Change of Iranian historical geometry and ways for facing falsification
28 November 2010
The head of Islamic revolution specialized library of the Majlis library referred to the importance of Iran oral history which this center has paid special attention to and said that we should face the falsifications more seriously.
IBNA: In a conversation with IBNA, Ghasem Tabrizi mentioned a variety of reasons for editing and registering the political historical events and stated that the change in the historical geometry of Iran goes back to the constitutional era and the entrance of figures linked with the western services such as "Sir John Malcolm" and "Edward Brown" to the field. He added: This process continued after the Islamic revolution by the Zionist regime.
The contemporary political history analyst said: even today we are facing five streams of historical falsification. One is the "Western history writing flow" which is parallel to the orientalists'' direction and has colonial aims.
Tabrizi added: The left stream with its Materialist-Marxist view is the second stream that wishes to edit the compurgation of its mistake-full report and also aims to express an ideological contrast with the culture of our society.
He said the third stream is the "king historiography": With the Islamic revolution the culture and rituals of monarchy was defeated and therefore the Shah''s descendants and his politicians are trying to exempt themselves from the failures.
He added: We should not neglect the role of western intelligence services, especially because American intelligence service, Britain and the Zionist regime have more or less started writing the Iranian contemporary history. Before, the Iranian studies center which was under the supervision of British foreign ministry did the same thing.
The head of Islamic revolution library said: All these services have meddled in the affairs of other countries. The changes in the historical geometry of Iran started in the constitutional era with the services related to western countries. After the Islamic revolution Israelis tried the same thing. We can refer to the activities of Homa Sarshar in a project called "Jewish Oral History" which she conducted in Jerusalem University and was about Iranian and Shiite history.
He said the last stream is the "Islamic historiography stream": Unfortunately in the Howzehs and even among important religious figures historiography has been neglected and we have not had many religious figures that cared about history. Even if there were discussions in this field they were mostly about the history of Islam and they did not care much about the contemporary history and the present socio-political events.
The researcher of the political contemporary history added: The autarchy of the Pahlavi regime together with negligence left little room for paying attention to this field. After the Islamic revolution with the emphasis of Imam Khomeini on paying attention to the world events, historiography and the science of history became important.
In the end he said: According to the documents and information that we have we are still at the beginning of a long way. Right now we are registering the memories of the important figures in the Islamic revolution and hope that by doing so we can help the future generations to learn more about our history.
Number of Visits: 6798
The latest
- Third Theory: Covering up the gaps in the document with oral narration
- 100 Questions/35
- Javad Poyanfar's Memories
- Report of the 15th Oral History Conference; Religion and Culture -1
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 35
- Rahim Afshar's Memories
- The Story of the First Sacred Defense Book Award
- Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times
Most visited
- 100 Questions/ 34
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 34
- The Story of the First Sacred Defense Book Award
- Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times
- Rahim Afshar's Memories
- Report of the 15th Oral History Conference; Religion and Culture -1
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 35
- Javad Poyanfar's Memories
Validation: Challenges and Necessities
Where does truth stand in oral history? How can the correctness of a narrative be recognized? Does fact-checking matter? If there is exaggeration in the reporting of some accounts, how can it be detected? Is it possible to record an event accurately through the recording of a narrative? Readers and users of oral history works are often faced with these questions, and sometimes encounter doubts about some oral history works.From Revolutionary Circles to the Military Arm of the Islamic Government
In those days, it became clear that certain institutions had to be established very quickly—institutions suited to the temperament, expectations, and lingering aspirations of the younger generation; young people who had been politically active before the Revolution and, in some cases, had been directly entangled in arrests, imprisonment, ...Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
The use of oral history as one of the historical sources has long been one of the principal challenges facing oral historians and those who employ it in contemporary historiography. The development of international standards for oral history, as well as IRIB standards, was intended to address the criticisms raised in this regard. The relationship between Diplomatics in written records and oral history is reciprocal.100 Questions/27
What is the place of research ethics in compiling oral history?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
