The Impact of Translation in Emerging Iran’s Political–Religious Intellectual Discourses and Socio-Cultural Changes (From Early Qajar Dynasty to the End of Reza Shah Era)

Abstract

Wide-ranging sociological studies have been conducted on the history of Iranian intellectuality and modernism. The findings jointly acknowledge that due to communication with the West and following the effects that was received from modernism, the first generation of Iranian intellectualism was emerged. It is said that having benefited from the translated works in its general concept, i.e. including any kind of contact with Western thinkers, the intellectuals as main agents actively contributed into the establishment of new modern social structures and democratic institutions. Although have implicitly been acknowledged the subject of adaptation both in the sociological works and the intellectuals' of their own bibliographies and correspondences, little content analytical studies have been conducted on the quality of the effects that they have received from Western countries. Hence, having considered the judicial, education and political systems as well as literature as main areas that commonly are being questioned by intellectual discourses, the authors employed textual method of analysis in a bid to trace the scope of ideas and expectancies inherited in the three works written by famous Iranian intellectuals circa Qajar Dynasty. Having collected the main themes, comparatively classification and coding, I pursued the parts including ideas similar as those of were previously been written in two books by two Western thinkers, i.e. Voltaire and James Morier. Employing the theoretical rational of intertextuality, and relying on two other theories i.e. New historicism and bibliographical criticism the results came to a consensus that confirms Iranian modern intellectuality as a partially product of intertextuality.