DORRAT AL-NAJAF

 

DORRAT AL-NAJAF (Pearl of Najaf) ,monthly religious journal published in Persian at Najaf in southern Iraq at the end of the first decade of the 20th century. It was preceded by the monthly al-Ḡarī, which began publication on 18 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1327/31 December 1909; the second issue, dated 18 Ṣafar 1328/29 February 1910, was, however, seized by the Ottoman governor of Iraq. After obtaining new permission for publication the publisher changed the name of the journal to Dorrat al-Najaf; the first issue appeared on 20 Rabīʿ I 1328/1 April 1910. It ceased publication with the combined nos. 7 and 8, which appeared in Ḏu’l-qaʿda 1328/November 1910.

The proprietor and publisher of Dorrat al-Najaf was Ḥājj Ḥosayn Eṣfahānī, the editor-in-chief Āqā Moḥammad Maḥallātī; both were connected with Āḵūnd Mollā Moḥammad-Kāẓem Ḵorāsānī, one of the great Shiʿite leaders and a supporter of the Constitutional movement in Persia. Among noteworthy contributors was the Shiʿite scholar Shaikh Āqā Bozorg Ṭehrānī. The articles were written in very complex Persian, rich in Arabic terms and idioms used by Shiʿite clerics. It may have been for that reason that the journal did not achieve a wide audience and ceased publication after only a few issues.

Dorrat al-Najaf was printed from lead type at the ʿAlawī publishing house in Najaf. It consisted of between thirty-two and sixty-two pages, measuring 14 by 21 cm, and carried no illustrations or advertisements. A number of koranic quotations appeared on the cover, along with the title and the date of publication. An annual subscription cost 2 Ottoman majīdīs. Issues of the journal are available in the library of the Faculty of theology (Dāneškada-ye elāhīyāt) and the central library at Tehran University, the library of Āstān-e qods-e rażawī in Mašhad, and the library of Isfahan University.

 

Bibliography:

(For abbreviations found here, see “Short References.”) L. B., “Livres et Revues. En Perse,” RMM 13, p. 191.

S.-A. Ḥasanī, Tārīḵ al-ṣaḥāfat al-ʿerāqīya, Baghdad, 1957, pp. 27-28.

M. Modarresī Čahārdehī, “Naḵostīn maṭbūʿāt-e fārsī-e ʿErāq,” Āyanda 6/9-12, 1359 Š./1980, pp. 882-83.

M. Moḥīṭ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Tārīḵ-e taḥlīlī-e maṭbūʿāt-e Īrān, Tehran, 1366 Š./1987, pp. 248, 267.

Ṣadr Hāšemī, Jarāʾed o majallāt I, p. 260, II, pp. 283-84.

M. Solṭānī, Fehrest-e majallahā-ye fārsī az ebtedā tā sāl-e 1320 šamsī, Tehran, 1356 Š./1977, pp. 54-55.

Idem, Fehrest-e majallāt-e mawjūd dar ketāb-ḵāna-ye Āstān-e qods-e rażawī I, Mašhad, 1361 Š./1982, pp. 146, 213-14.

Ṭūs (Mašhad) 29, Rabīʿ I 1328/13 March, 1910, p. 4.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: December 15, 1995

Last Updated: November 29, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 5, p. 521