Holding 16th and 17th Sessions of "Oral History of Book"

115 Years in Publishing; would the Sixth Generation of Eqbal Family Continue This Way?

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2017-8-22

According to Oral History Website of Iran, the 16th session of the second course of sessions of "Oral History of Book" was held by Nasrollah Haddadi, writer and researcher, and attended by Saeed Eqbal Ketabchi, Director of Eqbal Publication, in Khaneh Ketab Institution's Saraye Ahle Ghalam on Thursday, August 08, 2017.

At the beginning of the meeting, Nasrollah Haddadi said: "Eqbal's house is undoubtedly the continuous oldest publisher of Iran. Some other families like Ketabchi Eslamiyeh family and Elmi house are almost the same, but Eqbal family have continued the job in five consecutive generations, and this year they are passing 115 years of activity in this field."

Then Saeed Eqbal Ketabchi continued, "I was born on March 04, 1952. I educated in elementary school and high school of Andisheh and I got a math diploma from there. I then took part in exams of student dispatch and entered UK for high school education. After getting a degree in electrical engineering and electronics, I came back in Iran and since 1979 I have been working on culture and publication."

Entering publication profession

Saeed Eqbal, in response to the question that why having graduated in electrical major he busied publication work, he said: "I was primarily involved in plan of using satellite because of my major, but in 1979 or 1980, some of the plans were decided to be limited and weakened, so I engaged in publication. Four generations before me had history of publication and book job, albeit my father's encouragements were effective too. Notwithstanding their high education, rest of my brothers are also busy in publication; my brother, Majid, was director of printing house and production, but it was closed in 2012 due to limiting publishing books and, on the other hand, pressure of taxes and insurance issues. We now give our print tasks to other printing houses. Majid Eqbal is now responsible for production. Farshid Eqbal, who is in edition part, studied field of building engineering. He returned to Iran in early days of the revolution, and projects and plans were done slowly, so in order to not wasting time, he became busy in the job, which was our predecessor's profession."

"Haj Mohammad-Bagher (my forefather) was from Khansar," he continued. He had a Maktabkhaneh there and engaged in teaching. Because of this job, he needed resources and thought to enter the book. He imported books from India, Russia and later from France. About 1270 (SH), my forefather came from Isfahan to Tehran and, with his son, Haj Mohammad-Rahim, following expanding their work, set up a library and bookstore and also established a small printing house. Haj Mohammad-Rahim had two children named Haj Mohammad-Bagher and Haj Mohammad-Hossein (my grandfather). He appointed Haj Mohammad-Bagher for managing printing house and Haj Mohammad-Hossein for running library of Eqbal. Haj Mohammad-Hossein was thinking of making a printing house for himself due to the problems that he encountered in publishing books, and in the first decade of 1300 (SH) he founded a printing shop after buying a printing machine. The two persons published two magazines simultaneously with publication works; Haj Mohammad-Bagher published "Nehzat" and Haj Mohammad-Hossein in collaboration with Seyyed Hossein Ramzi published "Eqbal Magazine". Eqbal Magazine was published in several issues and then was discontinued due to lack of welcome. We found those issues in one of reference libraries of the country and we are going to publish them in a booklet or pamphlet."

Saeed Eqbal, in response to the question of why name of Haj Mohammad-Bagher's son is Ahmad Nehzat, said: "because Haj Mohammad-Bagher named his printing house Nehzat, he changed his family name to name of his printing house, so his son is called Ahmad Nehzat. Haj Ahmad Nehzat did not have a child and, on the other hand, due to not profit-making publication profession, it was not continued in that family and the printing shop was closed."

The protagonist publisher continued: "Haj Mohammad Hossein had children named Javad, Jafar, Abbas, Mohammad, Molouk, Monir and Parvindokht. My father, Javad Eqbal, was the first child of the family who continued the father's way. Haj Mohammad-Hossein initially, like his father, vested managing affairs of printing house to Jafar Eqbal and library affairs to Javad Eqbal. Jafar Eqbal was busy for a while in the printing house affairs and was once also one of the first managers of Iran's Textbooks Printing & Publishing Company; after a short time when he felt the work was not so successful, he handed over it to Ali-Akbar Elmi and went to Germany and engaged in carpet business; he was died a few years ago. Dr. Abbas Eqbal is one of the famous Iranian people. Dr. Bagher Larijani, the deputy minister of health, he himself welcomed him and said that we would never see a person like him in medicine. Abbas Eqbal was an endocrinologist. Mohammad Eqbal has initially lived in Austria and his major was building engineering and has not engaged in publishing never."

