Muhammad Samadi
A Survey of Mahabad’s History
Type
abstract
Year
2014
صمدی، محمد. نگاهی به تاریخ مهاباد. مهاباد: نشر رهرو، ١٣٧٧، ۵۶۲ص.
Samadi,
Muhammad. Nigahi bi Tarikh-i Mahabad. Mahabad: Nashr-i
Rahru, 1999, 562pp.
ABSTRACT
A
Survey of Mahabad’s History
نگاهی به
تاریخ مهاباد
This
books aims at familiarising readers with Mahabad’s political history and the
biographies of its eminent personalities and writers. The account of the city’s
social events begins at its foundation date, i.e. from the reign of the Safavid
Shah Isma‘il, and ends at the beginning of the solar year 1332 AH (1963). The
historical account of these events is inevitably linked with other cities such
as Maragheh, Miyanduab and Tabriz. Despite the writer’s insistence that his
historical prose and viewpoint are non-analytical, he is heavily indebted to
Martin van Bronson’s book Lord, Sheikh and Government.
Just
like van Bronson, Samadi highlights the unstable conditions of political rule
in this area, which found itself wedged between the states of Iran and the Ottoman
Empire, and attempts to demonstrate the role that these two states played in
inciting unrest among the khans and the elders of the area.
The
book focuses on the account of the events after WW2. This account is mainly
based on primary sources, which the writer collected in the 80s from witnesses
of these events. This is then followed by a unique survey of the circumstances
of the formation and the three-year long activity of the Association for
Kurdistan’s Revival (Kumulah Zhiyanah Kurd), commonly known as Kumulah
Zh-K.
During
this brief period Mahabad has to an extent been depicted as an ideal city. A
great part of this information is based on the notes of Mulla Qadir Mudarrisi,
one of the founders of the association, which contain direct narrations on
events. The photographs section of the book consists of a hundred-page long
album, which includes the names of almost all those who appear in the group
photographs contained therein.
However,
the book suffers from a lack of copyediting. At times the arrangement of
narrations and events does not follow a logical order, and a number of
unabridged, direct narrations on a single event are repeated. The large volume
of these direct narrations, some of which extend over several tens of pages,
means that the reader misses the main thread of the writing. Moreover, the main
text contains secondary information which should have been placed in the
footnotes. The biographical notes of the city notables contain numerous samples
of Kurdish poems that have not been translated into Persian.
The
book lacks any information on Mahabad’s geography, and the anthropological
analysis of its customs, habits, clothing, food etc. is too brief to be of any
use to researchers. The book’s main concern is the survey of the obstacles that
Kurds faced on their way towards political and cultural development, positioned
as they were between two powerful states. Therefore, this book can prove to be
a very useful source of information to researchers focusing on the conflict and
the interaction between ethnic and national cultures. Ultimately, the main
readership of this book is those readers interested in the history and the
culture of the inhabitants of Western Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan.
Iradj
Esmailpour Ghouchani
Translated
by Sofia A. Koutlaki
Citation
Esmailpour Ghouchani, Iradj. “English abstract of 'A Survey of Mahabad’s History'". Translated by Sofia A. Koutlaki. In Cities as Built and Lived Environments: Scholarship from Muslim Contexts, 1875 to 2011, by Aptin Khanbaghi. 91. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
Authorities
Collections
Copyright
Muslim Civilisations Abstracts - The Aga Khan University
Country
Iran
Language
English
Related Documents
A Survey of Mahabad’s History
Type
abstract
Year
2014
صمدی، محمد. نگاهی به تاریخ مهاباد. مهاباد: نشر رهرو، ١٣٧٧، ۵۶۲ص.
Samadi,
Muhammad. Nigahi bi Tarikh-i Mahabad. Mahabad: Nashr-i
Rahru, 1999, 562pp.
ABSTRACT
A
Survey of Mahabad’s History
نگاهی به
تاریخ مهاباد
This
books aims at familiarising readers with Mahabad’s political history and the
biographies of its eminent personalities and writers. The account of the city’s
social events begins at its foundation date, i.e. from the reign of the Safavid
Shah Isma‘il, and ends at the beginning of the solar year 1332 AH (1963). The
historical account of these events is inevitably linked with other cities such
as Maragheh, Miyanduab and Tabriz. Despite the writer’s insistence that his
historical prose and viewpoint are non-analytical, he is heavily indebted to
Martin van Bronson’s book Lord, Sheikh and Government.
Just
like van Bronson, Samadi highlights the unstable conditions of political rule
in this area, which found itself wedged between the states of Iran and the Ottoman
Empire, and attempts to demonstrate the role that these two states played in
inciting unrest among the khans and the elders of the area.
The
book focuses on the account of the events after WW2. This account is mainly
based on primary sources, which the writer collected in the 80s from witnesses
of these events. This is then followed by a unique survey of the circumstances
of the formation and the three-year long activity of the Association for
Kurdistan’s Revival (Kumulah Zhiyanah Kurd), commonly known as Kumulah
Zh-K.
During
this brief period Mahabad has to an extent been depicted as an ideal city. A
great part of this information is based on the notes of Mulla Qadir Mudarrisi,
one of the founders of the association, which contain direct narrations on
events. The photographs section of the book consists of a hundred-page long
album, which includes the names of almost all those who appear in the group
photographs contained therein.
However,
the book suffers from a lack of copyediting. At times the arrangement of
narrations and events does not follow a logical order, and a number of
unabridged, direct narrations on a single event are repeated. The large volume
of these direct narrations, some of which extend over several tens of pages,
means that the reader misses the main thread of the writing. Moreover, the main
text contains secondary information which should have been placed in the
footnotes. The biographical notes of the city notables contain numerous samples
of Kurdish poems that have not been translated into Persian.
The
book lacks any information on Mahabad’s geography, and the anthropological
analysis of its customs, habits, clothing, food etc. is too brief to be of any
use to researchers. The book’s main concern is the survey of the obstacles that
Kurds faced on their way towards political and cultural development, positioned
as they were between two powerful states. Therefore, this book can prove to be
a very useful source of information to researchers focusing on the conflict and
the interaction between ethnic and national cultures. Ultimately, the main
readership of this book is those readers interested in the history and the
culture of the inhabitants of Western Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan.
Iradj
Esmailpour Ghouchani
Translated
by Sofia A. Koutlaki
Citation
Esmailpour Ghouchani, Iradj. “English abstract of 'A Survey of Mahabad’s History'". Translated by Sofia A. Koutlaki. In Cities as Built and Lived Environments: Scholarship from Muslim Contexts, 1875 to 2011, by Aptin Khanbaghi. 91. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
Authorities
Collections
Copyright
Muslim Civilisations Abstracts - The Aga Khan University
Country
Iran
Language
English
Related Documents