Explaining the “Use of Oral History in Writing Entries”

Maryam Asadi Jafari
Machine Translation Edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-7-17

Oral history interviews and documents side by side; the best sources for compiling entries

According to the Oral History website, the training workshop “Use of Oral History in Writing Entries, with a Case Study: Sarab County Encyclopedia” was taught by “Dr. Abolfat’h Mo’men,” a contemporary history researcher, document researcher, and oral history specialist at the National Archives and Library Organization, on the evening of Wednesday, July 1^st, 2026, and was held online with the support of the Islamic Encyclopedia Foundation.

At the beginning of this session, Abolfat’h Mo’men explained the use of oral history in writing entries and said: “Writing an entry is a scientific article without evaluation and relying on sources and documents, in a descriptive, explanatory form, and containing comprehensive and unbiased information. Encyclopedia writing in counties should include the county and its subordinate villages, which includes historical geography, nomenclature, religions, culture, celebrities, handicrafts, popular culture, place names, and issues like this. Oral history is one of the methods of collecting historical data. Especially in the field of contemporary history and places where there is no access to the details of the event; that is, from the language of narrators who themselves were witnesses to those events, which is obtained by a historian in an interactive conversation. In oral history, we are faced with three sides: the first side; the narrator, the second; the oral history expert, and the third; the event and the subject that is going to be discussed. Although the basis of oral history is memories, it is different from memoir writing, reminiscence, and memory-taking. Because it is supposed to be transformed into a historical data through verification and interactive and dynamic dialogue. The oral history expert and interviewer must have characteristics such as: mastery of the subject, time management, interviewing techniques, interaction and patience. In contrast, the interviewee in the discussion of encyclopedia writing, especially in cities and villages, must have complete information about the events and witness the events, and have the power to express memories and events of the region and village. Being impartial, especially due to local problems and civil, ethnic and tribal disputes, must be a local resident and one of the village elders to be familiar with the culture, customs and traditions and other issues of the village. Interviewing people who have more complete information than others about the history and events in the village - including the village headman, the khan's advisors, the khans, the house of justice, the village association, the village headman, the Islamic council, members of the village cooperative company - are actually people who have been and are active in the past. In this interview, a descriptive method should be used to extract data and words such as: what, how, when and where should be used and the word "why" should not be used. Because the narrator enters into analytical discussions that the interviewer does not intend. Interview methods, individual and face-to-face and topic-oriented interviews, group interviews or retelling that is conducted with the presence of several people about a specific event and prevents expediency, exculpation and forgetting.

He added: "Now we have conducted the interview and we want to implement it. While implementing the oral history interview, accents, pronunciations and dialects should be preserved. It is also better to write what happens during the conversation [the narrator's feelings] in parentheses. For example, write the narrator's laughter or anger. The question may arise that I want to write an entry. What good is this to me? You are archiving this interview and it will not be used only for writing an entry for Sarab County. Perhaps thousands of other scientific works and uses will be made of these interviews. Perhaps later it will also be used for local historiography. So, you have produced a historical source and data that has various uses. A rich source that will remain for future generations. It is better for the person who conducted the interview to transcribe the text. In this case, the transcriber has the presence of mind. He was in the meeting himself, knows the pronunciations and dialects, and is not deficient. When he transcribes the text, he only realizes what vague points remain in the narrator's narrative. After transcribing, it is necessary to go to the narrator with new questions or established points and have a new interview. When you conduct the initial interview but do not conduct a follow-up interview, your interview will be worthless. Because it is full of ambiguous and contradictory points. But when you conduct a second interview, you can turn it into historical data and make the most of it. After implementation, we will come to editing the text. You may use these interviews for writing entries, but in the future, in consultation with others, you may decide to write an oral history of Sarab County and design a separate project for it. For example, the role of Sarab County during the Islamic Revolution or the Holy Defense. After implementation and maintaining the authenticity of the expression, the narrator's literature, the accuracy of the narrator's language, and his feelings, it is the turn of verification. That is, you measure the accuracy of the interviews based on documents and verify them. When we took help from oral history in writing records and turned it into historical data, let us not forget that the basis of work in writing records is documents; in other words, books, manuscripts, newspapers, and notes are considered the most important sources. For example, the late Nikbakht, who studied the activities of the Democratic Party in Sarab County and whose book was published, was compiled based on the documents of the National Assembly. These documents are important. For example, see the documents of the National Archives and Library Organization, the Center for Historical Studies, the Center for Islamic Revolution Documents, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Because Sarab County is located in the border strip. Abolfat’h Mo’men, in the continuation of the workshop "Using Oral History in Journalism with a Case Study: Sarab County Encyclopedia," answered questions from attendees about the method of designing open and closed question sets and the correct method of oral history interviews, and spoke about documentary research in the field of journalism.