Obstacles of progress

Saeed Eqbal said: "Haj Mohammad-Hossein wanted to celebrate wedding of my dad and my uncle in one night. In order to holding the ceremony he had wanted to sell some of the manuscripts which he had stashed. My grandfather did give and take with Haj Hossein Agha Malek. They studied together and traded these codices together. Haj Mohammad-Hossein said to my father: "Haj Hossein Agha Malek is interested in these books and he had collection of them, take them to him and ask him to guide you to sell them." My father mildly said that it is not needed to sell these codices and we would hold the wedding unceremonious, but my grandfather did not accept. Eventually, my father took some of them for Hossein Aqa Malek, and in 1323 or 1324 (SH) he paid about six thousand Tomans for those codices. Haj Agha Hossein asked my father why he needed the money, and my father replied that they need this money to hold two wedding parties in one night. Haj Agha Malek said the money is equal to six thousand meters of Saba Garden lands and these lands would be very valuable in future, but the wedding would end in one night. My dad shared these talks with my grandfather, but my grandfather insisted on holding the ceremony."

In response to the question that why despite a long history, publication profession wasn't developed in Eqbal family and they did not progress in the job such as Ali-Akbar Elmi (Elmi Publication), Abdolrahim Jafari (Amir Kabir Publication) and Ebrahim Ramezani (Ibn Sina Publication), he said, "First, because all the children of Eqbal family did not engage in publication work, for example, Ahmad Nehzat didn't have a child to continue this way, and Journal of Nehzat was published no longer. If this magazine was published, today it would equal Sur-e Esrafil magazine. Similarly, with the issues which were told about Haj Mohammad Hossein Eqbal, such as selling codices for holding two wedding celebrations in one night, one can conclude that he did not pay attention to developing publication. At that time, complementary books such as "Key to Solutions" of Professor Parviz Shahriari, and so on were very fashionable. Complementary books have really revolutionized work of publication in some ages and a number of publishers who were referred most of their advancements have been in this regard. Promissory note and checks are not used for complementary books and they often pay in cash or eventually receive monthly check. Ultimately, we wanted to continue our way and manner and not to compete with others."

In Textbooks Printing Company & Publishers Union

Saeed Eqbal, talked about Membership of Javad Eqbal in the textbooks printing company: "My father, along with several publishers, wanted textbooks to be published and printed by publishers. In 1977, the issue of the textbooks company was posed and founded in 1978. My father, along with members of Publishers Union, Printing House Owners Union, and even practitioners of publication, intended that distributors of stationery to join the textbooks printing company, because in some periods, [publication] of textbooks was faced with ups and downs, and in fact they wanted to improve the situation somewhat through doing the measure. For this reason, in 1978, publishers, printing house owners and some distributor members of stationery, formed the textbooks printing company which was called company of "Textbooks Printing and Publishing of Iran. Of the first managers of the company were the late Javad Eqbal and Mr. Tootoonchian (head of printing house owner guild)."

The publisher said about her father's membership in Publishers and Booksellers Union "The publishers and booksellers union was formed in 1958". In the sixth period, my father became a member of the publishers union. In 1973, members of board of the union were Javad Eqbal, Mohsen Ramezani (director of Padideh Publication), Davood Ramezan Shirazi (Director of Sanaei Publication), Kazem Saeedi, Ali Mohammadi Ardehali and Ahmad Ataei. In 1977, disagreement was over on style and policy and Javad Eqbal left. Ali Mohammadi Ardehali, his vice chairman, became chairman of the union and continued his presidency for many years after the revolution. Each period, booksellers, publishing protagonists, and the publishers' union requested the Writing Bureau and Ministry of Culture to buy their published books. The issue of purchase, like now, was questioning. At that time, once when the book was bought and sold, it was said that Javad Eqbal had bought books from others at a low price. It was supposed to give Ministry of Education 30 or 40% off of the books, but it gave 20%! They also had said that Javad Eqbal had sold more books to Writing Bureau and Ministry of Culture."

