مجله کاشان شناسی
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 12، بهار و تابستان 1393)

The present paper adopts and expresses a historical, analytical, and documented view on the life and works of one of the most well-known poets but obscure playwrights in Iran. Living in the late Pahlavi I dynasty, Nizām Vafā wrote plays with pedagogical and even feminist approaches, leaving his name as one of Iranian figures of dramatic literature. Certainly one of the most famous orators and poets of our country in the last century is Nizām Vafā who has even been dubbed “The founder of Romanticism” in Iran. He is among the few contemporary poets who was well-known during his lifetime and his name and poems were recorded in biographies and literary chronicles. With all the attention—superficial or critical— directed to Nizām Vafā, there is, unfortunately, a dearth of research about his plays and dramatic works and there is not any reference to his plays even in the reference books of dramatic literature in Iran. Obviously, as Nizām Vafā’s reputation is growing in relation to poetry in Iranian academic communities, his dramatic works have been, in the meantime, forgotten. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on a small portion of his dramatic activities hoping to pave the way for further studies. In so doing, this study, first, investigates Nizām Vafā’s life and works, and then explains his dramatic works highlighting his two printed plays and a printed scenario published in Iran. Finally, apart from any bias and judgment, the dramatic structure and socio-cultural situations in Nizām Vafā’s era have been discussed in detail.

Apart from being a teacher and a poet, Nizām Vafā has written in prose too and has created dramatic works among which we can refer to two plays entitled “Setareh and Forough” and “Forouz and Farzaneh”. These two plays were first staged in a number of schools in Iran in the 1940s and were then published just once. Thereafter they have almost never been mentioned in the history of play writing in Iran. This paper means to explore the reasons of this evanescence through a more professional reading of the two plays and a structural analysis of them. Accordingly, after providing a brief synopsis of the plays, we will scrutinize essential elements such as character, language, dialog, plot, action, and conflict in them while quoting some excerpts.

Nizām Vafā is one of the distinct contemporary poets who has practiced various literary genres including travelogues, letter-writing, dramas, and essays both in verse and prose. However, he owes his fame to his graceful Ghazals written in a plain language, expressive of his thoughts and pure feelings. His Ghazals’ major theme is love and its related issues which sometimes turn into Voque-gui (depicting a realistic view) and Vasukht Gerai (disparagement with a feeling of hatred) because of purity of his feelings and clarity of his language. Patriotism, the transience of human life, morality, virtue, piety, and the praise of poet-hood are among his other themes. Vafā’s generally uses the official language (rather than archaic or vernacular) of his time and mostly enjoys rhetorical techniques and literary figures, including simile, especially preferential simile, and figures related to Palilogy, including chiasmus, epanastrophe, alliteration, and paronomasia. Through an in-depth examination, this paper for the first time tries to exemplify the stylistic features of Nizām Vafā’s Ghazals in different linguistic, literary, and philosophical levels not only to delineate the poet’s innovative style (despite his following of great poets like Saadi and Hafiz), but also to pay tribute to his distinct position among his contemporaries.

Nizām Vafā is one of the leading contemporary poets and writers. He was born to a noble family who appreciated literature and poetry. Nizām Vafā gained the precious experience of being a teacher for forty years and sensed love as a young man. He met his contemporary great poets and travelled to Europe and wrote valuable and diverse poems, essays, and plays. Nizām Vafā was well acquainted with classical literature, culture, and mysticism and frequently mentioned the name of great figures such as Omar Khayyam, Rumi, Hafiz, and Saadi in his works, being influenced highly by them in his works’ content and face. One of the obvious, yet important, aspects of Nizām’s writing was a reflection of moral and educational themes, and at times mystical-religious ones, in his works; so that, studying such themes, he is regarded as a moral ‘poet-teacher’ figure who is deeply concerned about society, moral life, and religion, seeking his utopia in a virtuous and free community. The present paper tries to discuss Nizām’s outstanding moral and educational teachings. Themes and motifs such as the seven amulets of loyalty, love and kindness, heart as a world-view mirror, peace and security, not offending and not being offended, glory of knowledge, the treasure of contentment, carpe diem, freedom from body-cage, patriotism, and faith.

Nizām Vafā Arani was one of the Iranian Constitutional Movement activists who has reflected his observations of Constitutional Movement events, especially events related to Kashan, in his works and poems. He spent his childhood in Aran and then came to study in Kashan in his adolescence. He was 18 when he, encouraged by Ali Naraqi who was a constitutional activist in Kashan, joined other constitutional activists in “Tashviq Association” which was the basic core of the movement in Kashan. Along with the Constitutional Movement activists, Nizām fought with the forces of tyranny and rebellion as well as the notorious rogue, Naib Hossein Kashi and his entourage. He was among the earliest students in Hawza Elmiyya (where Shi’a Muslim clerics are trained) which was established by constitutionalists of Kashan. Then he came to Tehran and became a member of the Movement in Tehran and defended the Constitutional Assembly to the last bullet. After the Constitutional Assembly was shot by cannon balls, Nizām along with other advocates and leaders of Constitutional Movement were incarcerated in Baghe Shah (King’s Garden) prison. After being discharged from the prison, Nizām went to Najaf to study various courses in science. Returning from Iraq, at the time of the First World War, he became responsible for the Office of Government and was appointed as the head of Army Department in Kashan during the invasion of the Soviet :union:. When the city was occupied by the Russians and Cossacks, Nizām fled to Tehran through the Salt Lake. After that, he turned to teaching and education and continued his life of poetry and writing by the end of his life. His accounts of the Constitutional Movement are interesting and unique. This paper discusses his role in the Constitutional Movement and explains his accounts of this Movement, clearing up the doubts about his political activity levels.

Nizām Vafā Arani is a contemporary poet and author. Despite his high reputation in modern Persian literature, Nizām Vafā’s works have not been criticized as yet for some plausible reasons, some of which will be discussed in this paper. This paper also adopts a bibliography-based approach about Nizām Vafā trying to introduce all books, articles, essays, and even documents in which there is a words about this contemporary poets and teacher. While available sources and some of their contents have been provided n this paper, unavailable sources have only been introduced. The following does not include all the sources about Nizām Vafā, but it is believed that there will not be more reliable sources available. It is to be hoped that the present research encourages researchers to perform content-and-form analyses of Nizām Vafā’s works and facilitates the process of finding sources. The distinct shared features of all these sources are their concise writing of Nizām Vafā’s biography and poetic style and presenting one or more examples of his poetry or prose. These documents and sources have been alphabetically ordered.

Among the factors affecting the glory and beauty of architecture in Iran, especially in Islamic eras, is the decoration and embellishment of buildings. Aqa Bozorg and Soltani (Imam) mosque-and-school structures are among architectural masterpieces of Qajar period in Kashan whose decorations, especially tiling patterns and motifs, are eye-catching and important. Studying tiling designs of these two buildings can help better understand the cultural identity of these two ancient monuments. As a dearth of research exists on the architecture of historical schools in Iran, especially on decoration, the present paper has conducted descriptive analysis, library research, and field research to study and analyze the motifs and symbols of these two architectural landmarks of Qajar in Kashan. Findings showed that most of the decorations used in Aqa Bozorg and Soltani (Imam) mosque-and-school tiling structures were influenced by decorative arts in the West and were naturalistic, non-abstract, and imitative. Floral motifs like flowers and vases, flowers and birds, and natural leaves and buds such as lilies as well as bird motifs are seen plainly in these two buildings creating specific iridescent color tiles which convey a sense of spiritual manifestation.