the power of the central authority. It had an additional effect in that it cut deeply into the near monopoly that religious schools had had on education and was bound to extend secularisn at the expense of the religious establishment. The latter, of course, was a potential but more immediate causes of effect, antagonism between Amlr Kabir and the ulama were many. Among them was Amir Kabrr's attempt to do away with the tacziyah (passion play). His motive, in all probability, was to limit the attendant emotional fervor which could so easily be turned into political capital and thereby threaten the regime. However, as Algar relates, the deep and widespread attachment to the tacz yah as a means of expressing loyalty to Shi'ism was too strong to be broken by Anfr KabIr and in the face of he was obliged to relent.33 On another strong opposition occasion Amlr Kabir had several of the leading religious personalities of Tabriz expelled in order to counter the growing religious excitement over supposed miraculous events in a Tabriz shrine.34 The threat to order and government control had again evoked a strong response. Yet another the power of the state Visinstance of Amir Kabir asserting a-vis the ulama was his move to restrict the essentially political privilege of bast (sanctuary) which was accorded mosques and shrines. He did, in fact, abolish bast in the leading mosque of Tehran, the Masjid-i Shlh, but Is only In each it elsewhere. in restricting successf'ul partially v case, though, the intent of Amir Kabir's policies relative to religious is clear. affairs curtailed He consistently political manifestations of religious emotions, be they Bibi or Shi'ite, in a drive to enhance the authority of the central In consequence, considerable government. hostility was generated.

97

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

VI

in opposition was not, however, instrumental Religious It was, rather, bringing about the downfall of Amir Kabir. noblemen. The measures of AmIr of discontented the intrigues ones, and his honesty checked his financial Kabir, particularly of a host of influential the gains and maneuverability point around the These people found a rallying persons. Queen Mother who had withheld her confidence from him. Moreof the Shah was incurred, possibly aided over, the distrust by the bearing of Amir Kabir toward him. According to Loribore himself with a hauteur and self-sufficiency mer, "...he to the Shah and it was that cannot but have been disagreeable of the Shah as 'that young said that te had spoken slightingly The Shah, of course, was only sixteen years of fellowl.1139 a picDe Gobineau details age when he ascended the throne. towards the Shah which is even ture of AMIr Kabir's behavior that in disregard He records, for instance, more overbearing. AmIr Kabir addressed the Shah in the intimate of convention, could well have Such behavior second person singular.37 predisposed the Shah to pay heed to the charges of the Queen Mother and other enemies of Amir Kabir who sought his ouster. the immense prestige that he had among the Most certainly army was a factor in his downfall because it lent credibility to the charge of his enemies that he cherished designs on the throne. This charge is what appears to have moved the A contemporary observor, Lady Shiel, mentions Shah to action. for precautions military that only after taking extraordinary his own safety did the Shah dismiss Amlr Kabir,38 an indication not only of his power, but also of the Shah's motives. Amir Kabir was dismissed from office in November of 1851 and fearing His rivals, three months later he was put to death. his return to power, exerted continual pressure on Nlsir alBut, it is ironic that Din Shah to be rid of Amir Kabir. which he had endeavored to foreign diplomatic pressure, for his abrupt counter, was in a certain sense responsible death. Prince Dolgoruky, the Russian Minister in Tehran, had boasted that he would soon receive from St. Peters"...openly to demand a guarantee for Ameer's life."39 burg instructions of such a diplomatic plight arising probably The likelihood the decision of the Shah to do away with him. precipitated

IRANIANSTUDIES

98

Conclusion Amlr Kabir was undoubtedly one of the most talented The sheer dimension and able men in modern Iranian history. a high degree of statesmanship. of his measures indicate there is not sufficient evidence to contend Nevertheless, Despite all the rethat he was a foresighted innovator. and regularization that he carried out, there organization is evidence that Amir Kabir sought no basic change in the For instance, he generally moved fabric of Iranian society. elements of society in the in accordance with the traditional realm, when In the industrial introduction of new ideas. training or obselecting people to go abroad for technical he ghose heavily from prominent guild servation missions, In like manner, when he infused members and older men.4 training in the education with the new element of technical his program of study included also the knowdlr al-funun, It schools.41 taught in the religious ledge traditionally is further illustrative that nearly all of the students first selected by order of Amlr Kabir to attend the dir al-funun An even more signifiwere the sons of leading families.42 cant indicator of Amir Kablr'rs conservative attachment, howAccordever, was in the realm of government administration. ing to Binder, "He didn't attempt to fashion the cabinet into an efficient instrument of policy-making nor into an adminisall trative controlled board, for he tightly coordinating Rather than innovate at himself. governmental activities he concentrated upon working the highest governmental level, the existing system to the best of his great ability."43 Furthermore, as evidenced, most of the reforms of Amir Kabir of a "modernrelated to the establishment were significantly ized" military force. The desire to attain the aforementioned did not necessarily involve a new conception of society. Thus it is not at all clear that Amlr KabTr envisioned a new social aimed at a fundamental transformaframework or intentionally tion of traditional institutions and structures as is someto him. More likely, times attributed his concern was to control of centralized increase the effectiveness political state. and, thereby, to strengthen the traditional

99

1971 SPRING-SUMMER

NOTES dar Iran (Tehran,

1.

Ismac%l Ra'ain, zHuquqBegiran-i p. 229. 1347/1968),

2.

Hashiml Rafsanjinl, AMIr KabYr yi Qahriman-i Mubarazah pp. 7-10; Husayn Makki, ba IstiCmir (Tehran, 1346/1967), Zindigani-yi Mirza Tagi KhianAmir KabIr (Tehran, 1337/ 1958), pp. 2-3.

3.

Hamid Algar, Religion and State (Berkeley, 1969), p. 136.

4.

E. G. Browne, The Press and Poetry (Cambridge, 1914), p. 310.

5.

Faridiun Adamiyat, Amir Kabir va Tran, 3rd edition (Tehran, 1969), pp. 19-20.

6.

Ibid.,

7.

cAbbas Iqbal,

8.

Peter Avery, Modern Iran (New York, 1965),

9.

Mahdi Bamdad, Tiarikh-i 1347/1969), p. 211.

IngilTs

in Iran,

1785-1906

of Modern Persia

pp. 166-17. Mirzl Tagi Khin Milr Kablr, p. 29.

Rijal-i

Ir-an, Vol.

p. 50. I (Tehran,

10.

Ibid.,

p. 212.

11.

Reza Arasteh, Education (Leiden, 1962), p. 37.

12.

Xdamlyat,

13.

Ibid.,

p. 388.

14.

Ibid.,

pp. 385-86.

15.

cAll Aaghar Shamim, Irn dar Dawrah-i Saltanat-i (Tehran, 1963), p. 119.

ap. cit.,

IRANIANSIUDIES

and Social

Awakening in Iran

p. 382.

100

Q5jXr

p. 385.

16.

Adamlyat, 2p. cit.,

17.

Arasteh,

18.

Ibid.

19.

Sir Henry Rawlinson, England and Russia in the East (London, 1875), p. 83; Robert Grant Watson, A History of Persia (London, 1866), pp. 373-74; Avery, op. cit. P. 49.

20.

Lisan al-.Mulk, N'asikh al-Tavarlkh, 1966), p. 191.

21.

Arasteh,

22.

A. K. S. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant 1953), p. 164.

23.

CAbdulllh Mustawfi, va Idirii ijti_ -c 1321/1942), p. 69.

24.

Ibid.,

25.

Arasteh,

26.

Mustawfl,

2p. cit.,

27.

Adanflyat,

o.

28.

A. K. S. Lambton, "The Impact of the West on Persia," International Affairs, Vol. 33, No. 1 (January, 1957),

29.

George N. Curzon, Persia,

30.

Rouhollah K. Ramazani, The Foreign Policy of Iran, 1941 (Charlottesville, Virginia), 1966, p. 65.

31.

Watson, ap. cit.,

2p. cit.,

ap. cit.,

p. 35.

Vol.

3 (Tehran,

1385/

p. 36. in Persia

(London,

SharL-i Zindig-aln-yi Man: Trl`kh-i Dawrah-.i jar1yah, Vol. I (Tehran,

p. 70. op. cit.,

cit.,

p. 20. p. 70. p. 348.

Vol.

II (London, 1892),

p. 468. 1500-

pp. 382-83.

101

1971 SPRING-SUMKER

32.

It seems to this writer that a number of interesting and important questions in regards to the Babi movement have been left virtually untouched. The theological aspects have received a good deal of attention, but social and economic causes have been treated in depth only by M. S. Ivanov in his Russian language work entitled, The BUb! Risings in Iran, 1848-52, and his analysis is marred by a Marxist bias. But equally surprising is the curious lack of any anthropological-sociological approaches to the Bib! movement. I would suggest that a fruitful avenue of approach might be to view it as a nativistic or messianic movement. Nikki Keddie draws some suggestive comparisons with the radical messianic movement, the Tapings in China, in her article, "Religion and Irin Early Iranian Nationalism," religion Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. IV (1962), pp. 265-295, but she does not penetrate the subject to any great degree.

33.

Algar,

2p. cit.,

34.

Ibid.,

pp. 134-35.

35.

Ibid.,

pp. 133-135.

36.

J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia, Vol. I, Part 2, Ch. 11-12 (Calcutta, 1915), p. 1999.

37.

Comte de Gobineau, Correspondance entre le Comte de Gobineau et le Comte de Prokesch-Osten (1854-1877) (Paris, 1933), p. 68.

38.

Lady Shiel, Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia (London, 1856), p. 248.

39.

Watson, op. cit.,

40.

Arasteh,

41.

Ibid.,

op. cit.,

pp. 135-36.

p. 401. pp. 35, 37.

p. 37.

IRANIANSTUDIES

102

42.

IqbEl Yaghmi'i, Madrasah-i Dar al-Fun n," Yaghma (Tir, 1348/1969), p. 223.

43.

Leonard Binder, Chan n_Society

Iran: Political Develo ment in a (Berkeley, 1962), p. 105.

IN MEMORIAM GUSTAVEDMUND VONGRUNEBAUM Professor Gustave Edmund von Grunebaum died on 27 February 1972, after a short illness, at the age of 62. While his brilliant and original scholarship spanned the widest reaches of Islamic culture, he was always particularly responsive to the phenomena of human imagination and creativity. It was in this context that he performed an inestimable service as friend and promoter of Iranian studies. As Director of the Near Eastern Center at UCLAhe gave ample evidence of his genuine and sympathetic interest in Iranian culture by cosponsoring with The Society for Iranian Studies, and generously playing host to the International Conference on "The State and Society in Islamic Iran" in June of 1969. The members of the Society for Iranian Studies join all the lovers of excellence and virtu in mourning his irreparable loss. Amin Banani

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SPRING-sUmER 1971

THE SALE OF OFFICESIN QAJAR IRAN, 1858-1896 A. REZASHEIKHOLESLAMI

Political systems which are able to develop share two to assifirst, they show an ability general characteristics: milate political demands, and second, they sustain a dynamic The study of bureaucracy derives its importance integrity. from the essential role it plays in this dual process through its functions of recruitment of new elements on one hand, and and providing for the functioning the new recruits socializing of the system on the other.1 The sale of offices as a part of this system-maintenance mechanism will be studied here through its functions I will attempt to study of recruitment and socialization. the problem as a subsystem within the larger context of a state, and as a natural extension of the concept patrimonial Then, I will discuss of an office as a piece of property. during the reasons for the increase of the sale of offices the second half of the nineteenth century in Iran, the nature the effect of it on the and finally of the sale itself, Iranian political system.

is a doctoral candidate in Islamic A. Reza Sheikholeslami of California, Los Angeles. Studies at the University was presented at a panel on An earlier version of this article "Administrative Developments in Qajar Iran," cosponsored by The Society for Iranian Studies and the Middle East Studies held in Denver, Colorado, November, 1971. Association,

IRANIANSTUDIES

104

Offices

as Revenue

The Qajar bureaucracy during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah (1848-1896) fulfilled the three most important criteria in the "Weberian" model of a primitive bureaucracy: (a) offices were not structurally and functionally differentiated; (b) with some exceptions, there was no specialized training or knowledge required from those in the official hierarchy; and, (c) offices were thought of in terms of revenue rather than in an abstract form. 2 Consequently, they could routinely be sold, farmed out, and inherited. Such a concept of an office is an integral part of any patrimonial system.3 The Patrimonial

Structure4

The Qajar state in the second half of the nineteenth century was a patrimonial system. The Shah, like other patrimonial rulers, viewed the political offices as his private it in the same manner as he did his other domain, exploiting possessions, basically farming them out among the members of his household. This is, however, the maximum level of generalization which can be made about the Qajar system, since the on the Shah, as a patrimonial ruler, selected his officials basis of his personal confidence in them and without estabon their authority or lishing any consistent limitations obligations. Thus, the powers of individual officials who succeeded each other varied greatly, and generalization beyond the observable empirical facts is likely to go astray. for each individual Separate rule-making and rule-application case is an important characteristic of all patrimonial systems, allowing for the exercise of the ruler's personal authority without fear of established procedures. Consequently, in Qajar Iran, in contrast to many countries where the sale of offices has been practiced, there was no set of regulations, written or understood, governing the manner of sale, the relationship between the purchaser and his superior, the purchaser's authority and his rights, which would have been binding upon both parties in the sale.5 The sources only indicate that the officials viewed their political functions as personal services for the Shah and their duties as basically limited to respect and obedience to him. Their high social standing was, in fact, only a privilege easily

105

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

bestowed or withdrawn by the Shah.6 The pattern of the is, of course, one of the patriarch and his relationship become of this relationship The ramifications household. more clear when we look at a list of the Qajar governors for extracted from Muntapam-i While the list, the year 1879-1880. irI, is incomplete, it still sheds some light on he extent the Shah's eldest Zill al-Sultln, of the Qajar household.7 Arik, Khizistln son, governed over Isfahan; Yazd, Burijird, imran MTrza, the regent and the Shah's other and Luristin. of the ministry of war, son, filled the important portfolio He was also governor of Tehran, as well as that of conmerce. GTl1n, Mazandaran, Astar-Albid, F9riiz-KTh, DamnEvand,Qum, Maliyir, Tuysirkan, Nahavand, Sivah, Zarand, Shahsavan, and funds at the same time he was also in charge of allocating The regent and Zill alamong the ulama and the princes. Sultan, of course, delegated their authority over many of An these offices to others in return for a yearly income. example is the fact that Naiir al-Dawlah was in charge of behalf. The crown the ministry of connerce on the regent's Fars governorship of Azarbayjin. prince had the traditional was governed by Muctamid al-Dawlah, the Shah's uncle, and had the governorship of KirminPrince Hishmat al-Saltanah Sh-ahan, and Prince cAgd al-Dawlah that of Qazvin. The portand the sciences were of justice of the ministries folios Nearly all the men that also filled by the Shah's relatives. Benjamin, the American ambassador to Iran in this period, mentions as being most powerful are princes8 also meant that a share of the officialPatrimonialism household. dom should go to other members of the patriarch's emerged from the ranks of the This latter group had basically the Shah's personal servants. They inpishkhidmat class, the minister of the cluded men such as ictimad al-sal$anah, the minister of the post, and the press, amIn al-dawlah, to the court and the ministers powerful amln al-sultans, functions In fact, the official gadr-i aczam (grand vizier). as the minister of some ot them, such as ictimad al-saltanah, of the press, and Baminal-dawlah as the minister of the post, of the personal services they performed were only extensions for the Shah, which in these two cases were to read the international press to him and write his communications as his personal secretaries.

