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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Hushang Golsmri's masterfully crafted short story “Fathnamehye moghan” (The Victory Chronicle of the Magi) captures a sobering moment in the transitional period of revolutionary Iran. Golshiri delves beneath the surface of the ongoing revolutionary confusion to reflect on the events and gains insight into an aspect of the culture deeply rooted in the Iranian psyche. Golshiri conveys the sentiments of the collective narrator “We,” which represents, if not all Iranians, at least the intellectuals who had been supportive of a revolution in order to acquire freedom but are suddenly faced with a situation in which the freedoms they had been taking for granted have been curtailed. In a manner, perhaps not very different from before, they are trying to learn, or, as Barat sees it, to conform to the new restrictions placed upon their lives. Wine and its prohibition are used as a symbol of restrictions on other liberties.
“Fathnameh-ye moghan” first appeared in Kargah-e qesseh, No. 1, 1-6, along with four other stories by different authors. This story is dated Azar 1359 (November/December 1980). It was later published in a collection of short stories by Hushang Golshiri entitled Panj ganj, (Stockholm: Entesharat-e Arash, 1989), 7-35.
1. “Fathnameh-ye moghan” first appeared in Kargah-e qesseh, No. 1, 1–6, along with four other stories by different authors. This story is dated Azar 1359 (November/December 1980). It was later published in a collection of short stories by Hushang Golshiri entitled Panj ganj, (Stockholm: Entesharat-e Arash, 1989), 7–35.
2. This is a reference to the anniversary of August 19, 1953 (28 Mordad), when a CIA-backed military coup resulted in the overthrow of the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and the reinstatement of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as the supreme ruler of the country. The Shah had fled Iran some days prior to August 19 as a result of a general uprising against the monarchy.
3. On August 19, 1978, the Rex Cinema in the southern Iranian city of Abadan was set afire by arsonists, apparently for political reasons. Several hundred people perished in this fire. Various groups were blamed for this tragedy by the government and the opposition, including the Shah's government security forces as well as the anti-Shah Islamic revolutionists. This incident is regarded as one of the significant events leading to the Islamic Revolution of 1978–1979.