Deylamghani’s Letter of Division

Major general Mohammad Deylamghani was born in 1920 in an old neighborhood of Mashhad. He started his education in Shargh and Onsori schools and continued it in Shah Reza high school. He then entered the military high school of Mashhad.
He entered the officer’s college in 1940 after his interest and was trained for engineering corps. He was dispatched to Mashhad in 1945. Deylamghani had served in technical and provision corps of Mashhad, Sanandaj, Birjand, Balouchestan, Kermanshah, and Tehran cities. He was promoted to major general in 1975.

Letter of Division is a book of auto-written memories of Major general Mohammad Deylamghani about social and military issues. These memories was composed by Ramin Raminnejad and published by Ahang publications in summer, 2014.
The main part of this book is composed of his memories and his interviews with Raminnejad has completed it and given a new taste to it.

“I wrote my memories of my service in army in Khorasan and other divisions. Raminnejad visited me in my house for 10 sessions and asked some questions about the memories. He read my book several times and edited it. He also attached some of my photos to it”, said Deylamghani.
Military history is the main subject of his memories, besides some other noticeable and new information are delivered.

The time limit of Deylamghani’s memories is from his birth to visiting brigadier general Jahashahi, commander of north east [of Iran] garrison in February, 2014. Some memories like Khajeh Ali(a young painter in Mashhad), school construction activities, his pilgrimage to Hajj, army hospital visit, the decision to publish his memories and attending the literary criticism circles were added by the composer. Although it has been tried to represent memories in chronological order ,some disharmony appears. The final pages of the book are dedicated to pictures of Deylamghani’s missions and life.

Letter of Division is a report of 37 years of major general Mohammad Deylamghani’s service in army. There are 88 different subjects in this book such as: My ancestors in Azerbaijan, Immigration to Mashhad, Pilgrimage to Mecca, Remedy, Meeting with Ahmad Shah of Qajar Dynasty, Education, Meeting with Sheykh Bohlool, Goharshad Mosque Incident, High School, Military High School of Mashhad, Officer’s College, 1941 September, Brigader General Shahab Being Killed, Eshratabad Garrison, Reza Joojoo and Me, Mashhad Barraks Electricity, Completion of the Division Hospital, Constitution of Lead Mine in Akhmald, Tudeh Officers’ Riot, American Advisors, Dispatch to Sanandaj, Major General Kamal and Lieutenant General Dadvar Conflict, Nader Shah Tomb Reconstruction, Expansion of Imam Reza Shrine, Commanding Birjand Selective Service, Adventures of Mohammad Shamshir in Baluchistan, Earth Quake in South of Khorasan, Ayatollah Motahari’s Visit with Earthquake Victims, Shah’s Visit from Earthquake Stricken Areas, Promotion to Major General Rank, Zaffar Mission, Terrors in Tehran, Retirement, Institution of a Commercial Company, Islamic Revolution Events, Travel to Canada, Pursuit of War News.

The title “Letter of Division” is not mentioned in the original text. It has been chosen upon the talent of the composer, considering the content of the book and has distinguished it. The original text of the book started as: “Life is of two halves, the first starts with expectations, and the second with regrets”. Deylamghani started his memories with some explanation about his hometown Deylamghan, in which he tries to set forth some historical information of Deylamghan based on written sources, which the composer has represented them as footnotes in the final text.

A Critical Question
Those who think their memories would be fruitful for the future generations, write them. Technology developments has resulted in daily circulation of parts of individuals memories in sites and weblogs. Many literary, political, social and economical memories are published, nowadays.

Nowadays readers can find out the details of different events in memories, so that memory and memory writing is considered as one of the historical sources. The memories are usually written in two different forms. First, daily written memories or memories written by different individuals when they are alive. In this case, since the memories are written from the personal point of view, the writer’s benefits and interests are reflected in them and the writer tries to explain his/her role in a specific time or event. Second, memories which are edited, completed and analyzed by a person other than the writer, due to the ambiguities seen in the original text.
In the latter form, first the memories are written by the writer then the editor will review and rewrite it. The final text is a composition of what has been written and what has been edited, which is completely different from the original text. The auto-written memories which are reviewed, edited and rewritten when the writer is alive, usually have a good style with some forgotten points added. Publication of the original text would lead to losing some important and new information.

But there still remains this critical question that how much the editors or composers are allowed to modify the memories?

Reza Azari

Translated by: Asghar Aboutorabi