IRANIANISDIES

106

Increase

in the Sale of Offices

The increase that may be observed in the sale of during the second half of Nasir al-Din Shah's reign offices is not as much a sign of corruption or systemic change as it officialdom is the sign of the expansion of a patrimonial under the impact of the West. The norms remained the same: offices were sources of revenue, and recruitment outside of The household was not as yet contemplated. the patriarch's however, created structure, expansion of the administrative as well as the such that the supply of offices, conditions demand for them, increased. The outstanding example in this regard is the ministry felt the impact of which had naturally of foreign affairs, It the West more than had other branches of the government. with func.institution, had become a highly differentiated It had also become too departments. specific tionally cumbersome. While the practice of sending permanent repreto foreign lands had only recently been inaugurated, sentatives of in thirteen cities the ministry had permanent delegates the Ottoman Enpire alone.9 also. started to flourish Other borrowed institutions kubra) Council (shawr-yi One such was the High Consultative which had no defined functions and yet expanded, creating The to those who sought offices.10 available more positions which were copied from the mushrooming of new ministries, of the West, also created increasing ministries functional numbers of positions. Other imports from the West, such as the presentation of medals of honor, also opened up new markets, which were Reading through fully by the Shah and others. exploited Diary, it seems that hardly a day went Ictimad al-Saltanah's by without some symbolic honor having been bestowed on some one for some amount.11 The use of money as had increased sharply with money could buy, particularly A new manufactured goods. had to be paid for through

a generalized means of exchange the increase of the items that European luxury items and life style, European and expensive, to a tradithe means available

107

1971 SPRING-SUMJMER

As a result, tional and meager economy.12 accentuated the traditional West actually institutions.

the impact of the money-raising

was affected by the the folie des offices Finally, which lacked a class of strong Persian social structure, landowners with local roots to balance the status relationpower rather Landownership was the result of political ships. as the The Shah remained, therefore, than the cause of it. dispenser of status and power. Social rank came all-dominant to be dependent solely on the dignity of the office that the Shah bestowed upon a person, with the exception of the relione had To be a member of the secular elite, gious class. The Iranian to hold a governmental position. necessarily with no autoa court aristocracy was therefore aristocracy not only to nomy. Its members needed governmental positions increase their wealth and climb the social ladder, but to maintain the wealth and status they had already secured. The Sale of an Office The procedure of the sale was generally a simple one. Possible purchasers of an office would be informed of a coming the and ministries, vacancy, and, for lesser governorates The account that highest bidder would receive the position. Mulk Ira, the Shah's brother, presents is representative.13 When, in 1893, he became governor of Rasht, he paid 25,000 and to the grand visier, tumins to the Shah, 7,000 tuins 1,000 tuians to the government agent in charge of receipts With the payments that he made for his robes from Gilin. of honor, the governorate cost him 34,600 tumans, which expense he hoped to be able to offset in the first year and of a state To be governor-general also make some profit. Shahab like Khurisin was, of course, much more expensive. al-Dawlah gave 100,000 tumins for the governorship of Khurisain ashhadJ14 Even a poor without the regency over the shrine in and backward province like Kirmin was in the 100,OOO-tuman bracket .15 of the degree of decentralization It is an indication were sold for far less. of the country that most ministries Mulk lia himself bought the ministry of commerce from the

IRANIANSTUDIES

108

Shah for only 2,000 tumans, and paid 1,000 tumans to Mirza When he tried to sell the offices Yuisuf, the grand vizier. of his ministry in the provinces, he failed badly, because the provinc al governors would not let his agents into their provinces. The governors-general were luckier, and often 17 could sell the governorships of the towns in their provinces. The Shah did not fill the highest positions on the basis of monetary return alone. The British and the Russians in offices had too much interest such as those of the grand vizier and the ministry of foreign affairs to allow the Shah to choose anyone merely on the basis of the highest bid. Even to choose the governor-general of Khuras3n the Shah had to of the nominee with the Russians and study the relationship the British. To date, I have not come across any reliable information on the sale of the office of the grand vizier or of the ministry of foreign affairs. However, such a sale would fit naturally within the Qajar political structure, where offices were sources of revenue and were owned by the The sale of these high offices Shah as the patrimonial ruler. must have been conducted with due discretion as to the ability of the nominee and the wishes of Russia and Britain. In the we know that during his grand viziercase of Ani'n al-Sultan, ate he regularly presented the Shah with gifts on various of the Shah to visits occasions, including the ritualized and his guests had to present his house, where Am3lnal-Sultan money and jewelry to the Shah.18 The amounts the Shah extracted in this way were, however, too small to be considered as the purchase price of such a high office. Moreover, the in the welfare Shah seems to have been genuinely interested of his people, within the traditional bounds, and also too keenly aware of the dangers of rival centers of power to allow just anyone to fill the high ranks of the bureaucracy. bid of For these very reasons he rejected {ill al-Sultan's 100,000 tumans for the governorship of Fars in 1895.19 The Effects

of the Sale of Offices

was mainly the The result of the sales of offices of the peasantry. In the long run, it was the affliction The insepeasantry which footed the bill for the sales. curity of office encouraged the governors to recoup their

109

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

In order to stay for another expenses within the first year. Other year, they generally had to pay a new purchase price. hopefuls often offered higher prices and thus the governors had to extract even more from the peasantry to remain comfrom the peasantry drove it Exorbitant exactions petitive. The dearth of information several times.20 into rebellion on peasant rebellions may be more the result of the inadeof the quacy of communications than the submissiveness from We have, however, a wealth of travelogues peasantry. the period of Nasir al-Din Shah which indicate that practically every governor exacted more taxes from the inhabitants Sometimes the of his governorate than he was allowed. exaction exceeded the allowable tax by as much as four less funds to The governor could also allocate times.21 the ulama and save himself more money, as did Sultin Hamild Ri,.a Parmianfarmi, the governor of KirmUn in 1882. 22 The of the clergy, however, made this practice vociferousness inadvisable. Once the concept of an office as a piece of property have paid fees to exercise politiis accepted, and officials they soon come to expect that their offspring cal authority, should inherit the office as they did other property. This would normally entail the weakening of the state as a centraBut due to the Iranian patrimonial structure, lized entity. came In this same period, offices this process was slowed. to be inherited and the Shah, after securing a certain amount and some of the gave the last title generally for himself, Family jobs of the deceased father to one of his sons. and many sons started accomplishments became cumulative, their careers far above the level at which their fathers inat the age of twenty-three, Amlin al-SultEn, had begun. and position as the minister of title herited his father's the court as well as (according to Ictimad al-Saltanah) Mirza Hasan, the later other positions.23 forty-three of the high was given the position prime minister, liberal treasurer by his father at the age of seven, while the latter alive. was still Although the patrimonial ruler shies away from acceding to any general procedures in writing because he is fearful the Shah on at least one of losing his absolute authority, script to Mlrzi Yiusuf, the grand in an official occasion,

IRANIANSTUDIES

110

vizier, wrote:

proclaimed

that

offices

could be inherited.

He

Your Excellency, Since the ministry of grants and endowments belongs to ArnThal-Mulk by the right of inheritance and deservedly, therefore I write again that this office should be left to Amin 24 al-Mulk and others should not interfere.... Yet, due to the lack of a contractual relationship between the Shah and the purchasers of offices, the Shah did not lose his control over his officialdom. In the last the office was held only by the grace of the Shah. analysis, with the notable exception of M'irza Most high officials, Yuisuf, were so frequently reshuffled that they did not have any bonds to a particular position. But when such bonds did develop and rival centers of power emerged, as in the case the Shah could easily exert his patriof Zill al-Sultan, archal authority. In his entry of November 15, 1887, Ictimad al-Salttanah writes: Praise unto God! Who could possibly imagine that Zill al-Sultan's glory and power burst like a bubble. Yesterday, he was dismissed from all his governorates, which included Fars, Bur jird, Yazd, Arik, CArabistan, Lurista.n, Kirmanshahan, Malpallat, Gulpiygy.n, Khvunsar, etc. The prince will be left only with the etc., governorship of I~fahan. His troops are transferred and his arsenal taken away. The authority of the government, which was lost, has been restored and at least for ten more years. strengthened Many people

have

received

positions*25

The Shah used his arbitrary power often symbolically in order to show that all rights and powers are only privileges for example, when a high conferred by him. On one occasion, official died, the Shah conferred his position upon his son (by a peasant woman) who was so lowly that he had not even been allowed to attend his father's funeral. His two other brothers were being supported by the grand vizier and the remarks to the Ictimad al-Saltanah's Shah's favorite wife.

ill

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

He says, "Your Shah on this occasion are illuminating. of his power. We are Majesty is showing the absoluteness we From the highest to the lowliest, all your servants. It is you who makes one a vizier are not worth anything. Without his Majesty's favorable inand the other an amlr. we are all less than dogs."*26 tentions the The Shah also reserved the right of confiscating wealth could Thus an official's property of his officials. not insure him any independence from the Shab. The more became, the more dependent on the Shah wealthy an official did not allow the he was. In this sense, patrimonialism gentry which would have blocked growth of a bureaucratic the Shah's absolute power. The Shah's exercise of abolutism of the state as a central kept intact a major institution namely, the monarchy. This, to a large exorganization, of the sales repercussions tent, avoided the decentralizing What the Shah's patrimonial absolutism could of offices. effect encouraged, was the stagnating not avoid, and actually The Shah on recruitment processes. of the sales of offices He could choose anywas absolute in a patrimonial context. one, but the choice was limited to the members of his houseto generate a institutions The lack of educational hold. choice. new elite also left the Shah with little potential in Europe had brought Furthermore, while the sale of offices the middle class into the governmental scene, and thus had and social change, such a caused a degree of mobilization in Iran. Those who could class was almost non-existent had already made their fortunes through afford to buy offices of patrimonialism The combined effects governmental service. and the weakness of the middle class meant that the sale of would not open the bureaucracy up to new elements but offices would perpetuate the class which was already in power. The and achieved prominence, few who rose from the lower classes such as Mlrzia cAbd al-Vahhib Aqin lif al-Dawlah, the powerhian Mushir fu governor of Khuriain, or MIrza Naqr Allih al-Mulk, the later Mushir al-Dawlah and minister of foreign affairs, started their careers not as self-made men but as They members of the household of a prince or a minister's increased their wealth through their governmental service, The thus enabling themselves to buy even higher offices. Even those who traditional. was intensely therefore, elite, had come to break the barriers found themselves representing

IRANIANSTUDIES

112

but the interests not the ideals of the class of their origin, of the elite households to which they belonged. Conclusion

Bureaucratic norms of recruitment can be understood of the general integrative patterns of in the perspective system, where ascriptive Within a patrimonial the system. are sold and init is probable that offices norms prevail, To call such practices herited and that nepotism exists. Where a man's moral judgment. corrupt is a retroactive first duty is conceived to be towards his household, distribution of spoils among the members of the household is an as a However, while the sale of offices admired quality. with the Iranian social system and phenomenon was associated not with the Qajars alone, the high rate of the sale of ofnorms the societal ascriptive fices by the Shah intensified socialization procedures. through its patrimonial the venalitg is accelerated des offices Historically, on the periods when institution-building during transitional economy level becomes crucial and the traditional structural This was cannot afford an elaborate governmental structure. The goals of the indithe problem that the Qajars faced. sharply from vidual Qajar office holders, however, differed The importation of a European style of the systemic needs. in the prolife deepened this chasm. The sale of offices, reforms Those who could institute cess, became dysfunctional. any reformist move, power to frustrate used their political for of their possibilities since reform meant the curtailment and social exploitation. fiscal The process of recruitment through the sale of offices, a large portends to alienate although accepted as natural, This process tion of the subject population from the system. alienation are more severe in a patrimonial and the resultant as it becomes more rigid, The system, therefore, state. remains unaffected by any important measure of political articulation.

113

1971 SPRING-SUMMER

NOTES 1.

between on the question of the relationship For details development, see Fritz Morstein bureaucracy and political Marx, "The Higher Civil Service as an Action Group in Western Political Development," in Bureaucracy and Political Development, edited by Joseph LaPalombara (Prince-

ton, 196j3), pp. 62-95. 2.

The ideal-typical

model of the "Weberian" primitive

bureaucracy has been arrived at here by way of contrast rational of an ideal-typical to Weber's definition See H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills bureaucracy. From Max Weber: Essays in and translators), (editors (New York, 1958), pp. 196-244. Sociology

3.

The concept of an office as a piece of property was held even by the most enlightened members of the government. Thus Amtn al-Dawlah, the Westernizing statesman, writes in a matter-of-fact

manner that,

"By the royal

rescript,

the ministry of the post which was created at the percost and labor of AmInal-Mulk [A41Tn sonal [financial] al-Dawlah] was entrusted to himself for ever and the probable and expected profits were to go to him." Mlrzi AMn alhirat-i Slyslr-yi CAll Kh7n Amlin al-Dawlah, 5.9 Faruin p. Farmtalan 1962), Dawlah, ed. tfiz (Tehran,

4.

The following discussion

of the patrimonial system is

dominabased on Weber's study of modes of traditional tions. See Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellechaft, 1925), pp. 679-752; The Theory of Vol. II (Tibingen, translated by A. M. Social and Economic Organization, Henderson and Talcott Parsons (Oxford, 1947), pp. 341358, 371-381; Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: An Intellect(New York, 1962), pp. 329-384. ual Portrait

5.

as a legal phenomenon was most developed Sale of offices dans in France. See G. Pag4s, "La Venalite des offices France," Revue histori ue, 169 (1932), pp. l'ancienne 477-482; Franklin L. Pord, Robe and Sword: The Reafter Louis XIV grouping of the French Aristocracy

IRANIANSTUDIES

114

For the huropean examples and some (Cambridge, 1953). oriental ones see Koenraad Wolter Swart, Sale of Offices 1949). in the Seventeenth Century ('s-Gravenhage, 6.

7.

in this regard to notice the letter It is interesting that Amir Kabtr, the powerful chief minister of Nipir al-Din Sh-ah, wrote to him, promising the youthful Shah that, having resigned from the office of the chief minwith the nonhe would not attempt to interfere ister, of the state. He starts his letter military affairs by declaring that, "This slave from the first day has servant of the center considered himself the lowliest of the world [the Shah], may our lives be sacrificed to him. And I do not claim any dignity unless it is bestowed on me, except for God, by the order and grace of the protector of the world, the Shah, may our lives to him." Although the manner in which be sacrificed AmiTrKabir addresses the Shah may be the prevalent style of the time, the ease with which the powerful chief minister was dismissed and murdered shows that the The of the situation. style represented the reality is deposited in the Royal copy of this letter original Library, Tehran. The text of it is reproduced by Farldiin Adamlyat Amir Kabir va Iran (Tehran, 1969), pp. 693-694. The Shah's other Nor is Amtr Kabir the only example. Mirzia Husayn Westernizing and powerful chief minister, wrote to the Shah in the same vein: Khan Sipahsailir, "It is clear to the blessed dirt under your royal feet that from the day you appointed this contemptible, worthless and undeserving slave only through your mere act of kindness to this glorious and honorable position, I have never attempted to block the God forbidding, of that royal majesty, may our lives blessed decisions is reto him." The text of the letter be sacrificed produced by MatnmidFarhad Muctamid, Sipahsallfr-i Ac;am of See also the-theory (Tehran, 1946), pp. 113-121. emanation proposed by Manfred Halpern, "A Redefinition Journal of International of a Revolutionary Situation," Vol. 23, No. 1 (1969)9 pp. 54-75. Affairs, MuhammadHasan Uanl al-Dawlah (the later Ictimad alVol. I, lithograph T-arikh-i Muntaam-i N-airl, Saltanah),

115

1971 SPRING-SUMMER

(place of publication 1880-1881, Vol. III, 8.

S. G. W. Benjamin, pp. 180-191.

9.

SanI al-Dawlah, II, "supplement," 25-33.

1879-1880, Vol. II, not given), 1881-1882; Vol. I, pp. 239-245. Persia

and the Persians

(Boston,

1887),

"supplement," pp. 21-24; Vol. pp. 22-27, Vol. III, "supplement," pp.

9. cit.,

10.

Ibid., Vol. I, "supplement," p. 4; Vol, II, "supplement," p. 4. The membership of the Council increased from 17 in 1879-80 to 22 in 1880-81.

11.

MuhammadHasan Khan Ictimld al-Saltanah, Riizn_mah-i edited by Traj Afshar KhatirUt-i Ictimad al-Saltanah, (Tehran, 1967).

12.

of the sumptuSee, for example, Benjamin's description ous and Europeanized life style of MNrzl Ya4yai KhIhn brother, who regularly Mushir al-Dawlah, Sepahsilir's pp. 222-226; held high positions. Benjamin, 2P. cit., p. 188. For a general Ictimid al-Saltanah, op. cit., see of the life style of the upper classes description ed. Khiairit-i hammad cAlT Sahyyih, ajj -Eijl Sa"yy3t, Sayf Ali-h Gulkar (Tehran, 1967T)

13.

CAbbla Mrzia Mulk Ara, Sharh-i Ara, ed. by cA. Navia (Tehran,

14.

For further Ictimad al-Saltanah, p. 1144. op. cit., examples, see pp. 345, 1066, and 1149, as well as Sayyahi, pp. 480, 485-486. op. cit.,

15.

Ictimld

16.

Mulk Ira, op. cit.,

17.

Mamlikat-i Khurasin," ed. by Anonymous, "Riznimehah-yi Farhang-i Inrn Zamin, Vol. 15 (1968), KarTa Isfahinian, This is a report of a government pp. 331 and 349-50. to Khurasin around 1850; agent who must have travelled

al-Sallanah,

IRANIANSTUDIES

Sp. cit.,

aii1-i cAbb KiMrzi Mulk 1946), p. 122.-

p. 1068.

pp. 102-103.

116

al-Saltanah,

ICtimad

op.

cit.,

p.

986.

See also,

Beniam[nj-al-Mulk, "Memorandum," Sir Henry Drummond Wolff to the Marquis Salisbury, Gulahek, September 3rd, Foreign and Commonwealth Library, 1890, Great Britain, #5991, p. 4. This is a biography of {ill al-Sullin, MTfrzaRiza officer, written by his one-time financial I am Hakim, after he lost position with the prince. to Professor G. R. Garthwaite of Dartmouth grateful College for bringing this source to my attention. 18.

Ictimid al-Saltanah, 1045, 1079.

19.

Ibid.,

20.

pp. 121-122. Amin al-Dawlah, 2p. cit., Ri.Aa Arfac, hiairat-i Prince Arfac (Arfac al-Dawlah) Irn-i Diruz: I"timad al-Saltanah, Tbehran, 1966), pp. 151-156. 2. The urban poor also broke into pp. 1145, 1150. cit., pp. 152, See Amin al-Dawlah, o. cit., open rebellion. pp. 426, 1150, 181; Ictimad al-Sallanah, op. cit.,

*. cit.,

pp. 593, 823, 886-887,

p. 1158.

