Introduction to Iranian Literature: Authors, Resources
Iranian Literature is one of the oldest and most beautiful literary histories. This is a crash course in it.
Being Iranian-American, growing up with this distinct national literature led to me becoming a writer.
I’m dating myself here, but my father came to the United States from Iran in the 1970s, right before the Iranian Revolution. We come from a long heritage of Persian identity; although my mother is white, when my sister took a DNA test, we discovered that the Persian DNA from my father's side was almost 100% Persian genetically.
Iranians love, absolutely love, poetry. The Persian language, Farsi, evolved to be more poetic due to this love and devotion. Farsi phrases love to rhyme, so it’s a game to try and get what you’re saying to rhyme and be more lyrical in nature. Even though I don’t speak much Farsi, just sitting down and listening to it, it sounds like music to the ear. The language itself sounds like poetry, which is so inspiring and heartwarming to know as a literature enthusiast.
The world is affected by Westernized views of Iran, which is also sad because Iran has a wealth of cultural, historical, and artistic based objects. Iran is one of the most beautiful places to visit if you’re into art or architecture, and it’s a shame that it has had to end up this way. The literature of the country, too, is a national treasure. Let’s unpack what exactly Iranian literature is.
A Brief Overview of Iranian History
Iran, due to its position geographically, has been one of the sites of the world’s oldest civilizations. We first began to see signs of civilization at around 7000 BCE, but we don’t see larger civilizations until around 700 BCE. Then we see an emergence of the Median people, then the rise of the Achaemenid Empire. The Achaemenid Empire was founded in 650 BCE and lasted until roughly 330 BCE, and this is where we see how the Old Persian language begins to form during this era. The Achaemenid Empire fell with the conquests of Alexander the Great.
The Seleucid Empire, founded by Alexander’s conquests, only lasted about sixty years. They were succeeded by the Parthian Empire, which successfully managed to fend off the invading Romans looking to expand their territory. The Sassanian Empire was the next empire in the lineup of Persian history, which set the tone of intellectual development throughout the Middle East. This was the last empire before the Islamic conquest of the region, but when they were conquered and Islamized, many Persian ideologies from the Sassanian Empire, such as writing, architecture, and societal developments spread throughout the Arab world.
When the Sassanian Empire was conquered by the Arabs, it led to a major shift in Persian history. The previously dominant religion, Zoroastrianism, was now obsolete to the new dominant religion: Islam. To this day, although many Iranian traditions and customs stem from the Zoroastrianistic religion, those who practice this religion are prosecuted and imprisoned by the Islamic Republic.
The Islamic Golden Age brought in a lot of developments into the region, such as advancements in literature, mathematics, development, and so much more. This then turned over with the Mongol conquest, passing the hands of those who technically ruled over the Persian region. As Ghenghis Khan made his way through the region, he destroyed cities, villages, and cultural artifacts wherever he went.
The next major dynasty in Iranian history was the Safavid Dynasty; many consider this the beginning of contemporary Iranian history. It is here that we see the rise of Shia Islam, and they extended into Central Asia and the Caucasus, such as Turkey and Azerbaijan. We then transitioned into the Qajar Dynasty, where one can discover creative freedom and internal migration of ethnic groups. The Qajars gave way to the Pahlavi Dynasty, which was backed by the West.
The Pahlavi Dynasty, in a nutshell, in an attempt to Westernize Iran alienated the everyday people, and so that led to the Iranian Revolution, which became a religious conflict. The Iranian Revolution led to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is what we now know Iran as. Marred by domestic and international conflict, it has a conflicted reputation, one carefully curated and different depending on the media of the country it is coming from.
A Brief Overview of Iranian Literary History
Iranian literature is said to have truly begun as early as 6000 BCE. The Avesta, those of the Zoroastrian religion, would write down hymns and religious texts to preserve their beliefs. Old Persian continued this tradition, but when we see the evolution of the language into Middle Persian, we see the rise of a literary tradition in the written sense. We see more discussion around customs, procedures, and traditions from the region, and even glossaries of Arabic words and everyday resources. It’s important to note that these are just the primary sources that have survived—we don’t know of many other written works.
With the Islamic Conquest of Persia, we see the rise of Persian literature as we historically know it. Persian language became widespread and widely read, and the Persian style of writing verse and poetry became widespread. Sufi poets, some of the most well-known Persian poets, became active during this era. Throughout the medieval era, the spread of Persian literature even reached South Asia and Europe, letting the world know about Iranians and the work they were creating.
After this time, we see the rise of contemporary Iranian literature. Court officials in the Qajar Dynasty believed that poetry in the country needed to be reinvented, and so they set out to do so. This tied into the political beliefs that Iran itself needed to change, which led to the political transition into the Pahlavi Dynasty. By the time of the Iranian Revolution, more women had begun to write in the region, and we see the literature of Iran that we now read today.
Notable Prose Writers (Fiction/Nonfiction/Theatre)
Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh is considered to be the father of contemporary Iranian short stories.
Ebrahim Golestan is a writer often associated with the poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Bahram Beyzai is a well-known playwright in Iran.
Sadeq Chubak was a novelist and short-story writer.
Zoya Pirzad is a journalist and novelist.
Mirza Fath `Ali Akhundzade was a well-known playwright and writer.
Ghazaleh Alizadeh was a novelist.
Ahmad Mahmoud was a novelist.
Sadegh Hedayat was one of the first modernist writers in Iran.
Notable Poets
Mehdi Akhavan-Sales was a poet advocating for free-verse in Iranian poetry.
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was one of the most famous Sufi poets.
Forough Farrokhzad is a scandalous feminist poet active during the 1960s.
Rabi'a Balkhi is considered to be one of the first women poets in New Persian history.
Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Alī is a poet from the 1100s.
Simin Behbahani was a contemporary lyrical poet.
Additional Resources
Here is an article comparing Persian legends to Western ones.
Here is an explanation of Iranian culture.
An article by Literary Hub about essential Persian literature to read.
Essential nonfiction reading from Iranian authors, via the Asian American Writers Workshop.
