The 8th meeting of “Oral History of Book” held

Memoirs from the ups and downs of being a publisher

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2017-6-28

According to the website of Iranian Oral History, the 8^th meeting out of the 3nd round of the meetings “Oral History of Book” was the second session of talk with Morteza Akhundi, the Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications. The meeting was held with the attempt of Nasrollah Haddadi in the Institute of House of Book on Tuesday 13^th of June 2017.

Offset printing was both a turning point and …

Regarding copyright, Morteza Akhundi said, “In 1968, a law titled the law of protecting writers and authors was approved. The publishers who intended to print a book, had to actually follow this law, but some observed it and some others did not. The law had stipulated that if a book is published outside Iran for the first time, it would be exempt from this law and the result was that the foreign books imported to Iran were either duplicated or offset. This was in fact a vacuum of the law some of whom misused it.”

He continued, “The issue of offsetting the books became widespread since 1961 and the printing of the books were carried out through offsetting and film and zinc instead of flat printing machines. There were some problems such as if a book was going to be reprinted, they had to get a cliché from the previous book or offset it again. Both methods cost a lot for the publisher but when offset came, books were printed more easily and this type of printing was a turning point for publishers.”

This veteran publisher added, “The Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications was reprinted in new method the original Islamic books most of which were in the form of stone printing and had no list. The book “al-kafi” was the first one printed in new method. The footnotes were written by the late Ali Akbar Ghaffari. In fact, these works were both research and technical, this method was carried out on such great books as al-Qadi, al-Mizan, the 110-volume collection “Bihar al-Anvar, and so on. As soon as our work was finished, they were offset in Beirut and Lebanon. The high cost difference was paid by the government, because it gave dollars to foreign sellers. This caused many Iranian institutions left the country for Beirut to set up offices and offset the books from there and import the Iranian market in order to be able to use state dollars. Even, the holy Qur’an was offset with this method in China which was stopped. Therefore, the selling of the books of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications and other ones faced with problems during the holding of fairs because the copyright law was not observed. We tried to inform the fair organizers which of course we could succeed in preventing the import of many books in two or three rounds. In Iran, the same books were printed and sold to customers so that no blow was struck to the book publishing in Iran on one hand and on the other hand, state dollars were not spent inappropriately. But this could not be continued too much. The issue became acute when Imam Khomeini (God bless him) issued a Fatwa (religious order) early in the revolution according to which book had no ownership. The Fatwa became a basis for publishing the books of famous publications easily.

In a meeting in Qom, my father, Ali Akbar Qaffari, Allamah Jafari and a number of publishers visited Imam Khomeini (God bless him). At that time, this Fatwa had been issued recently that if someone buys something (a book), he or she can use it arbitrarily, and the spiritual ownership and the rights of author were questioned. We said in the meeting that a large amount of costs paid by the publisher would be trampled upon and books would be sold at a cheap price. In response, Imam Khomeini (God bless him) said that this condition was put on the books which were sold that the right of publisher should be protected. Since then, when the Ministry of Guidance wanted to issue the permission of publication, it mentioned that the publisher was duty-bound to accept fully the 1968 rights and in case of violation, he or she would not have the right of publication.”

In continuation, about joining or not joining the Bern Convention and observing of copyright laws, Akhundi said, “All the aspects should be considered, because according to their rules, western works had to be fully translated. On the hand, according to the constitution, the books should be published which are not against the principles of Islam and not to create different among the ethnicities. One of the problems we have in this field is that we are fully dependent on western works in humanities, social sciences and many other fields and this has made us vulnerable.”

Publications under SAVAK control

The Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications continued, “There was no need to get permission for books until 1966. But after that, since there was no law in this regard, the then system set out that every book that was going to be printed should be sent to the National Library before binding and printing and registered there. The book could be bound and printed after being reviewed and receiving a registration number. A number of books had been announced as banned books. These banned books covered two types of books. The first type included the books with communist subjects. Naturally, it was banned and we did not have such books. But the second type included religious books written by religious authors which were inspected. We had this problem because we worked in the area of religious books like “The Story of Palestine” written by the late Hashemi Rafsanjani. We were reprimanded for having this book. We were also reprimanded for publishing a book from Ayatollah Saffi Golpaygani and the book “The Nights of Peshawar”. In the reports I received from the collection of national documents about my father including SAVAK (documents), several places had been mentioned clearly that had to be under the constant control of SAVAK including Khamsah Mosque, Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications and a number of others.”

He added, “One of the books published by my father was the second volume of the Resalah (jurisprudential manual) of Ayatollah Seyed Abulhasan Esfahani. We were given one volume of the Resalah of Ayatollah Hakim to be printed but it became concurrent with the passing away of this source of emulation and since at that time when the owner of a Resalah passed away, that Resalah could not be used, we did not sell the Reslalh we had printed. Regarding the Resalah which is available today, my father and the late Allamah Karbasian collected together the Fatwas of (grand) Ayatollah Borujerdi or the questions and answers available about jurisprudential issues or even the jurisprudential issues which were not in the language of common people and compiled in the form of a Resalah. Even most part of its essay had been done by my father. We did not print the Reslah of Imam Khomeini (God bless him) because we were under full control and was not possible for us to do such a thing.”