1170-71.

21.

Ih4amad Ibrihim KhudAbandahlU, "Riisnlmah-yi Safar-i pp. 122-144, ed. by Iraj Afshir, KhurEsan va Sistin," Inan-Zamin, Vol. 12 (1964), pp. 127-128; Parhangi pp. 348, "RfUznamehah-yi Mamllkat-i Khuriasn," 2p. cit., Tulfat al354-55; Xqa MirzicAll Safa al-Salanah, Fuctari, pp. 90-190, ed. by Rukn al-Din Humayiin Farrukh, pp. 117-118. Farhang-i Yran-Zamin, Vol. 16 (1969-70), of the two For more information see the travelogues to Harlt and Marv in who travelled Qajar functionaries the 1850s in ST Safarnamah, ed. by Qudrat-Alllh Rushani Zafaranli (Tehran, 1968).

22.

Sharkh ihln-i Piarizi,

23.

cit., pp. 327-328. ICtimld al-Saltanah, a. of office see ;ani examples of inheritance Vol. III, pp. 256, 311, 324-325, op. cit.,

Asam1-i FarmandYapiyA Aiyadl Kirm-ani, "Fihrist-i ed. Muhammad Ibrahim Biastini Kirman," pp. 1-86, Vol. 12 (1964), pp. 64-65. Iran-Zamin, Farhang-i

117

For more al-Dawlah, 327.

SPRING-SUMME1971

24.

Sani al-Dawlah,

25.

Ictimad al-Sal]anah,

26.

Ibid.,

27.

"A!if al-Dawlaha: KIrzi Abd alVusayn SaCldat-Nuri, Vahhlb Ahr if al-Dawlah, " Yaghma, Vol. 15, No. 11 (November, 1962), pp. 522-527. For the relationship between MuCtamin al-Mulk, minister of foreign affairs, as the head of the household, and Abd al-Vahhab Khan, as a member of the household, see ;anI al-Dawlah, o. cit., Vol. III, p. 314; Mist 'A&l Khin MuCayir allimalik, CAhd-i N-AVir"I: Cirza Na r-Allsh "Rijal-i Dhan P1rnlyi," Yaghal, Vol. 9, No. 6 (1956), pp. 283286.

a.

cit., ?.

Vol. cit.,

II,

p. 322.

p. 620.

p. 834.

ON "ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS COMMENTS IN QWJARIRAN" AMINBANANI Our knowledge of the structure and exercise of power in Qajar Persia is aided and stimulated by conceptual and Thus we approaches from comparative contexts. analytical of and modal interpretations find the allure of theoretical systems and behavior in the nineteenth-century the political while by and large the body of positive Persia irresistible, can securely stand is research upon which such constructs to the three papers in this panel My reactions fragmentary. are guided by the degree to which I feel the author has sucto interpretations plausible systematic ceeded in relating research. cogent, first-hand, positive AmninBanani is Professor of History Los Angeles. of California, versity

IRANIANSTUDIES

118

and Persian

at the Uni-

the historian and the social Unless at this point Persia on nineteenth-century by theoretical of the field-characterized

factual

paucity-are

extremely

sensitive

working scientist in the development and sophistication

to the conceptual

developed of applying implications highly and methodological they stand in field, models to an underdeveloped theoretical in assessing the proper reladistortions danger of serious ideas and and realities, of theories and interaction tionship Thus it seems to me, study. of their in the subject events, with of legitimacy theories for example, that we often confuse

of power. Whereas in the histhe process of legitimization are torical context that process and its supporting theories of power. In this invariably secondary to the consolidation to view the behavior of the QIajars and the political light, century by an emphasis realities of Persia in the nineteenth of monarchy is only on the Persian theories and traditions less absurd than doing so in terms of the Shi'ite slightly of state. theories A misreading of the role of Amir Kabir by a generation but it should not writers requires correction, of uncritical of his efforts for increasing result in an underestimation "Unliberal" as this view of the central state. the efficiency may be,

it

has

enormous

implications

for

mid-nineteenth-century

between the impact of the tanzlmat For the difference Persia. men in the Ottoman Empire and consequences of Arnlr KabTr"'s is that, whereas the former tended to raprojected efforts the latter structure, administrative an existing tionalize might have created one in Persia. I find the treatment of the practice of sale Finally, inin the context of an essentially non-existent of offices of fabric the most rewarding and enlightening stitutional data from positive It succeeds in extracting these papers. sources that can be looked at and comprehended as a original of power. pattern of exercise

119

SPRING-SUMMER1971

BOOK REVIEWS Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum. By P. R. S. Moorey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. 341pp. and 85 plates. $41.75. OLEGGRABAR To the art historian and to the archaeologist this is an admirable book. Outwardly it is the complete catalogue of 541 objects, all but 12 in bronze, all in one collection, and all belonging to what is known as Luristan bronzes. As a catalogue it is about ideal for it illustrates all the objects, describes them in thorough and systematic manner, and provides considerable But it comparative information. is far more than a catalogue, for its plan of organization by types of functions and then by shape and subject will make it for a long time the basic reference for further It is of the problems posed by the bronzes. discussions also more than a catalogue because each group is not only discussed as a conglomerate of objects accidentally gathered in one place but as part of a broader typology of objects whose purposes and uses have led the author to any number of investigations and stylistic

because problem section chapter

it of on on

from technical ones to iconographic ranging it is more than a catalogue ones. Finally

on the contains a long and complex introduction a the bronzes (with a few pages on forgeries), horses in ancient Persia, and a long and important metallurgy in western Iran before 1000 B.C.

Oleg Grabar is Professor

IRANIANSTUDIES

of Fine Arts at Harvard University.

120

There is much analyses). (together with complete technical in these pages and each user of the that will be discussed book will be drawn to whatever point or problem may be of to him. Thus one may wonder whether the antelopes interest or stags being bitten by snakes (no. 517, pp. 272-3) are not of a theme which has had a long hisan early illustration Antiquity and in the Sasanian and Muslim tory in classical In a general way one may regret that more Middle Ages.1 has not been given to whatever symbolic or reliattention gious meanings may or may not be given to these objects. investigations archaeological However proper it is in latest objects analyses, to limit oneself to presumably objective And, even if the latter is overly hae a human dimension. and partly unscientific, the reader of as thohypothetical rcug and complete a book as this one cannot escape the at least has consideredthat the author has felt-or feeling It may be regretted that this other aspect of his subject. with his and considerations he did not share his feelings readers. in the context of This regret would not be pertinent a purely technical review whose public shares a certain body of information and of hypotheses with the author and with the the But in a journal devoted to Iranian studies, reviewer. it seems to me, is primarily of determining the question, of to an understanding nature of this volume's contribution On this score I should like to Iran and of its history. One deals with the questions of emphasize two points. advances at the end of the metallurgy and of technical second millenium B.C. and at the beginning of the first. Slowly we are beginning to be able to put together a sort skills of at least one major of the technical of profile The other one is perhaps more important to area of Iran. area of the mountains It is that the specific Iranologists. of western Iran which is involved here cannot be understood without taking into consideration developments and evidence in northern Iran, in Mesopotamia, or in northwestern Iran of these relaThe regularity and the lands to the north. is a of their rhythm and intensity, tions, regardless permanent feature of Iranian culture and it is rather reof as foreign a subject to that markable that an analysis of Luristln bronzes as fourteenth century painting and

121

SPRING-SUtI.ER1971

architecture relationships.

brings out the same kinds of rhythms and of As the late

Professor

Minorsky had pointed

out more than once, the history and understanding of almost anything found or done in Iran must take into account the nature of various provinces of Iran and the peculiar mixture between its own creativity ard its consistent receptivity which characterizes the civilization of the land. At this level, of course, one escapes the specific problems of western Iran at a given time or of the artistic contributions of Elam or of its vassal states; one enters instead into a fuller understanding of a unique geo-cultural entity. That a catalogue of ancient Persian bronzes leads to such considerations is a tribute both to its author and to the land where the bronzes were found. NOT ES 1.

"The Snake-Eating Stag in the Richard Ettinghausen, and Mediaeval Studies in Honor East," Late Classical of Albert Mathias friend, Jr., ed. by K. Weitzmann (Princeton, 1955).

*

IRANIAI STUDIES;

*

122

*

Conditions. By Iran: Economic Development Under Dualistic Chicago and London: Jahangir Armuzegar and M. Ali Fekrat. xiii + 177 pp. The University of Chicago Press, 1971. MANOUCHER PARVIN According to its authors, this book has two primary and berelated objectives: "one is to explore the interaction tween the foreign-oriented and all-important oil sector and the other sectors of the Iranian economy in the last half The other aim is to use the Iranian experience century or so. as the basis for a more generalized development model for such dualistic economies elsewhere. This book is not an economic of Iran. or defiprofile It gives, for example, no detailed nitive information on many aspects of the Iranian economy such as population, socio-economic institutions, resources, and commercial policies, trade specific monetary, fiscal, lations, and income distribution..." (pp. xi, xii).

re-

is obviously The possibility of a fruitful result of an economy are addoubtful when such important aspects Furthermore, fundamittedly neglected or treated lightly. to the purposes mental questions with respect and arise to study Is it possible procedures adopted in this text: without to the socio-political economic development reference to discuss without reference Is it possible system? planning

to the decision-makers' or the interests and objectives, It is reasonable to study economic decision-making processes? its effects upon income distribution? development disregarding It is universally agreed that economic development is a complex and many-sided process which must be studied as a whole, even if not in great detail, to avoid the occurrence of one or another of the usual biases. This book presents its

Manoucher Parvin is Assistant Professor of Economics at of New York. Hunter College of the City University

123

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

message with a strong, clear and constant bias; it attempts This objective is apparent to show that all is well in Iran. or the selection in numerous places and various forms-from and authors, to the magnificatheories omission of topics, or withto the presentation tion or minimization of results, of holding of certain data not according to the criteria but in view of their or availability significance, relevance, Let us offer a few eximpact on the reader. impressionistic amples.

Amuzegar and Fekrat bypass the outstanding studies in Dobb, Hagan, Higgens, the field by Baran, Bronfenbrenner, and yet Myrdal, Nurske, Sweezy, Tinbergen, etc., Leibenstein, Specifically, depend on W. W. Rostow for serious orientation. is paid to Iran's growing economic dependency no attention from the need for foreign inputs to maintain which results of econoand leads to the possibility production processes, mic chaos occurring on a day's notice. the "Iranian Oil History in a Nutshell," Discussing to make any authors refer to Hussein CAll who "...refused pressure (p. 15). to British political major concessions" Now, CAlT happened to be in charge of a caretaker cabinet for role in the naonly a few months; he played no significant of the oil company. It was, of course, the tionalization forces government of Dr. Mossadeq which mobilized political in in Iran, advocating and defending the case successfully Moreover, his work recourts and forums. the international sulted in raising the domestic share of oil revenues throughMossadeq's name is not out the Middle East and elsewhere. mentioned at all in the book, as though he never existed. If no names had been mentioned in the text, one perhaps could it as a history without people; but names attempt to justify such as CAlVs do indeed crop up with conscious selectivity. is more important than what it And what this book neglects presents. is The important question of income distribution treated in a commercial manner (pp. 91-92); no measures This is given. as the Lorenz index of income inequality It would have been difficult not of course accidental. of income distribution the worsening inequality justify

IRANIANSTUDIES

124

such is to while

This omission explains partly claiming rapid income growth. military budget in the rationale behind the ever-increasing so does the military deprivation increases Iran. As relative expenditure in order to contain the deprived and silence the protest. With an unconscious pride, the authors point to the "Iran's new mobility in Iran: absence of socio-economic entrepreneurial corps includes.. .young Iranians born mostly and frequently managing old family to old 'merchant' families to the general rule are listed fortunes." A few exceptions an mobility indicates (p. 130). The lack of socio-economic important flaw in Iran's human-resource development comyared to countries at similar stages of economic development. of the book is to invalidate A theoretical objective a conclusion reached by Rollins-that the development of mineral resources in dualistic economies is not likely to lead to general economic growth where there exists "...a sufficiently influence generated by foreign investment-with large fiscal an appropriate preference function on the part of the governObviously this ment-as has been true of Iran.. ." (pp. 8-9). is not the proper way to raise the issue because, in the case even of extremely large revenues, sustained growth is possible with an inappropriate "preference function" as long as it is A fruitful approach is to compare not totally catastrophic. the potential with the actual income growth rate. If large quantities of human and non-human resources are wasted, then, short of the obviously the factual income growth rate falls potential. One such waste is the proportionately large and growing military expenditure in Iran which far exceeds all that seems Amuzegar "appropriate" in the absence of any external threat. and Fekrat, regard recent military expenditure in Iran as a While Table 2.3 (p. 22) offers defense budforbidden topic. get data for the years 1937-1949, comparative data, although are not presented for recent years-the main conavailable, since the cern of the text. Again this is not accidental, hardware is the obsolete military procurement of generally rial main reason for the accumulation of Iran's 33.5 billion Given that Iran has one of the highest foreign debt (p. 37). this amount of debt foreign exchange revenues per capita, some expenditures In addition, seems highly "inappropriate."

125

SPRING-

1971

included in the "Development Budget" are known to be used for for the and outposts, of military posts the establishment of military roads and for the training of miliconstruction in the There are only two oblique references tary personnel. of resources in text to this grave problem of misallocation It is stated that, although government expenditures Iran. and defense purposes have increased in recent for both civil years, "the gap between civil and defense expenditure has somehow diminished" (p. 34), and, further, that "non-defense (p. 131, have been kept partly in check..." expenditures emphasis added. Read: Defense expenditure have not been kept in check!). In light of the aforementioned comments concerning between defense and non-defense expenditures the relationship the inin income distribution, the aggravation of inequality the mobility, improvement in socio-economic significant to justify it is difficult etc., suppression of human rights, that "the development and growth obthe authors' assertion of the country have been met without undue hardships jectives (p. 38) unless in Iran only an excluto private individuals" the rest being sive group are considered private individuals, of man survival instinct The bio-social public individuals. Since the authors work for the Iraniis indeed very strong. is required for an Government, perhaps no further explanation it should be In all fairness their lack of objectivity. the very end-the mentioned that as an afterthought-at authors do caution that "our arguments in this chapter, and indeed throughout the book, should not be construed to mean that the Iranian machinery and process have been ideally (pp. 132-133). flawless"! after the topic of "Good luck and Good Finally, an Iranian version of the for(p. 107)-presumably model, the authors discuss the generalized tune cookie-the part of the book. Apart from the methodolomore technical mathematical models it to such simplified gical objections of production should be pointed out that the model-consisting and capital functions, innovation assimilation functions, in static and dynamic sectors and accumulation functions a lack of indicating very inadequate, their interaction-is For example, Equation 6 (p. 149) with the field. familiarity Design"

IRANIANSTUDIES

126

shows that the rate of innovation assimilation in the static adaptation of technology) sector

(i.e., the (agriculture)

is

initially

exogenously

determined.

This

rate

will

".0..

start at a given level and then monotonically decrease to a level ... as the advantages of importing technology stationary gradually decline" (p. 151). Both assumptions are false in both logic and fact. First, when is the initial point in time where t = 0 and the rate is at maximum level? Secondly, if it is exogenously determined, then nothing can be done to the rate of technological accelerate adaptation in the traditional is not so. The observed facts tell a sector-which The most backward countries--latecomer tale. different nations-assimilate technology at a very low rate, relatively to copy, but because of speaking, not because there is little the scarcity of technical personnel needed for the adaptation of technology. Most African, South American, and Asian countries fall within this category. According to Equation (6), they should have the highest rate of technological assimilation. However, it is the middle-income countries (such as Japan, USSR, etc. during the past few decades) which have demonstrated a higher rate of technological adaptation. Beyond a point, however, where the technological level approachis that of advanced countries, this rate begins to diminish. Thus the rate of technological adaptation is curvilinear over time if a less developed country catches up with the most the rate advanced one. Contrary to the authors' assumptions, of innovation assimilation in both static and dynamic sectors depends on the technological gap, the stock of human capital human and per capita, and the rate of capital accumulation, non-human, none of which are exogenous factors. Moreover, Equation (8) as it stands is incorrect (p. 50). This however may be the result of an unrecognized printer's error. Furthermore, the authors fail to test the model empirically. I found some of the 37 tables presented in the text The indexing is poor; many names appearing in the useful. text disappear in the index. an important topic In all, the authors have selected but treated it in an unreasonable fashion, including what should have been excluded and excluding much that should have been included. answered the insignificant They have routinely

127

SPRING-SUMKER 1971

In avoided the important issues. questions and successfully olden times it was the court poets who sang in praise of In our times, some scholars do as much in the name kings. of one This review has been an interpretation of science. such contemporary "song of praise." NOTES 1.

See Marvin Zonis, "Educational Ambivalence in Iran," Vol. I, No. 4 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 132Iranian Studies, 148.

2.

See Manoucher Parvin, "Military Expenditure Forgotten Question," Ibid., pp. 149-154.

