Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-6c7dr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-17T16:45:55.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Press and Public Diplomacy in Iran, 1820–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Camron Michael Amin
Camron Michael Amin*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The under-appreciated role of the press as a tool of public diplomacy was rooted in its origins as a Qajar state project in the nineteenth century, but also cultivated by a shared impulse of Iranian journalists and statesmen to represent Iran effectively in the court of world opinion. Moreover, foreign governments often reacted to the Iranian press generally, not just the official newspapers and not just newspapers produced in Iran, as a forum though which to advance or protect their interests in Iran. The Pahlavi state integrated the press as part of a larger state-run mass communication policy in the 1930s that would eventually include new technologies such as radio, and retained public diplomacy as an essential purpose of the media. This study draws upon archival material, press accounts, and memoirs.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 269 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 The International Society for Iranian Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

This research was supported a grant from the Office of the Vice Provost of Research at the University of Michigan, and, a Campus Grant from the University of Michigan-Dearborn Office of Sponsored Research. I extend my thanks to those who have read and constructively critiqued this work in various stages. All remaining errors are my responsibility (except those that are the result of British sabotage!).

References

Abu Torabiyan, Hosayn. Matbuʿat -e Irani. Tehran: Entesharat-e Ettelaʿat, 1366 (1987/88).Google Scholar
Afary, Janet. “Peasant Rebellions of the Caspian Region During the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1909.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 23, no. 2 (May 1991): 137–161. doi: 10.1017/S0020743800056014Google Scholar
Algar, Hamid. Mirza Malkum Khan: A Biographical Study in Iranian Modernism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Amin, Camron Michael. “Selling and Saving ‘Mother Iran’: Gender and the Iranian Press in 1940's.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no. 3 (August 2001): 335–661. doi: 10.1017/S0020743801003014>Google Scholar
Amin, Camron Michael. “An Iranian in New York: ʿAbbas Masʿudi's Description of the Non-Iranian on the Eve of the Cold War.” In Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity: Histories and Historiographies, edited by Aghaie, Kamran Scot and Marashi, Afshin. Austin: University of Texas, 2014, 164–180.Google Scholar
Andreeza, Elena and Nouraei, Morteza. “Russian Settlements in Iran in the Early 20th Century: Initial Phase of Colonization.” Iranian Studies 46, no. 3 (May 2013): 415–442. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2012.758499Google Scholar
Asnad-e matbuʿat (1286–1320 HS). 2 vols. Edited by Kaveh Bayat and Masʿud Kuhestani Nezhad. Tehran: Entesharat-e Asnad-e Melli-ye Iran, 1372 (1993).Google Scholar
Asnad-e as matbuʿat va ahzab-e daureh-e Reza Shah. Tehran: Daftar-e Raʾis Jomhur Moʿvanat-e Khadamat-e modiryat va Ettelaʿ-resani, 1380 (2001).Google Scholar
Asnad-e matbuʿat -e Iran, 1320–1332, 4 vols. Tehran: Entesharat-e Asnad-e Melli-ye Iran, 1374 (1995).Google Scholar
Asnad-e post va telegraf va telefon dar daureh-e Reza Shah. Edited by Marziyeh Yazdani. Tehran: Sazman-e Asnad-e Melli-ye Pezhuheshkadeh-ye Asnad, 1378 (1999). PTT in notes.Google Scholar
Asnad-e ravabet-e Iran va Rusiyeh az dawreh-e Naser al-Din Shah ta soqut-e Qajariyeh, 1326–44 HG/1851–1925 C.E. Tehran: Markaz-e Asnad-e Tarikh va Diplomasi, 1380 (2001). ARIR in notes.Google Scholar
Asnadi az tarikhcheh-ye radiyo-e Iran, 1318-1345. Tehran: Mocavenat-e khadamat-e modiriyat va ettelac-resani-e daftar-e ra'is-e jomhur, 1379 (2000). ATRI in notes.Google Scholar
Avery, Peter. “Printing, the Press and Literature in Modern Iran.” In The Cambridge History of Iran: Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, edited by Avery, Peter, Hambly, Gavin and Melville, Charles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 815–869.Google Scholar
