The 310th Night of Memory -2

Cultural Feature of Hajj Qasem

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2020-2-25

As reported by Iranian Oral History Website, the 310^th session of night of memory of the sacred defense was held in Sooreh Hall of Hozeh Honari on, Thursday January 23, 2020. In the session, Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Morteza Sarhangi and Majid Yousefzadeh narrated their memories of Hajj Qasem Soleimani and his resistance in Syria.

The second narrator of memory night, Morteza Sarhangi, said: "It was around 1994-1995 that Sardar (IRGC’s General) Hajj Qasem Soleimani and some commanders of the 41^st Tharallah Division came to Hozeh Honari. The congress of martyr Sardars of the division was scheduled to be held in Kerman. He came to Hozeh Honari to publish the congressl books here. We talked and we decided to do it. I told Sardar Soleimani that I read the books, if they should be rejected I would reject them myself and write to you the ones that I accept to be published. I said, please you read these memories too and we would not print each one that you reject. If it should be printed, please say this book is good to be published; in such the way clear and simple. It took about two years, and sometimes to show Hajj Qasem a book cover design, I had to take a book cover design, get on a plane, and go to Kerman to show it Hajj Qasem. I got the cover out of my bag, open it, and put it on the table. We talked about this cover if it should be or not and sometimes Hajj Qasem didn't accept it. He said this was not good and I folded it and put it in my pocket and return to Tehran at the afternoon. That is, for a book cover he was so accurate. This cultural feature of him may not have been very seen. Fifty books were published in Kerman Congress that are still being reprinted. We have almost no congress so that its books to be reprinted. Here, Hajj Qasem himself made effort. Because he himself had raised his commanders. I said, 'Hajj Agha, you brought up these commanders yourself and you know they might be wrong in telling history, in geographical area; please you make all the corrections. So Hajj Qasem corrected them. They had a guesthouse in the southeast of Tehran which was guesthouse of the 41^st Tharallah Division. Sometimes when he was in Tehran, I would go there. No one except he and I intervened in these books. This work has been published and it is one of the most enduring works that has been published up to day. About 10-12 years ago I collected manuscripts of what was done about Kerman's books, and I took notes by Sardar Soleimani that for example he had written this book is good to print. I gathered these and gave them to Mr. Samadzadeh, who is director of our library, and said to him: These are manuscripts of Sardar Soleimani and keep them in the library archive. We had not yet come to this building and were on Rasht Street. I went to Mr. Samadzadeh a few days ago and he said that these manuscripts are available and he should look around and find them. Now I would like to point out that if Sardar Soleimani wills to bury me next to the tomb of Hossein Yousefollahi, the note he wrote on Hossein Yousefollahi's book is almost what I tell you: "If anyone reads this book and love Hossein Yousefollahi more than me, I would die of grief." Then he searches and introduces us other martyrs besides himself. We now know Hossein Yousefollahi. Who is this person that Hajj Qasem Soleimani wills to bury him next to him? We published fifty books with his ingenuity and taste. Books we are all happy with. Sardar Soleimani read all these 50 books. One or two of Kermani's friends even said to me, "We didn’t see Sardar for a time, we went to his room and saw that he had slept and had read one of these books. Sometimes when he read these books, he would cry so much that he would feel bad and would throw a blanket over his desk and lay down." These are the words the guys of Kerman told me.

We had been invited to a wedding with Mr. Momeni and his family this year. We arrived at the wedding yard at the same time with Hajj Qasem Soleimani. He had come to this wedding as well. There, my wife said to Hajj Qasem, "Hajj Agha you go to Syria, pray for my two daughters in the pilgrimage to Hazrat Roqayeh." Hajj Qasem said, "Well go yourself, lady." My wife said I can no longer." He replied, "Then I will go pilgrimage on behalf of you." My wife and I were two ordinary people and he did such a favor for us."

The session host, Davood Salehi, said “book of The Fall of Fifties is memories of Maryam Jamali, martyr Mohammad Jamali’s wife, written by Fatima Behboodi. In a part that I pursued story of the book, I found out that Hajj Qasem himself personally went to the grave of this daer martyr and buried him. He had two rings that put one in the martyr's mouth and one in his hand and when he came out, he said to the martyr's mother, “Hajieh, your son died a martyr twenty-five years ago in the front. Twenty-five years his soul was with his martyred brothers, and his body was among us, and today we return this body to the earth too."

In the session, there was book launch of “The Fall of Fifties”, attended by Mohsen Momeni Sharif, head of Hozeh Honari, Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Morteza Sarhangi, and Ms. Maryam Jamali, wife of Martyr Mohammad Jamali. It was one of those books that, according to Mr. Sarhangi, was overlooked by Soleimani and he insisted that it should be published surely.

The 310^th night of memory of the sacred defense was held by Center for Study and Research of Resistance Culture and Literature and the Office for Literature and Art of Resistance at the Sooreh Hall of Hozeh Honari on, Thursday January 23, 2020. The upcoming session will be held on February 20.