3.

See Manoucher Parvin, Technological Adaptation and the Rate of Per Capita Income Growth: An Econometric Approach. Columbia University, 1969. Unpublished Dissertation,

IRANIANSTUDIES

128

in Iran:

A

A Modern Persian Prose Reader. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Edited by H. Kamahad. Press, 1968. viii + 249pp.

$9.50. JEROMEW. CLINTON from novels, short Kamshad's Reader contains selections and essays which range in time from Malkom Kh7an's stories, Kitabchah-i GhaybT to CAll MutammadAfghianT's Shuhar-i Ahu hanum. Eighteen authors are represented in all, for the of from two to seven pages most part by single selections in length. Six authors-Muiammad MasCild, cAll Dashtt, MuhammadHijz'i, Uidiq Hidlyat, Buzurg CAlavi, Jalal Al-i Ahnad, and adiq Chubak-are represented by two or three however, so that the total number is twenty-eight. selections, they have all been extracted from longer With few exceptions, works or are heavily edited versions of short pieces, but the in choosing passages editor has been generally successful that are self-contained. A few paragraphs of literaryor group precede each selection historical introduction own of selections, and the relevant pages of the editor's In addiHistory of Modern Persian Prose are also indicated. tion to the texts, there is a commendably complete glossary of over a hundred pagest and a handful of notes on cultural matters. European loan words in the texts and historical at the bottom are either given in their original spelling of the page in which they appear, or, in the case of Russian, into Latin characters. transliterated To This is a book that is painfully easy to fault. point, although the whole begin with a minor but exasperating substance of the Reader is Persian, its pagination runs from left to right, a step backward from the chrestomathy which It improves on this Arberry edited for Cambridge in 1944.

Professor of Persian in the Jerome W. Clinton is Assistant of Department of Near Eastern Languages at the University Minnesota and an Associate Editor of Iranian Studies.

129

SPRING-SU

1971

of the the pronunciation former effort in that it indicates words in the glossary by harakat, while Arberry left the neoBut Kamshad's readings dioTlonary. phyte to guess or consult'a of words of particularly idiosyncratic, are freq ue n t ly leaves the tashdid off the He consistently Arabic origin. fifth form verbal noun, with the lonely exception of tafarrus, He also seems as well. and off the corresponding participles to be undecided about what the second vowel should be in this It would latter form, giving both mutucapib and mutavapih. has been to indicate what he considers seem that his intention but one looks in vain to be current Persian pronunciation, for any statement to that effect. are not the selections level, On a more substantive and and exercises, into lessons with drills incorporated of unusual grammatical structures there are no explanations although these have correspondences, or of colloquial/written long since come to be accepted as standard features of such The editor also has the vexing habit of making readers. features of an author's about the characteristic assertions to indicate where or whether these and then failing style, He in the passage included. same features are illustrated in current use says that Malkom Khan's coinages are still language is (p. 1), but gives no examples, and that VijzIz's Fino archaisms. somewhat archaic (p. 10), but identifies nally, what the editor has to say about each author is often What, for example, is one to make simply incomprehensible. of such a statement as, "The narrative is a marvellous blend that There is very little and inevitability. of objectivity (p. 136)? can be ascribed to the author's imagination." will be long in Students of modern Persian literature The present debt to Dr. Kamehad for his masterful 'History. volume, alas, does not attain the same standard.

IRANIANSTUDIES

130

QuarterlyJournal of

ECONOMIC RESEARCH

eqtesadi Winter 1971

Volume VIII

No. 21

ARTICLES Planning Versus the Price Mechanism

MiltonFriedmann

Tbe Effectiveness of Farm Corporations in Iran

S. ThomasStickley&

3

BahaoldinNajafi

I8

Quantification of Disruptive Effects of Export ShortfaUs

EprimeEshdg

29

Time and Economics

NdsserPdkdaman

65

The Income and Expenditure of Xajeh Rashid - ed - Din Fazl - ol - lah

HosseinqoliSotudeh

86

A Note on Lebas ol - Taqva

MohsenSabd

Ahmad Kasravi's Labour. Occupation and Money

MohammadAli Kdtouzian

Bibliography of Economic Publications on Iran

Hossein Azimi

I 03 I07

List of Contents,

Nos.

I - 20

124 137

Faculty of Economics University of Tehran P.O. Box 14-1322

131

SPRING-SUMMER 1971

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Note on the English Transliteration System The system of transliteration used by IRANIAN STUDIES is based on the Persian Romanization System approved by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Library of Congress. Copies of the transliteration table may be obtained by writing to the Editor.

Iranian Studies is published quarterly by The Society for Iranian Studies. It is distributed to members of the Society as part of their m 'mbership. The annual subscription rate for non-members is $5.00; the price of single copies is $1.25 per issue. For institutions the subscription rate is $8.00 per annum. The opinions expressed by the contributors are of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the Society or the editors of Iranian Studie& Articles for publication and all other communications should be sent to the Editor, Iranian Studies, Box E-154, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167, U.S.A. Communications concerning the affairs of the Society should be addressed to the Secretary, The Society for Iranian Studies, P.O. Box 89, Village Station, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Cover: Drawing by Ardeshir Mohassess, reproduced with the permission of the author from a collection entitled Ardeshir va Suratak-hayash (Ardeshir and His Puppets), published by Tus Publications, Tehran, 197 1.

Journal of The Society for Iranian Studies

1

30-0ntow\

4vK1^g

Autumn 1971

Volume IV

Number 4

A

The Society for Iranian Studies

COUNCIL Amin Banani University of California at Los Angeles Ali Banuazizi Boston College James A. Bill University of Texas at A ustin Jerome W. Clinton University of Minnesota Richard W. Cottam University of Pittsburgh Farhad Kazemi, Executive Secretary New York University Kenneth A. Luther University of Micbigan Jacqueline W. Mintz New Haven, Connecticut Ann T. Schulz, ev officio, Treasurer University of New Hampsbire Majid Tehranian Tebran, Iran

IRANIAN STUDIES Ali Banuazizi, Editor Jerome W. Clinton, Associate Editor Jacqueline W. Mintz, Associate Editor

Copyright, 1972, The Society for Iranian Printed at the Boston College Press. Published in the U.S.A.

Studies.

Journal of The Society for Iranian Studies Volume IV

Autumn 1971

Number 4

ARTICLES 132

PROBLEMS IN IRANIANHISTORIOGRAPHY Translated

157

MUSICAL ACCULTURATION IN IRAN

Fereydoun Adamiyat by Thomas M. Ricks Brian Klitz Norma Cherlin

BOOKREVIEWS 167

EHSANYAR-SHATER (Ed.): Iran Faces the Seventies

172

D. N. MacKENZIE: A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary

L. P. Elwell-Sutton A. J. E. Bodrogligeti

PROBLEMSIN iRANIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

FEREYDOUNADAMIYAT Translatedby Thomas M. Ricks

for the Iranian The subject of historiography been of lesser imporscholar has traditionally The of history. tance than the actual writing of historiography problems and various techniques unknowr: unand practically discussed were little articles several Recently, til this century. which clearly have appeared in Iranian journals intend to recthat Iranian hisIorians indicate

tify

this past imbalance.

Furthermore, the pub-

Thrikhi of the journal Bar-rasi'ha-yi lication a renewed effort suggests Studies) (Historical and historiographical to present recent research manand scientific in a more exacting techniques ner than in the past. both past Problems in Iranian historiography, artiin the following and present, are discussed which The article, cle by Fereydoun Adamiyat. in Sukhan, XVII, Pt. 1 (April 1967), appeared first it should be although, is presented here in toto, sections have been amended or added that several

is currently a doctoral Thomas M. Ricks, the translator, candidate in the Department of History at Indiana University. IRANIANSTUDIES

132

with the author for prerevised in colloboration sentation to the Western reader. Mr. Adamiyat, a graduate of Tehran University and the London UniScience, versity School of Economic and Political has served in the Iranian Foreign Ministry for He is the author of five more than twenty years. which works and a number of articles historical have been appearing regularly in Iranian journals over the last decade. At present, he is engaged history of Iran in research on the intellectual in the l9th.Century up to the Constitutional Period. --T.M.R.

The subject of this article is the present state of historiography in Iran. The history of this country has study and the trabeen the object of extensive historical writing is quite old. Although Iranidition of historical an historians have had some acquaintance with Western schoof history larship for the past 150 years, the discipline in Iran has made little progress and the overall work of From the standpoint is not of great value. its historians research, there are of the scientific method of historical in their work. Furthermore, they still basic deficiencies are unfamiliar with the problems of modern historiography, methods of the various branches of hiltory, the critical This thinking. and the various viewpoints in historical study is concerned with the general problems of [Iranian] giving passing reference to specific works. historiography, In order that the context of our discussions be clear, a short introduction on the development of historiography in Iran is included. Until 150 years ago, that is, prior to Iran's enthe discipline counter with modern Western civilization, orbit of history continued to revolve around its millenial At first, the mutations were in an irregular pattern. but soon a decline became evident and very progressive, In general, two discontinued until the last century. an ancient, tinct currents of historiography developed: 133

AUTUMN 1971

national one and an Islamic one (in the broad sense of the the history of mankind began with word). Traditionally, of Iran began with the The history the fall of Adam. reign of Kayiimars [Gayomarth]. Although ancient Iranian the Sahistory was confused, chaotic, and legend-ridden, sanian era was an exception since it immediately preceded the Islamic era, about which a certain amount of accurate The invasions of the Arabs and information was available. of the ancient histhe traditions Turks did not obliterate tory of Iran, its national legends, or the Persian language. On the contrary, after the attack of the Arabs and the the awareness of Iranians growth of Iranian nationalism, of their national history entered a new phase. The people had always preferred the khudaynamah [Book of Monarchs] and tie was evident in the comspiritual this uninterrupted, The dihqa7 class beposition of the many national epics. came, so to speak, the guardian of that national heritage, interest in Islamic history.3 showing little The second current of historiography encompassed the Islamic world. Beginning with the appearance of Islam and the Muslim conquests, this current comprised the age of and the Caliphate, the founding of the Iranian dynasties, the reign o f every p-dishah of each dynasty and period. of history were the The basic pillars of this discipline events, the biographies of imchronicling of historical relating to the protraditions portant men, genealogies, Each of and regional histories. phet, heresiographies, these branches produced famous historians whose works were knowledge. Among them were historians rich in historical hissuch as Tabarl, who exercised the method of critical toriography in the transmission of the various recitations scientiof events, and Biriini who used his exceptionally neglecting nothing in this fic mind in his investigations, In the field of analysearch for truth and objectivity. Ibn Khalduin was indeed outstanding.4 tic history, From the third to the eighth century of the Hijra of history con[9th-14th centuries A.D.], the discipline Except for some special cases in tinued its progress. which China and Mongolia as well as the regions of Europe studies primarily were included, the domain of historical IRANIANSTUDIES

134

The subject of historiography concerned the Islamic world. of facts. to a chronicling was not, however, always limited such as Ibn Athir analyzed the events Rather, historians although they did not consider their effects, and assessed Other historians currents. the more important historical were aware of the like Bayhaqt and Rashid al-Din Fazl-Allah however, they failed, and economic factors; role of social and factors to seea single pattern in these socio-economic Nonetheless, Rashid thereby reach a general conclusion.

al-Din Faz.l-Allah had a broad historical

horizon,

and ex-

beyond the Islamic tended the range of historiography In reaching out to India, China, and Mongolia, frontiers. the Mongolian documents and scientifically he utilized regions of the addition,certain including,in sources, Thus, the Mongolian in his studies. European continent expansion became an important factor in the broadening of this historical perspective. From the eighth century of the Hijra onwards, that the century [19th century A.D.], is, until the thirteenth along with the other brandeclined of history discipline had formal and intellectuThis decline ches of learning. the period of the deIt can truly be called al aspects. On the whole, no of historiography. cline and stagnation no critievaluation, attempt was made towards historical and no histoof sources was attempted, cism or assessment were made. The events were merely chronirical deductions either their causes or their effects, cled without analyzing

out of fear of reand many facts (whether intentionally, or due to a lack of understanding of the intertribution, of events) were simply omitted. During the relationships Safavid era [16th-18th centuries A.D.], the Sunni-Shilite superstition conflict and the predominance of religious important in the demise of historiowere particularly graphy in Iran and Ottoman Turkey. The decline in the sphere during that and subsequent periods intellectual eras during the 18th century] the Afsharid-Zandid [i.e., comthe increased had reached such a state that despite munications between Iran and Europe, there is no evidence and scientiof the Western intellectual of any influence in Iran. And, the awesome fic movement (Renaissance) social and scientific currents in the Western world at 135

AUTUMN1971

Until the that time were unknown in Iran as in Turkey.5 in this era time of the Qajars [1796-1924 A.D.], histories of Iran's thinking the uncritical reflected of decline Iskandar Munsht, an historian and historians. scholars of the Safavid period [and author of CAlam Ara-yi cAbbasi], percepwas the only writer with some degree of historical the abstruse and of exaggerations, The plethora tion. were certainly boasting and literary wordy stylistics,

among the lesser

defects

of this

type of historiography.

In the Qajar era, much of the same tradition

of his-

to that tradition, Parallel writing prevailed. torical arose a new current of historiohowever, there gradually century of the Hijra in the thirteenth graphy, beginning It must to the present. [19th century A.D.] and continuing so be noted, moreover, that this new current progressed even after 150 years, are not slowly that its results, let us examine the reasons and the First, spectacular. nature of this development. of Iran's encounter with One of the manifestations Europe was the appearance of a new current of historiolike the other branches of history The discipline graphy. could not remain imrelationships and social of learning Thus, this European influence. mune to the increasing process. became part of the historical development itself this process are as follows: influencing Some of the factors in over Iran [culminating victories (1) Russia's in 1813 and Turkmanchai in 1826] of Gulistan the treaties and the growing awareness of European power sobered many They wanted to understand the "secret" of Iran's leaders. and find the key to their own weakof Europe's progress for learning This became the primary motivation ness. One of the signs of this about the new civilization. awareness was the desire to know more about the histories achievements captured the imaginaRussia's of the West. and taught them two Iranians tion of the more perceptive as a been had recognized Russia always First, lessons. but yet she had inflicted "barbaric" nation by Iranians, that It was fitting European defeat upon Iran. the first they should begin to study the work of Peter the Great who IRANIAN STUDIES

136

had raised a country from misery to mastery. For this reason, the history of Peter the Great (by Voltaire) was among the first books translated and published in Persian? Thus, CAbbas Mirza paid special attention to the progress of Russia and sought Peter's greatness in his own personality.7 In addition, the publication at that time of the biographies of Napoleon, Charles XII, and Alexander the Great demonstrated further the interest of Iranians in learning of the achievements of the great men of Europe. On the other hand, it is significant to point out that MIrza Riza Muhandis translated The Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire by Gibbon into Persian for cAbbas Mirza and entitled it Thrikh-i Tanazzul va Kharabi-yi Dawlat-i RKm [History of the Decline and Ruination of the RomanState]. Perhaps, they wanted to discover the secret of the fall and ruination of their own country. (2) Translations of works such as Sir John Malcolm's The History of Iran and Markham's Short History of Iran demonstrated at least that history could be written in another style.9 While neither of the two writers were trained historians, their works were more substantive still than the usual Iranian histories. (3) Archaeology and epigraphy uncovered new facts unknown until that time. Thus, the findings of the Orientalists opened an entirely new chapter in the history of Pre-Islamic Iran. Their researches had an important impact on Iran. For instance, Henry Rawlinson himself translated his reading of the Bisotiin inscription into Persian and presented it to Muhammad Sh5h.10 Also, a part of George Rawlinson's detailed work on the great monarchies of the ancient Eastern world relating to Sasanian history was translated and published in Persian. (4) The establishment of the Dar al-Funuin [Polytechnical School, 1851] played an important role in the The teachers and graduates teaching of European history. in the Bureau of the Dar al-Funuin as well as translators of Publication compiled and translated a series of historical works (from French, Russian, and English) about many of the Western countries and some Asian states, which 137

AUTUMN 1971

These books, some of formed a very useful collection. which were published, played a major part in the growth studies in terms of subject matter, methodof historical ology, and stylistics.11 sent (5) The travel accounts of Iranian officials and the history about information some to Europe contained affairs of the West. The writing of journals was itself an innovation in recording and describing the historical events of that time. Travelogues like those of Khusraw Mirzd,

Mirza Salih

Shirazi,

and Nizam al-Dawlah

Ajiidan-

bash1 as well as the memoirs of Amin al-Dawlah and Ictimad for their many al-Saltanah are valuable and enlightening facts. 12 historical (6) The travel accounts of Europeans and the writin Iran contain valuable inings of the foreign officials and regional affairs geography, formation about the history, into Pertranslated are them of number great A of Iran. sian and preserved in the National Library of Iran while others, have, in fact, been published. The novels were also important. (7) Historical of some of these works introduced a new branch translations and had a certain appeal literature of European historical for Iranians.13 had seactivities These factors and intellectual First, they increased the veral important consequences. knowledge of the Iranian scholar about the general history Secondly, research. of the world and stimulated historical of history, methods of a comprehension of the discipline writing, rendered the defects and research, and historical writing more appahistorical shortcomings of traditional of ancient Iran in history Thirdly, a new interest rent. research the scholarly from stemmed which was awakened, Inperiods. of the finds pre-Islamic archaeological and deed, the concept of Iranian nationalism was revitalized at this time. A few of these developand reinterpreted can be seen in the following dements in historiography scription which appeared in a note by Ictimad al-Saltanah "Tashilh-i cIlm-i Tarikh" [The Correction of the Science of IRANIANSTUDIES

