Mohammad Reza Najian Asl tells memoirs

The classmates who became campaigners and publishers

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by M.B. Khoshnevisan

2017-7-25

According to the website of Iranian Oral History, the 11^th meeting out of the second round of the meetings “Oral History of Book” was held with the attempt of Nasrollah Haddadi, an expert of the presenter of the show in the Institute of Book House on Tuesday 11^th of July 2017. The show was attended by Mohammad Reza Najian Asl, the Head of Rasa Publications.

I was the classmate of martyr Tond Gouyan

In the meeting, Najian Asl said, “Most people who are involved in the work of publication are among book-reader family. Amir Arsalan Turki was the first non-textbook that I studied. I was some 11 years old and read the book for others while travelling to Tabriz. My interest in book took shape gradually from here.

I was born in Tabriz in 1950 and was some 5 years old when we moved to Tehran. My father was a tea merchant. He was forced to move to Tehran after the events of July 1941. My father was a man of study since I remember. He definitely studied books one hour or half an hour before sleeping at nights. He also recited the holy Quran in the mornings after praying. In such an environment, it is natural that a man became interested in books.

I studied the first grad of elementary school in Al-e Ahmad School and then the whole other eleventh years in Jafari Eslami School. The school was affiliated to the Association of Islamic Teachings. At that time, Mr. Sheilh Abbas Ali Eslami with the assistance of a number of merchants in the bazar set up 150 schools in different parts of Iran which were administered by a single management. Jafari Eslami School was almost the center of the association. Martyr Tond Gouyan was my classmate. We were very intimate with each other. We always sit in one desk and were very close to each other spiritually. His house was in Khani Abad (neighborhood) and my house in Pachenar (neighborhood). We were a 5-people group with much intimacy. During our studying in school, we went to the grave of this friend of ours and then to the shrine of Shah Abd al-Azim (PBUH) every Thursday. Then we went to the house of a gnostic, using his gnosis sessions. In addition to educations, some of the guys were interested in librarianship one of which was always me and did the work of librarianship in the school.”

Inspection in prison

In continuation of the 11^th meeting out of the second round of the meetings “Oral History of Book”, Najaian Asl said, “I got my diploma in 1968. The Konkoor (nationwide exam for entering the university) had not become nationwide at that time yet. I and Mohammad Javad Tond Gouyan were passed in the knokoor of Oil University; on the other hand, I passed in the konkoor of Sharif (Aryamehr) University and he in the konkoor of Shiraz University. Finally, I chose Shairf University and he the Oil University. I was also interested in oil but failed in interview exam, because my father had a busy life. He had not spent the military service and because of this went to the holy city of Mecca with the passport of someone else. On the other hand, he was very interested in the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. And since it was very difficult to go to Karbala at that time, he went illegally but was arrested on his way and the police filed a complaint against him. In fact, a report of such incidents was in his file, and due to these reasons, I was not passed in the Oil University. I had enrolled in the Sanati (industrial) University in the major of mathematics but when the results were announced, it became clear that I had been admitted in the major of Chemistry Engineering. I objected, but in fact they discovered the talented people on the basis of the answers they had given to the questions. Mr. Mahmoud Golzari is a friend of mine from that time who is now the head of Roshd Publications.

The issues of political groups and Mujahedin-e Khaleq (terrorist organization) were mostly exposed in our college: that is why I took part in a demonstration (in protest to the increase of prices of bus tickets) in 1969 and some 600 were arrested. I was among them too. We were transferred to the (prison)) of the Joint Committee. All but 24 including me were released. We were kept in the prison for some 15 days. It is interesting to know that a student had a high status which cannot be described. For understanding the status of university students at that time, I should say that in view of the relations I had, I was represented the class as well as the freshmen. The representatives dealt with the affairs of the students. One of the students’ demands was the change of two female professors, who had no hijab (veil), as a representative, I went to the office of the dean, asking him to appoint two male professors instead of the two women. In response, the dean turned to me and said why I was talking like workers and I had a working-class view?! And he asked me to go and study. I remember that not only our class but all of the first-year students had gone on a strike due to the insult of a professor to their representative. It was the exam time and nobody went to the class because of the strike. Eventually, a professor backed us and we passed the term. We inspected the prisons because of this status and value we had as a student. The collection of these activities and records caused me to study in the university just form three years. Since I knew form the beginning that I would find problems with the university one day, I took part in the knokoor every year, and in the third year, passed in the High School of Commerce which is now called Allamah Tabatabaee University, and graduated in 1976.”

