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An Emissary of the Golden Age: Manekji Limji Hataria and the Charisma of the Archaic in Pre‐Nationalist Iran
Author(s) -
ZiaEbrahimi Reza
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2011.01091.x
Subject(s) - zoroastrianism , nationalism , islam , religious studies , charisma , power (physics) , identity (music) , history , ancient history , sociology , gender studies , political science , art , law , philosophy , aesthetics , archaeology , politics , physics , quantum mechanics
Early nationalist thought in nineteenth‐century Iran emphasised the lost glories of the Zoroastrian pre‐Islamic past, which it held for a utopian society of refinement, progress, and power destroyed by the advent of Islam. This article aims to show the prominence of this archaistic movement in the early phase of Iranian nationalism by highlighting the impact of an Indian Parsi traveller named Manekji Limji Hataria on nationalist intellectuals. Because of his religious background as a Zoroastrian, Manekji came to be perceived as an emissary of Iran's Golden Age. Fully aware of the potential influence this perception granted him, Manekji endeavoured to disseminate neo‐Zoroastrian, pre‐Islamic‐centred, and frankly anti‐Arab/anti‐Islamic readings of history among intellectuals, and thus succeeded in having a disproportionate influence on the nationalist definition of Iranian history and identity.