138

History]: This noble art has been weak and frail due to the excess of composition in Iran. Unsubstantiated information and strange superstitions have caused [Persian] history from the beginning of its creation to the emergence of Islamic government to lose credibility and acceptance among the learned. Among the ancient Persian dynasties, many names of kings have been lost. Now, in this [present] immortal age, the books of the ancient history of Iran have been compared with the books of the European historians, both the ancient historians in the time of Herodotus and the moderns, most of whom are still living. The histories of the Arabs, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, and Europeans have been compared with one another, and also with the coins of the past kings and the other remnants and writings, scripts, inscriptions, and symbols which give information about the bygone ages. Mistakes, omissions, legends, and superstitions have been sifted from the authentic information and explicit documents... .14 The above-mentioned factors led to the development of techniques of writing history, the effects of which can be seen in the compilations of that time. Among them are the Namah-i Khusravan [The Book of the Princes], by Jalal al-Din Mirza; Thrikh-i Irnn [History of Iran], by Sanic alDawlah; Durar al-ti.jan Ban! Ashkan [The Pearls fl Thrikh-i of the Crowns in the History of the Arsacid Dynasty], by Ictimad al-Saltanah (formerly Sanic al-Dawlah); Tarikh-i Savanih-i Afghanistan [History of the Events of Afghanistan], by Ictiz.d Tarikh-i Mufassal-i al-Saltanah; Afghanistan by Mu'addib [A Comprehensive History ot Atghanistanj, al Sultan; Thrikh-i Kaldah va Ashiir [History of the Chaldeans and the Assyrians], Tarikh-i by Lisan al-Saltanah; Milal-i Mashriq [History of the Eastern Nations], by Mutarjim al-Saltanah; Tartkh-i Iran az Qabl az Milld ta Qajarlyah [History of Iran from the Birth of Christ to the Qajar Dynasty], by MuhammadIHusayn Furfighl; Thrikh-i Iran [History 139

AUTUMN1971

of Iran], by CAt$ al-Saltanah; Thrlkh-i Yuinan [History of Greece], by Nusrat al-Sultan. Although many of these works were, in fact, translations, their true value lies in the partial abandonment of traditional historiography. In style, subject matter, and quality, these works bear no resemblance to such books as Rawzat al-Uafd [The Garden of Delights] and Nasikh al-TavarIkh ['The History to End All Histories].15 We should also add that even at the beginning of the thirteenth century [19th century A.D.], when the methodology of Western historiography had little influence in Iran, a small group of scholars attempted to examine and correct historical writing. Mirza Fazl Allah "Khavarl," a clerk in the Qajar Court, wrote in the preface of Thr1kh-i Zii al-Qarnayn [History of the "Golden Age"] that: The aim of the chronicler is to inform the public and elite of the conditions of the country-not stylistics or a demonstration of excellence. The history of a state must be brief, informative, and even in style; not lengthy, full of It is also necessary rhetoric, or valueless. that the writer of history be concerned with telling the truth and avoid writing lies; not slighten the events of the state, or treat them as if they did not exist, or have pages full of nonsensical statements which cause misunderstanding and regret; he must not write for profit or attempt to flatter... .An angel should not be called a devil nor a devil an angel. Prejudice which is an animal trait should be put aside and correctness of statement and good writing employed.16 His words are valuable but he himself does not set a standAt least, he can be excused ard of good historiography. and Western since he was no more than a man of letters, had not yet reached Iran to concepts [in historiography] In any case, we may conclude from extent. any significant his words that some scholars and literary men had also become weary of the old method of historiography. the tradition of The true pioneer in criticizing IRANIANSTUDIES

140

historical writing was Mirza Fath CAlI Akhiindzadah. In 1279 [1862 A.D.], he wrote an exposition under the title of Iradat [Objections] to the Raw;.at al-$afa-yi Ndairl in the form of a hypothe[Nlsir's Garden of Delights]1 tical dialogue with its author and requested that it be published in a newspaper. The proper and guarded criticisms of Akhuindzadahwere directed, in fact, to all historians of the literature of Iran. In one stroke, he mocked and ridiculed the style, subject matter, and nature of historiography. Another person who criticized traditional Eastern historiographers (Iranian, Turkish, and Arab) was Sayyid Jamal al-Din Asadab&di, who was perhaps the first person in the modern Islamic world to introduce the history of Islam in the unified form of an Islamic civilization and culture. He had borrowed his point of view from Guizot, the French historian and statesman, who researched Western civilization in the Christian world.18 Asadabadi asked Shaykh Muhammad cAbduh to write an appreciation to the translation of Guizot's book. He also encouraged Mirza Aqa Khan Kirman; to write his general history of Iran in a new style. But only one person in the past century truly promoted historical thinking in Iran and that was Mirza AqA Kahn Kirmani. His intellect had several dimensions, assuring him a high position in the history of thought, a remained unrecognized.19 position which has, unfortunately, Kirm5n1 revolted against the traditional writing of history. He diverted the subject of history from its course of recording events and stories of kings to one of considering In his writings, trends. social development and historical he employed methods of analysis and induction and studied historical development in the form of cause-and-effect He was the first person who raised the relationships. and a "philosophy question of a philosophy of civilization inof history," as well as attempting to study political stitutions and social phenomena in the development of Prior to Mirza Hasan Khan Mushir al-DawIran's history. lah, he wrote the best history of ancient Iran. And, it is surprising that even today his analysis of the causes of the decline and fall of the Sasanians is the best in Persian. 20 141

AUTUMN 1971

of history been built on the Had the discipline foundation that Mirza Aqa Khan had prepared, it would But its course has advanced have progressed a great deal. up to the present,and only now is it beginning to little change. There has been considerable progress in editing, works. annotating, and publishing literary and historical In this field some Iranian scholars have given excellent Those whose works do research. examples of [historical] not reach that level have also performed a useful service. However, these works are outside our discussion of the of history in the strict sense of the word. discipline research, also, perceptible progress is In historical evident but the level of most of it continues to be mediIn our opinion, this is primarily due to the fact ocre. that the writers (except in a few specific cases) are not of in the discipline or specialists trained historians Most of them are considered to be scholars and history. They literary researchers (in the conventional sense). are heirs of the past literary tradition in which science, and history, poetry, literary historiography, literature, and biography were all considered a single discipline, historiography was not regarded as an independent science. But that age has long come to an end. for evaluating the research of The true criterion is the therefore, scholars in any one of these sciences, extent to which they have contributed to the progress of With this standard in mind, the result their discipline. is writings of many of our historians of the historical Perhaps ten or fifteen books, monographs, insignificant. (in Persian and Western languages) can in and articles The writers value. fact be considered of real historical in the field of hisof such works have been specialists tory and knowledgeable about the sociology of history. briefly

The faults of our historiography list the major ones:

are many.

Let us

have generally ended with (1) Our best histories and if the writers, in some the of facts; the presentation analycases, have approached the frontiers of historical Of course, facts form the sis, they have soon stopped. IRANIANSTUDIES

142

basis for the study of history, and a history not based But the essence of on facts is not history but legend. of history is the discussion of the interrelationships The hisexplanation of the course of history. facts--the torian who limits his work to the simple recording of evens work which is of little and facts constructs a lifeless use. He has written a handbook, not a history. (2) The various branches of history with their methods have not been adequately and scientific critical On the whole, Iranian historians have not presented. dealt with economic, social, diplomatic, or intellectual in any depth. They do not yet adequately recoghistories nize that the sources for the study of each of these For example, branches of history are different in nature. among the primary be listed can accounts travel the while as they do many assources of social history, reflecting pects of the social conditions of Iran, the same sources do not have equal validity for research in diplomatic hispubeven some of the officially Not surprisingly, tory. value for a study of diplished documents are of little It is the fundamental task of the lomatic history. relations to establish the historian of international process of policy-making and to reveal its development from the time of its formulation to the stage of its exeThis subject is the most complicated and problecution. matic in diplomatic history, and it is not possible to do research on such documents unless one goes back to the drafts of the letters and compares the drafts with the final text, while at the same time studying the private letters of those responsible for determining the politiIn doing cal policy and of those who carried them out. so, special attention should be paid to the corrections We know and changes in the first draft of the letters. published documents are either in the that the officially or include part of the final text of form of selections the documents neither of which could satisfy the essential The Iranian purpose of the careful, diplomatic historian. writers should recognize that by merely knitting together a few documents, the nature of diplomacy cannot possibly be understood.

143

1971 AUTUMN

of the sources of history (3) The classification and the evaluation of each have not as yet received the necessary attention in Iran. Not only do the basic sources for each period of ancient and modern history differ suband value of these but also the reliability stantially, For example, sources vary from one period to another. government archives form the most authentic sources for as While these are classified history. modern political individuals of and letters memoirs sources," "original The reason is as "secondary sources." are classified factors and personal opinion are rethat psychological flected in the diaries or books written by writers who themselves had been involved in particular historical If the historian does not take this fundamental events. then the personal element is point into consideration, For this reason, the memoirs of Bismarck or neglected. Churchill are not basic sources in [European] diplomatic And yet, an Iranian reviewer of the memoirs of history. "From the Ictimad al-Saltanah has recently stated that: viewpoint of Iran's history during the last century, it [the memoirs] is the most authentic, most simple, and None of these best book, without equal or parallel." First, the except "most simple" is correct. descriptions journals of Ictimad al-Saltanah contain facts about the court for the years 1292 to 1313 [1875-1895 A.D.], and thus they do not represent the history of the past cenSecondly, they do not contain all the events of tury. Of course, if the reviewer had said that that period. they represent the most authentic source for the history of the life and the "inner chambers" of Nasir al-Din Shah, Thirdly, the then his view would have been correct.21 280 pages of Mirza CAli Khan Amin al-Dawlah's memoirs are preferable from the standpoint of meaning and quality of study to the 1200 pages of Ictimad al-Saltahistorical nah's memoirs. In short, the diary of a courtier with his low character cannot be "the most important, most accurate, and best" history. (4) Of all the improper evaluations by Iranian judgthe worst are found in their historical historians, They have hardly any standard for ments and analogies. their judgments are often more like praise or criticism; IRANIANSTUDIES

144

the flatteries and slanders of poets than historical evaluation. At least, odes have artistic value. One scholar has written the biography of Sattar Khan, the brave national commander. There may well be no favorable adjective left in dictionaries that has not been used to describe him. The most amusing description by the author concerns the battle which arose between Sattar Khan and the government forces in "Laklar" Street in the Am-irKhlz quarter and a batlasted for several days: "The epic of this battle, tle grander and more awesome than the battle of Stalingrad, transcended the frontiers of Iran and reached the ears of the people of the world." are familiar with (5) Very few of our historians the sociology and philosophy of history. In their works, no reference can be found to the ideas of Plato on the reasons for the decline of the Achaemenian State or of the analysis of Hegel on the nature of history of Iran, or the writings of H. J. Muller, author of the History of Freedom in the Ancient World.22 Iranian historiographers' concepts, such as those of S. H. Taqizadah, have only gone as far as some of the works of Gustav LeBon, works which have been translated into Arabic and then into Persian.23 LeBon himself has no prominent position in the history of thought; and, even then, what can we learn of his thoughts when they are reflected in a somewhat distorted manner in the Arabic books? At least, M;rza Aqa Khan Kirm5ni studied the historical developments of Iran some seventy-five view, years ago with a sociological keeping in mind the opinions of the most distinguished thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. of histoWe have discussed the major deficiencies riography and our subject has been limited to the history have not of Iran. Iranian historians, incidentally, dealt at all with the history of most Asian countries and whatever they have written about the history of the Western societies barely exceeds the level of secondary The main centers of school books. Who is responsible? research and development of every branch of learning, But it is a fact science, and art are the universities. that the departments of history, like all other departments, 145

AUTUMN 1971

bankrupt. We are are intellectually in our universities engaged in everything except research and the correct While teaching a course on "history teaching of history. and social changes of Asian countries in of intellectual I noticed that contact with the Western civilization," some students who had received their B.A. degrees in hisknowledge of the fundamentals of historitory had little In the Department of History at the Unical criticism. versity of Tehran, there are one or two instructors who The remaining faculty have studied history formally. literature. studied have members then, that recently a few indiIt is surprising, viduals have contributed to the advancement of the science of history, in the special sense of that word, to some degree; these individuals who have not been in the profession of history (except in the case of one person) inAhmad KasravL, clude Mirza Hasan Khan Mushir al-Dawlah, of these CAbbas Iqbal, and Mahmiid Mahniud. The service is valuable,24 to the writing of Iranian history scholars that as yet we have a long road but it must be understood reahead before we reach the level of modern historical search.

reCriticisms of the various methods of historical search are much more extensive than one could suppose. The vast transformations which have occurred in the West in the last fifty years in all branches of historiography For have influenced the assessment of previous writings. example, fifty years ago, a number of British historians wrote with other European researchers in collaboration Today, the fourteen-volume Cambridge Modern History. Another group of scholars these volumes are obsolete. of has since met to decide on the writing of the history Some of perspective. the same era from a new historical the volumes of the new period which have been published to the former ones, as if they were similarity have little Yet, we do not have one set of a a separate compilation. correct and Finally, study of Persian history. systematic is to be expected of Westit should be noted that little who have advanced only to a preliminary stage ern writers and literature.25 in their knowledge of Iran's history IRANIAN STUDIES

146

in In addition, the writings of the modern Iranologists, value, as very our opinion, have little historiographical in history. An few of these individuals have specialized evaluation of their works should be the subject of another article. methTherefore, one must first learn the scientific od of historical research for the development of the disSecondly, one must study the cipline of historiography. history of each period keeping in mind the overall course and movement o f history. Thirdly, one should note that each branch of history has its own rules and principles, economic and and write social, political, intellectual, diplomatic history according to such laws. Fourthly, the relationships among all of those different branches of Finally, one should know history should be recognized. in that meaningful history is analytical and sociological approach. It has the goal of increasing our historical In the awareness. sense and of developing our historical words of Croce, "Every true history is contemporary hisof tory," and modern history is nothing but a reflection the past. NOTES 1.

works by Persian A select bibliography of historical authors will be found immediately following the footnotes.

2.

[See Haf;z Farminfarmayan, "Nukati Chand," Barrasihayi Tdrtkht, I, Pts. 5-6 (1966), 165-167, where the author comes to the same conclusion based on an exin Iran from the 18th amination of historiography Also see the recent issues century to the present. of Daedalus (Winter, 1971 and Spring, 1971) for dison "Hiscussions by American and European historians torical Studies Today," and on "The Historian and the World of the Twentieth Century," regarding current problems and techniques.] historical

3.

In the Sasanian social

structure-the 147

"IDihqanan" were AUTUMN1971

a special social class among the Aryan free-born and the landowners. They were, however, lower than the See the most useful article by B. Spuler nobility. Historians of the Middle East, ediin the collection and P. M. Holt (London, 1962), Lewis ted by Bernard pp. 126-132. 4. 5.

R. Flint, History of the Philosophy don, 1873), p. 86. It is surprising

of History

(Lon-

that the Ottoman Turks who had reach-

ed the heart of Europe were not aware of the meaning changes of the Western and intellectual of the social century. world until the nineteenth 6.

[The author

is

referring

to the translation

made of

L'Histoire de la Russie sous Pierre le Voltaire's The first available transGrand (Paris, 1759-1763). lation in Persian was made in A.H. 1283/A.D 1866 by Mirza Riza Muhandis and published in Bombay. Other editions were made available in Tehran.] 7.

[CAbbas Mlrza, the Crown Prince,

was the eldest

and

son of Fath CAll Shah Qajar and Governor the favorite during the important years of Russia's of Azarbaijan expansion into the Caucasus.] 8.

Library of Iran is copy in the National The existing Mlrza Ri.z.a Muhandis transunder No. 66. registered lated volume one of the History of the Fall of the But with the death of Roman Empire for cAbbas MirzA. of the other bAbs Mirzia (A.D. 1833), the translation was [A new translation into oblivion. volumes fell al-Qasim-i Abui version by made from the abridged in Tehran in A.H. 1348/A.D. 1969.] Tahiri and published

9.

C. R. Markham, The History of Markham, was translated by Rahim Khan, son of Hakim al-Mamdlik, but not pubIt is registered under No. 202 in the National lished. into Persian by Mirza [Another translation Library. cAll Hayrat-i Tihrdnl, Ismacil Khan, son of Muhammad Iran az PIshdadiyan ta Qajariyah was titled Tarikh-i

IRANIAN STUDIES

148

and published in two volumes in Bombay, A.H. 1289-90/ A revised version of this translation A.D. 1872-73. was edited and published by Shaykh Muhaammad I?fahan; in Bombay, A.D. 1323/A.D. 1905. Sir John Malcolm's History of Iran was translated as Tarikh-i Iran and published in Bombay, A.D. 1303/A.D. 1886 and 1323/ 1906.] 10.

of the Blsotiin The original copy of the translation is preserved in the National Library of inscription Iran (No. 291).

