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Iranian nationalism

May 01, 2024

Iranian nationalism[notes 1] is nationalism among the people of Iran and individuals whose national identity is Iranian. Iranian nationalism consists of political and social movements and sentiments prompted by a love for Iranian culture, Iranian languages and history, and a sense of pride in Iran and Iranian people. While national consciousness in Iran can be traced back centuries, nationalism has been a predominant determinant of Iranian attitudes mainly since the 20th century. [1] Modern Iranian nationalism rose during the constitutional revolution. There began a refreshing atmosphere of unity and Iranian patriotic sentiments during the constitutional era. During the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979), Iranian nationalism experienced a resurgence due to the Pahlavi government's bolstering of patriotic sentiment.

History edit

Origins edit

The idea of Iran as a religious, cultural, and ethnic reality goes back as far as the end of the 6th century B.C.E. As a political idea, it first appeared in the twenties of the third century C.E. as an essential feature of Sasanian propaganda.[2]

Third-century Iran was shaken by a conflict between universalism and nationalism that was most clearly manifested in the religious and cultural sphere. The outcome of this conflict is well known: the traditionalistic and nationalistic impulses gained the upper hand, and Manichaean universalism succumbed to the nationalism of the Zoroastrian Magi. Iranian identity, which up to that point had essentially consisted of cultural and religious nature, assumed a definite political value, placing Persia and the Persians at the center of the Ērān-šahr, in other words, at the center of a state based on the twin powers of throne and altar and sustained by an antiquarian and archaizing ideology. This ideology became more and more accentuated during the Sassanian period, reaching its height in the long reign of Khosrow I (531-79 C.E.). Of course, economic and social factors favored the victory of the stronger classes in a society that was based mainly on a rural economy, namely the aristocratic landed and warrior classes and the Magian clergy.[2]

Shu'ubiyya edit

Main article: Shu'ubiyya

Iranian identity came under threat after the fall of the Sassanid Iran and the conquest of Iran by the Arab Muslims. The term Shu'ubiyya refers to a response by Persian Muslims to the growing Arabization of Islam in the 9th and 10th centuries and discrimination against Iranian people by the occupiers. It was primarily concerned with preserving Persian culture and protecting Persian identity. Some of the famous Iranian Shu'ubi figures are Bashshar ibn Burd, Ismail Nisa'i, Zeyad e Ajam, Hissam ibn Ada, Abulhassan Ali Mada'ini, Abu Hatam Sajestani, Ibrahim ibn Mamshad and Abu Abdullah Muhammad Marzbani. Many consider Ferdowsi a Shu'ubi poet.

Iranian Intermezzo edit

Main article: Iranian Intermezzo

The term Iranian Intermezzo[notes 2] represents a period in Middle Eastern history that saw the rise of various native Iranian Muslim dynasties on the Iranian Plateau. This term is noteworthy since it was an interlude between the decline of Abbāsid Arab rule and power and the eventual emergence of the Seljuq Turks in the 11th century. The Iranian revival consisted of Iranian support based on Iranian territory and most significantly a revived Iranian national spirit and culture in an Islamic form.[3]

Iranian-Shia identity under the Safavids edit

Main article: Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism

Iran regained its political unity and was given a new distinct religious identity under the Safavids. Shia Islam became the official state religion and henceforth played an important role in the reconstruction of a new ethno-religious identity for the Iranian people. Furthermore, the rise of the Safavid empire coincided with the rise of the neighboring Ottoman empire in West Asia and North Africa (and most importantly, for centuries Iran's geo-political as well as ideological arch-rival), the Mughal empire in India, and the Uzbek empire in Central Asia, all adhering to Sunni Islam. The formation of these political entities helped create a distinct Iranian-Shia political identity among these polities. It also helped to expand the hegemony of the Persian language in much of the Islamic world. Persian literature was, apart from Iran and its territories stretching from the North Caucasus to the Persian Gulf, produced from the Balkans to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.[4][5][6]

Qajar Era - start of modern nationalism edit

 
Iran in the 19th century
 
The state flag of the Imperial State of Iran most prominently used by Iranian expatriates

The modern Iranian national movement began in the late 19th century. Iranian nationalism is in origin a reaction to 19th-century European colonialism in the region, which led to the loss of Qajar possessions in the Caucasus.[7] In the course of the 19th century, through the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) and the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) and the out-coming Treaty of Gulistan and Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1813 and 1828 respectively, Iran was forced to irrevocably cede swaths of its territory in the North and South Caucasus comprising what is now Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Armenia to Imperial Russia.[8] These territories had made, for centuries, part of the concept of Iran until their loss. [9]

