ṢADĀ-YE EṢFAHĀN

 

ṢADĀ-YE EṢFAHĀN, weekly newspaper published in Isfahan with lengthy interruptions from 15 Esfand 1300 until the first few months of 1323 Š. (6 March 1921 to April/May 1944). The managing director and chief editor of the paper was Mirzā Moḥammad-ʿAli Mokrem Ḥabibābādi (1887-1965), a former seminarian turned journalist. He also practiced law and eventually became the director of the library at the city hall in Isfahan. He also published the papers Sepāhān and Mokrem, and was the managing director-editor of the magazine Baladiya-ye Eṣfahān. His satirical poems in the paper drew the wrath of the clergy, and disapproval from opponents of the Pahlavi regime as well as some other Isfahan journalists (Bayāt and Kuhestāni, eds., pp. 119-35). Moḥammad-Taqi Bahār, who had been banished to Isfahan, referred to him as a police informant (Bahar, II, p. 104) and satirized him in a poem.

The contents of Ṣadā-ye Eṣfahān fall into three categories: serious short articles, satirical pieces in verse and prose addressing social issues, and local news that mainly focused on local dignitaries. The distinctive feature of the paper was Mokrem’s satirical writings, in particular those in verse, which would rapidly become the talk of the town (see samples in Ṣadr Hāšemi, pp. 26, 118). They provided Mokrem with admirers as well as enemies, especially in the religious establishment. His verses ridiculing popular beliefs and superstitions caused many complaints to be filed against him and Ṣadā-ye Eṣfahān with the authorities. He was also the subject of an assassination attempt in 1923, but he survived the gunshot wound (Ṣadr Hāšemi, p. 27).

Ṣadā-ye Eṣfahān supported Reżā Khan Sardār-e Sepah and continued to do so after the latter ascended the throne as Reżā Shah Pahlavi and, therefore, was a beneficiary of the state’s financial assistance (Ganjina-ye asnād).

Ṣadā-ye Eṣfahān was printed in chronological order at ʿErfān, Saʿādat, and Ḥabl-al-Matin printing houses in four three-column pages of approximately 28 x 40.5. The annual subscription rate inside Persia was fifty krans at first, later increasing to sixty krans. Incomplete sets are kept at the Central Library of the University of Tehran, Moʾssasa-ye Moʾassesa-ye moṭālaʿāt-e tāriḵ-e moʿāṣer-e Irān, and the University of Isfahan’s Central Library.

Bibliography:

Amirqoli Amini, “Če angiza-i bāʿeṯ-e ruz-nāma-negāri-e man gardid,” Ḵāṭerāt-e Waḥid, no. 3, N.S., Dey-Bahman 1350 Š./December-January 1971-72, pp. 242-43.

Masʿud Barzin, Šenās-nāma-ye maṭbuʿāt-e Irān az 1215 tā 1357 Š., Tehran, 1992, pp. 234, 270, 376.

Kāva Bayāt and Masʿud Kuhestāni-nežād, eds., Asnād-e maṭbuʿāt, 1286-1320 H. Š., 2 vols., Tehran, 1993.

Moḥammad-Taqi Malek-al-Šoʿarā Bahār, Divān, ed. Čehrzād Bahār, Tehran, 2001, p. 104.

L. P. Elwell-Sutton, “The Iranian Press 1941-1947,” Iran 6, 1968, no. 273.

Ganjina-ye asnād, nos. 29-30, Spring-Summer 1998.

Šāhroḵ Paymāni, Fehrest-e ruz-nāmahā-ye mawjud dar Ketāb-ḵāna-ye markazi-e Dānešgāh-e Eṣfahān, Isfahan, 1983, p. 51.

ʿAbd-al-Rafiʿ Ḥaqiqat, Farhang-e šāʿerān-e zabān-e fārsi az āḡāz tā emruz, Tehran, 1997, pp. 530-31.

Ḥosayn Saʿādat Nuri, “Moḥammad-ʿAli Mokrem: šāʿer-e fokāhisorā-ye Eṣfahān yā qahramān-e mobāreza bā awhām o ḵorāfāt,” in Moḥammad-ʿAli Mokrem Eṣfahāni, Divān, 3rd ed., n.d., n.p., pp. 1-21.

Ṣadr Hāšemi, Jarāʾed o majallāt III, pp. 24-28, 117-19.

Mortażā Solṭāni, Fehrest-e ruz-nāmahā-yefārsi dar majmuʿa-ye Ketāb-ḵāna-ye markazi wa markaz-e asnād-e Dānešgāh-e Tehrān... 1267 qamari tā 1320 šamsi, Tehran, 1975, no. 231.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: March 6, 2009

Last Updated: March 6, 2009