Printing, the Press and Literature in Modern Iran

The Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture 2023: Official Conference Proceedings

“…Initially continuing the trend of featuring the king's image and the national symbol, Reza Shah gradually introduced more diverse designs into the stamps. In these new designs, despite the absence of cultura-historical event of this era, like the establishment of first modern university in Iran, or cultural monuments built for Iranian poets (Avery, 2007: 51,64, 65 & Agheli, 2005, there was an implicit attempt to depict an industrialized image of Iran. For instance, in the tenth year of Reza Shah`s crowning, a series of stamps were published which contained pictures like a train crossing a bridge, a factory, a ship, and an airport.…”

Arabic Lexicography and European Aesthetics: The Origin of Fann

“…190 In addition to schools, civil and governmental societies (and institutions often under missionary influence) were established, such as the Syrian Jamʿiyya al-Sūriyya li 'l-ʿulūm wa 'l-funūn (The Syrian Society of Sciences and Arts, 1847), which already made a distinction between science and art in its very name. 191 The forerunners of universities in Iran and in the Ottoman Empire-the Dār al-Funūn in Teheran (1851) 192 and the Dār al-Funūn in Istanbul (Dar ül-Fünun, first envisioned in the 1840s, but only opened in 1870)-used fann primarily in the sense of science and branches of knowledge, 193 based on the well-established traditions of this word in these languages. 194 Sultan Mahmud II opened many institutions of learning in the 1830s, among them art schools such as the Müzīḳa-ı Hümāyūn Mektebi (Imperial School of Music) with Guiseppe Donizetti Pasha as director, 195 and the Mekteb-i Maʿārif-i Edebiyye (School of Literary Education), where, of course, not only French but also Arabic was taught.…”

Print Culture and Its Publics: A Social History of Bookstores in Tehran, 1900–1950

“…9 The latter has instead focused more narrowly on the theme of activism surrounding journalism, particularly during the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-11. 10 The history of print culture more generally has also been explored through the perspective of literary and intellectual history, 11 or in terms of "book history," the evolution of print technologies, and especially lithography in the Persianate world. 12 These approaches have allowed for important contributions to our understanding of the role of print in Iran's encounter with modernity, but they leave many questions unanswered.…”