The initial objectives of these nationalists e.g. ending the feudalistic landholding system, governmental sloth and corruption and, the wholesale distribution of Iranian resources to foreigners also greatly appealed to modernizers.[1]

One of the principal and most noted forerunners of Iranian nationalism of the Qajar era was Mirza Fatali Akhundov, born in the recently taken territories in the Caucasus to a landowner family originally stemming from Iranian Azerbaijan.[10]

Modern nationalism edit

 
Mohammad Mossadegh

Modern nationalism in Iran dates back to 1906 when an almost bloodless constitutional revolution created Iran's first parliament. Reza Shah helped shape Iranian nationalism by infusing it with a distinctly secular ideology and diminishing the influence of Islam on Iran. By integrating European legal policies in the place of Islamic courts, Shah reassured the efficiency of the state bureaucracy and promoted a strong sense of Iranian nationalism.[11] In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates and League of Nations to use the term Iran in formal correspondence. In addition, Reza Shah sought to change the names of various towns to honor pre-Islamic Persian kings and mythological heroes and to continue to reduce the power of the mullahs by seeking to modernize Iran. The Pahlavi dynasty thus was set irrevocably down the road towards infusing the country with a form of secular nationalism, a path that would eventually bring it into conflict with the country's clerical class. Iranian nationalism was a deciding force in the 1951 movement to nationalize Iran's oil wealth.

Mossadegh's goal of nationalizing Iran’s oil came into effect in the year 1951. By allowing Iran to have full power and control over their prime resource, the AIOC and other European programs participated in an international boycott which eventually caused a deter in Iran’s economy.[12] After Mossadegh's deposition guided by help from the U.S. and Britain, Reza Shah's son and successor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi retained control and used the increased gas prices to expand modernization in Iran.[13]

Iranian nationalist discourse often focuses on the pre-Islamic history of Iran.[14] In the 20th century, different aspects of this romantic nationalism would be referenced by both the Pahlavi monarchy, which employed titles such as Āryāmehr "Light of the Aryans", and by some leaders of the Islamic Republic that followed it.[15]

Despite the secular tendencies of the vast majority of Iranian nationalists, there is a grouping called the Religious Nationalists who are Iranian nationalists but also religious Muslims.

Nationalist parties of Iran edit

Active parties
Historic parties

See also edit

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ Persian: ملی‌گرایی ایرانی
    Baloch: راج دوستی ایرانی
    Kurdish: نەتەوە پەروەریی ئێرانی
    Gilaki: ایجانایی ایرانی
    Azerbaijani: İran millətçiliyi
    Turkmen: Eýranyň milletçiligi
    Arabic: القومية الإيرانية
  2. ^ Such an obviously coined designation was introduced by Vladimir Minorsky, "The Iranian Intermezzo", in Studies in Caucasian history (London, 1953) and has been taken up by Bernard Lewis, among others, in his The Middle East: A brief history of the last 2,000 years (New York, 1995).

References edit

  1. ^ a b Cottam, Richard W. (1979). Nationalism In Iran: Updated through 1978. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5299-8. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  2. ^ a b Gnoli, Gherardo. . Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2011-09-11.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ Lewis, Bernard. The Middle East: 2,000 Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day. pp. 81–82.
  4. ^ Ashraf, Ahmad. "IRANIAN IDENTITY iii. MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PERIOD". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  5. ^ Matthee, Rudi (2009). "Was Safavid Iran an Empire?". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 53 (1–2). Brill: 244. doi:10.1163/002249910X12573963244449. S2CID 55237025.
  6. ^ Eaton, R. The Persian Cosmopolis. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Retrieved 3 May. 2023, from https://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-402.
  7. ^ Patrick Clawson writes:
    "Since the days of the Achaemenids, the Iranians had the protection of geography. But high mountains and vast emptiness of the Iranian plateau were no longer enough to shield Iran from the Russian army or British navy. Both literally, and figuratively, Iran shrank. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Azerbaijan, Armenia, much of Georgia were Iranian, but by the end of the century, all this territory had been lost as a result of European military action. Iran translated her territorial losses into a sense of both victimization and a propensity to interpret European action through the lens of conspiracy. This in turn has helped shape Iranian nationalism into the twenty first century." Clawson, Patrick; Rubin, Michael (2005). Eternal Iran ([Online-Ausg.]. ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 31–32. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6.
  8. ^ Timothy C. Dowling Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond pp 728-729 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014 ISBN 1598849484
  9. ^ Fisher et al. 1991, p. 329.
  10. ^ Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press), 1995, page 27-28:
  11. ^ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 9780199371020.
  12. ^ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 280–281. ISBN 9780199371020.
  13. ^ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 282.
  14. ^ Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin (2006). "Reflections on Arab and Iranian Ultra-Nationalism". Monthly Review Magazine. 11/06..
  15. ^ Keddie, Nikki R.; Richard, Yann (2006). Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. Yale University Press. pp. 178f. ISBN 0-300-12105-9..