Printing Quran on precious paper

At the sixteenth session of "Oral History of Book", director of Eqbal Publication said about publication of Quran: "In 1340s (SH), my father decided to write a Qur'an with Sheikh Abbas Mesbahzadeh, who had a very beautiful Naskh writing. My father started printing this Quran in folio format, on an exquisite paper and in five colors. Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi was informed of publishing this Quran. We did our work decisively, but we were worried for selling and supplying such a precious book, as my father's uncle, who was an official of Ministry of Roads, told my after his retirement that he could take this book to southern margin of Persian Gulf and sell it to Shiites of Kuwait. About 200 to 300 volumes were sold in this way. After this Quran, we had other Quran such as Quran with translation and literary and mystical interpretation by Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, edited by the late Habibollah Amozgar [on Persian text of the work] which was published in two volumes. Quran of Sheikh Abbas Mesbahzadeh was also published in octavo. Book of Quran index was also published. In time of Javad Eqbal, a Quran, translated by Hekmat Al-Agha, was published that seminary and non-seminary friends were interested in publishing it and it was reprinted recently. There were also a Quran translated in Persian and Turkish by the late Ahmad Kavianpour and Persian translation of Quran of Haj Abdolmajid Sadegh Nobari. My father accompanied by martyr [Hojatoleslam Dr.] Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Sheikh Abbas Mesbahzadeh sought to define Quran as a credit in schools and they did it."

He also said: "in early days of Franklin Publication in Iran, it published a series of books in collaboration with Iranian publishers. My father spoke with Homayoon Sana'atizadeh about "The Story of Civilization" by Will Durant. He said I do not think you could do it because it's a 27-volumes book and it's unlikely that you could print, publish, supply and sell it. He looked at his father and continued: "It seems to me that publishing this book is higher than mounting Damavand!" After several conversations, they concluded that the book to be published under supervision of Eqbal and Franklin Publications. They also determined that Franklin Publication to introduce translators of the book. Ahmad Aram was introduced as a translator. The book was printed so hardly and high cost, and till 1979 it was published by us, but later Publication and Teaching Organization of Islamic Revolution which we know it today as Elmi va Farhangi Publication, published this book without consent of my father. Because my father was familiar and neighborliness of head of the publication, Ali Mohammadi Ardehali, and on the other hand, he was gracious and modest, he didn't prosecute. At the time, Mr. Ardehali was chairman of four major institutions."

Saeed Eqbal talked about book of "History of Political Relations between Iran and Britain" at the end of the 16th session of "Oral History of Book": "contract of the book was signed at the time of my grandfather, and was published in eight volumes in 1951. This book is written by Mahmoud Mahmoud. Getting permission of this book took some time. This book is explicitly anti-Britain, and they who had political orientation and thought, especially members of National Front and Freedom Movement, and all those who emphasized freedom of Iran in speech and writing, read the book. The book was published one or two times after the revolution, and contrary to opinion of some people, it hadn't been censored."

Printing over 2,000 books

The 17th session of the second course of sessions of "Oral History of Book" was the second meeting with Saeed Eqbal Ketabchi, Director of Eqbal Publication. The meeting was held in the morning of Saturday, August 12, 2017.

He said at the meeting "The general policy of our Publication is more on reference books such as history, interpretation, geography, etc. Eqbal's family has been thought of reference and basic books since foundation of culture of a nation is formed firstly through basic books. Basic books include Quran, books of culture and literature, and so on. Sometimes we have also published classical books such as geography of Iran, history of Iran, physics and geometry of Eqbal, Elm-ol-ashia [nearly means Natural History] of Eqbal and ... . We focus on choosing a book that is should be primarily effective in promoting knowledge and then its author and translator should be of famous characters of the country."

This protagonist publisher expressed about special position of works of Hossein Kazemzadeh Iranshahr in Eqbal Publication: "now he is not much welcomed to his books in the society, but he had his own fans. Old libraries, scholars and professors are looking for his books. The last books which he published were "Fundamental Principles of Education" and "Basic Principles of Human Psychology and His Nature."

