Life and Time of Ali Akbar Moeenfar

Mahya Hafezi
Translated by: M.B.Khoshnevisan

2024-7-30

“Life and Time of Ali Akbar Moeenfar” authored by Parviz Sa’adati has been published by Sooreh Mehr Publications. The book is the result of more than 110 hours of interviews with the late Ali Akbar Moeenfar. He is the first Head of the Planning and Budget Organization as well as the first Minister of Oil in the interim government of the Islamic Revolution.

By reading the book, the audience can review the events that happened during the first half of Iran’s past century. The narrator grew up in a religious and political family and was active in many social and political developments of contemporary history. Also, according to the author, in some events, despite the differences in his views with different people and their policies, he has always honestly expressed things. Although at first glance of the book, these items are included in the "Data" category, but with a little consideration, it becomes clear that many of these items of data are expressed from the narrator's point of view and in some cases, he puts new points in front of the reader. The narrator's memories are not absolute but bound to time and place.

The editing of the book has been done in the form of a first-person narration and the interview questions have been removed. The prose of the book is completely fluent and cannot be skimmed over. The eloquence of the narrator's narration and the appropriate editing of the book have expressed real events in the form of stories that take the audience's hand and drag them into memories.

The book begins with a three-page introduction, followed by the text of the letter of the narrator's brother to the editor of the book without any explanation. It seems that the inclusion of this letter is to improve the book and confirm its text. This book has not been categorized into chapters. The topics discussed are consecutive and a title has been chosen for each topic. In total, the narrator has talked about 145 topics, starting with his birth, family, neighborhood, and school. The narrator's depictions of places and people throughout the book - which shows detailed interviews - are expressed fully and accurately. Throughout the book, footnotes are used less and the editor is satisfied with short explanations. In many cases, the first names of people are placed in brackets.

From the very first pages of the book, the reader accompanies the narrator, who is a thirteen-year-old teenager and reads important events step by step from his language. The completely personal narratives are less visible in the book and it has been mostly focused on reviewing historical events. The process of telling the events is arranged according to the date of their occurrence. The final part of the narratives of the book is related to the text of a letter that a group of employees of the Planning and Budget Organization wrote to their boss on the 21^st of Aban 1357 (November 12, 1978), asking him to resign. Morteza Salehi was appointed as the Head of the Planning and Budget Organization in the cabinet of General Azhari, and the narrator took responsibility for delivering the resignation letter to him. This letter has been published for the first time in this book.

One of the shortcomings of the book, which is mentioned in the introduction, is that the interview with the narrator is incomplete due to his death during the interview. As mentioned, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the narrator was present in the interim government of Engineer Bazargan. Also, he was the representative of the people of Tehran in the first term of the Majlis [parliament]. However, this book does not mention the events after the Islamic revolution. Probably, the design on the book cover, which is the picture of the narrator in his youth, can reference the same point.

Photos from the narrator and the index have been included at the end of the book. The first edition of the book was published in 1402 (2023) in 500 copies and 428 pages and at the price of 375,000 tomans.