Ayalon, Ami. The Press in the Arab Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Babayan, Kathryn. “Friendship, Desire, and Subjective Forms of Knowledge: Emerging Culture of Epistolarity in Early Modern Isfahan.” Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Workshop for Islamic Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, December 3, 2010.Google Scholar
Behrooz, Maziar. “Revisiting the Second Russo-Iranian War (1826-28): Causes and Perceptions.” Iranian Studies 46, no. 3 (May 2013): 359–382. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2012.758502>Google Scholar
Bonakdarian, Mansour. “The Persia Committee and the Constitutional Revolution in Iran.” British Journal of Middle East Studies 18, no. 2 (1991): 186–207.Google Scholar
Bonakdarian, Mansour. “Iranian Constitutional Exiles and British Foreign-Policy Dissenters.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 27, no. 2 (May 1995): 175–191. doi: 10.1017/S0020743800061870>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browne, E. G. “The Persian Constitutionalists.” London: Central Asian Society, 1909.Google Scholar
Browne, E. G. “The Responsibility of the Russian Government for the ‘Chaos’ Now Existing in Persia.” Newcastle-upon-Tyne: J. B. Bowes, 1909.Google Scholar
Browne, E. G. “The Persian Press and Persian Journalism.” London: Pub. for the Persia Society by J. Hogg, 1913.Google Scholar
Browne, E. G. The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914.Google Scholar
Deringil, Selim. The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1987–1909. New ed. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011 [1999].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutschmann, Mortiz. “‘All Rulers are Brothers’: Russian Relations with the Iranian Monarchy in the 19th Century.” Iranian Studies 46, no. 3 (May 2013): 383–414. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2012.759334>Google Scholar
Elwell-Sutton, L. P. “The Iranian Press, 1941–1947.” Iran 4 (1968): 65–105. doi: 10.2307/4299603>Google Scholar
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Farhangsetizi dar daureh-e Reza Shah (asnad-e montasher nashodeh-e sazman-e parvaresh-e afkar), 1317–1320. Edited by Mahmud Delfani. Tehran: entesharat-e sazman-e asnad-e melli-e Iran, 1375 (1996). FSDRS in notes.Google Scholar
Graves, Rose. “Iranian Relations with Great Britain and British India, 1798–1921.” In Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, edited by Avery, Peter, Hambly, Gavin and Melville, Charles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 374–425.Google Scholar
Green, Nile. “Journeyman, Middlemen: Travel, Transculture, and Technology in the Origins of Muslim Printing.” The International Journal of Middle East Studies 41, no. 2 (May 2009): 203–224. doi: 10.1017/S0020743809090631>Google Scholar
“International Radiotelegraph Convention Concluded Between …” The American Journal of International Law 7, no. 4 Supplement: Official Documents (October 1913): 229–245. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2212321Google Scholar
Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh. “Fragile Frontiers: The Diminishing Domains of Qajar Iran.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 29, no. 2 (May 1997): 204–234.Google Scholar
Kazemzadeh, F. “Iranian Relations with Russia and the Soviet Union, to 1921.” In Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, edited by Avery, Peter, Hambly, Gavin and Melville, Charles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 314–349.Google Scholar
Kohan, Goʾel. Tarikh-e sansur dar matbuʿat-e Iran, 2 vols. Tehran: Agah, 1360 and 1363.Google Scholar
Mahdavi, Shireen. “Shahs, Doctors, Diplomats, and Missionaries in the 19th Century Iran.” British Journal of Middle East Studies 32, no. 2 (November 2005): 169–191. doi: 10.1080/13530190500281432>Google Scholar
Marashi, Afshin. “Performing ‘the Nation’: The Official State Visit of Reza Shah to Kemalist Turkey, June–July, 1934.” In The Making of Modern Iran, edited by Cronin, Stephanie, 99–119. London: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