Eqbal stated about 12th-volume almanac,"In general, initiative of printing calendar was for Mohammad-Hossein Eqbal (my grandfather) and Javad Eqbal (my father)". The astronomical calendar was also from Javad Eqbal and Haj Sheikh Abbas Mesbah (nicknamed Najm-al-mamalek) who taught astrology in seminary."

He said about their publication logo, "During 1982 to 1987, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced that Latin names should be removed from logos. We tried very much for the issue, but it wasn't successful and we had to remove Latin name from the bookstore logo. If among logo of the published books there was Eqbal name in Latin, it could have attracted opinion of a foreign linguist or an expert of Iran Studies. In any case, this caused us annoyance and displeasure."

The publisher told about renaming their publications which was originally "Eqbal Library", then "Eqbal Printing and Publication Organization" and now "Eqbal Publication", "those days, first goal and mind of most of publishers and book publishers weren't commercial, that's why they put their "library" name on their bookstores and publications. At that time, the first word was sovereignty of knowledge and awareness. Between years of 1967 to 1972 (SH), a relative economic transition took place in the society that it was beneficial for booksellers too. As a result, we who had printing house, typesetting, publication and binding, named the bookstore "Printing and Publication Organization of Eqbal", and when the printing house was closed, real feature of our work was publication. Finally, we named the setting "Eqbal Publication."

He said about number of published books by the publication, "According our data it's more than two thousand ones. For us, publishers, after house where we live, Publishers and Booksellers Union is the second home and Khaneh Ketab is the third one. Publishers could tell their chat at Khaneh Ketab. Khaneh Ketab published a book in 2015 and it was said there that we had published about 1500 books. Now we have about ten books in preparation."

Ifs and buts

Saeed Eqbal said about eliminating paper subside: "A number of publishers and booksellers requested removal of subsides. Opinions and ideas differences are very much in booksellers and publishers guild, like all guilds and settings. Their main goal was to eliminate discrimination so that publishers who could work buy paper in free market and print a book, and surely every publisher who works would find its consumers. In my opinion, removal of subsides did not contribute to excellence of reading book in Iran. The issue should be discussed and analyzed expertly, because printer houses and binders are now to be weakened and closed, and publishers are also in shortage of publishing book in terms of numbers and copies. It is required that Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to review the issue of cheap paper allocation to publishers."

He added: "Publishers and Booksellers Union is one of guild constitutions which was formed 1958. When most of guilds and occupations didn't have union, members of the union tried for interests of the guild. Before the revolution, all booksellers and even companies such as Sahami Enteshar Co were members of the union, but after victory of Islamic Revolution, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, in parallel Publishers and Booksellers Union, posed a phenomenon called Publication license and said that there was no need to get license from the union. This was a step towards weakening the publishers and booksellers union. Then in parallel the union, we witnessed formation of other unions by publishers and booksellers, and such this name. Today we see that the union has the least impact on publication work."

Eqbal said on tax, "We have taxed in some periods and have been pressed due to taxes, but in some periods most publishers were treated with more tolerance. During the ninth and tenth states, the issue was slightly weakened and added provision and during administration of president Rouhani the situation became better, but in each period, we have some ifs and buts for some people."

"The copyright agreement, like many other international contracts, is a good one, but in our country, many booksellers and publishers translate original books, and don't pay copyright or translation right to the author. However, this law may be annoying, but we should also look at with the approach that if we have a writing in abroad and they want to translate it, they we must be allowed and pay royalty", he said on copyright law and joining to the convention

Eqbal continued, "When I see our publication books somewhere I would be glad, and I would be naturally sad due to staying the books in warehouse. I have not squashed any book. I have sometimes donated books to public libraries. According to our 115th history, we will intend to scan old books and keeping them for the museum."

"Purchasing book by the organization is a good phenomenon, but if it does not work arbitrarily and spends a large amount of this budget on buying a book from private publication", the publisher said about buying books by Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Saeed Eqbal stated about future of paper publication: "Given being cyberspace powerful, I see future of publication weak and light. I do not think the sixth generation of Eqbal family would continue this way. I present book for birthday or wedding celebrations. If today someone asks my opinion on entering publication profession, I would tell him if he is a real lover follow it. If I go back to the past, I would continue again publication profession. All stages of printing book is enjoyable, but its most beautiful part is when a book comes out of binding, just like when parents are happy for birth of their baby."