Sources edit

Further reading edit

  • Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza (2016). The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231175760.

May 01, 2024
iranian, nationalism, notes, nationalism, among, people, iran, individuals, whose, national, identity, iranian, consists, political, social, movements, sentiments, prompted, love, iranian, culture, iranian, languages, history, sense, pride, iran, iranian, peop. Iranian nationalism notes 1 is nationalism among the people of Iran and individuals whose national identity is Iranian Iranian nationalism consists of political and social movements and sentiments prompted by a love for Iranian culture Iranian languages and history and a sense of pride in Iran and Iranian people While national consciousness in Iran can be traced back centuries nationalism has been a predominant determinant of Iranian attitudes mainly since the 20th century 1 Modern Iranian nationalism rose during the constitutional revolution There began a refreshing atmosphere of unity and Iranian patriotic sentiments during the constitutional era During the Pahlavi dynasty 1925 1979 Iranian nationalism experienced a resurgence due to the Pahlavi government s bolstering of patriotic sentiment Contents 1 History 1 1 Origins 2 Shu ubiyya 2 1 Iranian Intermezzo 2 2 Iranian Shia identity under the Safavids 2 3 Qajar Era start of modern nationalism 2 4 Modern nationalism 3 Nationalist parties of Iran 4 See also 5 Footnotes 6 References 7 Sources 8 Further readingHistory editThis article s tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia See Wikipedia s guide to writing better articles for suggestions March 2015 Learn how and when to remove this message Origins edit The idea of Iran as a religious cultural and ethnic reality goes back as far as the end of the 6th century B C E As a political idea it first appeared in the twenties of the third century C E as an essential feature of Sasanian propaganda 2 Third century Iran was shaken by a conflict between universalism and nationalism that was most clearly manifested in the religious and cultural sphere The outcome of this conflict is well known the traditionalistic and nationalistic impulses gained the upper hand and Manichaean universalism succumbed to the nationalism of the Zoroastrian Magi Iranian identity which up to that point had essentially consisted of cultural and religious nature assumed a definite political value placing Persia and the Persians at the center of the Eran sahr in other words at the center of a state based on the twin powers of throne and altar and sustained by an antiquarian and archaizing ideology This ideology became more and more accentuated during the Sassanian period reaching its height in the long reign of Khosrow I 531 79 C E Of course economic and social factors favored the victory of the stronger classes in a society that was based mainly on a rural economy namely the aristocratic landed and warrior classes and the Magian clergy 2 Shu ubiyya editMain article Shu ubiyya Iranian identity came under threat after the fall of the Sassanid Iran and the conquest of Iran by the Arab Muslims The term Shu ubiyya refers to a response by Persian Muslims to the growing Arabization of Islam in the 9th and 10th centuries and discrimination against Iranian people by the occupiers It was primarily concerned with preserving Persian culture and protecting Persian identity Some of the famous Iranian Shu ubi figures are Bashshar ibn Burd Ismail Nisa i Zeyad e Ajam Hissam ibn Ada Abulhassan Ali Mada ini Abu Hatam Sajestani Ibrahim ibn Mamshad and Abu Abdullah Muhammad Marzbani Many consider Ferdowsi a Shu ubi poet Iranian Intermezzo edit Main article Iranian Intermezzo The term Iranian Intermezzo notes 2 represents a period in Middle Eastern history that saw the rise of various native Iranian Muslim dynasties on the Iranian Plateau This term is noteworthy since it was an interlude between the decline of Abbasid Arab rule and power and the eventual emergence of the Seljuq Turks in the 11th century The Iranian revival consisted of Iranian support based on Iranian territory and most significantly a revived Iranian national spirit and culture in an Islamic form 3 Iranian Shia identity under the Safavids edit Main article Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism Iran regained its political unity and was given a new distinct religious identity under the Safavids Shia Islam became the official state religion and henceforth played an important role in the reconstruction of a new ethno religious identity for the Iranian people Furthermore the rise of the