Ancient-Oriented Nationalism and the Crisis of Iranian Identity: A Review of martyr Motahari's Response to the Crisis of human Identity in Contemporary Iran

The Developments in the West has led to a huge gap and distance between the west and countries – Islamic countries in particular – which has manifested itself in military defeats. The intellectuals of these communities took different approaches in explaining the causes of their under-development and how to make up for it. In contemporary Iran among the intellectuals of the late Qajar period some sort of ancient-oriented nationalism was formed that held Islam responsible for Iran’s backwardness and loss of its former greatness and glory. This type of nationalism has become an official principle. This approach to nationalism led to national and religious identity crisis in Iran, and had many Iranian intellectuals think of a solution for it. This paper is to examine Shahid Morteza Motahhari`s ideas in the field with regards to solving the contemporary crisis of identity in response to the aforementioned identity crises. Therefore this article analysis the questions of the Iranian identity at first and then examines Motahhari’s response to it.