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Iranian Identity

Exciting Moments

Virtually all nations have, throughout the history, been endeavoring to return to their “national identity and values”. This is also true about Iranians. But a basic question is: “What is identity and how can it be achieved?”. The following note attempts to describe the historical efforts of Iranians to revive their nationality and today’s challenges facing them in this regard:

Geographically, the formation of Iran started in the era of Nader Shah Afshar and continued until the Qajar dynasty and the beginning of the Pahlavi era. But politically, this country entered into a period of continuous change since the end of the Qajar era and the beginning of the “Constitutional Movement” which has continued until today and now, we are witness to one of the most exciting moments of Iran’s political life.
A country can be likened to a human being: it’s born some time, grows up during its life and reaches old age. If the conditions for its existence decline, it may even die. If the people of a country are considered as the cells, undoubtedly, social and administrative structures can be likened to the organs of the human body and what is referred to as identity and nationality of a country, can be considered as the soul. The fact is that the national life of a nation is protected only when its soul is kept safe and sound. Traditions, literature, culture and civilizations of a country are fundamentals of its nationality and identity, and the strengthening of each means the strengthening of the national soul in which nationalist thoughts are rooted.
Although it may seem that identity, nationalism and patriotism are very close to each other, it should be noted that “identity” is a separate issue as compared to “nationalism”, which is itself a separate issue comparing to “patriotism”.

Returning to One’s Origin: The primary question of “Who am I?” is the most fundamental and everlasting spiritual need of humans. Iranian poets have referred to this need in their poems many years ago. Once this question is truly answered, a person can play a positive role in his society. If the need of “belonging to something” is not fulfilled properly, we cannot be aware of our identity and it would leave us only as idle entities. All nations, consciously or subconsciously, are endeavoring to identify their origins.

Iranian Identity: The Iranian culture and civilization is one of the most longstanding civilizations in the world, dating back to thousands of years ago. The most important aspect of the Iranian culture is doubtlessly its humanistic nature, which is based on a sense of love for all other humans. The importance that the Iranian culture attaches to human beings is obvious in a poem by the great Persian poet Saadi, which has been laid at the entrance of UN headquarters as a symbol for loving humans:

Human beings are bits of the same soul

In creation all come from one great whole

Ache of each part pains the core

That other parts can tolerate no more

If you care not when other parts grow sore

You don’t deserve the name “human” anymore.

Since the beginning of the Arab takeover of Iran, nationalist movements started all over the country aiming at restoring the political independence. These movements were manifested in all aspects of people’s life.
Talbot Rice wrote: “From the political point of view, Arabs gained a complete victory in Iran, but from the cultural point of view, it was only a short-term victory, because the longstanding Iranian culture could not be eliminated overnight, especially considering the fact that Arabs had hardly anything to replace the rich Iranian culture. The Iranian culture flourished even more than before with Islam.”
Another historian, R. Levy, believes however that the Iranian culture and tradition started to influence Arab Empire far before the transition of caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad.

Undoubtedly, the most important aspect of the Iranian civilization and culture is its humanitarianism

Geographical Aspects of Iranian Movements: While Iranians were endeavoring to regain their independent identity, other regions captured by Arabs – like Egypt, Syria and Morocco which were once the cradle for longstanding civilizations – were deeply integrated into the Arab culture. This political and cultural integration was to the extent that today, these countries are primarily considered as the Arab World. On the other hand, all countries in northern and northeastern parts of Iran managed to preserve their national identity while embracing Islam. In fact, Iran served as a great wall against Arabs for the nations beyond it.
Anyway, Iranians embraced Shia Islam because it was more in harmony with their historical and cultural values and helped them successfully preserve and reinforce their national identity.

Revival of Identity: Since the 9th century, many governments came to power in this country like Saffarian and Samanian, which were followers of the Sunni religion and were led by Turks. These governments, including the Seljuqid dynasty, contributed to the promotion of Iranian culture a lot. And many scientists, philosophers, poets and artists gathered in their courts. This trend was intensified with the influx of Mongols to Iran. However, Mongol rulers remained committed to Iranian civilization.
Iran could revive its independent cultural and political identity during the period between 1501 - 1722. King Ismail announced Shia as the official religion of Iran and disarmed the Ottoman Turks of their geopolitical maneuver which posed a threat for Iran. This revival is called “Iran’s new life”.

Iranian Identity and Today’s Challenges: Two important developments at the end of the 20th century has prompted Iranians to once again pay attention to the issue of identity: first is the Islamic Revolution and second is the destruction of a bipolar system in the world which resulted in the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and formation of new republics in Central Asia, Caucasus and Eastern Europe. On the other hand, with economic and political globalization and advancements in information technology, the world is moving toward a “human community” or a “global community”.
Globalization, internationalization of national demands and interests of countries, takes place out of three motives: 1. The movement of capital in the world, 2. Submitting to the capacity of the global market, and 3. A trade without barriers all over the world.
Positive outcomes of these attitudes are integration of economies which can bring about prosperity and security, removing the barriers in the way of information dissemination which promotes democracy and individual freedoms, moving toward an economic world instead of an ideological one. On the other hand, negative impacts of such trends can be referred to as the elimination of job security which results in the poverty of workers, widening the gap between the rich and the poor, promotion of materialistic inclinations and profit seeking in the society.
In any case, living in today’s political world necessitates that the foreign policy of a country be shaped based upon its national interests and in relation to positive developments in the world’s geopolitics.
Today, the Iranian nation is endeavoring to understand the realities of today’s world, learning from the past crises and drawing on their experiences, preserve their national character and identity and thus turn out victorious in the changes of 21st century.