Safavid empire coincided with the rise of the neighboring Ottoman empire in West Asia and North Africa and most importantly for centuries Iran s geo political as well as ideological arch rival the Mughal empire in India and the Uzbek empire in Central Asia all adhering to Sunni Islam The formation of these political entities helped create a distinct Iranian Shia political identity among these polities It also helped to expand the hegemony of the Persian language in much of the Islamic world Persian literature was apart from Iran and its territories stretching from the North Caucasus to the Persian Gulf produced from the Balkans to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent 4 5 6 Qajar Era start of modern nationalism edit nbsp Iran in the 19th century nbsp The state flag of the Imperial State of Iran most prominently used by Iranian expatriates The modern Iranian national movement began in the late 19th century Iranian nationalism is in origin a reaction to 19th century European colonialism in the region which led to the loss of Qajar possessions in the Caucasus 7 In the course of the 19th century through the Russo Persian War 1804 1813 and the Russo Persian War 1826 1828 and the out coming Treaty of Gulistan and Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1813 and 1828 respectively Iran was forced to irrevocably cede swaths of its territory in the North and South Caucasus comprising what is now Georgia Dagestan Azerbaijan and Armenia to Imperial Russia 8 These territories had made for centuries part of the concept of Iran until their loss 9 The initial objectives of these nationalists e g ending the feudalistic landholding system governmental sloth and corruption and the wholesale distribution of Iranian resources to foreigners also greatly appealed to modernizers 1 One of the principal and most noted forerunners of Iranian nationalism of the Qajar era was Mirza Fatali Akhundov born in the recently taken territories in the Caucasus to a landowner family originally stemming from Iranian Azerbaijan 10 Modern nationalism edit nbsp Mohammad Mossadegh Modern nationalism in Iran dates back to 1906 when an almost bloodless constitutional revolution created Iran s first parliament Reza Shah helped shape Iranian nationalism by infusing it with a distinctly secular ideology and diminishing the influence of Islam on Iran By integrating European legal policies in the place of Islamic courts Shah reassured the efficiency of the state bureaucracy and promoted a strong sense of Iranian nationalism 11 In 1935 Reza Shah asked foreign delegates and League of Nations to use the term Iran in formal correspondence In addition Reza Shah sought to change the names of various towns to honor pre Islamic Persian kings and mythological heroes and to continue to reduce the power of the mullahs by seeking to modernize Iran The Pahlavi dynasty thus was set irrevocably down the road towards infusing the country with a form of secular nationalism a path that would eventually bring it into conflict with the country s clerical class Iranian nationalism was a deciding force in the 1951 movement to nationalize Iran s oil wealth Mossadegh s goal of nationalizing Iran s oil came into effect in the year 1951 By allowing Iran to have full power and control over their prime resource the AIOC and other European programs participated in an international boycott which eventually caused a deter in Iran s economy 12 After Mossadegh s deposition guided by help from the U S and Britain Reza Shah s son and successor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi retained control and used the increased gas prices to expand modernization in Iran 13 Iranian nationalist discourse often focuses on the pre Islamic history of Iran 14 In the 20th century different aspects of this romantic nationalism would be referenced by both the Pahlavi monarchy which employed titles such as Aryamehr Light of the Aryans and by some leaders of the Islamic Republic that followed it 15 Despite the secular tendencies of the vast majority of Iranian nationalists there is a grouping called the Religious Nationalists who are Iranian nationalists but also religious Muslims Nationalist parties of Iran editActive parties Pan Iranist Party founded 1941 banned operating inside Iran National Front founded 1949 banned operating inside Iran Iran Party founded 1944 banned operating inside Iran Party of the Iranian People founded 1949 banned operating inside Iran Nation Party of Iran founded 1951 banned operating inside Iran Freedom Movement of Iran founded 1961 banned operating inside Iran Marze Por Gohar founded 1998 