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City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran This book presents a cultural history of modern Iran from the point of view of Shiraz, a city famous for its poetry and its traditions of scholarship. Exploring the relationship among his tory, poetry and pol itics, the book ana lyzes how Shiraz came to be defined as the country’s cultural capital, and explains how Iranians have used the concept of culture as a way of thinking about themselves, their past and their relationship with the rest of the world. Weaving together a theor et ical approach with extensive ethnographic research, the book suggests a model to integrate broad concerns with a nuanced ana lysis of Iran’s cultural traditions and practices. The author’s interdisciplinary approach sheds light on how contempor ary Iranians relate to classical Persian poetry; on the relationship between expressive forms and the polit ical imagination; and on the different ways teachers, professors, cultural managers, poets and scholars think and work. He de scribes how his tory and poetry are the two dominant modes to talk about the past, present and future of the town and demon strates that the question of know ledge is crucial to an understanding of the political and existential dimensions of life in Iran today. This book will be a major contri bu tion to the current effort to move away from nationalist views of Iranian history and culture, and as such will be of great inter est to scholars of cultural anthropology, his tory, Middle Eastern studies and Iranian studies. Setrag Manoukian is an Italian anthropologist and histor ian of modern Iran. He is an assistant professor at the Institute of Islamic Studies and the Department of Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Iranian Studies Edited by Homa Katouzian University of Oxford and Mohamad Tavakoli University of Toronto Since 1967 the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) has been a leading learned soci ety for the advancement of new approaches in the study of Iranian soci ety, his tory, culture and liter at ure. The new ISIS Iranian Studies series published by Routledge will provide a venue for the pub lication of ori ginal and innov at ive schol arly works in all areas of Iranian and Persianate Studies. 1 Journalism in Iran From mission to profession Hossein Shahidi 2 Sadeq Hedayat His work and his wondrous world Homa Katouzian 3 Iran in the 21st Century Politics, economics and confrontation Homa Katouzian and Hossein Shahidi 4 Media, Culture and Society in Iran Living with globalization and the Islamic State Mehdi Semati 5 Modern Persian Literature in Afghanistan Anomalous visions of history and form Wali Ahmadi 6 The Politics of Iranian Cinema Film and society in the Islamic Republic Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad 7 Continuity in Iranian Identity Resilience of a cultural heritage Fereshteh Davaran 8 New Perspectives on Safavid Iran Empire and society Edited by Colin P. Mitchell 9 Islamic Tolerance Amir Khusraw and pluralism Alyssa Gabbay 10 City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran Shiraz, history and poetry Setrag Manoukian 11 Domestic Violence in Iran Women, marriage and Islam Zahra Tizro City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran Shiraz, history and poetry Setrag Manoukian First published 2012 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Ave, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2012 Setrag Manoukian The right of Setrag Manoukian to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Manoukian, Setrag. City and knowledge in twentieth century Iran: Shiraz, history and poetry/Setrag Manoukian. p. cm. – (Iranian studies; v. 10) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Shiraz (Iran)–History–20th century. 2. Shiraz (Iran)–Social life and customs–20th century. 3. Shiraz (Iran)–Intellectual life. 4. City and town life–Iran–Shiraz–History–20th century. 