Pahlavi Period Research Articles

Literature and Periodicals in Contemporary Iran

Abstract This article examines the rise and spread of modern Persian literature from the early twentieth century (1906 onward), tracing its trajectory through the prism of the contemporary press. Beginning with an exploration of premodern Persian literary traditions, it elucidates the instrumental role of reformists and intellectuals in establishing influential periodicals abroad, such as Akhtar in Istanbul, Habl al-Matin in Calcutta, Hekmat in Cairo, and Ghānoon in London, to foster communication with readers in Iran. During the lead-up to the Constitutional Revolution (between 1905 and 1911), periodicals within Iran experienced a surge in popularity, becoming vital conduits for literary and nonliterary discourse. Noteworthy publications such as Teatr, Nasim-e Shomal, and Sur-e Esrafil played pivotal roles in redefining literary norms and genres, particularly through the serialized publication of novels in the first Pahlavi period, reaching their peak in the second Pahlavi period until the 1979 revolution. The publication of novels and short stories in the press has also been one of the most important factors in promoting and consolidating modern fiction within the Iranian literary landscape. However, following the 1979 revolution, the press’s influence on modern literature waned as new media platforms emerged, reshaping the literary landscape in Iran.

Zoroastrians in the Economy of Yazd During the Qajar and Pahlavi I Dynasties

ABSTRACT In the Qajar period, Zoroastrian merchants of Iran were able to engage in commercial activities with fewer restrictions than in the past. In this article, the economic performance of the Zoroastrians in this period was examined based on the institutional approach as well as the reflection of this trend on the historical and commercial context of Yazd (as one of the most important centres of Zoroastrian society) by studying the historical texts and field studies in the historical context of this city. Based on the results, it was found that the existence of formal and informal institutions had a direct impact on the prosperity or stagnation of the commercial activities of Zoroastrians in both Qajar and first Pahlavi periods. Following the emergence of supporting institutions, the architectural spaces related to their commercial activity relatively increased, but the resistance of informal institutions prevented their widespread presence in the city’s main market.

Pedalling in Pahlavi Iran: Cycle mobility and competing masculinities

Using Persian memoirs, periodicals, and photographs, this essay examines how Iranians integrated the bicycle into their everyday lives in the rapidly changing socioeconomic contexts of the Pahlavi period (1925–1979). It seeks to achieve two goals. First, by drawing comparisons from different geographical contexts, it illustrates how Iran's comparatively belated encounter with bicycle technology shaped its use and social meanings, revealing the agency of consumers of small technologies in the global South. Second, by examining competing ideals of manhood associated with the bicycle, it expands Middle Eastern historiography on masculinity beyond the modern middle class. As growing Iranian working-class men developed peculiar aesthetics and practices around the bicycle that distinguished themselves from modern middle-class men, cycle mobility became highly contested along class and gender lines, raising aspirations and anxieties in the Iranian urban space.

The Role of the Second Pahlavi Government in the Establishment and Promotion of the Tourism Industry in the Persian Gulf

The tourism industry, in its modern form, emerged in Iran for the first time during the Pahlavi era. Initially, in 1935, an office titled "Office for Foreign Travelers and Publicity" was established, and its activities were limited to publishing tourism brochures and guidebooks. The growth and development of this industry were realized through the establishment of the "Tourism Attraction Organization" in 1966 and the formation of the "Ministry of Information and Tourism" in 1974. One of the destinations that has always been attractive and of interest to tourists is the southern ports and islands of Iran. These places, with their various historical, environmental, and cultural attractions, have always drawn tourists to them. Among these regions, Kish Island, with features such as favorable weather, beautiful nature, historical sites, and rare plant and animal species, became one of the islands receiving special attention for tourism development in southern Iran during the Second Pahlavi period. In the present research, based on sources such as memoirs of Pahlavi officials and available documents, and using a descriptive-analytical method, an attempt has been made to answer the question of how the tourism industry grew and developed in the Iranian ports and islands of the Persian Gulf during the Second Pahlavi era, particularly Kish Island, which became an international tourist island during this period.