Matbuʿat-e ʿasr-e Pahlavi beh revayat-e asnad-e SAVAK, 9 vols. Tehran: Markaz-e Barresi-ye Asnad-e Tarikhi, 1379 (2000).Google Scholar
Matbuʿat-e rezhim-e shah: motaleʿah-ha-ye mawred-e Kayhan va Ettelaʿat. Edited by Maryam ʿAbedini Moghanaki. Tehran: Markaz-e Asnad-e Enqelab-e Eslami, 1387 (2008).Google Scholar
Parvin, Nassereddin. “The Sources of Historiography of the Iranian Press.” Iran Nameh 26, no. 2–3 (Spring–Summer 1998): 191–210.Google Scholar
Qasemi, Farid. Sargozasht-e matbuʿat-e Iran: ruzgar-e Mohammad Shah va Naser al-Din Shah. 2 vols. Tehran: Sazman-e chap va entesharat, vezarat-e farhang va ershad-e eslami, 2001.Google Scholar
Rad, Mehdi Mohseniyan. Iran dar chahar kahkashan-e ertebati. 3 vols. Tehran: Soroush Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Rabino di Borgmale, H. L. Diplomatic and Consular Officers of Great Britain and Iran. N.p.: n.p., 1946.Google Scholar
Roberts, Marvin. “Analysis of Radio Propaganda in the 1953 Iran Coup.” Iranian Studies 45, no. 6 (November 2012): 759–777. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2012.726848>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roper, George. “Faris al-Shidyaq and the Transition from Scribal to Print Culture.” In The Book in the Islamic World, edited by Atiyeh, George N., 209–232. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1995.Google Scholar
Rostam-Kolayi, Jasmin. “Evangelizing to Modernizing Iranians: The American Presbyterian Mission and its Iranian Students.” Iranian Studies 41, no. 2 (April 2008): 213–240. doi: 10.1080/00210860801913453>Google Scholar
Rubin, Michael. “Indo-European Telegraphy Company.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Online edition, December 15, 2004. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-european-telegraph-companyGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Michael. “Indo-European Telegraphy Department.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Online edition, December 15, 2004. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-european-telegraph-departmentGoogle Scholar
Sadr-Hashemi, Mohammad. Tarikh-e jarayed va majallat-e Iran [History of Iranian newspapers and magazines]. 4 vols. 2nd ed. Isfahan: Kamal, 1363 (1984/85).Google Scholar
Saikal, Amin. “Iranian Foreign Policy, 1921–1979.” In Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, edited by Avery, Peter, Hambly, Gavin and Melville, Charles, 426–456. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 426–456.Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, U. “The Persian Newspaper Habl Al-Matin.” India Office Library and Records and Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books Newsletter 32, no. 3 (August 1984): 1–3.Google Scholar
Shahhidi, Hossein. “From Mission to Profession: Iranian Journalism, 1979–2004." Iranian Studies 39, no. 1 (March 2004): 1–28. doi: 10.1080/00210860500470177>Google Scholar
Shahidi, Hossein. “The BBC Persian Service, 1940–1953, and the Nationalization of Iranian Oil.” Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis 17, no. 1 (2001): 31–55.Google Scholar
Shahvar, Solhi. “Telegraph—The First Telegraphy Lines in Persia.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Online edition, July 20, 2009. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/telegraph-i-first-telegraph-lines-in-persiaGoogle Scholar
Stewart, Irwin. “The International Radiotelegraph Conference of Washington." The American Journal of International Law 22, no. 1 (January 1928): 28–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2188968 doi: 10.2307/2188968>Google Scholar
Tabrizi, Mirza Mehdi Khan. “ Sorayya va Tarbiyat va Etellaʿ,” Hekmat 8: 19 (November 24, 1899), 15–16.Google Scholar
Tarikh-cheh-ye taʾsis-e Radiyo Tehran (Iran) va maʿrefi-e honarmandan-e an. Edited by Habibollah Nasirifarr. Tehran: ʿElmi, 1383 (2004).Google Scholar
Zirinsky, Michael P. “A Panacea for the Ills of the Country: American Presbyterian Education in Interwar Iran.” Iranian Studies 26, no. 1–2 (1993): 119–137. doi: 10.1080/00210869308701789>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zirinsky, Michael P. “Render Therefore Unto Caesar the Things Which are Caesar's: American Presbyterian Educators and Reza Shah.” Iranian Studies 26, no. 3–6 (1993): 337–356. doi: 10.1080/00210869308701805>Google Scholar