11.

A list of some of the histories that were translated into Persian are cited as follows with mention of their translators' names: Thrlkh-i Jadid-i Urupa [A New History of Europe], Mar Daruis; Tarlkh-i Rusiyyah [History of Russia], Mirza Abgar; Thrlkh-i Ruslyyah [History of Russia], Mahund (Afshdr?); Sharh-i Avval [Biography of Alexander the Hal-i Aliksandir-i First], Mir Darus; Thrikh-i Saltanat-i Nikula [History of the Reign of Nicolas], Monsieur Richard; Sharh-i Hal-i Nikula-yi Avval [Biography of Nicolas the First], Vilhilm-i Avval [History of WilDr. Plak; Trlkh-i Afshar; Vaslyatnamah-i Pitr-i helm the First], Mah.mud Kabir [The Testament of Peter the Great]; Thrikh-i N'auliTin [History of Napoleon], Ri7.a Quli; Thrikh-i Ndpuli'iin va Kunfirans-i Uulh-i Urupa [History of Napoleon and the European Peace Conference]; Tarikh-i Ngpuli'iin

[History

of Napoleon],

Mirza R'zi

Muhandis;

Tarlkh-i Sant Hilin [History of Saint Helen], Muhammad Tahir Mtrza; Jang-i Alman va Faransah [The Germanva Prts [The FrenchFrench War]; Jangi Fansah Mahdi; Muh!arah'i Paris [The Prussian War], Muhammad Seige of Paris], Ri,z Khan, the son of Monsieur Richard; Sarguzasht-i Zhandark [The Story of Joan of Arc], Putrus ROsi; Ld'i-yi Chahardahum [Louis the Fourteenth], Muhammad Tahir Mirza; Ln'i-yi Panzdahum [Louis the FifTThir Mirza; Tdrikh-i InglistAn teenth], Muhammad Ismacll, son of Sahi&fbishl; [History of Britain], Shaykh Riza, Thrikh-i Inglis [History of the British], brother of Shaykh Muhsin Khan; Firidrik Kabir [Frederick the Great], Ismcfl., son of SahffbdsF1; Jang-i 149

AUTUMN1971

Chin va Uruipa [The Chinese-European War], IsmaCil, son of Sahafbashl; Tarikh-i Hindustan [History of India], IsmaCll, son of ~ahafbdshl; Tarikh-i Tabbat [History of Tibet], Ism&Cil, son of Sahafbashl; Krat [History of Crete?], Thrikh-i Sal ti-n-i Qarachah Daghl; Tarikh-i

MuhammadJacfar CUsmini [History

Muhammad Vasan; Thrikh-i

of Ottoman Rulers],

Quruin-i

Vusta [History of the Middle Ages], Dr. Ah.mad Khan Azmanah-'i Qadimah-'i Sharq CImdd al-Mulk; Tarlkh-i va Yunan.va Rim [History of the Ancient Times of the

East, Greece, and Rome], Dr. AhmadKhan CImad al-Mulk; Tarikh-i Yunan [History of Greece], Sayyid CAll Khan; Mirza Aqa. Faransah [History of France], Tarikh-i for the Tarikhexcept published been have These books of these works iL4ji-yi Chahardahum. The manuscripts Library of Iran which in the National are preserved

Mr. CAbdallah Anvar, the knowledgeable director of the Manuscripts Section, made available to the writer. I acknowledge

his

assistance

with gratitude.

Bibliography.

12.

See Selected

13.

novels which are translated Some of the historical as follows: Hayat-i Fuiblas [Fublas's into Persian are in the National Library, in two manuscripts Life], CAli Bakhsh Mirza; Tehran [No. 25 and No. 868], trans. Balus [Perhaps this is the translation Sarguzasht-i Vision de Babouc]; Talmak [Telemaque], of Voltaire's Mirza CAll Khan Nazim al-cUlum; Sarguzasht-i trans. Madmuvazil Du Minpansir [The Story of Mademoiselle Zhil Blas de Monpansir], Ictimad al-Saltanah; trans. Dr. MuhammadKirmanshahi (again, trans. [Gil Blas], is doubtful). of the translator the identity

14.

va al-Apar Al-Ma'asir Tehran, 1306-1307/188,

15.

to MLrkhwdnd's "Universal [The author is referring Tehran, 1270/1853 in History" the Rawzat al-Safa, seven volumes, and later edited in London, 1891-1894 in five volumes as well as to the Nasikh al-tavarikh of Mirza MuhammadTaqi Sipihr Kashani (Lisln al-Mulk),

IRANIAN STUDIES

[Memorable Deeds and Traditions], pp. 94-95.

150

first published in Tehran, 1273/1856 in ten volumes, but now in many editions.] 16.

Tarikh-i Zui al-Qarnayn, of Iran).

I (No. 2241, National

17.

[The author is referring to Riz. Qull Khan Hidayat's three-volume supplement to Mirkhwand's Rawzat al-Safa which was published again in Tehran, 1339/1960.]

18.

F. Guizot, Histoire (Paris, 1838).

19.

I have discussed his place in the history of thought in the book, Andishah-ha-i Mtrza Aqa Khin-i Kirmini [The Life and Thought of Mirza Aqa Khan-i Kirmani: 1854-1896].

20.

[The author is referring to Mirza Aqa Khan-i Kirmani' s Ayinah-i Sikandari (The Mirror of Alexander), ed. by Mirza Jahangir Khan Shirazi (Tehran, 1324-1326/19061908) as well as to Mushir al-Dawlah's two works, tran-i Bastan (Ancient Iran) and Iran-i Bastani (Ancient Iran). Kirmani's work was first published in 1280/1863 and later re-published by Shirazi in two volumes.]

21.

["Inner chamber" is used here as the English equivalent of the Persian word andarun which is that section Persian house in which the women of the traditional reside.]

22.

Dr. MahmudSana'i has translated the discussion by Plato on the reasons for the decline of the Achaeme of Laws in Sukhan (March, nids from the treatise For the English text, see The Dialogues 1340/1961). of Plato, ed. by B. Jowett, Vol. 4 (London, 1953), pp. 263, 264, and 266-67. Also, see the discussion by Hegel in his The Philosophy of History, trans. J. On Muller, see Sibree (London, 1944), pp. 187-188. his Freedom in the Ancient World (London, 1961), p.

de la Civilisation

Library

en Europe

99. 151

AUTUMN1971

23.

[Some of the works of Gustav LeBon are as follows: trans. CAbbas Ara'va CAqgyld (Opinions and Beliefs), Shawqi (Tehran, 1324/1945); Aghaz-i Tammadun-i Baof Mankind), shar (The Beginning of Civilization trans. by Hashimi Ha'iri (Tehran, 1314/1935); Afkar Islam (Thoughts and Ideas of Islam), va andishah'ha-yi trans. by Shuja' al-Din Shafa (Tehran, 1327/1948); of and Tammadun-i Islam va ACarab (The Civilization Taqi Islam and the Arabs), trans. by Sayyid Muhammad Fakhr-i da' Gilani (Tehran, 1313/1934).]

24.

See Selected

25.

by Cambridge University [See the recent publications The Cambridge_History of Islam, 2 vols., ed. Press:

Bibliography.

by P. M. Holt, A. K. S. Lambton and Bernard Lewis ed. in the Middle East, 2 vols., (1970) and Religion On the problems and issues by A. J. Arberry (1969). see Ira N. historiography, Orientalists' concerning

Lapidus's review, International Journal of Middle East Studies, II, Pt. 4 (1971), pp. 378-379; Abuial"Sharqshinas1 va Jihan-i Imruz" [OriHusayn Jalill, ental Studies and Today's World], CUlim-i IjtimCi 1, I, Pt. 2 (Winter, 1968), pp. 52-56 and Dariyulsh Ashirl, "Irdnshinds' Chist?" [What is Iranology?], Rahnima-i Kitab, XIV, Pts. 4-6 (July-September, 1971), pp. 218-226.]

Selected

of Historical

Bibliography Persian

Works By

Authors

Adamiyat, Fereydoun. Amir Kabir va Iran (Amlir Kabir and 3 vols. in 1 vol., 3rd ed., Tehran, 1348/ Iran). 1969. .

Andishah'ha-yi

Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani

and Thought of Mairz 1346/1967. _

Andishah 'ha-

IRANIAN STUDIES

Aqd Khan Kirmani).

i Mirzi 152

Fath cAli

(The Life

Tehran,

Akhuindzadah (The

Life and Thought of Mirza Fath CAll Akhindzidah). Tehran, 1349/1970. Andishah_hd-yi

________.

CAbd al-Rahlim Talibuif

Bahrein

_

Islands:

of the British-Iranian .

Fikr-i

A Legal

(The Life

Forthcoming.

and Thought of CAbd al-Rahim Thlibflf).

Study New York, 1955.

and Diplomatic

Controversy.

Azidd va Mugaddimah-i

NihAat-i

Mashr6ti-

yat-1 Iran (Free Thought and the Beginnings of the Tehran, 1340/1961. Movement in Iran). Constitutional .

"Inhitit-i

Tarlkhlnigarl

of Historiography in Iran), (April, 1967), pp. 17-30

dar Iran"

(The Decline

Sukhan, XVII, Pt. 1

Sharh-i Ma'mfiriyat-i AjudanAjuidanbashi, Ni?dm al-Dawlah. bishi (Diplomatic Memoirs of AjWd5nb&shi). Edited by M. Mushiri. Tehran, 1348/1969. Amin al-Dawlah, Mirza CAll Khan. Khatirat-i Siyasi (Political Memoirs). Edited by Hafiz Farmanfarmayan. Tehran, 1341/1960. CAru-4i, Ni;amt and Qazvini, Muhammad. Chihil Maqalah Edited by M. MuCin. Tehran, (Forty Articles). 1333/1951. Bastani Pariz1, MuhanunadIbrdhim. "Mandbic-i Thrikh-i Kirman" (Sources for the history of Kirman), Majallah-i Danishkadah-i Adabiyat-i Tihran. VIII, Pt. 4 (1340/1961), pp. 60-85, and IX, Pt. 1 (1341/ 1962), pp. 94-142. Falsafi,

Hasht Mag;lah-i Thrikhi va Adabi Na*r Allah. Tehran, and Literary Articles). (Eight Historical 1330/1950.

"Nukati Chand dar Barah-i MushFarmanfarmayan, Hifiz. dar Iran" (Some Notes on the Tarikh-nivisi kilat-i of Historiography in Iran), Bar'raslhaDifficulties 153

AUTUM 1971

I, Pts.

yiTarikhi",

pp. 165-178.

5-6 (1966),

Hidayati, Hdil. "Mukhtisarl dar Barah-i VaqayiCnigarl-ha va Nusakh-i Khattl-yi Fars; Marbiit bih Tav&rikh-i Qarn-i Davazdahum-i Hijri" (A Summaryof the Chronicles and Persian manuscripts Concerning 18th Majallah-i Danishkadah-i century Histories), Adabiy-at-i Tihran. II, Pt. 3 (Ab-n 1333), pp. 17-46 Iqbal,

CAbbas. Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir. 1961. "Nivishtan-i

_.

History), tion,

pp. 1-8.

Mughiul (Mongol History).

Second Edi-

edited by I. Afshar, Tehran, 1341/1962. Vizarat

_

Modern

(Writing

Muci*irlt

Yadgar, IV, Pt. 3 (1326/1947),

Tarikh-i

_

Tarlkh-i

Tehran, 1340/

Buzurg-i

dar CAhd-i Salatin-i

Saljuig

(The Vazirate in the Age of the Great Saljuq SolTehran, 1338/1958. tans). Ictimad

al-Saltanah,

MuhammadHasan Khan Mari-

Riizanah-i Ictimid alYid'ddsht'hd-yi ghah'i. Saltanah (The Diaries of Ictimad al-Saltanah). Edited by I. Afshar. Tehran, 1344/1965. Kasravl, Ahmad. Tarikh-i Hijdah S-1ah-i Azarbiyjan ya Dastan-i Mashrinah-i IrMn (Eighteen Years of Azerbaijan History, or the Story of the Iranian Consti2nd edition, Tehran, 1333/1954. 6 vols., tution). Trlkh-i

_

Mashriitah-i

ian Constitution). .

Tarikh-i

Iran

Pansad Salah-i

Years of Khuzestan History). 1330/1951. _

(History

3rd edition,

"Tarikh va Tarlkhnigiri'"

Khuzistan

154

(Five

3rd edition, (History

Chihil Magalah-i Kasravi. graphy). 1951), pp. 314-24. IRANIAN STUDIES

of the

Iran-

Tehran, 1333/1954. Hundred

Tehran,

and Historio-

(Tehran, 1335/

Khusraw Mirza. Safarnamah-i Khusraw MTrza bih Pitirzbur (Khusraw Mlrzi's Account of his Journey to PetersEdited by M. Afshar and M. Gulbun. Tehran, burg). 1349/1970. Iran va Mahmiid,Matniid. Thrikh-i Ravabi -i Siyasi-yi Inglis dar Qarn-i Niizdahum (The History of AngloIranian Diplomatic Relations in the Nineteenth Tehran, 1328-33/1949-54. Century). Murta.zavi, Manichihr. "Jamic al-Tavlrrikh va TirIkhnivisi dar Dawrah-i Ilkhanan" (The Jamic al-Tavarikh and Historiography During the Il-Khanid Period), Tahqlg (Tabriz, Dar Parah-i Dawrah-i Ilkhanan-i Iran. 1341/1962), pp. 131-308. Mushir al-Dawlah, Mirza Vasan Khan. iran-i Bastan (Ancient Tehran, 1311-13/1843-45. 3 vols. Iran). .

Iran-i

Bist5ni

(Ancient

Iran).

Tehran,

1306/

1888. Shirazi,

Mirza aalib.SldanmhiMr;

(Mirza Salih Shiraziz's Travelbook). date.

liShrz-

No place,

no

Taraqqi va Taqizadah, Sayyid Uasan. "Bac4" az cIlal-l the Causes of of Trdn" (Some Thrlkh-i-yi Inh1iitt-i the Rise and Decline of Iran), Yadgir, V, Pt. 10 (1327/1948), pp. 1-13. Intiqadi dar Zarrin-Kub$ cAbd al-H.usayn. "Mulia;ah-i Bib-i Thrlkh-i Iran-i Kambrij: Mujallad-i Panjum" (Critical Notes on the Cambridg History of Iran: Volume 5), Majallah-i Danishkadah-i Adab-yit va cUljim-i Insdni, XVII, Pts. 1-2 (1348-49/1970), pp. 1-54. _.

Thrlkh-i "Naqd va Barrasi dar Bab-i Ma'akhiz-i Study of the SourIran Bacd az Islam" (A Critical Acta Iranica, ces for Iranian History after Islam). 1968), pp. 35-130. I (January-March, 155

AUTUMN1971

et al. "Chand Pursish dar Bab-i Tarikh va Adab-i Iran va Pasukh'ha-yi CAbd al-Husayn Zarrin Kiib et al!' (Some Questions about Iranian History and Customs and the Answers of CAbd al-Husayn Zarrin-Kuib et al.), Farhang va Zindig;i, VI (Fall, 1350/1971), pp. 10433. Nagd va Bar'ras1-yi ManibiC-i Zaryab Khu'i, CAbbas (ed.). Tarlkh-i Saljiiqlyan (A Critical Study of Saljuqid Historical Sources). Mimeographed. Tehran 1348/ 1969.

IRANIAN STUDIES

156

MUSICALACCULTURATIONIN IRAN BRIAN KLITZ and NORMA CHERLIN

Acculturation has been accomplished traditionally when asociety has absorbed foreign elements originally superimposed by invasion or acquired through excursions and study in other countries. These traditional means have been supplemented more recently by modern forms of communication and rapid travel, which tend to aggravate the natural imbalance of acculturation and to raise the specter of a cultural imperialism attended by a decline in quality or a reduction in number of indigenous cultural undertakings. In Iran, with respect to musical acculturation, this hazard has been recognized for some time. For instance, Tehran's Conservatory for National Music was formally established by the Ministry of Culture and Art in 1949 with the specific objectives of systematically restoring national music and reviving the original Iranian instruments,1 and, in 1968, a High Commission of Culture and Art was formed to consider, among other matters, the question of acculturaticn.