Recognition of features of the entrance of Pahlavi period buildings in Zahedan City

Recognition of features of the entrance of Pahlavi period buildings in Zahedan City

A comparative study of decorations in the architecture of courtyards of Qajar and first Pahlavi period houses in Shiraz

A comparative study of decorations in the architecture of courtyards of Qajar and first Pahlavi period houses in Shiraz

Epidemiological Transition in Iran: The Rise and Fall of Epidemics in Iran After Islam to Before the Islamic Revolution

Background and aims: The lack of reliable data on mortality in Iran until the last few decades has caused the early stages of the epidemiological transition to remain unknown. As such, the current study was an attempt to examine the stages and timing of the epidemiological transition in Iran in a historical effort. Methods: This study is descriptive-analytical, and its data and information have been collected using the library method. Results: The historical course of the emergence of epidemics in Iran after Islam to before the Islamic Revolution is divided into four periods: (1) The period after Islam to the Safavid period (650-1501 AD): The era of plague and famine, (2) Safavid to Qajar period (1501-1796 AD): The era of continued widespread outbreaks and intermittent occurrence of plague, (3) Qajar period (1796-1925 AD): The era of subsidence of the plague and widespread cholera, and finally (4) Pahlavi period (1925-1979 AD): The era of the decline of epidemic diseases. Conclusion: The continuous and substantial reduction in deaths led simultaneously to a reduction in the incidence and scope of epidemics and an increase in chronic diseases, and this process is expected to accelerate in the future.

Prevalence of Smallpox and the Trend of Smallpox Inoculation in Fars in the First Pahlavi Period

One of the infectious diseases that was widespread in Fars province during the first Pahlavi era (1925-1941) was smallpox. This disease spread in the early days of the Pahlavi dynasty in the cities of Fars province and its epidemic reached its peak in 1318 AD. Important measures were taken to control the disease, including smallpox inoculation. The smallpox inoculators tried to control the disease by creating fixed and mobile posts and by injecting the patient with smallpox fluid or animal smallpox fluid. Despite the efforts of local authorities in the field of smallpox, there were several obstacles and problems to reduce and eradicate the disease. This study intends to study the prevalence of smallpox in Fars and the trend of smallpox to deal with it in the first Pahlavi period by relying on unpublished documents in the Documents Organization and the National Library of Iran as well as the archives of local newspapers and using a descriptive-analytical method. Findings showed that despite the widespread epidemic of smallpox in Fars in the first Pahlavi period and the high mortality rate, the trend of smallpox inoculation progressed well and the government succeeded in using existing facilities and common methods to help control the disease in the regions of Fars.

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

Analysis of Iranian Houses in First Pahlavi Period with Architectural Aesthetics Role (Case Study: Amir Asefi's House in Sanandaj)

Analysis of Iranian Houses in First Pahlavi Period with Architectural Aesthetics Role (Case Study: Amir Asefi's House in Sanandaj)

Iran’s golden age of tourism: the development of the travel industry in the late Pahlavi period (c. 1960-1979)

ABSTRACT This article examines the development of Iran’s tourism sector in the two decades before the revolution of 1979. In this period, the number of tourists visiting Iran each year grew from fewer than 80,000 in 1962 to nearly 700,000 by 1977, and as a result, tourism became an increasingly important sector of Iran’s economy. The article assesses the factors that contributed to the growth of the industry and investigates the extent to which this growth was the direct result of policies enacted by governmental organisations, in particular the Sāzmān-e Jalb-e Sayyāhān (Tourist Organisation), the Plan Organisation and Iran Air. Because Iran’s tourism industry was so underdeveloped in the 1960s, one of the primary tasks of Iran’s tourism planners was to market Iran around the world as an attractive tourist destination. The article evaluates the various advertisement strategies the government employed to attract tourists, particularly tourists from the more lucrative markets in Europe and the United States. It utilises a variety of primary sources in Persian and English, most importantly the three-volume Asnādi az Sanʿat-e Jahāngardi dar Irān (Documents on the Tourism Industry in Iran), which contains a wealth of material on tourism in Iran from 1922 until 1978.

