Davud Monshizadeh ( fa, داوود منشی‌زاده; 28 August 1914 – 13 July 1989) was the founder of the

SUMKA The National Socialist Workers Party of Iran ( fa, حزب سوسیالیست ملی کارگران ایران, Ḥezb-e Sosīālīst-e Mellī-e Kārgarān-e Īrān; Hezbe Sosiâliste Mellie Kârgarâne Irân), better known by its abbreviation SUM ...

(the "Iranian National Socialist Workers Party") and a supporter of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

in Germany during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and in Iran after the war. He was also a scholar in

Iranian Studies Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

who later became a professor of

Iranian Languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, Sweden.

Career

Monshizadeh was born in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, Iran. He is mainly remembered for his political life, most notably being the leader of

, but he is also recognized for his contributions to Iranian linguistics, particularly to the study of Modern and Middle Iranian languages. Monshizadeh formed the

in 1952. He had lived in Germany since 1937, and was a former SS member, who fought and was wounded in the Battle of Berlin. He was a professor at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and was deeply influenced by

Jose Ortega y Gasset Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. *Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean ...

's philosophy, even translating many of his books (which he hoped would serve as founding principles for the party), from Spanish to

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. He returned to Iran in 1950. Monshizadeh would later serve as a professor of Persian Studies at

Alexandria University Alexandria University ( ar, جامعة الإسكندرية) is a public university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938 as a satellite of Fouad University (the name of which was later changed to Cairo University), becoming an indepen ...

and

. Monshizadeh was known as an admirer of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and imitated many of the ways of the

National Socialist German Workers Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

(such as their militarism and salute), as well as attempting to approximate Hitler's physical appearance, including his

moustache A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...

Chronology

* 1931 - Sent to France by Iranian government to study * 1937 - Moved to Germany, a year after the Hitler Cabinet declared Iranians to be "pure-blooded Aryans" and immune to all Nuremberg laws, thus making them capable of becoming Reich citizens.Asgharzadeh, Alireza (2007). "Iran and the Challenge of Diversity: Islamic Fundamentalism, Aryanist Racism, and Democratic Struggles". Palgrave Macmillan., p. 92

/ref> * 1939 - Monshizadeh and Bahram Shahrokh (the future Iranian Propaganda Director) started working for the Persian program of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

’s ''Deutsche Radio''. * 1940 - He started writing articles for Das Reich, the official newspaper of the German National Socialist party * 1941 - He worked with various organizations in the

* 1943 - Obtained his doctorate in philosophy and literature from Berlin University * 1945 - During the Battle of Berlin, he fought as a member of the SS. He was injured and hospitalized (off and on) till 1947. * 1947 - Taught

Iranology Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

and

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

* 1950 - He returned to Iran * 1951 - Along with Manouchehr Amir Mokri and Hussein Zarabi, he established the Iranian National Socialist Party (Sumka), which played a role against oil nationalization in Iran. * 1953 - Monshizadeh was “Unofficially Exiled” to Europe by

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. *1963 - He left Iran in 1963 and came to Sweden on the initiative of Professor Stig Wikander. He spent the rest of his life in Sweden teaching

and

, eventually becoming Professor in Iranian Languages. * 1989 - He died in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

, Sweden, and is buried at Uppsala old cemetery (Uppsala gamla kyrkogård).

Works

* ''Das Persische im Codex Cumanicus'', Uppsala: Studia Indoeuropaea Upsaliensia, 1969. * ''Topographisch-historische Studien zum iranischen Nationalepos'', Wiesbaden: Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 1975. * ''Wörter aus Xurāsān und ihre Herkunft'', Leiden: Acta Iranica; Troisième série, Textes et mémoires, 1990. * ''Die Geschichte Zarēr's'', ausführlich komment. von Davoud Monshi-Zadeh, Uppsala: Studia Indoeuropaea Upsaliensia, 1981. * ''Ta'ziya : das persische Passionsspiel / mit teilweiser Übersetzung der von Litten gesammelten Stücke von Davoud Monchi-Zadeh'', Stockholm: Skrifter utgivna av K. Humanistiska vetenskapssamfundet, 1967. * ''Vihrūd va Arang : justārhā-yī dar jughrāfiy-̄yi asāṭīr ̄va tārīkh-̄i Īrān-i sharqī'', pazhūhish-i Josef Markwart; tarjumah bā iz̤āfāt az Davūd Munshī-Zādah, Teheran: Majmūʻah-'i Intishārāt-i adabī va tārīkhī, 1989. (in Persian)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monshizadeh, David 1914 births 1989 deaths Politicians from Tehran Iranian emigrants to Sweden Iranian expatriate academics Iranian collaborators with Nazi Germany 20th-century Iranian historians Iranologists Linguists from Iran Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty Alexandria University faculty Uppsala University faculty Fascism in Iran Burials at Uppsala old cemetery SS personnel Iranian expatriates in Germany SUMKA politicians 20th-century translators Iranian nationalists 20th-century linguists Zoroastrian studies scholars