5. Persian poetry–Iran–Shiraz. I. Title. DS325.S52M36 2011 955'.72–dc22 2011014004 ISBN: 978-0-415-78328-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-80249-6 (ebk) Typeset in Baskerville by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Contents List of figures viii Acknowledgments x A note on transliterations and permissions xii Introduction: city of knowledge 1 1 The territory of Shiraz 11 2 Time, space and culture 42 3 Editing culture 62 4 Writing the history of Shiraz 107 5 Tensions in the city of knowledge 134 6 History and poetry 170 Conclusions 203 Notes 206 Bibliography 234 Index 252 Figures 1.1 Page from Fursat Shîrâzî (1896: 479) 17 1.2 Image 17 (Persepolis) in Fursat (1896: between 136 and 137) 18 1.3 Frontispiece of Kânûn-i Dânish (1954) 29 1.4 Photograph of Persepolis’ stairway in Bassîrî (1959: 2) 33 1.5 Calligraphy of ‘Alî in the shape of a ship, Noah’s ark. in Bassîrî (1959: 4) 33 2.1 Iskilits, Shiraz, 2001 43 2.2 Restored pavilion of the University of Shiraz 43 3.1 Column in Valî ‘Asr Square, 1996 63 3.2 Column in Valî ‘Asr Square, 2001 63 3.3 Ten rial currency with Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s face “edited” 66 3.4 Abandoned entrance to one of the buildings of the University of Shiraz School of Medicine, Karîm Khân Zand Boulevard, 1996 67 3.5 Ruins of the Central Post Office building, located behind the Arg Karîm Khân, in the background the wall of one of the administrative buildings from the time of Karîm Khan, Shiraz, 2001 69 3.6 Underpass in Karîm Khân Zand Boulevard near Shahrdârî Square, Shiraz, 2001 69 3.7 Demolition in the old neigh bor hoods; in the background, the dome of Shâh Çirâgh, Shiraz, 1996 70 3.8 The Shah and the Queen at the inauguration of the Mausoleum of the poet Sa‘dî, 1952 76 3.9 Inscription about the construction of the 1952 mausoleum of the poet Sa‘dî, with upper portion missing, Shiraz 2001 77 3.10 Dedication page from the first edition of Afsar (1974) 86 3.11 Dedication page from the second edition of the same book (Afsar 1995) 86 3.12 ‘Alî Asghar Hikmat “edited” into a photo graph of a group gathered at the tomb of the poet Hâfiz (Imâmî 1990: 195) 89 Figures ix 3.13 Building of the Office of the Ministry of Culture, Shiraz, 2001 94 4.1 Map of the area of Shiraz discussed with the teacher 110 4.2 Cycling club, Shiraz, 1950s 143 4.3 Celebration for the Barâdarân party, Vakil Mosque, Shiraz, 1950s 145 4.4 Diagram for a proposed Islamic Teachers’ Association, Shiraz, 1980 149 Acknowledgments I began learning about Iran and Shiraz during my university education in Italy, my home coun try. This linguistic and textual encounter turned into an ethnographic one in 1989 when I traveled to Iran for a six-month stay. I visited Shiraz almost every summer during the 1990s and spent eight een months there between June 1996 and Decem ber 1997. I thank the Doc- toral Program in Anthropology and History, the Rackham School of Graduate Studies and the International Institute, all at the University of Michigan, as well as the American Institute of Iranian Studies, for funding this segment of the research. I returned to Shiraz during the summers of 2001 and 2003, thanks to a grant from Italy’s CNR and research founds from the Università di Milano- Bicocca. I thank McGill University for offer- ing me a start- up grant to complete research and writing. The follow ing pages are the result of my encounters with people in Shiraz who welcomed me with immense generosity. It is not pos sible to name all of them here. I thank ‘Alî Rizâ Anûshirvânî, Mr. Çamankhâh, Kurûsh Kamâlî-Sarvistânî, ‘Abd al- Rasul Khayrandîsh, Qâsim Kâkâ’î, Mr. Nizâmzâda, Mansûr Rastigâr and Jamshîd Sidâqatkîsh. The staff of the Encyclopedia of Fars has been very sup portive. ‘Alî Asghar Sayfî has offered me his time, advice and immense know ledge about Shiraz: the book could not have been written without his help. I am grateful to the late ‘Alî Akbar Nûrîzâda who accepted me in his bookstore even if I was so different from his regu lar visitors. I wish to express my gratitude to the late Âyatullâh Majd al-dîn Mahallâtî who so kindly talked to me about his father, to his son Amîr Mahallâtî for facilitating visits to his seminary and Muhammad Barakat for his advice and help in consulting the library. Hâshim Sidqâmîz is a true friend and the best intellectual interlocutor one could find. We discussed, agreed and disagreed. Many of the central ideas of the book developed from these exchanges and Hâshim’s infinite suggestions. At the University of Michigan, Brinkley Messick, Sally Humphreys, Val- entine E. Daniel and Juan Cole were a tremend ous source of inspiration and support. Continuing dialogues with them have kept guiding my think- ing.

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