The evolution of privacy in contemporary houses in Iran using space syntax techniques: a case study of Kerman

PurposeThe house not only provides shelter and security but also is a reflection of human privacy. One of the important factors involved in house design is privacy. The current research is a case study that examines privacy's evolution in contemporary houses in Kerman using space syntax techniques.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on the quantitative approach of space syntax. A total number of 15 houses in Kerman built in three periods of Qajar, Pahlavi and the Islamic Republic, were examined for the space syntax indices using UCL DepthMap. The DepthMap outputs were also analyzed using one-way ANOVA.FindingsThe findings indicated that the arrangement of spaces in houses has altered over time from the 1920s onwards. There is a significant difference between houses of the Qajar, Pahlavi and the Islamic Republic eras, indicating a reduction in the hierarchy of access and reduced privacy in houses in the Islamic Republic.Research limitations/implicationsNumerous factors affect privacy (e.g. confidentiality, interface spaces, quality of openings and visibility). Nevertheless, this study focused on the impact of spatial configuration on privacy. It can be stated that the design of houses from the Pahlavi period was gradually associated with changes in culture and modern architecture, leading to a decrease in privacy.Originality/valueThis study used space syntax to examine the evolution of privacy in contemporary Iranian houses. Since privacy is a substantial issue in the middle east communities, the findings can help designers and relevant organizations consider privacy as much as other comfort factors in the early stages of design.

Analysis of the Role of Women in the Educational System of Hormozgan in the Pahlavi Period

Analysis of the Role of Women in the Educational System of Hormozgan in the Pahlavi Period

Evaluation of effective factors on the place sense of Pahlavi period houses in Mashhad

Evaluation of effective factors on the place sense of Pahlavi period houses in Mashhad

Femine Body in the Mass Culture of Iran: between Nudity and Marginalization

The author analyses the problems of visualisation and marginalisation of female corporeality in developments of Iranian political and cultural identity from the early modernisation project of the 19th century and the radical modernisation of the 1920s – 1970s to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which changed significantly the vectors and trajectories of the visualisation of the female body in public spaces and the discourse of Iranian culture. The author believes that Iran / Persia in the 19th century belonged to the number of Muslim countries that were under stable European influences. Russia and Great Britain became the main sources of cultural changes. Cultural exchange with these countries stimulated changes in Persian identity. The author analyses the features of corporeality in the visual art of Iran from the Qajars to the Islamic revolution and its mutations during the process of radical Islamisation of the social life inspired by it. The author believes that the early modern project of the Qajars was the first attempt to visualise female corporeality and map in the centre of cultural coordinates which in fact simulated European discourse. The identity project of the Pahlavi period became an attempt to transform and adopt Western concepts to the Iranian national canon. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 marginalised the visual and visible forms of female corporeality, presented earlier in public and cultural spaces. The project of Islamisation inspired subordination of the female body, marginalising attempts to visualise in ways Western intellectuals did it. Modern feminine corporeality in Iranian culture develops as a dichotomy of official religious identity and its secular alternative, represented by the “high” cultural segments of the consumer society. The author analyses how and why Western strategies of visualisation of female corporeality coexist with its religious rejection. It is assumed that the Iranian mass culture assimilated Western practices of visualising femininity, although the official cultural discourse continues to reproduce the canon of the body imagined as predominantly religious construct.

