Until a century and a half ago when Persia was confronted by Russia and the West, Persians accepted a “national identity” that consisted of the Arabic alphabet and Islam, a religion which was not born in Iran.The pre-Islamic culture and language included Hindu and Persian elements, while Islam had grown out of Hebrew-Arab culture, with some Turkish and Mogul elementsThis diverse blend ironically acquired relative concord and harmony. Iranians have become acquainted with modern culture and European modernity, thus facing escalated identity crises and turning “coexistence of paradoxical elements” into a major feature of Iranian heritage.
If they could overlook this identity crisis, Iranians can view their national and cultural identity as harmonious, uniform, and distinctive. However, the clash between this optimistic view of harmonious and distinctive identity and the objective reality (belonging to a culture that is in some ways discordant and contradictory) is internalized by Iranians. The collective memory of Iranians reflects their position as the proud yet defeated heir of one of the largest, most powerful empires and one of the brightest civilizations of the ancient world. This notion clashes with the reality of a country consisting of different ethnicities, cultures, and languages. In addition, the blend of Islam with national culture challenges the national and cultural identity of Iranians. Nationalistic, chauvinistic tendencies of many Persians are a manifestation of the conflicts outlined above.
The exaggerated emphasis on a distinct and superior Iranian identity is very much reflected in classic Persian literature – much more so than national identities in the writings of other ancient cultures. The terms “Iran” and “Iranian” and a distinctive, honorable identity are central concepts in the most important Persian epic, Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. They are also central in other shahnamehs and works created in the first four centuries after Islam all the way to the poetry of the Constitutional Era (early 20th century). For over a thousand years, the heirs of one of the most powerful superpowers of the ancient world have attempted to make up for their identity crisis through literature. Their forefathers were defeated in all wars in the post-Islamic era (beginning in the seventh century) except for the last war in the recent decades. Their history was clouded by non-Persian rule through Arab, Mogul, and Turkish invasions.
The national, ethnic, and cultural identity of ancient peoples has numerous roots: language, history, mythology, rites and rituals, common traditions, common perceptions about the creation of the world and mankind, divinity, and sacred history of religions, ethnic groups, and nations, to name a few. The relative unity of these elements created a sense of belonging in the minds of the people of Iran. The sacred history of Islam, as well as most of its traditions and rituals was based on the Hebrew, Arab, and Old Testament culturesDespite the influence of neighboring traditions, the pre-Islamic Iranian culture and worldview, especially Mesopotamian cultures, were rooted in the Hindu-Iranian culture of the ancient Aryans. The Aryan and Sami religions, cultures, and mythologies came together in Iran.
The blend of Islam and the national culture is perhaps the most prominent feature of Iran’s identity after the advent of Islam. The non-Iranian nature of the Islamic culture and Iranian efforts to “Iranianize” a religion codified in Arabic and based on Hebrew-Arab myth and rituals, makes this combination particularly contradictory and challenging. Among the many nations conquered by Arab Muslims shortly after Islam’s inception, Persia was the only conquered nation in the Middle East, which, while accepting the new religion, maintained its national language, Farsi Dari, and major elements of its identity and cultural traditions. In their conversions to Islam, the people of Egypt, Syria, present-day Lebanon, and North Africa absorbed the Arab language and identity and became part of the Arab nation.
In addition to religion and national identity, some elements of the Mogul and Turkish cultures were also integrated into the Iranian culture and identity after they conquered Iran. Some historians believe that the spread of the Turkish language and legends throughout Iran is the result of the invading Turk and Mogul cultures. In the last century, Iranian culture has been influenced by modernity as well. In Western Europe, modernity gradually replaced the medieval culture in a bottom-up movement. However, modernity came to Iran from abroad. Some modern elements gradually seeped in and created a new blend that made the coexistence of previously incompatible elements possible.
When the Arabs defeated the Sassanid Empire, Islam in Iran assumed an Iranian form, due to the struggles that lasted more than four centuries. By internalizing many pre-Islamic Iranian concepts and rituals, several centuries later, Shiism became the religion of a majority of Iranians and a major pillar of Persian-Iranian identity.