Najian Asl added, “We had an additional training courses while education. The students were taken to Lashgarak (area) for military training in the summers. There, a singer was brought for us at nights to become joyful. A number of us including Javad Madar Shahi, Mahmoud Golzari and others disrupted such gatherings and in fact were against the former ruling system. Fatollah Minbashian, the Commander of the Army’s Ground Forces had come to visit in the last day of the temporary conscription and it was supposed to free us at noon. I along with Fariborz Labbafi Nejad (brother of martyr Morteza Labbafi Nejad) always escaped from the garrison. On that day, I along with another friend Nasser Pahlavan had gone out. When we were coming back, the garrison commander and Minbashian were going to have lunch that saw us. They asked us what we were doing here, and that you had to be in the garrison now. They asked us to introduce ourselves and we did so. We walked slowly. They went and had their lunch and when coming back, rode us on their own car and took to the garrison in order to punish us so to speak. When we got off the car, Minbashian told the person who had been standing beside him to give me my file and send me to his room. When I entered the room, saw that an American advisor had sat beside him. We considered it a disgrace that a political student salutes in front of a brigadier general. Because of this when I opened the door, saluted him in a disgracing manner. Since the American advisor knew Persian, the brigadier general became very angry and said, "Get away from here!" He ordered a colonel to kick me out of the room and teach me politeness in order to come to the room with salute. The colonel told me that it was the last day and if you did not do this, I would be reprimanded, asking me to salute him for his sake. I agreed and entered the room with a salute, putting my file on the desk. He drew a red line on my file, and wrote, "This student does not deserve to serve the holy military service in the monarchial army." He said, "if the His Majesty had not urged to take care of the students, I would kill you." He gave me two months in prison and ordered me to cut off my hair. I did not allow having my hair being cut off through favoritism. On the other hand, the major who were supposed to imprison was my fellow-citizen. I talked to him and when the brigadier general left the garrison, he released me. Thus, fortunately, I was fired of serving in the military."  

The head of Rasa Publications continued, "I was arrested two times in 1974. We had meetings in the house of Mehdi Qani for interpreting Nahj al-Balaqah. Mr. Qani is one of rare people that I have ever seen in my life. Sometimes we wore working dresses and went to brickworks in order to make familiar with working environments. Although he was the nephew of Dr. Qassem Qani (a minister of Pahalvi reign), he was very caring and tactful. We were arrested in his house; since it was a student house, he told us to keep the banned books and materials in the stairs of his house. When were arrested in his house, he claimed full responsibility for the banned documents during the interrogation. He confessed that all of them belonged to him, denying that they belonged to us. He was tortured savagely, but he did not confess. He was sentenced to life in prison and I was imprisoned only for six months. I was in the prison of the (Joint) Committee for four months and then was transferred to Qasr Prison. Mehdi Qani had been known as "Imam Qani" the prison of the (Joint) Committee due to tortures." 

Six month of secret living

Najain Asl said, "Another one of my best friends was martyr Moahammad Ravaqi who was martyred during (bombing) in (Islamic Republic) Party. He was my classmate and we graduated in 1979. We did not abandon the Hosseinieh Ershad since it was established, attending there for the speeches of Dr. Shariati, Ayatollah Motahari, and sometimes Fakhreddin Hejazi. Taking part in such sessions caused that we did not study well. After the arrests, we made familiar with a number of others which all of us liked to continue their lifestyle. We lived secretly for some six months in Mashhad and other different places. Mohammad Ravaqi took me to his house in Mashhad."

