Ahmad Kasravi

Ahmad Kasravi
Ahmad Kasravi
Birth name	Ahmad Kasravī-ye Tabrīzī
Born	29 September 1890(1890-09-29) Tabriz, Iran
Died	March 11 1946 (aged 55) Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian
Field	Ancient Languages, history, Politics, religion, and Philosophy.
Famous 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) (Persian: احمد کسروی), was a notable Iranian linguist, historian, reformer, and philosopher. Born in Hokmabad (Hohmavar), Tabriz, Iran, Kasravi was an Iranian Azeri.^[1] 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 anticleric." 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. Kasravi is known for his solid research work on the ancient Azari language and origin of the Azerbaijani people. He showed that the ancient Azeri language was an offshoot of Pahlavi language. Due to this discovery, he was granted the membership of London Royal Asiatic Society and American Academy [1]. 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.[2] Ahmad Kasravi, who has been described as the most controversial of modern Iranian thinkers, was an active proponent of the idea of linguistic assimilation of ethnic minorities in Iran, especially Azarbaijanis.^[2] On March 11, 1946, while being tried on charges of "slander against Islam," Kasravi and one of his assistants were shot to death 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 Boroujerdi and Ayatollah Sadr issued fatwas for killing Ahmad Kasravi.[3] Some of his more famous books are:

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

Books by Ahmad Kasravi

• Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikh-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: Tarikh-e Mashrute-ye Iran, Volume I, translated into English by Evan Siegel, 347 p. (Mazda Publications, Costa Mesa, California, 2006). ISBN 1568591977

Notes

1. ^ 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. JSTOR
2. ^ Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and a Borderland in Transition Azerbaijan, 289 p. (Columbia University Press, 1995). ISBN 0231070683

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: Ahmad Kasravi 1891 - 1946
• Ahmad Kasravi (BBC Persian)
• Ahmad Kasravi biography
• Why is Safavid history important
• Criticism at Kasravi by Khosro Naghed