Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:28:33.548Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religious Appropriation of National Symbols in Iran: Searching for Cyrus the Great

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Menahem Merhavy
Menahem Merhavy*
Affiliation:
Department of Middle Eastern Studies at University of Texas at Austin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article I examine the debate over the character of Cyrus the Great in Iran during the last four decades, using it as a prism to view the struggle over the desired balance between religious and ethnic components of Iranian identity. Heated polemics over the historical figure of Cyrus and his legacy reveal undercurrents of Iranian identity dilemmas as well as different and conflicting views of Iranian identity. Beyond a mere historical or religious controversy, the debate over the “right” memory of Cyrus presents an interesting case of shifting emphasis on identity and sources of political inspiration in Iranian society from the late 1960s to the present. Moreover, putting the debate over the ancient king in perspective, there emerges a wider picture of religious adaptation and embrace of what once seemed pagan or secular.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 933 - 948
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2015

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.)

Footnotes

Menahem Merhavy would like to thank David Stronach, Kamran S. Aghaie, Yoav Di-Capua, Afshin Marashi, Harold Liebowitz and Max Bruce for commenting on earlier drafts of this article. He would also like to thank the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations and the Fulbright Foundation.

References

Abdi, Kamyar. “Nationalism, Politics and the Development of Archaeology in Iran.”; American Journal of Archaeology 105, no. 1 (Jan. 2001): 51–76. doi: 10.2307/507326CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansari, Ali M. The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashrafi, Mahmud. Kurush-e Kabir. Tehran: publisher unknown, 1971.Google Scholar
Azad, Abul Kalam. Kurush-e Bozorg. Translated into Persian by Ibrahim Bastani Parizi. Tehran: Iben Sina, 1st ed. 1330 (1951).Google Scholar
Azad, Abul Kalam. Speeches of Maulana Azad, 1947–1958. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, 1989.Google Scholar
Badreʾi, Fereydoun. Kurush-e Kabir dar Qurʾan-e Majid va Ahd-e Atiq. Tehran: Asatir, 1384 (2005).Google Scholar
Bastani Parizi, Ibrahim. “Introduction.” In Kurush-e Bozorg, by Azad, Abul Kalam, 13–120. Translated into Persian by Parizi, Ibrahim Bastani. Tehran: Iben Sina, 1st ed. 1330 (1951).Google Scholar
Bazm-e Ahriman. Tehran: The Ministry of Information, 1999.Google Scholar
Bozorg, Jamshid. “Hachamenisiyan Basiji va Jang-e Qudrat.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2010/09/100911_u03_cyrus_basij_rigths_charter.shtml (accessed February 18, 2014).Google Scholar
Bushehri, Javad. Savak file number 5448, 30.3.1341. Tehran: 1963.Google Scholar
Curtis, John. “The Cyrus Cylinder: The Creation of an Icon and Its Loan to Tehran.” In The Cyrus Cylinder: The Great Persian Edict from Babylon, edited by Finkel, Irving, 85–103. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013.Google Scholar
Curtis, John. The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning for the Middle East. London: British Museum Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Dabashi, Hamid. Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2006.Google Scholar
Daryaee, Touraj. “Religion of Cyrus the Great.” In Cyrus the Great: An Ancient Iranian King, edited by Daryaee, Touraj, 16–27. Santa Monica, CA: Afshar Publishing, 2013.Google Scholar
Douglas, Ian Henderson. Abul Kalam Azad: An Intellectual and Religious Biography. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Farzaneh, Mateo Muhammad. “Shiʾi Ideology, Secular Nationalism and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 7, no. 1 (2007): 86–103. doi: 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00109.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankfort, Henri. The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Ghani, Cyrus. Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: from Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Rule. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Homayun, Gholamali. Kurush-e Kabir dar Athar-e Hunariy-e Urupaʾiyan. Tehran: Intisharat-e Tehran University, 1971.Google Scholar
Iranian National Library Catalog. http://old.nlai.ir/Default.aspx?tabid=401 (accessed March 3, 2014).Google Scholar
ʿIrfan′manish, Jalil. Kurush va bazyabi-i huviyat-i milli: taḥqiqi-i ʿilmi darbarah-ʾi pishinah va kisti-i Zu al-Qarnayn. Tehran: Intisharat-i Farhang-i Maktub, 1389 (2010).Google Scholar
Irving, T. B. The Qurʾan. Brattleboro, VT: Amana Books, 1985.Google Scholar
Karmipur, Kurush. Raz Kurush. Tehran: Elmi, 1389 (2010).Google Scholar