From duplication of communiques to learning lithography

He continued, "Since I was represented the students both in Sharif University and the High School of Commerce, and in charge of the libraries' affairs, I had always the responsibility to provide books for the students, and for this reason, I made familiar with two booksellers closely; the first one was Shams Farahani and the second Haj Mohamamdi. The latter knew me with the nickname of Majid. He knew that it was my nickname. We made appointments with political groups in his shop. He not only ignored it but backed me. At that time, if we wanted to rent a car, we had to take a check for the price of that car as pawn. Once, I needed a car, asking him to give me a check. He gave me a check for the price of 20,000 tomans which was a high price at that time without having information about me and the place of life of me or my family. My familiarity with these two institutes increased. Javad Mohammadi who was his son was active in the campaigns and because of this he understood me more.

I had made a glass desk in the house to duplicate the communiques of Imam Khomeini (God bless him) which was called light desk idiomatically. I had put a luminous 500w lamp on it and used sensitive papers. I beamed light on the communiques, then added inks to them and printed them. In fact it was a kind of stencil. I did this at nights when my family went to sleep. One night, the 500-w lamp got hot and since the area was closed, it was exploded, creating a loud voice. Everybody woke up, but nothing special happened. Since that night, I decided to learn lithography and printing and work in the printing house. I told Javad Mohamamdi and he agreed, introducing me to one of his relatives who was active in printing. I started my work in “Arman Printing” whose head was Haj Mehdi Khatami in 1976. He asked my features and the level of my education. In response, I said I am Majid and have a diploma. He said, a medical student works here at nights, producing films and doing montage and copying zinc, you can be his colleague. I accepted and he taught me the job within a short time. One day, Haj Agha Khatami asked me to go to his office and said, “You told me a lie. You do not have a diploma; the work you are doing now, indicates that you know more than a diploma.” Then he asked me to become the interior manager of the printing house but I did not accept. I worked there for a few months and then it became concurrent with my secret life.  Then, I went to Syria and Lebanon for a while the grounds of which were prepared by my close friend Mohammad Ravaqi through Mrs. Marzieh Hadidchi Dabbagh. There, I became familiar with Seyed Mohammad Qarazi and came back to Iran in 1978.”

The influence of Shariati

Regarding the influence of Dr. Ali Shariati on him, Najian Asl said, “I took part in all of Shariati’s speeches in Hosseinieh Ershad. I was so influenced by him that tone of my voice and my talking had likened him. One day, I was supposed to deliver a speech in the High School of Commerce. I remember that Seyed Mohammad Hossain Adeli, one of classmates came late. After my speech, he said, “when I heard your speech from outside, I thought Dr. Shariati was talking and that he had been invited for the speech. Whenever the father of Dr. Shariati who was in prison with us missed his son, told me to talk a little like him and I did do and he was crying.”

How Rasa Cultural Services Institute was shaped

In continuation, he said, “I along with Mohammad Ravaqi, Mr. Sultani and Mr. Khosh Akhlaq and Dr. Ebrahim Movahedi and a few other friends held meetings and concluded that the weakness of the work was in book distribution. At that time, we had only a few religious famous publishers, and the religious books were not distributed in the cities properly. Another issue was that we intended to circulate the communiques across Iran and in fact, the best ground for doing this was book distribution. We decided to set up an institute for book distribution. Dr. Ali Ravaqi, the brother of Mohammad Ravaqi had a two-story building which was not used, and gave it to us. We were supposed to launch the institute with full financial support on behalf of all of us. 5000 tomans were gathered most of which were debts. I was supposed to follow up the work constantly. For naming the complex, martyr Ravaqi said we had a poet in Mashhad named Dr. Qassem Rasa who had very good poems but was not known. He offered to put his name (on the complex), the rest also agreed and therefor, the Rasa Cultural Services Institute was shaped. In addition to distribution of books and communiques, we were supposed to do any other cultural work like the duplication of tapes of Imam Khomeini (God bless his him), Dr. Shariati, Ayatollah Motahari, Imam Mussa Sadr and others.