Media Post-coloniality and the Ethereal Persian ‘Empress’: How Hollywood Weaponized the Nostalgia of Exile

The osmosis between Iranian exile, Oriental repertoires, and the commodification of nostalgia in film and contemporary1 culture alludes to the Disney reproduction of the East that is capitalized by Hollywood’s invisible hand. The commodification of Orientalist logic via nostalgia of old civilization and Achaemenid grandeur is conveyed by Hamid Naficy’s (1991) reference to Edward Said’s (1978) ‘imaginary2 geography’—the inventive tool of narration that augments tales and anecdotes of exilic narratives, while heightening essentialism of the East. The European modeling of coronation, bejeweled scepters of royalty under the Pahlavi period (1941-1979), and cinematic repertoires of Iranians in film are perpetuated for viewers via fetishization, lust, and enchantment. The televised 1967 coronation of Queen Farah (b. 1938) solidified the trope of the Persian ‘Empress’ through picturesque markers of Achaemenid rulership (550-330 BCE). Media3 propagations of nostalgia in the paradisiacal Pahlavi coronation can be paralleled to current illusions of the Orient presented in the film Paterson (Jarmusch, 2016), starring exiled Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. I refer to the Pahlavi coronation to expand on the spectacle of ‘nostalgia’, and the desire for a distant homeland. Naficy’s (1991) interpretation of ‘nostalgia’—a factor of exile, expounds how relics and objects induce a longing for the distant and ahistorical. Objects of nostalgia are inexplicably weaponized in Hollywood inventions of Near Eastern characters and serve as palpable symbols of the East via skewed representations of women, sexuality, and the exotic4 (Ahmed, 2006). Poetry, nostalgia, and fictional tales of the Orient in Paterson (Jarmusch, 2016) allude to Said’s (1978) vision of the imperialist project in Orientalism. The inventive and imaginary power of color media in the televised Pahlavi coronation and the fashioning of a politically permanent subject of interest—Iranians and the East, augured a pertinent era of media post-coloniality5 via the preservation of orientalism, rather than the Orient.

Tourist Facilities Of The Province Of Isfahan During The Pahlavi Period(1941-1979)

تأسیسات اقامتی و پذیرایی، از زیرساخت‌های مهم‌ صنعت جهانگردی است که دغدغۀ فراهم‌آوردن آن برای گردشگران خارجی از ابتدای دورۀ پهلوی در بین مسئولان حکومت وجود داشت. بررسی وضعیت تأسیسات اقامتی و پذیرایی اصفهان به‌عنوان یکی از قطب‌های جهانگردی کشور که همواره از دورۀ صفوی تاکنون مرکز توجه گردشگران بوده، اهمیت به‌سزایی دارد. با این رویکرد، هدف این پژوهش، بررسی زمانمند چگونگی توسعۀ تأسیسات جهانگردی استان اصفهان در جریان برنامه‌های عمرانی و مقایسۀ آن با دیگر استان‌ها و قطب‌های گردشگری در دورۀ پهلوی است. نتایج حاصل از این پژوهش نشان می‌دهد که سازمان برنامه تا پیش از تأسیس سازمان جلب سیاحان در ۱۳۴۲ش/1963م، علی‌رغم اذعان به اهمیت توسعۀ صنعت جهانگردی در کشور، بودجه‌ای برای تأسیسات جهانگردی اختصاص نداده بود. در طی برنامه‌های عمرانی چهارم و پنجم، اقدامات بسیاری در زمینۀ ساخت و توسعۀ تأسیسات اقامتی و پذیرایی صورت گرفت. با این حال، استان اصفهان سهم کوچکی از تحول تأسیسات اقامتی و پذیرایی کشور را داشت و صرف‌نظر از استان مرکزی با محوریت شهر تهران به‌عنوان پایتخت، استان‌های فارس، خراسان، خوزستان، مازندران و گیلان بیش از استان اصفهان تأسیسات اقامتی داشتند. این پژوهش به روش تحلیل تاریخی و با رویکرد توصیفی و تحلیلی بر اساس اسناد آرشیوی و گزارش‌های دولتی، مصاحبۀ فعال و مطالعات کتابخانه‌ای نگاشته شده است.