Brian Klitz is Professor of Music at the University of ConNorma Cherlin is currently a doctoral candidate necticut. in Music Education also at the University of Connecticut. This article is part of a larger study being conducted under of the Auspices of The University of Connecticut's Institute International and Intercultural Studies. 157

AUTUMN 1971

This Commission has since published a booklet entitled conan official Cultural Policy of Iran, 2 which reflects as a national problem: cern over what is viewed increasingly Some...have become so infatuated with the Western way of life that they have completely overlooked and cultural objectheir own national traditions tives... .Culture should not be merely an imitation but an of Western culture and Western civilization, adaptation and renewal of Iranian culture in accordance with today's conditions of life..3 in this document, The stress on the dangers of acculturation which devotes whole chapters to "Preservation and Revival of the Cultural Heritage" and to "Iranian Culture in Relation since the High Commission to other Cultures," is significant, for, and to coordinate actihelps to formulate principles vities of, not only the Ministry of Culture and Art, but also of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and of provincial and non-governmental cultural organizations.4 Governmental concern is paralleled by that of Iraniwhose conferences on culture invariably an intellectuals, include the matter of contact between East and West,5 and suggestions on how best to preserve temporal facets of their culture: Among the many cited means of government interemphasized provention, the meeting especially tection and safeguarding of the cultural patrimony, of the urgency of the collection and particularly this patrimony in cultures where the transmission of creative works has hitherto been oral....6 Thus concern for music as a specific cultural facet is manifest in both official groups, such as the Folklore Organization, created in 1967 to record tribal songs and dances on film and tape, and in private circles. Persian music, There is also anxiety about classical considered by some to be the source of Occidental music.7 learned music is monophonic, sung or This traditional IRANIANSTUDIES

158

played by one performer; or heterophonic, with an accompanying instrument which merely echoes the soloist. Its most important feature is improvisation. The music is based on approximately three hundred traditional melodies called gishih-ha, which were organized early in this century by the Iranian theorist Mirza CAbdullah into twelve dastgahs, model systems similar in function to the ragas or maqams. Of these there are seven principal and five lesser dastgahs. All of the melodies in any one dastgah are organized into a radif, or row, in an established order. The music is closely affiliated with classical Persian poetry, is religious in spirit, profoundly serious, and each dastgTh has been assigned a characteristic mood. A performer selects a dastgah and then plays all of its melodies in the traditional order, improvising within this framework. The resultant composition depends to a great extent on his mood and the mood of his audience, and is therefore most successful in an intimate setting. The basic melodies are made up of micro-intervals, are largely unmeasured, and have no formal aspects by Western standards. Improvisations consist mainly of embellishments and subtle rhythmic variations.8 The music is taught by rote, since no accepted written notation has yet been devised, although an Iranian theorist has evolved a system of notation which he claims for forty years in teaching has been used successfully Iranian students. It contains symbols for "less than flat" and "less than sharp," and he avers proudly that every Iranian musician knows by ear (sic) the exact interval of the intermediary tone.9 Others wonder, however, whether notation is a means of protection or rather a step in the not written destruction of music which is traditionally down. Some believe that essential aspects of Persian music, cannot be taught except through emulalike improvisation, tion, since they are based on intangible factors such as atmosphere and mood rather than on harmonic formulae, as in Western music. national

in Tehran, one for There are two conservatories other music, the Western-oriented; both are 159

AUTUMN 1971

operated under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Art. The latter enrolls day students (from age nine) who receive their entire education at the Conservatory--general Graduclasses in the morning and music in the afternoon. for further ates usually go on to European conservatories study, remain to teach at their Conservatory, or "the weaker ones"t may become school or private music teachers. small number join the Tehran Symphony, A relatively an orchestra that has improved recently after being able to offer "full employment" (the exact meaning of this term is not clear) for the first time in 1967. Another helpful facof U.S. Peace Corps musicians, tor has been the participation with the orchestra in 1968.10 who first affiliated The Conservatory for National Music, established to help preserve Iran's native music, also offers a full curriThe emphasis is, culum of general as well as music studies. instruments and singing, but some of course, on traditional Western orchestral instruments (and piano) are taught, presumably because they are often specified in compositions and arrangements by Iranian composers. Two Schools (Fine Arts and Education) of the University of Tehran offer music.11 The School of Fine Arts' music program, begun about 1964, was divided in 1967-68 into three tracks which allowed students to major in (1) performance (either Persian or Western music), (2) theory The situation in and composition, or (3) music education. since the unclear, is somewhat education music to regard Faculty of Education at that time, at least, felt that such a curriculum was an infringement on their area of responsibility. Within the School of Education a more comprehensive four-phase plan to introduce music education was introduced four years ago, including the following phases: Phase 1. Music appreciation (a general music Offered for course for any interested person). the first time this year (1967-68).

IRANIANSTUDIES

160

Phase 2. The inclusion of music in the program of study for classroom teachers, grades one through This step is awaiting the formulation of a six. general curriculum for classroom teachers. Phase 3. A training program for those who wish to become teachers of music at the secondary level. i.e., Phase 4. A program for music supervisors, to advise, coordinate, and offer inspecialists service training to classroom teachers. This is, of course, a long-term plan, and a multitude of obstacles are yet to be faced, not the least of which is the fact that the public schools in Iran no music programs, so that at this have virtually time there is no real demand for music teachers. curriculum changes in the schools must Furthermore, and combe approved by the Ministry of Education, between that Ministry and the Faculty munications of Education are poor. inin the absence of sufficient Nevertheless, Phase 2, a curriculum for Phase formation regarding 3 has been submitted for consideration.12 network of Iran encourages The National Television of weekly programs.13 the study of music through a series is given to Iranian music and instruThough lip-service the primary printed for distribution, ments in materials drawn from the West, and thrust is clearly philosophical goal toward which modernizing as one more desirable offered such as Iran should strive. societies The importance

of Music Education

in educating

chil-

dren and youngsters has caused advanced countries to in music than pay even more attention to instruction so that besides in other fields, to instruction schools, elementary teaching music in kindergarten, and other educational universities, high schools, they make maximum use of all communiinstitutions, media such as radio and television, for cations 14 instruction.

marily

classes (made up priPrograms include demonstration for three different from local orphanages) of children

161

AUTUMN 1971

age groups (three to six, seven to eleven, and twelve to is perhaps most clearly A Western orientation fifteen). revealed in music theory lessons, where the Western system Other productions include a broad of notation is taught. from "story with music" ranging spectrum of activities to joint performances Bambi) Disney's Walt (e.g., classes musicians.l15 with professional Various attempts are being made to accommodate these musical intrusions from the West, and the Iranians, having absorbed in the past many aspects of surrounding cultures with remarkable success without losing their sense of idenconsciously ingenuity are with typical tity as a people, advantage to host both Eastern their geographic utilizing of these atPerhaps the most publicized and Western arts.

tempts is the annual (since

1967) Festival

of the Arts held

ruins of each September or October among the magnificent of Persian emperors some the winter capitol Persepolis, theme was "the role In 1969 the Festival 2,500 years ago. in Western music." a recent manifestation of percussion, (Max Roach), Performers were from Europe, the United States Bali, and India, and each evening was concluded with traPersian music.16 ditional by a signipracticed Another form of accommodation, that of combinis ficant number of composers and arrangers, a in single music Western and Persian both ing elements of in both Iran a device that has many detractors composition, that one believe of this practice Critics and the West. from another culture; realization cannot borrow an artistic that adoption of Western harmony would lead to the loss of which add so much to the beauty of scales the multiplicity unity of the East leads of Persian music; that the artistic the symmetry of the West; that to asymmetry rather than to it little and instills a theme builds up the East gradually whereas the West prein the mind of the listener, by little breaks theme at the outset and gradually sents the entire of style and moveit down; and that the Eastern continuity and of opposition ment is contrary to Western principles contrast.17 The view of some of Iran's IRANIAN STUDIES

162

younger

composers

is that

music is now releneither Eastern nor Western traditional computerized vant, but that the future lies with electronic, music. With such compositional devices and techniques as they employ, the boundaries between East and West disappear Westerners such as Messiaen and Xenakis to a large extent. have many devoted followers and imitators in Iran. The future of Persian music undoubtedly depends less and on government fiat, the desires of formal institutions and more on pervasive media such as televiintellectuals, radio, which sion and the ubiquitous transistor a decisive, though paradoxical role, par...plays in the musical aspect of Iranian culture, ticularly as the principal patron and conservator of the Persian musical tradition and as the most active agent of that traand hybridization in the vulgarization dition. 18 This phenomenon has been recognized in other developing countries, and closer governmental supervision has been suggested as one way to see that balanced programming is Radio, however, bows to popular demand, and maintained.19 judging by negative public reactions in Chile, where traditional music is now being offered in regulated doses, and from an earlier attempt to do the same that had to be disis difficult continued in Argentina, musical acculturation to control. Art forms can Preservation per se is not difficult. be preserved on tape or in museums, but they remain viable segonly so long as they retain relevance to a significant the most In modernizing societies ment of the population. segment, at least in the early stages of designificant velopment, is ordinarily the group that has successfully advocated borrowing from the West as the quickest way to economic advancement. Their regard for national practices which do not contribute directly to the material wellbeing of their country is minimal. What might be considered a model continuum of development is a subsequent period during which borrowed 163

AUTUMN 1971

educational

skills

are applied by succeeding

generations,

each of which proves to be more eclectic, to exhibit a more to exercise thoughtful independence, into improved insights their own society, and to utilize all these in an effort to strike a balance between the borrowed and the inherent. Evidence suggests that Iran is in the early stages of such a continuum today.

NOTES 1.

"A Brief History of the Conservatory" (trans. M. Taraz) (Tehran: Conservatory for Traditional Music, undated and untitled one-page mimeograph). Mr. Taraz's transfor lations are unpublished drafts done specifically this study.

2.

Cultural 1969?).

3.

Ibid.,

Preface.

4.

Ibid.,

Chapter VII.

5.

and in "A Discussion is described One such conference Ferdausi Programs and Heritage," Review of Cultural M. Taraz). (January 13, 1969), p. 105 (trans.

6.

Cul"Reunion sur la Politique From a report entitled (a UNESCO-sponsored meeting hosted by Iran in turelle" from CameMay, 1970, and attended by representatives and Tunisia, roon, France, India, Japan, Pakistan, Turkey).

7.

of the Distinction "Establishment See Alain Danielou, of Music According to the Between the Main Families Fundamental Systems," in William K. Archer, Different Forms of the of Traditional ed., The Preservation Learned and Popular Music of the Orient and the Occiof Illinois Press, University dent (Urbana, Illinois: 1964), pp. 132-40.

Policy

IRANIAN STUDIES

of Iran (trans.

164

M. Taraz) (Tehran,

8.

Persian For a more complete discussion of classical music, see Ella Zonis, "Contemporary Art Music in Persia," Musical Quarterly, LI (October, 1965), pp. 63648; or "Classical Persian Music Today" by the same author in Ehsan Yar-Shater , ed., Iran Faces the Seven1971), p. 365ff. ties (New York: Praeger Publishers,

9.

Ali-Naghi

Vaziri,

"Notation:

tion or Destruction in Archer, op. cit., 10.

The orchestra's

Means for the Preserva-

of Music Traditionally p. 255.

repertoire

Not Notated'

is made up mostly

of stand-

and romantic fare, and a few of ard Western classical the less adventuresome contemporary works. 11.

Each of the Schools of the University of Tehran is an unit, which effectively independent administrative prevents a student (because of scheduling problems) from taking courses outside the School in which he enThe American concept of a liberal arts educarolls. tion

12.

Letter

does not exist. Fulbright

from Brian Klitz,

Consultant

to Dr. Mohammad Moghadam, Vice Chancellor February 12, 1968. University, 13.

in Music,

of Tehran

These programs are supervised by Dr. Sacid Khadirl, who graduated from Tehran's (Western) Conservatory in 1953 and continued his studies in education and music in Germany, where he received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1963. His appointment to the University of Tehran's Faculty of Education in 1967 entry of Music Education in the marks the official field of higher education in Iran. Alone in his department at the University of Tehran, he has been able to hire a three-member teaching staff for the televised programs. All of his young teachers have been with the Conservatory, either as student or affiliated teacher, and two of the three have studied music abroad, staff leans musically toward the so the instructional apparent in programming. West, an inclination

165

AUTUMN1971

14.

National Television of Iran's Music Workshop for Children and Young Adolescents (trans. M. Taraz) (Tehran, no date).

15.

Ibid.

16.

An undertaking of this dimension would not be possible support without considerable financial and ideological circles by enterfrom official having been elicited prising young scholars like American-educated Hormoz formerly on the faFarhat, composer-ethnomusicologist Los Angeles, culty of the University of California, and a leading organizer of the Festival.

17.

Marius Schneider, Orient-Occident,"

18.

Amin Banani, "The Role of the Mass Media," in Yarp. 321ff. Shater, op. cit.,

19.

"Reunion... ," op. cit.

IRANIAN STUDIES

"Basic Principles: in Archer, . cit.,

166

the Variation, pp. 236-39.

Book Iran Faces the Seventies. York: Praeger Publishers,

R

eviews Edited by Ehsan Yar-Shater. 1971. xx + 391 pp.

New

L. P. ELWELL-SUTTON The symposium has many advantages as a method of handling a broad and complex subject. No one man, it may be held, can be an expert on all aspects of, for instance, the contemporary history and culture of a country. But the bringing together of specialists from many different fields also has its snags. Even with the most careful editing, it tends to become a collection of disparate some essays, dealing comprehensively with the allotted theme, others riding the author's favorite of hobby-horse. Differences knowledge and expertise, of technique and approach, show up all too vividly when placed in close juxtaposition. Iran Faces the Seventies is not wholly free from such blemishes. it is on the whole a successNevertheless ful example of its genre. Its fifteen chapters are spread

fairly evenly over the whole range of modemnIranian soto and sociology, city, from economics, through politics If one is left all the same with literature and the arts. a sense of unevenness, it is because of the different approaches adopted by the various authors. Some have been

is Head of the Persian Department at L. P. Elwell-Sutton the University of Edinburgh.

167

AUTUMN 1971

content to pack their chapters with useful facts and stabonded together with a sprinkling of jargon, and tistics, or social conhave not tried to fit them into historical by Charles texts. Such are the economic contributions Issawi and Jahangir Amuzegar. In a similar category is Amin Banani's discussion of the mass media. Too limited (if the notes are in scope, it is based almost entirely any guide) on the Iran Almanac for 1966. He does not influence of the really attempt to assess the relative various media, but provides a useful record of developments by contrast his knowledge of the in radio and television; In stating (p. 340) periodical press is somewhat scanty. study of the Persian that "no comprehensive or analytical since 1950 has appeared as yet," he press and periodicals does not seem to be aware of Mas'ud Barzin's Seirt dar Matbticat-i Iran (1966) or the journal, Tahqtqat-i Rflznamenigari. Other contributors prefer to rely on the fashionable techniques, generalizing sampling and scissors-and-paste appreciation of the from the particular with insufficient background. In this group we must include George B. Baldwin's look at the "brain drain," and Marvin Zonis's disappointing survey of higher education; the latter suffers A from an excess of theorizing and a paucity of fact. straightforward description of the Iranian higher education system is, for instance, to be found only in a footnote on p. 221. As an example of the mistaken conclusions to which his methods can lead him we may cite his belief of cultural life in that the cause of the centralization in the capital; Tehran is the concentration of literates both are surely the result of the growth of Tehran as the For instance, it and economic life. center of political is obvious that literacy in the provinces has increased, to Tehran; the disappearance of even if not relatively provincial daily newspapers is a consequence not of deas Zonis suggests, but of literacy, clining provincial improved national communications and the rise of publishirg combines. Gustav Thaiss's study of the Tehran bazaar as a and social change is a somewhat better milieu of religious He manages to throw a good deal of example of the genre. light on a central aspect of Iranian society interesting IRANIANSTUDIES

168

that has been little examined. One or two points may be questioned: the influence of the Farhangistan on modern speech trends, and indeed the whole matter of the elimination of Arabic from modern Persian (pp. 196-7) is exaggerated (this is a literary rather than a social phenomenon); and one may wonder whether there is any society of which it could not be said that the major causes of neuroses are insecurity, frustration and sexual deprivation (p. 201). One or two writers, while showing more historical sense, tend to be rather uncritical, to accept the unvarnished official account rather than to seek for the "inside story." Shahpur Rassekh's account of the four Development Plans and Hafez F. Farmayan's survey of Iranian politics during the sixties are examples. The latter deals with facts in a straightforward and clear-headed way, and an intelligible account emerges. Certainly some critics will castigate it as a one-sided story, just as they will ac-

cuse Rassekh of confusing promise with fulfillment. The validity of such comments will depend on one's individual Better balanced contributions point of view. come from Ann K. S. Lambton, whose substantial account of the land reform covers in outline the ground so thoroughly surveyed in her two books on the subject, and J. C. Hurewitz, whose survey of Iran's international situation all the same sufin overall interfers from the author's obvious interest national trends rather than the relationship between the Iranian government's foreign and domestic policies, and in terms of the also because he sees things too rigidly Cold War. chapters

For many readers, however, the most interesting will be those that move away from the politico-

economic to the less tangible world of ideas and their inIn his study of religion and society fluence on society. Brian Spooner has chosen a practical way of illuminating his subject, by selecting three separate and contrasting exfor detailed of contemporary Iranian society aspects a general survey of the rather than attempting amination, situation that could only have petered out in meaningless of his aIt is a possible criticism generalizations. of city (brief) and chievement that, whereas his studies 169

