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An Intellectual History of Early-Pahlavī Demonology, 1921-41/1299-1320 sh. by Arshavez Mozafari A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto © Copyright by Arshavez Mozafari 2015 An Intellectual History of Early-Pahlavī Demonology, 1921-41/1299-1320 sh. Arshavez Mozafari Doctor of Philosophy Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto 2015 Abstract This historiographical dissertation details how ancient and medieval Iranian demonology, including its avatars, motifs and styles of discernment, went through a radical conceptual revolution during the span of modernity, being informed by and impinging all domains of activity in which the demonic can be traced, such as the political, social, economic, technological, philosophical, and moral. Through an analysis of discourses and literatures pertaining to these domains, this study divulges the logic, mechanisms and movements behind the persistent deployment of traditional characterological signifiers of unholiness during a period of the twentieth century that is customarily argued to be a time generally preoccupied with notions of modernization inherited from the European Enlightenment tradition. In this work of inquiry, there is a focus on the early years of Pahlavī rule (1921-41/1299-1320 sh.) when a whole cluster of demonological notions and understandings entered a stage of hitherto unrealized clarity and coalecsed struggle for hegemonic supremacy. Demonological analysis positions adjacent to the assembly of oft-discussed modes of periodization, including mytho-secular nationalist, Perso-Islamic, and modern temporalities, the relatively unexplored natural history of man and its description of humanity's early ii confrontation with and gradual civilizational overcoming of Nature's perilous and almost insurmountable forces. Since the inception of modernity, the demonic came to be infused with attributes associated with Nature, including inexorability, purposelessness, and illogicality, and insofar as traditional scions of evil were described as being situated in said Nature, their conceptual potency heightened, relative to both their previous forms and the Iranian populous. The demonism of Nature violently struggles against the analogical reasoning and absolute monotheistic commitment of the Perso-Islamic Shayṭān and the antinomic status of Zoroastrianism's Ahrīman. Adopted strategies utilized to engage with this newly reorganized demonic landscape were varied during the early-Pahlavī period, coordinated as they were by the different social positions, philosophies, and lived experiences of their devisers. However, out of all the texts covered, it was those by the modernist author Ṣādiq Hidāyat that came to a full and heady recognition of the novel demonic paradigm, ushering all together the end of the first Pahlavī period. iii Acknowledgments There are simply too many individuals to acknowledge, and so I will avoid making any ill-fated attempts in this direction. I will, however, confine myself to mentioning those who immediately come to mind. I have to first thank Dr. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, my doctoral supervisor, for his unwavering support and guidance. In the sense that he is an outspoken defender of the historiographical method and primary source investigation, Dr. Tavakoli's presence in this work is hefty and enduring. The many members of my doctoral committee, some of whom had to part ways due to unforseen circumstances, also deserve recognition. They are Drs. Amir Hassanpour, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Todd Lawson, Amira Mittermaier, Walid Saleh, Jeannie Miller, Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani and Shafique Virani. The external examiner from McGill University, Dr. Setrag Manoukian deserves special mention because of the genuine promise that he sees in my work, along with his congenial spirit, which is difficult to draw away from. There have been many fellow students who I care to mention, but I will only bring up those who have been instrumental in the advancement of this particular project: Ida Meftahi, Golbarg Rekabtalaei and, in particular, Parisa Zahiremami. She has truly demonstrated how it is possible to sustain a relationship of mutual support over the years. I suppose this goes against convention but not only do I want to thank the visible support staff, but also those who are less visible. First, I want to thank the administrative staff of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. I am thinking in particular of Anna Sousa who has always been kind to me during my years in the department. Though suffering from an understaffed work environment, Anna has always able to pull off tasks when they truly needed to be done in a quick and timely manner. I have to thank the staff at the interlibrary loans desk at Robarts Library for having to process many of the Persian language books I reviewed. I should also take the time to thank the public transit workers, custodial staff, food servers and other less visible supporters who made my life a whole lot easier. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support. I want to point out my mother, Vida Khooie, in particular. I have no other way to put it: If it were not for her support, this dissertation would not have been possible. This work is dedicated to her. She is one of the less visible personalities I referred to earlier, but the one (out of everyone else, both visible and less iv visible) who had the most impact on the development of this work. I look forward to dedicating more works in your honour, māmān jūn. v Table of Contents Note on Transliterations and Translations …………………………………………………….. vii Note on Dates ………………………………………………………………………...………. viii Note on Abbreviations …………………………………………………………………………. x Chapter 1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………... 1 Chapter 2 Bachah(-yi) Shayṭān-i Ṭabī'at: State Formation and the Legacy of Lawlessness …………………………………………………………………………………. 26 Chapter 3 Chahār Khvān-i Tiknuluzhī: From Autonomous Organism to Divine Instrument of the State …………………………………………………………………….. 52 Chapter 4 Shayṭān-i Nāma'qūl: Marxist and Religious Reformist Critiques à la Arānī and Kasravī ………………………………………………………………………… 71 Chapter 5 Shayṭān-i Vahm: Failed Socialization and the Discourse of Voluntarism ….…. 99 Chapter 6 Ahrīman dar Āghūsh-i Īrān: 'Alavī and the Fusion of Love Poetry and Secular Nationalist Polemics …………………………………………………………. 144 Chapter 7 Jahannam-i Shahvatī: Hidāyat and the Fulfillment of Early-Pahlavī Demonology ………………………………………………………………………...……… 181 Chapter 8 Epilogue ……………………………………………………………………… 209 Appendix The Different Approaches to Demonological Investigation ……………….… 212 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………….……….. 234 vi Note on Transliterations and Translations I have chosen to abide by the Library of Congress (LoC) system of romanization. I capitalized names as consistently as possible. As for titles appearing in the footnotes and bibliography, I chose to capitalize all the principal words. For poem extracts, the transliteration style shifts in order to convey what they might sound like when read aloud. There are instances when I quote a Western-language work that has its own transliteration system, and for many of these I do not alter the transliterated words as a way to remain faithful to the original. I chose not to translate the words designating different forms of Perso-Arabic poetry so as to not besmirch their uniqueness. When I quote from Persian materials I put them in parentheses. The English text that precedes these quotes are not exclusively translations. There are many times when I insert Persian quotes for the purpose of exemplification or elaboration. I do not transliterate the names of Iranian authors who have extensively published or are based in the West where their names are already rendered into Roman script one way or another and for which they are best known. The same principle applies for the names of countries along with well-known cities and religions. There is still yet to be a consensus on the transliteration of certain commonly held terms such as "Nawrūz" so I decided to transliterate them using LoC's system. vii Note on Dates Here I have prioritized the use of the Gregorian calender because of the situational circumstances behind the dissertation's writing. Whenever reference is made to the lifespan of a personality, event, dynasty, etc. considered directly entwined with Iranian history, the Iranian calendrical equivalent will appear subsequently. Because I refer to Persian sources that were published during the usage of one of three different calendrical systems (taghvīm'hā-yi Ghamarī [gh.], Shamsī [sh.], and Shahānshāhī [sha.]), and also allude to personalities or events where the bulk of their existence transpired during the usage of one of these three systems, each one of them will make an appearance throughout the work. I make use of the taghvīm-i Shahānshāhī sparingly and only in reference to texts published during its period of practice because its time of implementation (1970s) stands outside the time period under investigation in this research project. Before Hijrī, or 'bh.' will be used when referencing ancient personalities who have a direct relationship with Iranian history. This being said, many historical figures drawn upon lived during the calendrical transition point of the mid-1920s when taghvīm-i Ghamarī fell out of use in favour of taghvīm-i Shamsī. For each person I used the system