Sociological Analysis of the Language Policy Discourse during the First Pahlavi Period (Emphasizing the approvals of the Higher Education Council)

نوسازی در دولت رضاشاه، داشتن سیاست زبانی مشخص در حوزه‌های اداری و آموزش‌وپرورش را ضروری کرد. سیاست زبانی انتخابی در این دوره استفاده از زبان فارسی و به حاشیه راندن زبان‌های دیگر ایران بوده است. مقالۀ حاضر به این سؤال می‌پردازد که استراتژی گفتمانی جهت تثبیت سیاست زبان واحد در دورۀ پهلوی اول چه بوده است. برای تحلیل این مسئله، دیدگاه‌های نظری با ساختار مفهومی زیر بیان شد: دولت رضاشاه با «بحران در نظم اخلاقی جامعه»، «بسیج منابع» و «زنجیره‌های تعامل روشنفکران» درصدد بود گفتمان مدنظر را تثبیت کند. این تحقیق با روش تحلیل گفتمان انتقادی فرکلاف، مصوبات شورای عالی معارف را تحلیل کرده است. یافته‌های حاصل از تحلیل متن مصوبات نشان می‌دهد که نظم گفتمانی در موضوع سیاست زبانی، متمرکز و یکسان‌ساز بوده است و با توجه به بافت و شرایط اجتماعی در این دوره، ناسیونالیسم فرهنگی مبتنی‌بر زبان فارسی مسلط شده است. نتایج پژوهش بیانگر این واقعیت است که دولت اقتدارگرای رضاشاه با اجرای پروژۀ مدرنیزاسیون، شبکۀ تعامل روشنفکران را تقویت، منابع و امکانات موجود را بسیج و زمینۀ بی‌ثباتی در نظم اخلاقی و فرهنگی پیشین را ایجاد کرد و گفتمان سیاست زبانی یکسان‌ساز را تحکیم بخشید.

Explanation the performance of Kadkhodayan in the management of natural crises in the villages of Isfahan province in the Pahlavi period of 1978-1925

تا پیش از اجرای اصلاحات ارضی در سال 1341ش/ 1962م، در مدیریت روستایی، کدخدا پس از مالک نقش محوری داشت. هرچند نهاد کدخدایی از گذشته در ساختار جامعة روستایی وجود داشت، در دورة پهلوی و با تشکیل دولت مدرن در ایران، همزمان با تلاش روزافزون دولت برای نفوذ در جامعة روستایی، تغییراتی در وظایف، ساختار و کارکرد این منصب ایجاد شد. هدف این مقاله تبیین کارکرد منصب کدخدا با رویکرد مدیریت بحران‌های طبیعی در روستاهای استان اصفهان در دورة پهلوی است. سؤال‌ اصلی تحقیق این است که عملکرد کدخدایان روستاهای استان اصفهان در رویارویی با بحران‌های طبیعی در دورة پهلوی چگونه بود؟ مطالعه به روش توصیفی و تحلیلی و مبتنی بر گردآوری اطلاعات از منابع کتابخانه‌ای و اسنادی است. یافته‌های تحقیق نشان می‌دهد کدخداها در سراسر دورة پهلوی عملکرد فعال، مؤثر و مثبتی در مدیریت بحران‌های طبیعی نداشتند. ضمن اینکه عواملی چون نداشتن تخصص و آگاهی علمی، تسلیم­پذیری در برابر بحران‌های طبیعی، نداشتن قدرت تصمیم‌گیری و ابتکار عمل، به دلیل نظام اداری متمرکز، بر عملکرد کدخداها تأثیر داشت.

Introducing and Reviewing the Book of Human Fraternity

The book Human Fraternity discusses peace and tranquility among different societies and strengthening them. The author of the book, the late Seyyed Abdollah Entezam Vaziri (1895-1983), is one of the officials of the second Pahlavi period. He wrote the book after the outbreak of two world wars. The devastation and tragedy of the two world wars led to the writing of the book. The book was first published non-scientifically during the life of Entezam (before 1983) and then in April 2021 the publications of Miras-e Farhikhteganby Mansour Rashidi and Ali Ghanbarian published it scientifically and coherently in Iran. Entezam Vaziri was a culture-lover figure and has several books and articles. In the present article, the book Human Fraternity in 2 parts (part one: the structure of the book and part two: the study of the text of the book) is introduced, described, and reviewed.