IRAN-E KABIR

 

IRAN-E KABIR, a periodical published in the city of Rašt by the political activist Grigor Yaqikiān (d. January 1951), first as a weekly, subsequently with three issues and finally four issues a week, from 16 Esfand 1307 to 9 Mehr 1309 Š. (7 March 1929 to 1 October 1930; Ṣadr Hāšmi’s date of 19 Farvardin is wrong).

Iran-e kabir was a political but multifarious paper advocating the unification of Iranian peoples (e.g., Afghans, Kurds, etc.), who, in his view, included the Armenians. Yaqikiān believed that, with education and the rising of the levels of people’s awareness, such a goal was feasible through peaceful means. The journal benefited from the contributions of a number of leading intellectuals of the time, including Moḥammad Moʿin and ʿAli Esfandiāri (Nimā Yušij), and carried articles, poetry, a serialized story, and some news. It also published articles in support of the Kurds who had risen in rebellion in Turkey, which caused the protest of the Turkish counsel in Rašt and led to the banning of the paper by the order of the minister of court. Yaqikiān tried, without success, to have the ban removed and eventually moved to Tehran, where he published the paper Irān-e konuni (Asnād-i az maṭbuʿāt, pp. 173-74; Bayāt and Kuhestāni, eds., I, pp. 249-50).

Irān-e kabir was printed at Tajaddod and then ʿOrwat-al-Woṯqā printing houses in four-to-six four-column pages of 36.5 x 54 cm and carried no illustrations. The annual subscription rate in Rašt was twenty krans. A complete set of the paper is held at the British Library in London.

 

Bibliography:

Asnād-i az maṭbuʾāt wa aḥzāb-e dawra-ye Reżā Šāh, Tehran, 2001, pp. 99-100, 171-72.

Kāva Bayāt and Masʿud Kuhestāni-nažād, eds., Asnād-e maṭbuʿāt, 1286-1320 H. Š., 2 vols., Tehran, 1993, I, pp. 249-51.

Ebrāhim Faḵrāʾi, Sardār-e jangal, Mirzā Kuček Ḵān, Tehran, 1978, p. 273.

Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Ḵosrow-panāh, “Gigor Yaqikiān dar farāz o našib-e sīāsat-e Irān,” Goftogu, no. 34, Mehr 1381 Š./September 2002, pp. 119-28.

Faridun Nowzād, Tāriḵ-e jarāʾed o majallāt-e Gilān az āğāz tā enqelāb-e eslāmi, Tehran, 2000, pp. 181-84.

Esmāʿil Rāʾin, Irāniān-e armani, Tehran, 1977, pp. 180-82.

Ṣadr Hāšemi, Jarāʾed o majallāt, no. 254. Ursula Sims-Williams, Union Catalogue of Persian Serials and Newspapers in British Libraries, London, 1985, no. 225.

Farāmarz Ṭālebi, Zendagi wa āṯār-e Grigor Yaqikiān, Tehran, 2001.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: December 15, 2006

Last Updated: March 30, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5, p. 496