Ahmad Kasravi Tabrizi
"Problems Exist Not Because People Want To Have Them, But Because Their Belief And behavior Create Them."
Introduction:
"Ahmad Kasravi Tabrizi (1890-1946 ), (8 Mehr 1269- 20 Esfand 1324 Solar), is without a doubt one of the most prolific writers of twentieth-century Iran, with broad interests as a reformer and thinker in virtually all aspects of his society."
Kasravi lived less than fifty six years; it was, however, a very eventful life. Therefore an attempt to list the facts, without explanations to make the list meaningful, would take several pages. He published on a variety of subjects including geography, history, literature, social criticism and philology (the scientific study of languages and their development). Consistently, in nearly all his writings, Kasravi challenges the conventions of his time and what he saw as decadent ideas, superstitions and a variety of other ills in the society.
Place Of Birth And Major Childhood Events:
Ahmad Kasravi was born on September 29,1890, or 8 Mehr 1269, in the city of Tabriz. Ahmad Kasravi has written in his memoirs ( "My Life", With An Introduction by Yahya Zoka, Jahan Book Co. 1990) that he was the fourth son of his father to be named after his grandfather. At the age of six, Kasravi began his education in a traditional school (maktab). Following the death of his father when he was thirteen years old Kasravi spent more than two years in a carpet-weaving factory to help support his family. He then entered a seminary in Tabriz to become a Shi’i clergyman, as his father had wished.
Three major events—one personal-religious; the second cosmological; and the third sociopolitical—occurred within a five-or six-year period in Kasravi’s early life which left a lasting impact on him, and, very likely determined the course of his life.
The personal and religious event occurred in 1910-1911, when he memorized the Koran: ‘In order to remember what he was memorizing, he felt he had to focus on the actual meaning of the verses (as opposed to the meanings given by interpreters, commentators, etc…). This caused "the first jolt to my ideas and belief." Having reached the status of mullah at the age of twenty, Kasravi flatly repudiated all that he considered to be unenlightened and repressive in the Shi’i education. He soon began to question the clergy’s behavior—their hypocrisy, demagoguery, and greed; their abuse of religion; their obsession with the distant past and disinterest in contemporary problems; their disregard for the welfare of their flock; their divisive influence, which created and encouraged sectarianism; and, of most immediate concern, the violently hostile response of most of them to the Constitutional Revolution. His unorthodox sermons and liberal activities, intensified after the Russian forces occupied Tabriz, adding to his already well-known open-minded and liberal views on religion. These sermons attracted increasingly intense hostility from religious leaders. However, with his refusal to conform to the conventional forms of preaching and dress, he soon became a target of criticism. Disillusioned, he abandoned this pursuit.’
The cosmological event in Kasravi’s life, was the appearance of Haley’s Comet in 1911, and his discovery that its periodic appearance had been correctly predicted by scientific methods. With his knowledge of Arabic and the Koran, Kasravi became exposed to new, Western ideas and sciences through Arabic language publications. He began reading on a variety of subjects, including calculus, geometry, algebra, astronomy and physics on his own. The first book he read was on Astronomy. "I was pleased and happy to see that science had come to follow such a clear path in Europe." His acquaintance with science, though limited, instilled in him a respect for the scientific method. In fact, a clear feature of his later thinking on religion was the strong belief that religion should be compatible with science. A side-effect of his interest in natural science was his decision to learn English, since Persian and other Middle Eastern languages were still rather poor in scientific publications. However, English was more helpful to him in his research in history and linguistics, since he did not pursue the sciences.
The sociopolitical event was the Constitutional Revolution. It began in 1905 in Tehran, but soon Tabriz became its center, saving it from the Royalists and their Czarist Russian supporters. The concepts of liberty, law, and popular government appealed to him, and he used the pulpit to incite the people in its favor. He was particularly impressed by the people’s army, the Mojahedin, led by Sattar Khan and his compatriots, who fought the shah’s forces as well as the occupying Russian soldiers. "This event was one of the most influential in my life," he said many years later in his autobiography. The reason: "the dastardly acts of many cabinet ministers and others," and "on the other hand, the resistance of a group of Iranians against an iron-fisted government such as Czarist Russia." His love of democracy grew stronger with time. In fact, he considered his own movement, as far as its Iranian phase was considered, a continuation of the Constitutional Revolution.
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