Ahmad Kasravi

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #FBF5DF
name = Ahmad Kasravi


imagesize = 225px
caption = Ahmad Kasravi | ("Oil Painting on Canvas by Shapour Suren-Pahlav")
birthname = Ahmad Kasravī-ye Tabrīzī
birthdate = birth date|1890|9|29|df=y
location = Tabriz, Iran
deathdate = death date and age|1946|3|11|1890|9|29|mf=y
deathplace = Tehran, Iran
nationality = Iranian
field = Ancient Languages, history, Politics, religion, and Philosophy.
works = The Constitutional History of Iran; The 18 Year History of Azarbaijan; The Forgotten Kings (all in Persian)

Ahmad Kasravi (29 September , 1890 - March 11, 1946) (PerB|احمد کسروی), was a notable Iranian linguist, historian, and reformer.

Born in Hokmabad (Hohmavar), Tabriz, Iran, Kasravi was an Iranian Azari. [V. Minorsky. "Mongol Place-Names in Mukri Kurdistan" (Mongolica, 4), Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 58-81 (1957), p. 66. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0041-977X(1957)19%3A1%3C58%3AMPIMK(%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 JSTOR] ] Initially, Kasravi enrolled in a seminary. Later, he joined the Persian Constitutional Revolution. He experienced a sort of conversion to Western learning when he learned that the comet of 1910 had been identified as a reappearance of Halley's comet. He abandoned his clerical training after this event and enrolled in the American Memorial School of Tabriz. Thenceforward he became, in Roy Mottahedeh's words, "a true anti-cleric."

It was in Tbilisi where he first became acquainted with a wide spectrum of political ideas and movements, and he soon was employed by the government of Iran in various cultural posts.

A prolific writer, Kasravi was very critical of both the Shi'a clergy and of the policies of the central government. He had liberal views on religion, was a strong supporter of democracy, and expressed them in satirical pamphlets like "What Is the Religion of the Hajis with Warehouses?" that infuriated many readers. His views earned him many powerful enemies such as Ayatollah Khomeini.

His detailed account of the Constitutional Revolution still stands out as one of the most important sources on the events, even though Kasravi was a teenager at the time of the revolution and cannot claim the full authority of a contemporary witness that his writing at times suggests.

Kasravi is known for his solid research work on the ancient Azari language and origin of the Azerbaijani people. He showed that the ancient Azari language was an offshoot of Pahlavi language. Due to this discovery, he was granted the membership of London Royal Asiatic Society and American Academy [ [http://www.naghed.net/Maghale_ha/Kasravi.htm احمد کسروی؛ پژوهشگری،سرکشی و خرده نگری Khosro Naghed ] ] .

Arguing that ancient Azari language had been closely related to Persian language and the influx of Turkic words began only with the Seljuq invasion, Ahmad Kasravi believed that true national language of Iranian Azerbaijan was Persian and therefore advocated the linguistic assimilation of Persian in Azarbaijan. [Tadeusz Swietochowski, "Russia and a Borderland in Transition Azerbaijan", 122-289 p. (Columbia University Press, 1995). ISBN 0231070683]

In 1927-8 Ahmad Kasravi led the way in establishing the ancestry of the Safavids dynasty with the publication of three influential articles and disputed the validity of the `official' Safavid family tree contained in the Safvat al-Safa, and argued convincingly that the ancestors of Shaykh Safi al-Din, who founded the Safavid Order (tariqa), were indigenous inhabitants of Iran and were of pure Aryan stock. Today, the consensus among Safavid historians is that the Safavid family hailed from Persian Kurdistan. [http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/reflections_safavid_history_historiography1.php]

On March 11, 1946, while being tried on charges of "slander against Islam," Kasravi and one of his assistants were knifed and killed in open court in Tehran by followers of Navvab Safavi, a Shi'a extremist cleric who had founded a terrorist organization called the Fadayan-e Islam (literally "Devotees of Islam"). The same group had failed in assassinating Kasravi earlier in April 1945 in Tehran. Ayatollah Borujerdi and Ayatollah Sadr who? issued fatwas for killing Ahmad Kasravi. [ [http://www.iichs.org/index.asp?id=266&doc_cat=8 IICHS موسسه مطالعات تاريخ معاصر ايران ] ]

Some of his more famous books are:

*"The 18 Year History of Azarbaijan" ( _fa. تاریخ هجده‌سالهٔ آذربایجان)
*"The Constitutional History of Iran" ( _fa. تاریخ مشروطهٔ ایران)
*"The Forgotten Kings " ( _fa. شهرياران گمنام)
*"The 500 Year History of Khuzestan" ( _fa. تاریخ پانصد سالهٔ خوزستان)
*"A Brief History of The Lion and Sun" ( _fa. تاریخچهٔ شیر وخورشید)
*"Sheikh Safi and His Progeny " ( _fa. شیخ صفی و تبارش)
*"Azari or the Ancient Language of Azerbaijan" ( _fa. آذری یا زبان باستان آذربایجان)
*"varjavand bonyad" ( _fa. ورجاوند بنیاد)
*" Shi'aism" ( _fa. شيعيگرى)
*"Bahaism" ( _fa. بهاييگرى)
*"Sufism" ( _fa. صوفيگرى)

Books by Ahmad Kasravi

* Ahmad Kasravi, "Tārikh-e Mashruteh-ye Iran" (تاریخ مشروطهٔ ایران) (History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution), in Persian, 951 p. (Negāh Publications, Tehran, 2003), ISBN 9643511383. Note: This book is also available in two volumes, published by "Amir Kabir Publications" in 1984. "Amir Kabir's" 1961 edition is in one volume, 934 pages.
* Ahmad Kasravi, "History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Tārikh-e Mashrute-ye Iran", Volume I, translated into English by Evan Siegel, 347 p. (Mazda Publications, Costa Mesa, California, 2006). ISBN 1568591977

Notes

References

* Roy Mottahedeh, "The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran", 416 p. (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1985), Ch. 3. ISBN 0671551973

See also

*Intellectual Movements in Iran

External links

* Website dedicated to Ahmad Kasravi: [http://www.kasravi.info "Ahmad Kasravi 1891 - 1946"]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/worldnews/story/2006/07/060720_mv-constitution-prvn-kasravi.shtml Ahmad Kasravi ("BBC Persian")]
* [http://home.att.net/~tabriz/ahmad.htm Ahmad Kasravi biography]
* [http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/reflections_safavid_history_historiography1.php Why is Safavid history important]
* [http://naghed.net/Maghale_ha/Kasravi.htm Criticism at Kasravi] by Khosro Naghed
* [http://www.kavehsara.com/books.htm#kasravi Books from Ahmad Kasravi in Kavehsara.com]