AUTUMN1971

his survillage society (more extended) are unlocalized, vey of the tribal situation is confined to his experience of the Baliichl, who are somewhat detached from the rest of This Iran by geography, language, religion and culture. of this third section, but it is not to deny the validity could be complained that the resultant chapter is somewhat in the One may wonder too whether, especially unbalanced. ritoo making sometimes not is Spooner section, "village" between formal Shi'ism and popular Sufism, gid a distinction the "religion of the mosque" and the "religion of the Finally, attention must be drawn to a misleading shrine." is error or misprint on p. 169, where "teacher/disciple" rendered "mored/morshed" instead of "morshed/morId." Ehsan Yar-Shater's survey of the modern literary idiom deserves praise as the first attempt to deal compreThe hensively with the new movement in Persian literature. majestic figures of Sadeq Hedayat and Nima Yushij have for now for virtutoo long overawed the literary historian; we read of poets in a language European time the first ally like like Forugh Farrokhzad, Bamdad, Ro'ya'i, story-writers Shapur Qarib, and above all the dramatists, this wholly new development which, in the hands of writers like Sa'edi, Forsi, is bidding fair to become a part of the Beiza'i, In a field in which the literary scene. international to pace of events is moving so rapidly it is difficult see the wood for the trees, but Yar-Shater's guide seldom puts a foot wrong. Finally we come to the almost virgin territory of Hitherto Persian painting has been thought of the arts. but Richard Ettinghausen and Karim as entirely traditional, reveal an astonishing Emami, in two thoughtful articles, which in one sense is a phenomenon of amount of activity, the past decade or so, but in another sense, as Ettinghausen shows, owes much to Iranian tradition while breaking new ground. Emami is successful in conveying something of the quality of the modern paintings he describes in spite Ella Zonis has an equalof the absence of illustrations. subject in Persian music. One would have ly fascinating liked rather less history and more description and explanation, but in extenuation it must be recognized that this IRANIANSTUDIES

170

would have called for a more technical approach than would perhaps have been acceptable to the book's readers. A few general observations may be offered: the book suffers a little from the inevitable delays of publication; though only appearing at the end of 1971, the contributions for the most part stop at 1967, when they were prepared for the Columbia University conference at which they first saw the light of day. This is a handicap for a book dealing with such a short contemporary period. Then there are various aspects of Iranian affairs that have not, or barely, been touched--the oil industry (Issawi and Amuzegar both touch on it briefly, but disagree on the importance of its role in the Iranian economy), the problem of urbanization, education, in its widest sense, and among the arts the growing film industry. The piecemeal compilation of the book has prevented the emergence of any underlying theme or concept, and in particular there is no attempt to relate the down-to-earth topics of the earlier chapters with the highly experimental activiOne also feels that at ties in literature and the arts. least some of the contributors have been inhibited by a reeither luctance to say anything that might seem critical of the present regime in Iran or of American policy towards the Middle East. But these are marginal criticisms. The book is well-planned, leading naturally from the land to the city and thence to the world of the mind. Above all it will Each chapter is provide a stimulus to further study. and this alone makes provided with a useful reading list, it precisely the book to place in the hands of students of Persian language and Iranian affairs.

171

AUTUMN 1971

A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. Oxford University

Press,

By D. N. MacKenzie.

1971.

xviii

+ 236 pp.

London:

$20.00

A. J. E. BODROGLIGETI To date, studies of Middle Persian vocabulary have focused mostly on problems of detail raised by the linguistic and literary The results analyses of written records. have appeared as new etymologies, semantic interpretations of single terms, etc. Attempts to present the lexical material in dictionary form, glossaries to text editions and manuals, editions and the like of traditional farhangs, have appeared only sporadically. Of such works only Abramyan's multilingual Pahlavi dictionary has aimed at a comOther of the Pahlavi lexicon. prehensive representation of object types of lexical studies, such as descriptions necessigroups, have only been done occasionally--when tated by various, mostly nonlinguistic, considerations. circles of In the fifties there were rumors in scholarly

various projects

to compile a comprehensive etymological

but none of them appears to dictionary of Middle Persian, A lexicological study of Middle have been carried out. as a its vocabulary Persian with the aim of presenting It is no lexical system has not even been considered. Dr. MacKenzie's recent wonder that in these circumstances with particular attenwork has been received lexicographic tion. a The Concise Pahlavi Dictionary is, essentially, of the Middle Persian words found in selective inventory It has the Zoroastrian of late Sasanian times. literature been compiled "to provide the student with a representaof the literary standard language called tive vocabulary" in Pahlavi. This principle has been followed consistently

A. J. E. Bodrogligeti Iranian Angeles.

Languages

IRANIAN STUDIES

is Associate

at the University

172

Professor

of Turkic and

of California,

Los

the structure of the book but seems partly to have been in the choice of Pahlavi words and in the arforgotten rangement of word entries. MacKenzie has selected his entries from the following sources: the Karnamag I Ardaxgir, the Dadestan 1 Men6g i Xrad, the Arda Wiraz namag, the Bundahign and JamaspAsana's Pahlavi Texts. He has also drawn upon the Pahlavi versions of the Vendidad, the Yasna and the Vispered. For comparative evidence he has employed other e Persian and Parthian sources (especially Manichean records), some

Judeo-Persian

material

and the early documents of Classical

Persian.

From MacKenzie's introduction it appears that the "representative vocabulary" he seeks to provide consists basically of the simple vocabulary of less problematic secular and religious texts and excludes the special vocabulary of the latter. He has kept uncertain words to a minimum by omission and clarification. Those which for reasons not given are nevertheless included in the glossary are marked with an asterisk. It is quite clear that the author never intended to present the entire vocabulary of any single text.

In effect,

then, MacKenzie's representative

vocabu-

lary is an illustrative and exemplary dictionary and he has arranged it in the traditional alphabetical order. Considered as a unit the entries are close to what is called the basic core of the Middle Persian lexicon. It is in this particular that the Concise Pahlavi Dictionary respect the Middle Persian vocabulary, at least ac"represents" cording to the primary word stock theory of the fifties. Because of the omission of special terms--a religious literacharacteristic layer of the lexicon of Zoroastrian of the ture--the book fails to cover an important section Pahlavi vocabulary. What we get, then, is mostly common words of Middle Persian selected from the Pahlavi literary language.

fact

It is actually

whether the Dictionary questionable of students meet the requirements 173

will in who are

AUTUMN1971

I suspect that for a long time learning the language. they will have to remain with the standard manuals and and that only later will they profit text publications, fully from the Concise Pahlavi Dictionary, which is much and comparamore appropriate as an aid for philological tive studies than as a glossary for any one particular Middle Persian written record. MacKenzie's book consists of the following parts: in which the author (i) an Introduction (pp. ix-xviii) and trantransliteration on principles his lays down of the dictionary and rules for the use scription,gives (ii) a Pahlavi explains the structure of word entries; English glossary (pp. 1-100) which contains about 4000 and semantic entry words with the necessary philological Index (pp. 101-141) which data; (iii) an English-Pahlavi enables one to find the normalized Middle Persian equivalents for English words; (iv) an Appendix (pp. 142-143) comprising a number of Middle-Persian terms arranged in notional and/or object groups; and (v) a Pahlavi Key (pp. 145-236), a list of Pahlavi words in Pahlavi script followed by their normalized version. In presenting his lexical material the author was faced with three major problems: how to interpret the how to solve the problems Pahlavi writing system (i.e., and normalization); transcription of transliteration, to select his how, in accordance with his principles, entry words from a vocabulary abounding in uncertain how to determine the words and doublets; and finally, lexical meaning of the entries. of the Pahlavi writing sysIn the interpretation Most importem MacKenzie introduces a few innovations. for the system of transliteration tantly he simplifies He does so for both ideographic and Iranian spellings. and to parallel the to avoid diacritics two reasons: Middle Persian and ParManichean for system conventional mostly affects the Semitic This simplification thian. in the simplified transcription ideograms in Pahlavi: The author their Aramaic shape will be less recognizable. trangrieve for the traditional consoles those who still IRANIAN STUDIES

174

them that these ideograms were often scription by assuring much distorted anyway and they will have no difficulty in restoring the traditional forms as they appear with diacritics. Thus when one sees OLE one will know that it is Cl-h and read as 2y. Less significant but more daring is MacKenzie's innovation in the transcription (normalization) of the Pahlavi texts. On the basis of available comparative evidence (basically written records in the Manichean script), he establishes a hypothetical phonemic system for the Middle Persian of the third century A.D. and applies it to his Pahlavi material. Thus, in his work, Pahlavi words appear in a phonemic transcription, representing the phonemic shape they may have had at the time of the rise of the Sasanian Empire. The new system has definite advantages. First it brings Middle Persian closer to its next historical stage, New Persian and this is more in harmony with the structural affinity of the two languages. In addition, it was high time to break the spell of the Pahlavi orthography and attribute proper value to the evidence supplied While it is true by the comparative historical method. that a great number of words in Pahlavi now normalized to the phonemic system of the third century A.D. according of may not be attested from that period, the principle this historical accepting stage as a basis for the tranthan the archaic representascription is more appropriate for which we do not have such reliable evidence. tion,

Of relatively Kenzie's innovation

minor significance compared to Macis his positing in the transcription,

of short /e/ and /o/ vowel phonemes to parallel the long he has some doubt as to In many instances /e/ and /o/. them when "there their status and therefore only indicates Yet he never speis direct evidence of their occurrence."

It should be cifies the nature of that direct evidence. pointed out that structural evidence speaks against the systematic character of these vowels in the Middle Persian vowel system. tion

The second major task of the author The principles of entries. underlying 175

was the selecthis work AUTUMN1971

required limitations in different segments and layers in many cases not in harmony with lexicographical and lexi-

cological considerations. This necessarily led to a certain imbalance in the material included. The two principles--that the simple vocabulary should be considered and that the less problematic elements should be included-seem to have been in conflict. The author, trying to exclude the questionable lexemes, has included non-problematic elements which do not necessarily come from the simple word-stock. In restricting his choice to a primary layer of the lexicon, on the other hand, he has left out words which, when they occur elsewhere, the student may not be able to determine whether they are problematic or not. comFrom a practical point of view the following ments can be made on the choice and arrangement of lexical items: (i)

In the arrangement

of his

material,

MacKenzie

follows the procedure generally accepted for inventorylike lexicographical works. It should, however, be noted that he does not differentiate between long and short vowels

and therefore

treats

the following

pairs

under the

same heading: /a/ - /a/, /i/ - /1/, and /u/ - /ui/. This he probably does on the assumption that the alphabetical order of the entries should be based on the graphic means employed. However the phonemes these signs represent must Since long /a/ and short /a/, etc., also be considered. stand for separate phonemes as, for instance, do /s/ and /s/, rate

for this reason, they should, elements of the alphabet.

be presented

as sepa-

The inclusion of purely grammatical elements (ii) a more as entries constitutes (morphemes) in the glossary suffixes Prefixes serious problem. (a-, abe-, an-, etc.), and form words (1, etc.) (-ag, -ej, -ak, -awand, etc.), of the language and belong to the grammatical structure not to the lexicon. MacKenzie ought to have given them separately in the form of a grammatical index, possibly A glossary that includes in Part IV, the Appendix. gramor matical elements assumes the role of a descriptive IRANIAN STUDIES

176

historical grammar. Furthermore, practical considerations Since the Dictionalso militate against such a procedure. ary does not indicate morpheme boundaries in lexical items, the student, through improper segmentation of the words may identify such entries with basic elements of the words themselves and this would lead to serious misunderstandings. In addition, grammatical elements have above all only grammatical meanings which do not always lend themselves to translations. Explanatory passages, on the other hand, do not find enough place in concise dictionaries. To illustrate: the entry in I is translated as "that of" and is followed by an explanation of one of its grammatical "with a qualifier preceding a noun, equivalent functions.: an I ahlawan to a following i. " Then an example is cited: ruwan = ruwan 1 ahlawan "the souls of the righteous," which clarifies what the author intended to say in the explanawhat may result from an tion. But it also illustrates attempt to give an elementary one-sentence "rule" for a complex historical phenomenon in the Middle Persian grammatical system. I am sure the student will be better off if he checks this phenomenon in Nyberg's Manual or Rastorgujeva's Middle Persian Grammar. As is well known, many words in the Middle (iii) Persian lexicon have variants with more or less marked Such variants differences in their phonemic structure. stages, from various may come from different historical They may even be linguistic levels, or from dialects. This creates ghost words based on erroneous orthography. MacKenfurther problems in the choice of word entries. zie, as we can observe, has employed two procedures in In a number of dealing with parallel forms and variants. cases he has included only one of the possible forms, apparently the one that seemed less problematic to him. In some cases, however, one can only guess at the reason for his preference. For example, he includes dusox "hell" with short /u/, disregarding the better attested d6gaxW (cf. Nyberg)

form (cf.

C1.P.

dozah,

CCumtozah,

Southern

Kur-

He introduces sa1dr "leader, master" but dish d6zah). In other cases he does not mention sarOar (cf. Nyberg). includes all the variants, e.g., asr6o asron "priest," as separate items with no information on their distributicn. 177

AUTUMN 1971

(iv) Many compounds have been excluded from the Glossary on the assumption that the analysis of Pahlavi compounds is a simple matter "given the elements and provided that the rules of their construction are understood." The result of word formation is a new lexical item, a It may be inmember of the lexical system. full-fledged and lexicographical cluded or omitted on lexicological In addigrounds, but certainly not on grammatical ones. tion, it is seldom the case that the sum total of constituents is equal to the new value of the compound. The words, dug6agm ("envious") and dughuxt ("evil speech"), for example, are formed according to one and the same Macrule, yet they belong to two different categories. them as separate entries. Kenzie quite rightly registers Just because the book is intended for students, it would have been better to rely less on the user's grammatical competence and include more similar items from compounds. The lexical meanings of entry words are generally In a few cases given with their English equivalents. As is customary in there are explanatory definitions. no original contexts are provided. concise dictionaries, etc.) are kept Lexical units (phrases, set expressions, to a minimum. As might be expected, the presentation of the semantic aspects of entry words is limited by the principles that the author has applied in composing his Dictionary. To ask for more would have meant a considerable enlarging of the volume and, at the same time, changing of its scope conThere are, however, a few theoretical and coverage. I would like to mention. siderations (i) The Dictionary usually defines special Pahlavi terms with more general, common, everyday meanings. Scholars such as Zaehner, Nyberg, Henning, etc., by successthe terms associated with Zoroastrianism, fully delineating its rites and mythology, have made important contributions It is unfortunate to see to Middle Persian lexicography. the clear semantic contours which they have delineated blurred in an effort to present a simple vocabulary.

IRANIANSTUDIES

178

(ii) Similarly, terms defined as commonand everyday lexical elements may also have special meanings in The Dictionary does not account the Pahlavi literature. For example, rah is interpreted for such special usages. as "chariot, wagon," whereas in one of Zaehner's works we find it as "wheel (of heaven), firmament" (Zurvan, p. 472b); and spasdarih is translated as "gratitude," but Erkenntlichkeit; Nyberg's Hilfsbuch gives "Dankbarkeit, (ii, p. 205). Dienstleistung: eine der Haupttugenden"

and conof simplicity Such cases show that the principles ciseness in the selection of entries were extended to their This has led to oversimplified semantic interpretation. and eclectic translations. on the size of the volume did (iii) The limitations not permit the inclusion of idioms and set expression both of which are important and characteristic elements of the lexicon and should be included even in a simple "repreThe effect of their omission is sentative" vocabulary. The Dictionar clear from the following has usexample: discuss" and usk5ri n(ih) "conkardan "to think, consider, From other sources we learn of sideration, reflection." and the the existence of the noun uskar "consideration" verbal phrase uskar kartan "to examine" (Zaehner, op. cit., of verbal phrases on the occurrence p. 474). Information of this type along with simple verbs of the same meaning and a descriptive point is valuable both from a historical of view. The last three parts of the book are aids to the The Appendix supplies use of the Dictionary. practical and/or Middle Persian terms with their English equivalents explanations according to object groups, a method of lexiThe cal description favored at the turn of the century. of not only for students English Index is very valuable acbut also for those who desire easily Middle Persian, on particular Middle Persian lexical information cessible The Pahlavi Key items on the basis of their meanings. us written Pahlavi words convinces with its beautifully could be successfully that a Pahlavi dictionary produced with the direct use of the Pahlavi writing system.

179

AUTUMN1971

The above comments are not meant to detract in any way from the great value and outstanding merit of the Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. It has appeared at a time when there is a crying need for such lexicographic work and is a significant contribution to studies of the Pahlavi literary language.

IRANIANSTUDIES

180

0

Ei~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C >N~~~~~~~~ 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4

0~~~~~ 14)

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0

0~~~~~~~0(A0 .0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

.0

-

U)

00~~~~~~~

0~~~~~~~~~C

Cu

o

Cu~~~~~~~~~~~ 0

H - Cu

~~~~~~~oo: :z-v

'

Note on the English Transliteration System The system of transliteration used by IRANIAN STUDIES is based on the Persian Romanization System approved by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Library of Congress. Copies of the transliteration table may be obtained by writing to the Editor.

Iranian Studies is publishedquarterlyby The Society for IranianStudies. It

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Cover design by Hossein Ziai