GĪLĀN NEWSPAPERS

 

GĪLĀN, title of four newspapers published in Rašt.

1. Biweekly organ of the provincial anjoman (q.v.) of Gīlān (Anjoman-e welāyatī-e Gīlān), it was published from 18 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1326/11 January 1909 to 3 Jamāda I 1327/23 May 1909, twelve issues in all. It replaced Anjoman-e welāyatī-e Gīlān which had suspended publication on 22 Šaʿbān 1325/30 September 1907. Its managing editor was Ḥasan Khan Asadzāda Eṣfahānī, who at times signed also as Ḥasan b. Asad-Allāh Eṣfahānī. It published the proceedings of the anjoman and some articles dealing with social issues. It was published in four double-column pages, measuring 21.5 x 34.5 cm; it was typeset and printed at ʿOrwat al-woṯqā printing house and carried no illustrations or advertising. Single issues were priced at three šāhīs; annual subscription cost twenty qerāns in Gīlan, twenty-four qerāns elsewhere in Persia, and twenty-eight qerāns abroad. Scattered issues are accessible at the Central Library of the University of Tehran, the Majles Library I, and the Cambridge University Library.

2. A newspaper published three times a week from 26 Šaʿbān 1328/ 2 September 1910 to 2 Moḥarram 1330/23 December 1911. It covered news and political events. It was published without official authorization, for which reason its republication in 1300 Š./ 1921 was prevented (Bayāt and Kūhestānī-nežād, pp. 342-41). Its managing editor was Moḥammad-Kāẓem Zoharī, whose initials, M. Ẓ., appeared on the masthead. Its editor was known merely as Moḥammad-ʿAlī. According to Ebrāhīm Faḵrāʾī (1977, p. 280), Ḥosayn Kasmāʾī, a prominent journalist of the time (editor of Šarq in 1327/1909, as well as the owner of Waqt, and the managing editor of Jangal at the beginning), was the author of many of its political articles. According to Edward Browne, it represented the Eʿtedālīyūn party.

Gīlān dealt with local, in particular political and social, issues and entered into polemical disputes with its contemporaries such as Ḵayr al-kalām and Esteqlāl. It had misgivings about Russian policies in the Caspian region. This newspaper was suspended in 1911 after the arrival in Gīlān of Russian armies and the banishment of its editor Zoharī (Bayāt and Kūhestānī-nežād, p. 340).

The format was four three-column pages, measuring 31 x 35.5 cm. It was typeset and printed at the Saʿādat printing house and and carried some advertising but no illustrations. During the first year of publication, it was priced two šāhīs in Rašt and three in other towns; from the second year, it was priced three šāhīs and one ʿabbāsī, respectively. Annual subscription was thirty qerāns in Rašt and thirty-five qerāns elsewhere in the country. A nearly complete set is accessible at the Cambridge University Library; scattered issues are also kept at the Central Library of the University of Tehran, the National Library of Gīlān, and the ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī Library in Shiraz.

3-4. Two more newspapers were published in Rašt under the same name in 1298 Š./1919 and 1330 Š./1951, by Saʿīd Āṣafī and Ṣādeq Moqarrab, respectively.

 

Bibliography:

K. Bayāt and M. Kūhestānī-nežād, Asnād-e maṭbūʿāt (1286-1320 Š.), Tehran, 1372 Š./1993, II, pp. 339-42.

Browne, Press and Poetry, nos. 292-93.

E. Faḵrāʾī, Gīlān dar goḏargāh-e zamān, Tehran, 1354 Š./1975, p. 320.

Idem, Gīlān dar jonbeš-e mašrūṭīyat, Tehran, 1356 Š./1977, pp. 199-200, 279-80, 356.

G. Kohen, Tārīḵ-e sānsūr-e maṭbūʿāt dar Īrān, 2 vols., Tehran, 1362 Š./1983, II, p. 746.

J. Ḵomāmīzāda, Rūz-nāmahā-ye Īrān az āḡāz tā sāl-e 1329. Bardāšt-ī az fehrest-e H.L. Rābīno, Tehran, 1372 Š./1993, pp. 221-22.

H. L. Rabino, Ṣūrat-e jarāyed-e Īrān …, Rašt, 1329/1911, nos. 176-77.

L. Bouvat, “La presse mussulmane,” RMM 14, 1911, p. 147.

ʿĪ. Ṣadīq, Yādgār-e ʿomr I, Tehran, 1340 Š./1961, pp. 205-07.

W.-M. Ṣādeqī-nasab, Fehrest-e rūz-nāmahā-ye fārsī, 1320 tā 1332, Tehran, 1360 Š./1981, no. 1086.

Ṣadr Hāšemī, Jarāʾed o majallāt IV, nos. 964-66.

U. Sims-Williams, ed., Union Catalogue of Persian Serials and Newspapers in British Libraries, London, 1985, nos. 152-53.

G. Šokrī, “Fehrest-e Rūz-nāmahā wa majallahā-ye fārsī dar Moʾasassa-ye āsīāʾī-e Šīrāz,” FIZ 27, 1366 Š./1987, p. 394.

M. Solṭānī, Fehrest-e rūz-nāmahā-ye fārsī dar Ketāb-ḵāna-ye markazī-e Dānešgāh-e Tehrān, Tehran, 1354 Š./1975, nos. 309-10.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: December 15, 2001

Last Updated: December 15, 2001