A Discussion on Ideas of Katouzian and Tabatabaei

The concept of Iranshahri is one of the main concepts in Iranian political thought. While there is a general agreement on the definition of the word, its transformation and consequences over the history is challenging. The focus of this paper is how thinkers approach this concept and its consequences for Iranian history. For this purpose, we focus on the conceptualization of Iranshahri by two of Iranian political historians, Mohammad Ali Homayoun Katouzian and Seyed Javad Tabatabaei. Their ideas about this concept stand in two opposite extremes; while Katouzian İdentifies Iranshahri as an element leads to tyranny in Iranian history, Tabatabaei introduces it as a survival factor for Iran. First, we explain their ideas about this concept and how they come to these conclusions, and then criticize these two theoretical frameworks. Lastly, we explore how the emergence of Iranshahri has affected in Iranian political thought.