banned exiled Council of Nationalist Religious Activists of Iran founded 2000 banned operating inside Iran Historic parties Society for the Progress of Iran 1909 1911 Revival Party 1920 1927 Iran e No Party 1927 Progress Party 1927 1932 Motherland Party 1940 1946 Justice Party 1941 1946 Azure Party 1942 1953 National Will Party 1943 1951 Movement of God Worshipping Socialists 1943 1960 Democrat Party of Iran 1946 1984 Aria Party 1946 1953 Iran Unity Party 1946 1948 Society of Muslim Warriors 1948 1955 Third Force 1948 1960 National Socialist Workers Party of Iran 1952 1953 Nationalists Party 1957 1963 League of Iranian Socialists 1960 1982 The Liberation Movement of People of Iran 1964 1988 National Democratic Front 1979 1981 Iranians Party 1970 1975 Rastakhiz Party 1975 1979 See also editPan Iranism Greater IranFootnotes edit Persian ملی گرایی ایرانی Baloch راج دوستی ایرانی Kurdish نەتەوە پەروەریی ئێرانی Gilaki ایجانایی ایرانی Azerbaijani Iran milletciliyi Turkmen Eyranyn milletciligi Arabic القومية الإيرانية Such an obviously coined designation was introduced by Vladimir Minorsky The Iranian Intermezzo in Studies in Caucasian history London 1953 and has been taken up by Bernard Lewis among others in his The Middle East A brief history of the last 2 000 years New York 1995 References edit a b Cottam Richard W 1979 Nationalism In Iran Updated through 1978 Pittsburg University of Pittsburgh Press ISBN 0 8229 5299 8 Retrieved 2011 01 31 a b Gnoli Gherardo IRANIAN IDENTITY ii PRE ISLAMIC PERIOD Encyclopaedia Iranica Archived from the original on 2011 11 17 Retrieved 2011 09 11 a href Template Cite encyclopedia html title Template Cite encyclopedia cite encyclopedia a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Lewis Bernard The Middle East 2 000 Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day pp 81 82 Ashraf Ahmad IRANIAN IDENTITY iii MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PERIOD Encyclopedia Iranica Retrieved 2012 02 08 Matthee Rudi 2009 Was Safavid Iran an Empire Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53 1 2 Brill 244 doi 10 1163 002249910X12573963244449 S2CID 55237025 Eaton R The Persian Cosmopolis Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History Retrieved 3 May 2023 from https oxfordre com asianhistory view 10 1093 acrefore 9780190277727 001 0001 acrefore 9780190277727 e 402 Patrick Clawson writes Since the days of the Achaemenids the Iranians had the protection of geography But high mountains and vast emptiness of the Iranian plateau were no longer enough to shield Iran from the Russian army or British navy Both literally and figuratively Iran shrank At the beginning of the nineteenth century Azerbaijan Armenia much of Georgia were Iranian but by the end of the century all this territory had been lost as a result of European military action Iran translated her territorial losses into a sense of both victimization and a propensity to interpret European action through the lens of conspiracy This in turn has helped shape Iranian nationalism into the twenty first century Clawson Patrick Rubin Michael 2005 Eternal Iran Online Ausg ed New York Palgrave Macmillan pp 31 32 ISBN 1 4039 6276 6 Timothy C Dowling Russia at War From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan Chechnya and Beyond pp 728 729 ABC CLIO 2 dec 2014 ISBN 1598849484 Fisher et al 1991 p 329 Tadeusz Swietochowski Russia and Azerbaijan A Borderland in Transition New York Columbia University Press 1995 page 27 28 Hunt Michael 2014 The World Transformed 1945 to the Present New York Oxford University Press p 279 ISBN 9780199371020 Hunt Michael 2014 The World Transformed 1945 to the Present New York Oxford University Press pp 280 281 ISBN 9780199371020 Hunt Michael 2014 The World Transformed 1945 to the Present New York Oxford University Press p 282 Adib Moghaddam Arshin 2006 Reflections on Arab and Iranian Ultra Nationalism Monthly Review Magazine 11 06 Keddie Nikki R Richard Yann 2006 Modern Iran Roots and Results of Revolution Yale University Press pp 178f ISBN 0 300 12105 9 Sources editFisher William Bayne Avery P Hambly G R G Melville C 1991 The Cambridge History of Iran Vol 7 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521200954 Further reading editZia Ebrahimi Reza 2016 The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism Race and the Politics of Dislocation Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0231175760 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Iranian nationalism amp oldid 1220524774, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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