The Sassanid Empire, Iran’s last pre-Islamic empire, collapsed during the rule of the Prophet’s second heir and caliph, Omar. Some Iranians took refuge in India, but the majority converted to the new religion yet many never forgave the collapse of their empire at the hands of the Arabs.The murder of the second caliph by an Iranian was the first political assassination in the history of Islam. Up to three centuries ago, ceremonies known as Omar Koshan (killing of Omar) were held in parts of Iran to celebrate the anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s conqueror.
The Prophet of Islam, his daughter and son-in-law Ali, and the 11 offspring of Ali, known as the Chahardah Massoum (14 Saints) became the most sacred religious personalities for the majority of Iranians. Iran’s collective national conscience, Persian literature, and Iranian culture, nevertheless, did not forget the painful occupation of the country and the transformation of a contemporary superpower into a nation-state in the Islamic establishment. The victory of Islam in Iran shattered the unity and harmony of the national identity which was defined by a sense of belonging to the Sassanid Empire, a common Persian culture, Zoroastrianism, as well as Iranian mythology and rituals. The defeated nation felt culturally superior to the conquerors and registered, in its national conscience, the invading Arabs as violent and lacking culture. As such, by disparaging the conquerors, the defeated nation attempted to heal its wounded pride. By preserving the Farsi Dari language and creating Shiism, it preserved important elements of its culture. By injecting the notion of “divinely supported inherited monarchy” and by creating a sacred history, the Iranians “blessed” the Shi’a Imams with having Iranian blood and origin. Based on a legend that lacks any historical credibility, they claimed that one of Ali’s sons, Imam Hussein, the third Shi’a Imam, married Sassanid Princess Narges (daughter of the last Sassanid king) and that the Shi’a Imams are the couple’s offspring. By granting Arab Imams Iranian blood, this legend symbolizes the blend of Shiism with the national identity.
In the Sassanid Empire, religion was a pillar of national identity. The Sassanid’s defeat stripped Iranian culture of the Zoroastrian religion. Nonetheless, many of its rituals, concepts, and beliefs persisted within the framework of Shiism.
Iranians used the solar calendar, while the Arabs used the lunar calendar. The 12 Iranian months have the names of the 12 Zoroastrian saints (Amshaspandan.) Iranians preserved their solar calendar and names of months, yet they changed the source of history from the coronation of the kings to the migration of the Prophet of Islam from Mecca to Medina. In the Iranian calendar, the Prophet of Islam was juxtaposed with the twelve Zoroastrian angels.
The Islamic Republic governments have had much conflict over Norouz, the most ancient and nationalistic holiday in the pre-Islamic era. Norouz marks the beginning of the Persian year and the beginning of spring. The Arab Omavi and Abbasi caliphs, as well as some religious groups, banned the Norouz celebrations. Some caliphs forced Iranians to pay annual taxes twice just for celebrating Norouz. Suppression and pressure, however, were fruitless. Norouz is still the most important holiday in Iranian culture, while other national festivities, such as Sadeh and Mehregan have gradually lost their importance. The Prophet of Islam officially recognized the pre-Islamic Arab festivities and, by sanctifying them, turned them into Islamic celebrations. But despite their religious sanctity, the Islamic celebrations did not merge with the Iranian culture.
The Arab caliphs and religious clergy were hostile towards Norouz celebrations because they reflected non-Islamic culture and the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian religion. Chaharshambeh Soori, the fire ceremony on the last Wednesday of the year, prior to Norouz, represents the sanctity of fire in Zoroastrianism. The most important Norouz tradition, the “Haft Seen,” is rooted in the Zoroastrian faith. To mark the New Year, each family lays a spread consisting of seven flowers, plants, spices, and items that start with the letter “s.” Terms such as “sabz” (green) and “sabzeh” (greenery) which symbolize nature in the Iranian culture, start with the letter “s.” The sanctity of “green,” “greenery,” and “greenness” in Norouz celebrations stems from spring and rebirth of nature. More importantly, they symbolize the Zoroastrian sanctity of trees and planting trees. On the 13th and last day of the Norouz celebrations, in a holiday called Seezdah-be-dar, Iranians leave their homes (and the bad luck associated with the 13th day of the year) and take refuge in nature. The sanctity of nature, the main element of the most important national celebration, is alien to Islamic culture.
