Along with three books

The memoirs of Hamadanians about those years and these years

Mohammadali Fatemi
Faezeh Sasani
Maryam Karimbakhsh⃰
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2017-2-6


Note: At this time, the Book Unit of Iranians Oral History is a passenger of Hamadam province. The writers of three books have paid attention to the memoirs of Hamadanian; the books have been published in 1395(2016): " headless and footless brushwood; a logbook about Arabaeen[1] in 1436 AH (2015)", " in the name of God, I am Mohammad Boroujerdi and I don’t like to be interviewed; the memoirs of Ghodratollah Shahabazi and " I am second mother of Tooraj: the self-written memoirs of Farzaneh Teimouri".

 

  • The fighting of 72 divers as Ashura[2] day

The book " headless and footless brushwood: a logbook about Arabaeen in 1436 Ah" is written by Hamid Hesam. The book is published, in 228 pages, by Mehr Sura press in Resistance Literature and Culture Researches and Studies Center of Hamadan.

In this logbook, the writing about events is considered in different perspective: making mention of the epic of Imam Hussain, reviewing the memoirs of sacred defense and martyrs while the winter was watching the operational areas along travel's road and meeting those spoke about their stories of days of sacred defense. Here, the narrator started to write about events en route to Karbala.

On another perspective, this logbook is written through internal thoughts and external observations of the narrator. As he was man of letters and books, and was a fighters of sacred defense, he wrote whatever he saw in his travel, but , by the time, his observations caused him remember his memoirs and write them on paper.

As an instance of text of the book: "when I became sprightful, I stood up and went. I used of my pen and notebook, which were always my friends in those days to write. I was looking and finding new and original issue, as there were a lot, to write about them. I saw Iraqi the theologian who was about 12 or 13 years old. He has worn a long cloak big turban. He was lost in his clock; it made him fun. He looked like exactly Iranian soldiers who were at same height with their guns.

I took a memorable photo with the young theologian, who was from Najaf, and said him good bye, and I met an Iraqi caravan was as a group of prison of war and their hand were tied by rope. Some men were in front of the caravan and some twenty women were behind them.

 

 

Seeing the caravan, it was like tragedian in a passion-play, caused the passengers move slowly and watch it cry. While I was watching the caravan, as their hands were tied by rope, I remembered operation Karbala 4 in Khoramshahr: " when 72 divers of Ansar Al-Hussain (PBHM) Division used of a rope to cross Arvand River and to be kept from stormy wave of it, and when they arrived in the middle of the river, Iraqi fighter Targeted them there and held their machine gun at the ready. Because the divers had been walking to there for forty days, it was like Arbaeen."

The book "headless and footless brushwood; a logbook about Arabaeen in 1436 AH (2015)" consists of two collections of photos in appendix. The photos help the reader to understand the text of the book easily, and they are also related to moments of travel."

 

  • Going along with commanders

The book "in the name of God, I am Mohammad Boroujerdi; and I don’t like to be interviewed", after about 40 hours by Seyed Hussain Mousavi, finally, edited by seyed Meysam Mousavi, and it consists 412 pages and 28 chapters. This book, as a product of oral history's program in Hamadan, is published by the effort of center of Hamadan and Mehr Sura Press.

 

 

The narration of book is linear and, altogether, consists four periods of the life of Ghodratollah Shahabazi: childhood and teenage, serving in the army and getting away from there, the victory of Iran's Islamic revolution, the membership of the army of Guardians of Islamic revolution(Sepah), and attending in the west frontage of war.

The first chapter of the book describe an orphan's life who was born in Nahavand and grown in Khoramshahr.

The second chapter is about his attendance in the army. Readers go along with the narrator and visit different places and become familiar with the manners and behavior of Pahlavi regime's army forces in the frame of his personal memoirs.  Telling memoirs provides a situation for addressees to know the political conditions of those days well.

In the chapter three, four, five and six, the narrator is serving in the army, but, in the chapter six, he got away from the army, due to an accidence, and moved to another city to live secretly. The narrator, in his memoirs, tried to tell the positive and negative aspects of the army fairly.

The seventh chapter describe the memoirs of Islamic revolution era and how the mind of the narrator was changed and how he gravitated toward the revolution. In the chapter eight, Ghodratollah Shahabazi tell about the reason of his membership in the army of Guardians of Islamic revolution.in the narration of the book, from chapter seven to latter, the reader much less encounter with the events of behind of war.

The tenth chapter describes the stories of fighting between Sepah, the army and other revolutionary groups with counterrevolutionary forces and cleanup of them there.

In this book, not only are the crime of the counterrevolutionary groups described, but also the tyranny of them toward people are mentioned. Some issues are mentioned in the book: the alliance of Sepah and the army to root out the station of counterrevolutionary group, the rules of Jihad's groups, the destructive propaganda of counterrevolutionary forces of Kurdistan against revolutionary forces, the morals of fighters before the cleanup of areas, the precautions and attention of revolutionary forces to use of Bayt al-mal (public treasury), the behavior of young commanders toward subordinates and comparison of militants in before and after revolution.

