نشریه مطالعات ملی
سال پنجم شماره 4 (پیاپی 20، زمستان 1383)

This work looks into Dr. Seyyed Javad Tabataba’ee’s view of Iranian identity. At the outset and after setting the grounds for discussion, the identity of the city-state of Iran and its interactions with Islam are investigated. From his perspective, the Arab invasion of Iran led to two centuries of reticence of thoughts which due to Iranian identity and its mingling with Persian and Arabic languages presented in the writings of Iranian mystics, philosophers and Siasat Nameh (Book of Political Admonitions) left an important influence on Islamic thoughts. In the next parts of the writing, the interaction between Iranian and Islamic identity and the interaction between Iranian and western identities are examined. Dr. Tabataba ee seeks to prove that the roots of the vulnerability of our Iranian identity are mainly from within. Thus, he emphasizes that to criticize our tradition we can - and must- make use of the writings and ideas of western thinkers. This work looks into Dr. Seyyed Javad Tabataba’ee’s view of Iranian identity. At the outset and after setting the grounds for discussion, the identity of the city-state of Iran and its interactions with Islam are investigated. From his perspective, the Arab invasion of Iran led to two centuries of reticence of thoughts which due to Iranian identity and its mingling with Persian and Arabic languages presented in the writings of Iranian mystics, philosophers and Siasat Nameh (Book of Political Admonitions) left an important influence on Islamic thoughts. In the next parts of the writing, the interaction between Iranian and Islamic identity and the interaction between Iranian and western identities are examined. Dr. Tabataba ee seeks to prove that the roots of the vulnerability of our Iranian identity are mainly from within. Thus, he emphasizes that to criticize our tradition we can - and must- make use of the writings and ideas of western thinkers.

Iranian identity has remained to be one of the key concepts among Iranian thinkers of recent century. Reza Davari Ardakani is among some of the Iranian thinkers who through a philosophical and Heidegerian approach tried to compare and contrast Iranian identity and its relations with other identities. The current writing tries to discuss Davari s view of identity, Iranian identity and its parts in his works.

Backwardness of Iran has been an intriguing question which preoccupied many contemporary Iranian intellectuals. This preoccupation drew different responses. In the current work, Jalal Al Ahmad s answer to this is examined. To the author of this writing, Al Ahmad , due to the socio-cultural context of his lifetime, should be considered as an advocate of a moderate alternative in modernization (development) and dependency (backwardness). Even though he perceives that Westernization is the chief culprit in the backwardness of the country, the internal conditions are more to blame than the external ones. According to Al Ahmad, backwardness is the outcome of westernization, inefficiency of Iranian intellectuals, and indifference of the clergy. Eventually he reiterates that the best way to address this predicament is rediscovering our self (national identity), reforming intellectualism, and bringing the clergy to the forefront and redefining the relations between intellectuals and the clergy.

Hossein Kazemzadeh Iranshahr is one of the nationalist thinkers of Reza Shah period. In his works, he reflected on and compared the concepts of nationality, progress, modernism, and religion. He considers nationality as the foundation of Iranian identity and as the only means of progress and development. He believes that politics, religion, language, and ethics are the bases of nationality and by stressing the apparent similarities between Shi ism and Zoroastrianism tries to put a nationality garment on religion. Through this, he attempts to introduce Shi ism as Iranian Islam. In his effort to constitute an Iranian identity based on nationalism, he ignores the tremendous impact of Islam and the west on Iranian identity. The present work tries to examine Iranshahr s thoughts on Iranian identity. It also tries to criticize the fundamental concepts of his thoughts.

This article tries to determine the concept of identity and give definitions of the elements of national identity. It also attempts to demonstrate that national identity is a form of collective identity which can reflect an individual s social acceptability toward cultural, material, biological, psychological, and social concepts. This paper endeavors to reflect on the views of Pejman Bakhtiari, a contemporary poet and writer, on the elements of national identity on the basis of his Kavir collection of poems. The current research also shows that Pejman , in the predicaments of his lifetime, things like the Constitutional Revolution, the First and the Second World Wars, Nationalization of Oil Industry Mavement, etc. showed his patriotism through his long poems.

The start of socio-cultural changes in Iran in recent decades is an indication of a fundamental change in the value system structure of Iranian society. Identifying this condition in different parts of the country on the basis of various levels of values is the main goal of this work. To do this, 10 provinces of the country were divided into 5 socio-cultural areas; then it was tried to examine the value dimensions of society, namely the religious, family, political, social, gender and global values. The results demonstrate that these changes begin, respectively, with religious, political, gender, and global values and gradually influence social and family values. Thus it can be said that in area (1) the duty of the norms in remaining modern or traditional and also breaking free from the context of traditional value system created a kind of normative anomie. In areas (3) and (4), the norms and social values do not take a certain direction; this led people to normative ambiguity. The norms and social values in areas (2) and (5), show a kind of permanent and traditional normative system.