Iran’s pre-Islamic national culture was enshrined not only in festivities but also in the most important Shi’a rites. The ten-day mourning ceremony for the third Shi’a Imam, who was killed in a war with the Omavi caliph, is the most important Shi’a religious ceremony. Public mourning, in the form of a parade of mourners, did not exist in the pre-Islamic Arab culture and the early Islamic traditions. These ceremonies were the Islamic construction of an important traditional rite of the pre-Islamic Iranians. Sou Va Shoon or mourning ceremonies for Siyavash were held to honor the murder of the Iranian prince Siyavash who, legend has it, symbolizes purity and innocence. Most symbols in the ten-day Moharram mourning ceremonies are based on Zoroastrian traditions, as well as Sou Va Shoon. The most prominent symbol in the parade of mourners is a cypress tree – the sacred tree in Zoroastrianism.
The return of the Twelfth Imam as the savior who will reappear to establish the reign of God and justice on earth, is the most prominent Shi’a belief. The Koran and Sunnah (words and deeds of the Prophet of Islam) make no reference to the “savior.”
The Iranians injected the concept of “savior” to Islam by reconstructing the legend of Sooshians, the Zoroastrian savior. The Zoroastrian clergy took on a more important role in the ruling system during the Sassanid dynasty in order to prevent other sects and religions from exerting influence on Iranian rulers, as they had in the past. Therefore, some argue that the concept of Velayat-e Faqih and the rule of the clergy can be linked to practices by Zoroastrian clergy and recreated to fit the needs of Shi’a clerics.
In this fashion, Iranians preserved their ancient history and legends after the conquest of Islam. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, which encompasses ancient pre-Islamic Iranian mythology and history, was the most popular and influential book in Iran for over a thousand years. Ordinary people heard Shahnameh stories nightly from story tellers. Iran’s national hero, Rostam, took shape in the pre-Islamic Hindu-Iranian mythology. In addition, prominent Iranian philosophers, such as Shahab-iddeen Sohrevardi and Mulla Sadra, based their philosophies on a blend of pre-Islamic philosophical schools and Islamic texts.
Over the past thousand years and before Iranians’ connections to the West, Persian-Iranian nationality and identity were defined in contrast with the Arab and Turk identities. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, which played a major role in reconstructing the national conscience and identity, defined Iran’s national identity. The first post-Islamic Iranian government took shape in the second and third centuries after hijrah (migration of Prophet from Mecca to Medina) in opposition with the Arab caliphs. The invasion of nomadic Turks and Moguls took the reins of power away from the Persians. But Turk and Mogul kings accepted the Iranian culture, and the country and government bureaucracy remained in the hands of Persians. Most historians regard the powerful Safavid Dynasty as the first national Iranian rulers after the advent of Islam. The Safavids, who fought the Ottoman caliphs, declared Shiism as the country’s official religion in hopes of benefiting from Iranian nationalism in their wars.
Iranian efforts at national reconstruction and establishment of a modern government began at the turn of the 20th century. Many Iranian thinkers, authors, and poets from the Constitutional to the Islamic Revolutions, attempted to define Iranian nationalism by idealizing pre-Islamic Iranian civilization and culture. The founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty declared nationalism the official ideology of the government and tried to strengthen national unity and define national identity by reviving Iran’s pre-Islamic Persian history and traditions. During the first Pahlavi era, studying Iranian history and pre-Islamic Iranian languages was encouraged. Persian nationalism and conflict with Arab culture were so extreme that important writers, such as the “father of Iranian fiction” Sadeq Hedayat, produced chauvinistic and racist works. Nonetheless, the movement for the nationalization of oil reached a peak in the post-WWII years with the collaboration of religious and nationalistic figures and ended in defeat when the two groups parted ways in the early 1950s. The first modern revolution of the Iranians in the 20th century, however, reflected a fusion of nationalism and religion and an alliance of nationalists and Shi’a clerics.
Notwithstanding political upheavals, and despite the influence of Western modernity in Iran, Islam, in its “Iranianized” Shi’a form, remained the most prominent religion among Iranians. Moreover, it became so inherent in the Iranian culture that the blend of Islam and national culture can be defined as the main feature of the Iranian identity. The escalating conflict between these two elements over the past three decades has coincided with increased conflict between modernity and tradition, resulting in a deepening identity crisis in Iranian culture.
Moreover, what are the criteria of success? For India - if so?
] but the countryside will stick to Buddhist/Confucian/Taoist revival - since they have maintained greater contact with such thought there, and they also have a significant urban-rural hatred divide because of other reasons - primarily economic.
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