Basis of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications’ work

Morteza Akhundi said, “The work of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications and its relations with the authors and translators was based on mutual faith, belief and understanding. But one time, we printed a book three times for someone. It was a three-volume book. Since it had not been sold, he told us that he wrote an introduction to the book that we added to it as the fourth volume. On the other hand, he asked to turn the three volumes into one hardcover volume. This happened when my father had faced with financial problem and therefore I accepted and did the work. But after the world was done, he sued us that the publications had printed the fourth volume and had not given the author’s right to me! That person was in the country’s Supreme Court and had a large influence. Finally, we were sent to the court and then to the Union of Publishers. After extensive review, they found out that the book’s content was the same content of the third volume and only an introduction had been added to it. On the other hand, we had paid the author’s right for the third publications.”

A few issues and necessities

In continuation, he said, “(the printing) of a series of books like encyclopedias – which need many years to be printed and on the other hand, need a large amount of money – were carried out by state publications institutions. At present, two issues are on the spotlight, first the book’s provision and the other its publication. The provision of book needs a high cost, but its publication can be left to private section without using the treasury budget. If this was shouldered on state publishers due to some reasons in the past, today, the necessity does not exist anymore. On the other hand, the Guidance Ministry should set up a council of committed and professional publishers for the decisions made for the private section.”   

About his presence in the Union of Publishers and Booksellers which is the oldest popular organization and guild establishment in this regard, Morteza Akhundi said, “The Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications has been a member of the union from the very beginning. In those years that I had not still taken military exemption, the union put pressure on me that I had to become a member of the union. I went to Mr. Mohammadi who was the head of the union at that time, retelling my problem. In response, he said I could give a letter of attorney to my father and with that letter of attorney, the publication license would be issue in the name of my father.i did this and my father became a member of the union. Before the victory of the Islamic revolution, we did not want to approach the union due to political issues. But after the revolution, it was suggested, and my father became a member of the Board of Directors of the union. Misters Naziffi, Elias Esmaeelian, the late Shirazi, Mahmoudi and my father were the members of the union’s Board of directors. Many things were done and many others started at that time like providing the grounds for tax forgiveness. For instance, around the year 1998, Mrs. Shahla Lahiji was one of the participants in Berlin Conference. The conference was severely against the Islamic Republic of Iran and all of the present members in the conference were interrogated by the judicial system. One of the union’s members insisted on supporting this woman as a publisher by other members. In fact, a political aspect was given to a guild issue and it is against the law that a guild establishment interferes in a judicial and political issue. Since I finally did not agree on this, I resigned of membership in the union.”

In continuation, the Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications said, “Exactly at a time when the union’s elections were supposed to be held, the Head of the Union of Publishers and Booksellers wrote an article in which it had been mentioned that a well-known religious person with the signs all of whom belonged to mine could sell billions of rials of books to the Guidance Ministry which is a state organization. This caused that I was boycotted by the union. In my whole life, I have never referred to any organization or institution for selling my books. But I was accused of such big allegation. Although that person accepted his mistakes, at least he should have written an article in the same journal and clarified but he did not.”

The first meeting out of the new round of the meetings of “Oral History of Book” was held on 12^th of April 2017 attended by Haj Beitollah Radkhah (Mashma’ Chi), the Head of Tehran-Tabriz Publications, the second meeting on 19^th of April 2017, attended by Jamshid Esmaeeliyan, the head of Parto Publications, the third meeting on 26^th of April 2017 attended by Abolqassem Ashraf-al Ketabi, the head of Ashrafi Publications, the fourth meeting on 17^th of May 2017 attended by Hojjat-al Eslam Biok Chitchian, the head of Mortezavi Publications, the fifth meeting on 23^rd of May 2017 attended by Seyed Jalal Ketabchi, the head of Islamiyah Publications, and Seyed Fardi Ketabchi and Seyed Mohammad Baqer Ketabchi, the heads of Elmiyah Islamiya Publications, the sixth meeting on 30^th of May 2017 again attended by Seyed Jalal Ketabchi, the head of Islamiyah Publications, and Seyed Fardi Ketabchi and Seyed Mohammad Baqer Ketabchi, the heads of Elmiyah Islamiya Publications and the 7^th meeting on 6^th of June 2017 attended by Morteza Akhundi, the Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications. They were held in the Book House Institute.

Also, the first round of the meetings of “Oral History of Book” was held with the attempt of Nasrollah Haddadi in the Book House Institute since 2014 to summer 2015. The result of the meetings has been published in a book entitled “Oral History of Book” in 560 pages by the Book House Institute.