We started our work in 1978. Our first work was with Mehdi Shadbash, Ali Arbabi, Mustafa Qalamchi, Sadeq Azizi and a few others. It was supposed that small publishers who could not distribute their books were gathered and their books were distributed. The first book we published in Rasa in another name was a book written by Ayatollah Jannati which was about the Palestinian movement. The book was a collection of communiques about Palestine translated by Ayatollah Jannati. Also, some five or six student magazines like Jungle which was the periodical of the students of Mashhad University and had a great content were also brought for us to be published.  

On the other hand, some seven or eight publishers send their books for us to be distributed. Mohammad Mehdi Jafari was in Qalam Publications and because he did not want a series of books to be published in Qalam or for any other reason, took them to be published by us. One of them titled “The sunrise of Muslmi woman” was oriented by Ali Arbabi, and the other one titled “The Hijab message of Muslim woman” was printed by us. Engineer Hasan Shahidi with whom I had become familiar in the prison did the job of desgining. He also brought several books for us; like “When the Marxists write history” which we published it with the fake name Vaqef Sharifi. This book was in fact a response to “Islam in Iran” by Il’ia Pavlovich Petruchevski in which the writer believed that Petruchevski had distorted the Iranian history.”

There was trust in our job

The Head of Rasa Publications continued, “There was a trust in our job in a way that for sending books to booksellers in other cities, we sent books for them only by asking their surnames. They paid their debts in due time. For example, a person nicknamed Masoud worked for us and we sent him to the town to receive our debts. First he went to Mashhad then to Zahedan and then to Bandar Abbas and put some 200000 tomans which was a large sum of money in 1978 on the table. In fact, both all of our customers in the towns paid their debts on time without knowing us, and the person who worked for us did his duty without having any expectation to the money. He worked in the institute for two years without receiving any money. When he wanted to leave the institute I bought five golden coins and gave them to him, but I do not remember whether he accepted or not.

20 of my classmates worked in the institute. Everyone who needed money took from the fund and no salary was fixed for everyone. We had not been trained by any published. Thus we were not familiar with the work’s principles and did not know that we should sign contracts with authors. We did not sign contracts for the books given to us. In pricing, we did not have anything called author’s rights or translator’s rights and did not calculate them. We priced a book exactly with the fixed price in addition to the discount considered for a book.

After the victory of the Islamic revolution, many booksellers in the towns were either martyred or abandoned bookselling and became members of Basij or Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. The work of publication was not followed up and our money was gone. Many could not pay their debts. I had to work in Amir Kabir Publications for a while in order to pay the rest of debts.”

“Ettihad-e Javan” magazine

This veteran publisher said, “Alongside publication and book distribution, we published a magazine named “Ettihad-e Javan” or unity of youth with the assistance of Esmaeel Jalilian in which we included our thoughts and issue related to the revolution – which we felt the youth should have been informed of.  Dr. Mirzaee (who later became the Dean of oil University), Mehdi qani, Saeed Moshiri, Jafar Homaee, Karim Zamani and a few others cooperated with us in publishing the magazine. The magazine was first published every other two weeks then every week for one and a half years. Then, the writing guys were involved in administrative and executive works and it was shut down in practice. The magazine was published from 1978 to 1980.”

We killed the coup’s commander!

