About Armaghan (magazine)

Armaghan (magazine)

Armaghan, meaning Souvenir or Gift, was a monthly literary magazine founded in Tehran by the poet and scholar Hasan Vahid Dastgerdi. The Encyclopaedia Iranica dates its foundation to Bahman 1298 in the Iranian calendar, January to February 1919, while the batch documentation and a major study of its literary criticism date its publication from January 1920; the magazine continued, with the interruptions recorded in its long history, until the revolution of 1979, and the Ferdowsi survey counts 382 issues in a run given as 1920 to 1978. As the organ of Dastgerdi's literary societies, Armaghan became a forum for the leading poets and men of letters of the day, covering classical literature, history, social affairs, modern science, technology and medicine, publishing fiction from about 1928, and issuing editions of classical texts as supplements. After Dastgerdi's death in the winter of 1942-43 it was continued along the same lines by his eldest son.

Foundation by Vahid Dastgerdi

Armaghan was founded in Tehran by Hasan Vahid Dastgerdi, a native of Isfahan. After taking part in the constitutional movement and spending some time in exile in the Bakhtiari country, he gave up politics and moved to Tehran, where he founded two literary societies, the Anjoman-e Adabi-e Iran and the Anjoman-e Hakim Nezami. Armaghan, as the organ of these societies, took its place at the centre of his literary life. Dastgerdi announced the venture in the magazine itself in 1919 with an article titled the good news of the beginning of Armaghan, setting out its faith and mission, and followed it with programmatic pieces on literature against politics, on poetry criticism and on the press and nations. The journal was from the first issue the printed voice of an organised literary circle, not a commercial venture alone.

A forum for poets and men of letters

As the organ of Dastgerdi's two literary societies, Armaghan became a forum for the leading poets and men of letters of the day, and it continued to be published regularly at least until the revolution of 1979. The Ferdowsi survey names among its contributors Sa'id Nafisi and Habib Yaghmayi, the latter himself later the founder-editor of the journal Yaghma, which illustrates the interlocking character of Tehran's literary periodicals. Dastgerdi made a special point of encouraging young unknown writers, though in general the magazine did not depart from the accepted standards of classical literature. That pairing, openness to new names within loyalty to classical standards, defined Armaghan's editorial identity across six decades.

Range of contents

The range of the magazine was very wide, covering not only classical literature but also history, social affairs, modern science, technology and medicine. A specialised literary magazine in the strict sense it was not, in coverage, though literature was its core: a study of literary criticism in Armaghan, examining all issues from 1920 to 1979, classifies it as a specialised literary magazine published for approximately sixty years under Dastgerdi and his successors, and treats its criticism as its defining scholarly content. The breadth beyond literature, into history, society and even science and medicine, reflected the older ideal of the literary monthly as a general organ of cultivated knowledge, in which a poem, a historical essay and an article on technology could properly appear between the same covers.

Supplements of classical texts

Another popular feature of Armaghan was the publication, as supplements, of editions of classical texts, including the Khamsa of Nezami, the collected poems of Jalal al-Din Rumi, and works of Baba Taher, Awhadi and many other important authors. The supplements turned a monthly subscription into a growing library of Persian classics in edited form, and they matched Dastgerdi's own reputation as an editor of classical poetry: his annotated editions of Nezami, in particular Khosrow and Shirin and Haft Peykar, have themselves been the subject of modern scholarly critique and analysis. A magazine that distributed the Khamsa and Rumi as supplements was performing scholarly publishing by instalments for a readership that might not buy critical editions as books.

Fiction from about 1928

From about 1928 onwards Armaghan began a policy of publishing fiction, for instance Hosayn Masrur's Dah nafar qezelbash, The Ten Qizilbash. The turn to fiction widened the magazine beyond poetry, scholarship and the essay at exactly the period when the modern Persian novel and short story were taking shape. That the example Iranica selects is a historical novel serial fits Armaghan's classical orientation: new prose was welcomed, but within a frame of historical and literary seriousness consistent with the magazine's standards. The fiction policy coexisted with the supplements and the criticism, giving the monthly a mixed literary economy of old texts, new stories and contemporary debate.

Literary criticism in Armaghan

A typology study of literary criticism in Armaghan examined all the issues of the magazine from 1920 to 1979 and found 183 articles of literary criticism, which it categorised into nine major types. The most frequent was comparative studies, with 59 articles in four approaches, which aimed to establish the position of Persian literature within world literature. Next came literary genre criticism with 31 articles, linguistic criticism with 27 articles, and rhetorical criticism with 22 articles. The distribution is revealing: a magazine rooted in classical standards nonetheless devoted its largest critical effort to placing Persian literature comparatively in a world frame. The study presents Armaghan as one of the specialised literary magazines that gradually took shape in Iran as the press, from the middle of the Qajar period onward, devoted part of its content to literary topics and to the critique of literary texts.

Dastgerdi's death and continuation

After Dastgerdi's death in Dey 1321, December 1942 to January 1943, the magazine was continued along the same lines by his eldest son, M. Vahidzada, known as Nasim. The succession is significant for Armaghan's history: the journal survived its founder by more than three decades, an unusual achievement for a magazine so closely identified with one editor's societies and taste. Under the son the same lines were kept, classical literature, encouragement within accepted standards, wide general coverage, which is why reference accounts can describe the magazine as published under the management of Hasan Vahid Dastgerdi from 1920 and yet running to 1979: the founder's programme outlived the founder.

The founder's wider work

Dastgerdi's standing explains the magazine's authority. He was a prominent poet of the awakening era who made a great cultural and literary contribution to Iran's literature, revised and published a number of authentic Persian texts, founded Armaghan, and composed a divan of his own. His poetry had a public, constitutional history: in his Bakhtiari ode he praised the Bakhtiari liberals who mobilised in the constitutional period, used historical and mythical allusion against corrupt rulers, and called on the people of the capital to awake and follow the example of Isfahan in eradicating despotism. A combatant poet of the constitutional generation who then gave up politics for literature, in Iranica's summary, he built in Armaghan the institutional form of that second career.

Dates, issues and the record

The formal record of Armaghan varies slightly between authorities, as is common for long Iranian journals. Iranica gives foundation in Bahman 1298, January to February 1919, and regular publication at least until the revolution of 1979. The Ferdowsi survey gives 1920 to 1978 with interruptions and 382 issues. The criticism study gives publication in Tehran under Dastgerdi from January 1920 until February 1979, for approximately sixty years. The three accounts agree on the substance: a monthly literary magazine founded at the end of the First World War period by Vahid Dastgerdi, interrupted at times, continued by his son, and ending with the 1979 revolution, after a life of roughly six decades and several hundred issues.

Legacy

Armaghan's legacy is longevity in the service of classical Persian literature. Founded by a constitutional-era poet who renounced politics, issued as the organ of two Tehran literary societies, it gave leading poets and scholars a forum, encouraged young writers without abandoning classical standards, ranged across history, society, science and medicine, published fiction from about 1928, and put edited classics, from Nezami's Khamsa to Rumi and Baba Taher, into readers' hands as supplements. Continued by Dastgerdi's son after 1943 and studied today for its 183 articles of literary criticism, Armaghan stands with the small group of Persian literary magazines that carried a coherent editorial mission across most of the twentieth century, from the constitutional aftermath to the revolution that ended it.