Persian Historical Novel and National Community in the Constitutional Period: The Bond between Religion and National Identity in Shams and Toghra

Examining the extratextual relations in Persian novels is instrumental in a better understanding of the Iranian community. Due to the significance of national identity in today’s world, especially in contemporary Iran as well as due to the importance of religion in the Iranian community, the current article will study the relationship between religion and national identity in the three-volume novel: Shams and Toghra written by Mirza Bagher Khostravi, a novelist from the Constitutional period (1905-1911). The current study will draw on the oriented content analysis supported by the historical approach that is intermingled with national identity for its methodology. The analysis of the novel, which takes place in the seventh century, indicates that the religion-orientated perspective in the novel is more dominant than the national identity perspective. Nevertheless, in the religion-orientated perspective, one perceives a transnational perspective. In the novel, there is no contradiction between Islam and Iran. Instead, Iran and Islam are completely harmonious