The differentiation of west frontage of war from other ones was extreme cold and mountains area. It is mentioned in memoirs overall and the oppression and self-sacrifice of young guerrillas are also made mention to readers frequently:" the cold weather of Kurdistan causes people to get involved in difficulty. It was about 50 degree below freezing; everyone and everything was iced up. (p.267)

The narration of Shahbazi about his attendance in the west frontages of war cause readers to be familiar with five well-known, young and martyred commanders of sacred defense such Mohammad Boroujerdi called the messiah of Kurdistan, Naser Kazemi, Mahmoud Kaveh, Ali Qoumi, Mohammadali Ganjizadeh. The name of book is adopted by a sentence of martyr Boroujerdi in an interview with a reporter:" in the name of God, I am Mohammad Boroujerdi and I don’t like to be interviewed."

Finally, the chapter 28, the last chapter of the book, describes the martyrdom of Mahmoud Kaveh who was last remained commander of that five commanders. Also, the year 1365(2013) is connected to the last days of interview with the narrator for yearning to see the father of Mahmoud Kaveh and unstated words of the martyr.

The book consists five planes for cleaning up Sanandaj, Mohabad, Piranshahr, Oshnavieh, Sardasht-Piranshahr, and Sardasht-Mahabad. There are some photos of the narrator and his comrades, the document of organizational chart of Shohada Special Brigade at the beginning of establishment, and biography of martyr Mohammad Boroujerdi, Mahmoud Kaveh, Mohammadali Nabizadeh, Ali Qoumi and Naser Kazemi.

 

  • The memoirs of sister of three martyred brothers.

 The book " I am second mother of Tooraj: the self-written memoirs of Farzaneh Teimouri " rewritten by Seyed Mehrdad (Meysam) Mousavian in 132 pages and published by Resistance Literature and Culture Researches and Studies Center of Hamadan and Sooreh Mehr press in 1395(2016). The head of Hamadan's art center state, at the beginning of book that this book is published by this center for implementing the plans of oral history.

 

    

A narration of a sister, who is only daughter of family, is mentioned in this book. Her brothers went to revolutionary campaigns one by one, and then they went to the frontage of sacred defense. By the time, tooraj, as the narrator mentioned, was as a younger sister of family went also the war.

The book consists three chapters: childhood, teenage, youth. These chapters are divided into 54 short sections. The childhood, as the father of family was a militant, was passed in a government –leased house. Little by little, the weather of Ahvaz influenced on illness of the father; therefore, they immigrated to Hamadan. The narrator write his memoirs about going to school, childhood wishes, the extreme cold weather of Hamadan, the first experience of Korsi (foot stove), falling snow in Ahvaz, as it has never been fallen there, and lying on roof with Tooraj and speaking about wishes. Then, the narrator tell about his youth and attach some memorable picture. The narrator, who is sister of Tooraj, got married and moved to telephone family at long distance.

After martyrdom of one of the brothers, Bahram, the last pages of the book describes tooraj’s departure:" tooraj also went to war. Now, there wasn’t anyone to telephone and unburden myself to him/her"(p 124). She write about his repetitive premonitions which caused her to immigrate Hamadan. When she came back, she encountered with an absence of sound, there was a photo of Tooraj in her house. Her father said that tooraj would never come back:" tooraj is everlasting martyr"(p 124). The sister write sorrowfully: "Tooraj was always calm and soft-spoken; she was also martyred calmly. I am always searching Tooraj’s corpse, and always cheek the name of martyrs to find her, because I was the second mother of Tooraj."      

 


⃰ The mentioned books in this text are introduced by the writers respectively 


[1] The fortieth day after the martyrdom of imam Hussain 

[2] The tenth day of Muharam which the martyrdom of Imam Husain took place



 
Number of Visits: 5218


Comments

 
Full Name:
Email:
Comment:
 
Book Review

Kak-e Khak

The book “Kak-e Khak” is the narration of Mohammad Reza Ahmadi (Haj Habib), a commander in Kurdistan fronts. It has been published by Sarv-e Sorkh Publications in 500 copies in spring of 1400 (2022) and in 574 pages. Fatemeh Ghanbari has edited the book and the interview was conducted with the cooperation of Hossein Zahmatkesh.

Is oral history the words of people who have not been seen?

Some are of the view that oral history is useful because it is the words of people who have not been seen. It is meant by people who have not been seen, those who have not had any title or position. If we look at oral history from this point of view, it will be objected why the oral memories of famous people such as revolutionary leaders or war commanders are compiled.

Daily Notes of a Mother

Memories of Ashraf-al Sadat Sistani
They bring Javad's body in front of the house. His mother comes forward and says to lay him down and recite Ziarat Warith. His uncle recites Ziarat and then tells take him to the mosque which is in the middle of the street and pray the funeral prayer (Ṣalāt al-Janāzah) so that those who do not know what the funeral prayer is to learn it.

A Critique on Oral history of War Commanders

“Answering Historical Questions and Ambiguities Instead of Individual-Organizational Identification”
“Oral history of Commanders” is reviewed with the assumption that in the field of war historiography, applying this method is narrated in an advancing “new” way, with the aim of war historiography, emphasizing role of commanders in creation of its situations and details.