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Self-Orientalization and Dislocation: The Uses and Abuses of the “Aryan” Discourse in Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi
Reza Zia-Ebrahimi*
Affiliation:
St Antony's College, University of Oxford
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Abstract

The claim to belong to the “Aryan race,” believed to be rooted in the ancient self-designation ariya, is a fundamental pillar of the Iranian nationalist discourse. This paper aims to show that in fact it is a twentieth-century import from Europe, where after being instrumentalized for colonial endeavors and Nazi atrocities, it has become almost completely discredited. Yet Iranians continue to nonchalantly refer to themselves as Aryans and the myth of the “land of Aryans” persists, even in academic circles. It will be argued that the reason for this resilience is the specific role Aryanism plays in Iranian identity politics, and the strategies designed to manage the trauma of the encounter with Europe.

“From father to father… Of the Aryan race…”

Àriyàyi nezhàd (of the Aryan race), Pop song by Shakila & Shahryar, 20091

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , July 2011 , pp. 445 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2011

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References

1 This song's video clip claims that the lyrics were written by the great tenth-century AD epic poet Ferdowsi. Needless to say, Ferdowsi never referred to “the Aryan race,” and this claim is grossly fallacious. The lyrics are taken from two poems by Sarkhosh, Mostafa, “peyk-e mehr and khàneh-ye mehr,” in Zabàn-e Ashk [the Language of Tear], ed. Sarkhosh, Mostafa (Tehran, 1343/1964)Google Scholar.

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7 The same situation is prevalent within Hindu nationalist circles in India, but is outside of the scope of this article. The interested reader can refer to two excellent publications: Fussman, Gérard, “Entre Fantasmes, Science et Politique: L'entrée des Aryas en Inde' Annales. Histoire,” Sciences Sociales, 58, no. 4 (2003)Google Scholar; and Trautmann, Thomas R., Aryans and British India (Berkeley, CA, 1997)Google Scholar.

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10 Iran and India were by turns seen as either the idealized native soil of Aryans, or home to degenerate mixed-raced people. Gobineau for instance thought that the “Iranian nation” was composed of a Persian race under heavy Semitic and Turkish influence. See Gobineau, Arthur Comte de, Trois Ans en Asie; de 1855 à 1858 (Paris, 1923), 2: 20Google Scholar.

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62 See for instance Shahidi, Hossein, “The BBC Persian Service, 1940–1953, and the Nationalization of Iranian Oil,” Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis, 17, no. 1 (2001)Google Scholar.

63 Rezun, Miron, The Soviet Union and Iran: Soviet policy in Iran from the Beginnings of the Pahlavi Dynasty until the Soviet Invasion in 1941 (Alphen aan den Rijn and Genève, 1981), 319Google Scholar.

64 See Rezun, The Soviet Union and Iran, 319, esp. note 24.

65 “Mà Cherà Bartarim?” [Why are We Superior?], Nàmeh-ye Iràn Bàstàn, 14 October 1933.

66 “Cheguneh dar Àlmàn Jashnhà va Àdàb-e Àriyàyi va Iràni az Now Zendeh Mishavad” [How Aryan and Iranian Celebrations and Customs are Revived in Germany], Nàmeh-ye Iràn Bàstàn, 3 November 1933.

67 “Tahqiqàt-e 'Elmi va Tàrikhi beh Khàmeh-ye yeki az Siyàsiyun-e Bozorg-e Doniyà, Ràje' beh Iràn-e Kohan” [Scientific and Historical Research into Ancient Iran, Authored by one of the Most Important Politicians of the World], Nàmeh-ye Iràn Bàstàn, 14 April 1934.

68 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 159.

69 See for instance Milani, Abbas, The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution: a Biography (London, 2000), 76–77Google Scholar.

70 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 160.

71 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 161.

72 Kazemzadeh, Massoud, “The Day Democracy Died,” Khaneh, 3, no. 34 (2003)Google Scholar.

73 For the sake of simplicity, this article will use one single transliteration ariya, although in reality the Sanskrit, Avestic and Old Persian versions of the term differ slightly.