He added, "I think book is the only oppressed product, but it is still expensive for reader class because only masters, teachers, students and pupils read book and they also have a limited budget. As Professor Saeed Nafisi stated, we are a book non-reader people and Education should determine a study credit in schools for promotion reading books and ask students to outlining and write their studies."

The publisher expressed, "I'm interested in publishing Quran codices and literary books. I'm not interested in entering politics and do not publish political books, but my father had published political books like "History of Political Relations between Iran and Britain" and "Freemasonry."

He said about book-building and book stealing which are two pests of publication, "It's a indecorum and is not suitable for dignity of publication profession, and those who do it are quasi-publishers. We have to ask Guidance to pass a bill in Parliament on this matter and prevent violators. In early days of the revolution, sometimes some people had published our books undergroundly."

Saeed Eqbal finally talked about his good feeling toward for his neighbors in Shah Abad guild (now: Jomhouri Eslami Street, from Esteghlal Square (Mokhberoldoleh) to Baharestan Square): " I had good neighbors like Bijan Taraghi, Naser Moshfeq Mojarad, Davood Shirazi, Abdolrahim Jafari, Akbar Zavar. Among good publishers I can name Zavar, Tahoori, Ganj-e Danesh, Sanaei, Ibn Sina, Padideh, Khayyam and Amir Kabir.

The new session of "Oral History of Book" has been held in Khaneh Ketab Institution's Saraye Ahle Ghalam respectively:

The first meeting on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 attended by Haj Beitollah Radkhah (Mashmachi), Director of Tehran-Tabriz Publication

The second meeting on Wednesday, April 19 attended by Jamshid Esmaeilian, Director of Partov Publication

The third meeting on Wednesday, April 26 with presence of Abolqasem Ashraf Ol-Ketabi, Director of Ashrafi Publication

The fourth meeting on Wednesday, May 17, attended by Hojatoleslam Buyuk Chitchian, Director of Mortazavi Publication

The fifth meeting on Tuesday, May 23 attended by Seyyed Jalal Ketabchi, Director of Eslamieh Publication, and Seyyed Farid Ketabchi and Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Ketabchi, directors of Elmieh Eslamieh Publication

The Sixth Meeting on Tuesday, May 30, again attended by Seyyed Jalal Ketabchi, director of Eslamieh Publication, Seyyed Mojtaba Ketabchi, Seyyed Farid Ketabchi and Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Ketabchi, Managers of Elmieh Eslamieh Publication

The Seventh Meeting on Tuesday, June 06, with presence of Morteza Akhundi, director of Darolkotob Al-Eslamieh Publication

The eighth meeting on Tuesday, June 13, re-attended by Morteza Akhundi, director of DarolKotob Al-Eslamieh Publication

The ninth session on Tuesday, June 20, attended by Mahdieh Mostaghni Yazdi, concessionaire of Karnameh Publication, Makan and Roozbeh Zahraee, offspring of late Mohammad Zahraee, the dead director of Karnmeh Publication

The tenth session on Wednesday, June 28, re-attended by Mahdieh Mostaghni Yazdi, concessionaire of Karnameh Publication, and Roozbeh Zahraee, offspring of late Mohammad Zahraee, the dead director of Karnmeh Publication

The eleventh meeting on Tuesday, July 11, attended by Mohammadreza Najian Asl, director of Rasa Publication

The twelfth session on Sunday, July 16, attended by Mohammad-Reza Jafari, director of Nashrenow Publication

The thirteenth session on Tuesday, July 18, re-attended by Mohammad-Reza Najian Asl, Director of Rasa Publication

The fourteenth session on Tuesday, July 25, re-attended by Mohammad-Reza jafari, Director of Nashrenow Publication

The fifteenth session on Saturday, July 29, attended by Mohammad Nikdast, Director of Payam Publication

As well as, the first session of series of "Oral History of Book" was held from second half of 1393 (SH) to summer of 1394 (SH) by Nasrollah Haddadi in Khaneh Ketab's Saraye Ahle Ghlalam. The results of these meetings were published in a book titled "Oral History of Book" in 560 pages by Khaneh Ketab Institution.