Șūr-i ʾIsrāfīl; From Historical Allegory to the Resurrection of the Dead

تاریخ و فرهنگ

Article 5, Volume 54, Issue 2 - Serial Number 109, October 2022, Pages 113-136   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jhistory.2023.82033.1220

Authors

Reza Javid^{* 1}; Hadi Noori²; Mohammadreza Gholami ShekarSarayi²

¹PhD Candidate, Cultural Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

²Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

Abstract

The newspaper Șūr-i ʾIsrāfīl was the quintessential newspaper of revolution era, both due to its title and its content. The newspaper became the messenger of a new era with an allegorical language that was close to conventional wisdom. According to Nāẓim-ul Islām Kirmānī’s eloquent interpretation, the Constitutional Era (ʿAṣr-i Mashrūti) was the era of Iranian people’s awakening from the slumber of neglect. The metaphors of slumber and dreaming which lead to the awakening, liberation, and sucess of the evolution emerged as a result of a rupture in the value system and understanding of the past. In the Constitutional revolution (Inqilāb-i Mashrūti) allegorical views towards language and time were the two main elements of this rupture. In the realm of time, it was as if the understanding of the world’s symbolic order (Niẓām-i Ţūlī) was disrupted and the status of the king as its center and focal point was thrown into doubt. Similarly, in the world of language, allegorical readings of the world were contrasted with symbolic understandings. Benjamin’s allegorical view towards history, his linguistic and temporal hypothesis, as well as his metaphor of awakening and dreaming can be used to analyze and interpret the revolutionary event of Constitution (Mashrūti). The present study aims at analyzing some parts of Șūr-i ʾIsrāfīl. In doing so, the study applies Benjamin’s allegorical theory on history, story, and anecdotes from a liberating allegorical perspective.

Keywords

Șūr-i ʾIsrāfīl; allegory; salvation; The Constitutional Revolution; Benjamin

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