Bozorg Alavi's Portmanteau

Abstract

The beginning of the modem phase of Persian literature is variously dated between the middle and the end of the nineteenth century: certainly, it would be difficult to offer a convincing argument for any earlier dating. Thus, it was a later, and also an altogether slower, less explosive, sparser growth than was the Arabic renaissance known as the nahda. Unlike the latter, it was only partially and indirectly induced and sustained by the intensive European penetration of the Middle East in the post-Napoleonic period. Moreover, in an area so circumscribed and isolated, so comparatively underpopulated and impoverished, as Persia had become in preceding centuries, the new movement tended to be confined to a small and unique circle, as compared with several important centres and coteries of literary activity dispersed throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Yet, holding in mind these essential differences and distinctions, one may still remark many significant points of resemblance between the two movements.