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Revolutionary Posturing: Iranian Writers and the Iranian Revolution of 1979

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
Affiliation:
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Washington, Seattle
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Extract

During those eventful days of early January 1979, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran had finally announced his intention to leave the country and the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini had made his return from exile contingent on the shah's departure, a hemistitch by Hafez, the 14th-century Persian poet, suddenly appeared next to an array of revolutionary slogans on display in the streets of Tehran: “Div cho birun ravad fereshteh dar āyad” (When the demon departs, the angel shall arrive). The basic binary oppositions of demon/angel and departure/arrival fit the realities of the situation the country had found itself in; a perfect correspondence had been made between the simple, single idea enshrined in the abstract language of a medieval poetic phrase and the intricate political posturing involved in a modern-day revolution in the making. Furthermore, the stark discourse of antagonism underlying the opposition had become as absolute, as uncompromising as the idea of a total revolution.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , November 1991 , pp. 507 - 531
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

NOTES

1 Karimi-Hakkak, Cf. Ahmad, “Of Hail and Hounds: The Image of the Iranian Revolution in Recent Persian Literature,” State Culture and Society, 1, 3 (Spring 1985), 148–80.Google Scholar

2 For a survey of this tendency in one particularly illustrative instance, see Sorour, S. Soroudi, “The Iranian Heritage in the Eyes of the Contemporary Poet Mehdi Akhavan Salis (M. Omid),” in Ellie, Kedouri and Sylvia, Haim, eds., Towards a Modern Iran: Studies in Thought, Politics and Society (London: Frank Cass, 1988), pp. 132–54.Google Scholar

3 For a representative sample of this poetry, see Ahmad, Karimi-Hakkak, An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1978).Google Scholar

4 Nima, Yushij, “Morgh-e Āmin” (The Amen Bird), Majmu⊃eh-ye Āsār-e Nima Yushij (The Collected Works of Nima Yushij), vol. 1 (Tehran: Nashr-e Nāsher, 1985), pp. 172–82.Google Scholar

5 Ahmad, Shamlu, “Pariyā” (The Fairies), Havā-ye Tāzeh (Fresh Air) (Tehran: NIL Publishers, 1976), p. 89.Google Scholar For a more detailed analysis of “The Fairies,” see my article “A Well Amid the Waste: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ahmad, Shamlu, “World Literature Today,” 51, 2 (Fall 1976), 201–6.Google Scholar

6 Karimi-, Hakkak, Anthology, p. 89.Google Scholar

7 Jalal, Al-e Ahmad, “First Day in Mecca,” tr.Google ScholarJohn, Green and Ahmad, Alizadeh, in Iranian Society: An Anthology of Writings by Jalal Al-e Ahmad, comp. and ed. Michael, C. Hillmann (Lexington, Ky.: Mazda Publishers, 1982), pp. 122–33.Google Scholar

8 Karimi-Hakkak, , Anthology, pp. 153–59.Google Scholar

9 Mirzā, āqā Askari, “Tashyi⊃-e Jenāzeh-ye Shahid” (A Martyr's Funeral Procession), in Nāmeh-ye Kānun-e Nevisandegān-e lran (Journal of the Writers Association of Iran), 1 (Spring 1979), 199.Google Scholar

10 Siyavosh, Kasra⊂i,Google Scholar “Az Qoroq tā Khorus-khān” (From the Dusk to the Cockcrow), in ibid., p. 139.

11 Mahmud, Azad, “Farāzha-i az she⊃r-e Boland-e ′Imān Hamisheh Rāzi⊃st” (Fragments from the Long Poem “Faith Is Always a Mystery”),Google Scholaribid., p. 141.

12 Mohammad-Ali, Sepanlu, “Fardā, beh Iran” (Tomorrow, to Iran), Nabż-e Vaṭanam rā Migiram (I Take my Country's Pulse) (Tehran: Zaman Publishers, 1978), p. 110.Google Scholar

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16 Ahmad, Shamlu, “Dar In Bonbast”Google Scholar (In This Blind Alley), ibid., pp. 30–32.

17 On the attitude of Iranian intellectuals toward the language of the clerics in contemporary Iran, see my essay entitled “Language Reform Movement and Its Language: The Case of Persian” in Bjorn, H. Jernudd and Michael, J. Shapiro, eds., The Politics of Language Purism (New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1989), pp. 81–104.Google Scholar

18 Esma⊂il, Kho⊂i, “āmizegān-e Tokhmeh-ye Changiz o Dudman-e Abujahl” (Crossbreeds of the Seed of Gengiz and the House of Abu-Jahl), in Andisheh-ye Azad, p. 33.Google Scholar

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20 On the nationalistic views of this pioneering Iranian thinker, see Mangol, Bayat-Philipp, “Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani: A Nineteenth Century Persian Nationalist,” Toward a Modern lran, op. cit. [cited in note 2], pp. 64–95.Google Scholar

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22 Gholamhosayn, Sa⊃edi, “Dar Sarācheh-ye Dabbāghan” (In the Skinners' Homestead), in Bustān, 2nd series, no. I (06—07 1980), 52–59.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., 56–57.Google Scholar

24 Ibid.Google Scholar

25 Qodsi, Qazinur, “Ketābhā-ye Darsi-ye Jadid” (New School Textbooks), Ketāb-e Jom⊂eh, 20 (12 27, 1979), 31–41.Google Scholar

26 Ahmad, ShamluGoogle Scholar in ibid., 39–41.

27 Abolqasem, Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh of Firdausi, tr. Arthur, George Warner and Edmond, Warner, vol. 1 (London, 1905), p. 168.Google Scholar

28 Shamlu's footnote to Qazinur's essay (cited in n. 25), p. 40.

29 Cf., M. A. Sepanlu, “Ferdowsi va Dāstān-e Kaveh-ye āhangar” (Ferdowsi and the story of Kaveh the Ironsmith), Ketāb-e Jom⊂eh, 31 (04 7, 1980), 157–60.Google Scholar Also, Feraydun, Jonaydi, “āqa-ye Shamlu, To ra ba Nabard-e Dalirān Chekār?” (Mr.Shamlu, What Have You to Do with the Battle of the Brave?), Borj, 1 (11—12 1980), 96–139.Google Scholar

30 Ahmad, Shamlu (cited in n. 26), p. 39.Google Scholar