Karami Pur, Kurush. Raz Kurush-i Buzurg. Tehran: Intisharat-i ʿlmi, 1390 (2011).Google Scholar
Khalkhali, Ayatollah Sheik Haj Sadeq. Khaterat Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali. Tehran: Saye, 1379 (2000).Google Scholar
Khalkhali, Ayatollah Sheik Haj Sadeq. Kurush-e Doroughin. Tehran: Saye, 1971.Google Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhollah. Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Translated by Algar, Hamid. Berkeley: Mizan Press, [1963] 1981.Google Scholar
Kuhrt, Amélie. The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period. London: Routledge, 2007.Google Scholar
Lewis, Bernard. History: Remembered, Recovered, Invented. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Mahalli, Jalal al-Din Muhammad bin Ahmad al-, and al-Suyyuti, Jalal al-Din Abd al-Rahmanibn Abu-Baker. Tafsir al-Jalalayn. Cairo: Maktabat al-Jumhuriyya al-Arabiyya, 1983.Google Scholar
Manoukian, Setrag. City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran. Oxford: Routledge, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matin-Asgari, Afshin. “The Academic Debate on Iranian Identity: Nation and Empire Entangled.” In Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in a Historical Perspective, edited by Amanat, Abbas and Vejdani, Farzin, 173–192. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGregor, Neil. “The Many Meanings of the Cyrus Cylinder.” In The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning for the Middle East, edited by Curtis, John, 9–17. London: British Museum Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Mir Mudarris, Musa. Kurush va Zu al-Qarnayn az didgah-i tarikh va ayin. Tehran: Markaz-i Nashr-i ʿUlum-i Danishgahi va Maʿarif-i Islami-i Fazil, 1373 (1994).Google Scholar
Mohiuddin, S. G. “Religious Thoughts of Maulana Azad.” In Life and Works of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, edited by Kumar, Ravindra, 65–78. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1991.Google Scholar
Muhammad, Shan. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: A Political Biography. Meerut: Meenakshi Prakashan, 1969.Google Scholar
Nafisi, Saʾid. In Abul Kalam Azad, Kurush-e Bozorg, translated into Persian by Ibrahim Bastani Parizi, 27. Tehran: Iben Sina, 1st ed. 1330 (1951).Google Scholar
Qaʾimi, Muhammad. Hachamenishiyan dar Turat. Isfahan: Entesharat-e Taʾyid-e Isfahan, 1970.Google Scholar
Rasool, Abduhu G. The Educational Ideas of Maulana ʾAbul Kalam Azad. New Delhi: Sterling, 1973.Google Scholar
Rawlinson, H. G. “Sir Saiyid Ahmed Khan.” In Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, 1817–1898: A Prominent Muslim Politician and Educationist, edited by Ikram Chaghatai, M., 109–115. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2005.Google Scholar
Richard, Yann. “Le rôle du clergé: Tendances contradictoires du chi?isme iranien contemporain.” Archives de sciences sociales des religions 28e Année, no. 55.1 (Jan.–March 1983): 5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safizadeh, Farah. Az Kurush Hakhamenishi ta Muhammad Khatami. Tehran: Gofteman, 1378 (1999).Google Scholar
Shafaʾ, Shojaeddin. Kurush-e Kabir va Shahenshahi Iran. Tehran: Central Committee of Celebrations of the Iranian Monarchy, 1961.Google Scholar
Shaked, Shaul. “Esther, Book of.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/esther-book-of (accessed February 22, 2014).Google Scholar
Shirazi, Nasir Makarim. Tafsir-i numunah. Tehran: Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyah, 1383 (2004).Google Scholar
Singh, S. B., and Srivastava, N. M. P., eds. Life and Times of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Patna: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute, 1993.Google Scholar
Stronach, David. “Cyrus and Pasargadae.” In Cyrus the Great: An Ancient Iranian King, edited by Daryaee, Touraj, 53–77. Santa Monica, CA: Afshar Publishing, 2013.Google Scholar
Tabatabaʾi, Allamah Muhammad Husayn. Tafsir Al-Mizan. Qum: Muassasah-i Maṭbuati Ismāʻīliyān, 1981 and 1985.Google Scholar
Taheri, Amir. The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. Chevy Chase, MD: Adler & Adler, 1985.Google Scholar
Taher Rezwi, S. M. Parsis: A People of the Book. Calcutta, 1928.Google Scholar
Talberg, Frederick. Az Kurush ta Pahlavi. Shiraz: Nashriye Daneshgah-e Pahlavi, 1967.Google Scholar
Uskuʾi, Nasir. Kurush: Nabighah-ʾi buzurg-i tarikh. Tehran: Intisharat-i Bu ʿAli, 1376 (1998).Google Scholar
Watt, Montgomery. “Iskandar.” In vol. 4 of Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., edited by E. J. Van Donzel, 127. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960–2006.Google Scholar
Zamin, Muhammad Kazim Tavangar. Taʾkidi bar yaganagi-i shakhsiyat-i Zi al-Qarnayn va Kurush. Shiraz: Intisharat-i Navid-i Shiraz, 2004.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Eviatar. Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar