Reflections of Qajar Dynasty in the Nationalistic Historiography of the Pahlavi Period

The place of Iranian historical dynasties in nationalistic historiography of the modern era in general, and the image of the Qajar dynasty in the nationalist historiography of the Pahlavi period in particular, are among the reflections of the nationalist approach in modern Iranian historiography. In fact, the nationalist approach, which forms the main aspect of Pahlavi historiography about different eras of Iranian history, became a tool for gaining political and national legitimacy by Pahlavi dynasty,and Pahlavi Shahs, unlike the previous sultans who needed political legitimacy based on religious principles, sought to gain the necessary political legitimacy by abandoning religious principles and values and turning to national values and principles, and in the meantime, history and historiography became a very vital tool for gaining legitimacy, origin and national prestige for the Pahlavi dynasty.The inevitable and major result of this was the politicization and ideology of history and historiography in contemporary Iran, an inconsistent phenomenon that still plagues Iranian academic and non-academic historiography.In this approach, the Pahlavi government extensively tried to show a more ideal and legitimate image by destroying the image of the Qajar government and to introduce the overthrow of the Qajar dynasty as a movement and a national necessity. In the present paper, by examining some of the most prominent nationalisticliterature created in that period, the dimensions and manner of historiography in question with the approach of examining the image of Qajar government in the national historiography of the Pahlavi period have been studied.