Forming National Identity in Iran The Idea of Homeland Derived from Ancient Persian and Islamic Imaginations of Place

by Mozaffari, Ali

• ISBN13: 9781780764436
• ISBN10: 178076443X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-04-24
• Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary

Modern Iran is a country with two significant but competing discourses of national identity, one stemming from ancient pre-Islamic customs and mythology, the other from Islamic Shiite practices and beliefs. This has left an often confused notion of identity in Iran. Ali Mozaffari explores the complex processes involved in the formation of Iranian national identity, laying particular stress upon the importance of place to ideas of homeland and the creation of a collective national identity. He illustrates his arguments through an analysis of the ancient Achaemenid capital of Persepolis and the Shiite rituals of Moharram. In a concluding part, he extends his analysis to the Ancient Iran Museum and the Islamic Period Museum, housed in the National Museum of Iran. An important work that offers powerful insights into the forces shaping national identity in Iran.

Author Biography

Ali Mozaffari is Research Associate at the Centre for Muslim States and Societies, University of Western Australia. He studied architecture at Tehran University and has more than fifteen years experience in architecture and urban design in Iran and Australia. His research interests include the anthropology of place, urban aesthetics, the Islamic city, and museums and heritage.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Two Patterns of Place
3. Persepolis and Inscriptions of Homeland: a pre-Islamic Collective Imagination
4. The Formation of a Shiite Collective Imagination
5. Interlude: the Implications of pre-Islamic and Shiite Strands of Identity for Inscribing Homeland
6. What is a Persian? Redemptive Dreams of Homeland and Identity
7. The Rise of the Imperial Dream: the AIM, the Homeland and the Nation –State
8. The Aftermath of the Imperial Dream: a Spiritual Dream in the Islamic Period Museum
9. Ideological Inscriptions: Homeland and its Tensions in the National Museum of Iran
10. Conclusion
11. Bibliography
12. Notes
13. Index