74 See for instance Bailey, H. W., “Iranian Arya- and Daha-,” Transactions of the Philological Society 58, no. 1 (1959): 94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Benveniste, Emile, “L'Eran-vez et l'Origine Légendaire des Iraniens,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, 7, no. 2 (1934)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75 Jean Kellens believes that the Sanskrit ariya cannot be unequivocally taken for an ethnonym, whereas Avestic ariya can. See Kellens, Jean, “Les Airiia-ne Sont Plus des Aryas: Ce Sont Déjà des Iraniens,” in Aryas, Aryens et Iraniens en Asie Centrale, ed. Fussman, Gérard et al. (Paris, 2005), 240–42Google Scholar.

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77 Excellent publications address this aspect of the topic. See for instance Fussman, Gérard et al., Aryas, Aryens et Iraniens en Asie centrale, Publications de l'Institut de civilisation indienne (Paris, 2005)Google Scholar. See in particular the article from Jean Kellens included in this volume.

78 For more details refer to Bailey, H. W., “Arya,” in Encyclopædia Iranica, ed. Yarshater, Ehsan (New York, 1987)Google Scholar.

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80 Siegert, “Zur Geschichte der Begriffe ‘Arier’ und ‘arisch,’” 99.

81 Kellens, “Les Airiia- ne Sont Plus des Aryas: Ce Sont Déjà des Iraniens,” 242.

82 Müller, Friedrich Max, Lectures on the Science of Language: Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in April, May and June 1861, 5th rev. ed. (London, 1866), 268Google Scholar. Before him, no direct hint was made to such definition of Iran: Anquetil-Duperron for instance, believed that airyanem vaejah meant “l'Iran pur.” Quoted in Siegert, “Zur Geschichte der Begriffe ‘Arier’ und ‘arisch,’” 86.

83 Examples abound, even in highly influential and serious scholarly works for instance: Browne, Edward Granville, A Literary History of Persia: From the Earliest Times until Firdawsí (London and Leipsic, 1909), 4Google Scholar; and Frye, Richard N., Persia, rev. ed. (London, 1968), 13Google Scholar.

84 For a similar take on this topic, but from a slightly different and more polemical perspective, see Vaziri, Mostafa, Iran as Imagined Nation: the Construction of National Identity (New York, 1993), 75–81Google Scholar.

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86 See McKenzie, D. N., “Eran, Eranšahr,” in Encyclopædia Iranica, ed. Yarshater, Ehsan (New York, 1998)Google Scholar.

87 Reported by French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman in 1976, quoted in Vaziri, Iran as Imagined Nation, 79.

88 Vaziri, Iran as Imagined Nation, 78.

89 See the wise warnings of Fussman, “Entre Fantasmes, Science et Politique,” part. 785–88 and 813.

90 For more on this process refer to Ringer, Monica M., Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, Bibliotheca Iranica. Intellectual traditions series no. 5 (Costa Mesa, CA, 2001)Google Scholar, esp. chap. 1 and 2.

91 Traditional Arabic, Turkish or Persian texts show an equal disdain for anything Christian. For two contrasting views on these issues, see Said, Edward W., Orientalism (Harmondsworth, 1995)Google Scholar: esp. chap. 1 heading 2; and Lewis, Bernard, The Muslim Discovery of Europe, 1st ed. (New York, 1982)Google Scholar. For a perhaps more balanced view see Hourani, Albert, Islam in European thought (Cambridge, 1991)Google Scholar.

92 For a criticism of local historiography, see Vaziri, Iran as Imagined Nation, 151–67; Adamiyat, Fereydoun and Ricks, Thomas M., “Problems in Iranian Historiography.” Iranian Studies, 4, no. 4 (1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Enayat, Hamid, “The Politics of Iranology,” Iranian Studies, 6, no. 1 (1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

93 Akhundzadeh, Fath'ali, Maktubàt: Nàmehà-ye Kamàl od-Dowleh beh Shàhzàdeh Jalàl od-Dowleh [Maktubat: Letters from Kamal od-Dowleh to Prince Jalal od-Dowleh], ed. Bahram Choubine (Frankfurt, 2006), 291–92Google Scholar.

