The Study of History in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Nostalgia, Illusion, or Historical Awareness

Bibliographic Data

ID9979445
AuthorsAbbas Amanat (Yale University, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume22
Issue4
Pages3-18
Publication date1989-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIranian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-0862 • E-ISSN: 1475-4819
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00210868908701738
OpenAlexW2035300914
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited3

Lo! thou the awareness-seeking heart, see by the sight, Make the palace of Mada'in the mirror of your heart. Khaqani's opening verse in his famous qaṣīda of Ivan-i Mada'in has a recognizable resonance in the works of many Persian writers, poets, and historians of pre-modern times who tried to make sense of the events and upheavals of the past. For them ‘ ibrat, which in this context may loosely be translated as a grievous sense of historical consciousness, was the essence of the past. It made them see in the ruins of the once mighty empire, or the records of kings of bygone times, the never-ending cycle of the rise and fall of worldly powers. The Sassanian arch of the palace of Ctesiphon in the above verse was a powerful metaphor for the believer and the skeptic alike. In modern Persian historical accounts, for all intents and purposes, this sense of ‘ ibrat was lost to the multitudes, if not to a handful of the adept

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Consciousness · Context (archaeology · Empire · Epistemology · Literature · Metaphor · Sight · Theology · Thou · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy

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