Najian added, “There was so trust in that atmosphere that one day two people came to us for controlling the upper floors. They asked us to work with us and not to ask their names and we agreed. We had a dining room. When we spread a tablecloth on it, some 10 to 15 gathered around it. Sometimes, our number increased to 30 that we were forced to spread a tablecloth two or three times. A few days before the (victory) of the revolution, Rasa (institute) was closed and on the night of the victory og the revolution, we had gathered in the house of martyr Mohammad Bonakdar which had been located exactly in the current Imam Hossain Square. All of Rasa guys were there. We made petrol bombs on the balcony of his house, throwing them on the tanks. Fortunately, the coup commander (of Pahlavi regime against the people) was inside one of the tanks who came out of it and was killed by one of our friends.”

Rasa had become "Rasa Nirooz"!

He said, “Three or four days after the revolution, Mr. Bonakdar said, “Mr. (Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad Javad) Bahonar had asked us to go and deliver Evin Prison. After the revolution, a number of SAVAK agents had escaped and a number of unknown people had seized the prison. Since there were guns in the prison, it was very dangerous. All of Rasa guys went there and the prison was in our hands for two months. Then, martyr (Mohammad) Boroujerdi, an IRGC member came and delivered the prison, and we returned to job of publication. We had named Rasa as Rasa Nirooz or Rasa forces jokingly, because anything happened in the country, we were informed in view of the relation the guys had. It was 22^nd of September 1980, and we were having lunch when the news announced that several jetfighters had bombarded Mehrabad Airport. Immediately after the lunch, I and Saeed Moshiri decided to move toward Ahwaz because it was said that the enemy’s division were entering the Iranian soil. Rasa group was in Ahwaz in the training department of the Basij forces and the publication was shut down again. We came back to Tehran in March 1981. The IRGC had not been fixed yet. Ali Shamkhani was in Ahwaz and Mustafa Chamran needed help. We went and were supposed to go the IRGC headquarters, because we had done cultural works and were of more use in the war zones. I was in IRGC's ideological department for some one and a half years and resigned from IRGC in summer 1982. Mehdi Modaressi and Jafar Homaee had already gone to Ettela'at daily and then after a while to Amir Kabir Publications. One day, Mr. Modaressi contacted me and said, "Mr. Motallebi is in charge of here and has a series of problems. In view of the fact that you are familiar with the job, come here and help them". On the first day, I was told to take charge of production management along with Mr. Homaee. I was jack of all trades there. One day, Mr. Motaleb called me and said, "It is a pity you work in production section; you'd better be the deputy. I did not agree and said I was interested in production.  

In Amir Kabir Publications

Najian Asl continued, "I personally disagreed with the confiscation of Amir Kabir (Publications). What caused me to agree and go to Amir Kamir, was that I had heard that some of Amir Kabir books were being looted, and a few profiteers had come and bought the franchising of the books with the lowest prices. I really felt responsibility. I accepted and went there with this intention. Even, Mr. Motalebi told me, "Your hand is open in providing papers and everybody knows you and they need you. I have Quranic publications, you provide papers for me, and I publish and that it would have a good profit."In response, I said, "Until now, I have not had any income from the holy Quran and am against Quranic printing to gain profits. On the other hand, my intention of coming to Amir Kabir Publications was to remove your need. So, I asked to stay in the production section for a few more months. I worked there for some six months, following up the contracts which had been signed but their books had not printed in order to be published. When I felt that Amir Kabir Publications was continuing its usual routine came back to Rasa. In general, I was in Amir Kabir for about one and a half years. Then I went to Tabriz Governorship and worked as the Cultural Advisor to the Governor for some six months."

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, the 8^th meeting on Tuesday 13^th of June 2017 again attended by Morteza Akhundi, the Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications, the ninth meeting on 20^th of June 2017 attended by Mahdieh Mostaqni Yazdi, the owner of Karnameh Publications, Makan and Roozbeh Zahraee, the sons of the late Mohammad Zahraee, the former head of Karnameh Publications and the tenth meeting on Wednesday 28^th of June 2017 re-attended by Mahdieh Mostaqni Yazdi, the owner of Karnameh Publications and Roozbeh Zahraee, the son of the late Mohammad Zahraee, the late head of Karnameh 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.