94 For instance, he claimed that the Sasanian revolutionary figure Mazdak laid the foundations of republicanism and égalité “two thousand years ago”. See Kermani, Seh Maktub, 267.

95 See for instance Sagheb-Far, Morteza, “Iràn Bàstàn va Hoveyyat-e Iràni” [Ancient Iran and Iranian Identity], in Iràn: Hoveyyat, Meliyyat, Qowmeyyat [Iran: Identity, Nationhood, Ethnicity], ed. Ahmadi, Hamid (Tehran, 1383/2004), 255Google Scholar.

96 Kermani, Seh Maktub, 128.

97 Kermani, Seh Maktub, 139.

98 “Whenever I touch a branch of the ugly dispositions of Iranians I find its seed to be planted by Arabs.” See Kermani, Seh Maktub, 265.

99 See Akhundzadeh to Jalal ed-Din Mirza, 15 June 1870, in Mohammadzadeh, Hamid and Arasli, Hamid, eds., Mirzà Fath'ali Àkhundof: Alefbà-ye Jadid va Maktubàt [Mirza Fathali Akhundov: the New Alphabet and the Maktubàt] (Baku, 1963), 172Google Scholar.

100 Kermani, Seh Maktub, 180–81.

101 René Verneau and Emile Burnouf, cited in Poliakov, Mythe Aryen, 311 and 308.

102 It is noteworthy that in the case of those other countries, in particular India, the tool used to emancipate the local population from Western rule—nationalism—was itself prisoner to the same West's intellectual legacy. See Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: a Derivative Discourse? (Minneapolis, 1993).

103 See in particular Akhundzadeh, Maktubàt; and Kermani, Seh Maktub.

104 “European philosophers write that [we excel] in all negative qualities.” In Kermani, Seh Maktub, 263–64.

105 As previously mentioned, although Iranians were considered Aryans, many Orientalists still considered them some debased and racially mixed variety, and usually did not exalt Iranians as they would Europeans.

106 Quoted in Cole, Juan R. I., “Marking Boundaries, Marking Time: The Iranian Past and the Construction of the Self by Qajar Thinkers,” Iranian Studies, 29, no. 1–2 (1996): 44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

107 From Mokhber ol-Saltaneh's memoirs, quoted in Katouzian, Homa, State and Society in Iran: the Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis (London, 2006), 336Google Scholar.

108 File 102012/3201, no. 41749, 03.10.1313/May 1934. Prime Ministry Files. Quoted in Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804–1946 (Princeton, NJ, 1999)Google Scholar.

109 Katouzian, Homa, The Persians: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Iran (New Haven, CT, 2009): 217–18Google Scholar.

110 See footnote 4.

111 “30 Iranian soccer fans appear in court for disturbing public order,” Associated Press Newswires, 16 October 2001.

112 “Football—Given's blast ordeal—Interview—The Republic's World Cup hero talks of grenades and glory …”, The Observer, 25 November 2001.

113 “Football—Accueil Triomphal pour les Allemands en Iran,” Reuters—Les actualités en français, 7 October 2004.

114 “Kolossale Weihnachten in Teheran,” Süddeutsche Zeitung, 11 October 2004.

115 “Kolossale Weihnachten in Teheran.”

116 “Länderspiel Iran - Deutschland live im ZDF, 09.10.2004,” in Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF). A video of the scene is available on YouTube under “Iran v Germany, 2004, National anthems”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH0gl6OXXt4&feature=PlayList&p=5D4016A8C8B4B254&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2.

117 Some friendly exuberance was also demonstrated at the Iran–USA game during the 1998 World Cup, but for wholly different reasons. It also has to be said that the games against Iraq and Ireland were crucial World Cup preliminary games, whereas the game against Germany was a friendly match. Yet the fact that Iraqis lost and were mistreated, while Germans won and were celebrated confirms the prevalence of sentiments among the fans that do not only relate to football.