Fereydun Adamiyat or Fereidoon Adamiyat (23 July 1920 in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

– 29 March 2008) () was a leading

social historian Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to co ...

of contemporary

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and particularly the

Qajar The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin,Cyrus Ghani. ''Iran an ...

era. He was the son of Abbasquli Adamiyat, a pioneer of the

Iranian Constitutional Revolution The Persian Constitutional Revolution (, or ''Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh''), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar era. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament in I ...

. Fereydun Adamiyat received his B.A. from the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

and his PhD in diplomatic history from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. He is known for his original works on various aspects of the social and political history of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, most of them dealing with the ideological foundations of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. Believing firmly in history's " Rational Movement" (, ''harekat-e ʿaqlī''), Adamiyat saw no conflict between

normative Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A Norm (philosophy), norm in this sense means a standard for evaluatin ...

judgement and claims to objectivity. Although predominantly published in Persian, he is often cited by Western scholars. His most famous book was ''

Amir Kabir Mirza Taghi Khan-e Farahani (), better known as Amir Kabir (Persian: ‎; 9 January 1807 – 10 January 1852), was chief minister to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar for the first three years of his reign. He is widely considered to be "Iran's first re ...

and Iran'' (

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 ...

: ''Amīr Kabīr va Īrān'') (one of several re-publications: Tehran: Kharazmi Publishing, 1975/1354). Prior to his academic activity, Adamiyat was also a diplomat, serving as

's ambassador to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He also worked for the United Nations in various capacities.

Scholarly criticism

Several other leading Iranists have criticised both Adamiyat's methods and his biases.

Abbas Amanat Abbas Amanat (; born November 14, 1947) is an Iranian-born American historian, scholar, author, editor, and university professor. He serves as the William Graham Sumner Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and Director of the Yale Pr ...

noted that he 'is not free from some of the biases and misinterpretations of which he accuses others' and that his dichotomous portrayal of protagonists and antagonists 'give his work a Manichean flavour appealing to readers in search of easy answers to complex historical problems'. Amanat also rejected Adamiyat's clear bias against both the West and Iranian minorities: :Moreover, in spite of his unacknowledged use of Western studies Adamiyat dismisses them all as ‘Western rubbish’ (''bunjul-i farangī''). In a characteristically caustic tone he accuses western specialists of fabrication, charlatanism, being in the service of political powers, and entertaining ‘Jewish evil designs’ (''aghrāḍ-i yahūdīgarī''). Likewise,

Houchang Chehabi Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi is a scholar of Iranian studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University where he is Professor of International Relations and History. Chehabi is Iranian-German and was born in Tehran, ...

has provided examples of Adamiyat's 'hostile attitude towards both Bahaʾis and Jews', a result of his 'virulent nationalism

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

leads him to associate all religious minorities other than Zoroastrians with foreign powers'. Chehabi has demonstrated several cases in which Adamiyat intentionally misquoted and misrepresented his primary sources in order 'to fit his own conspiracy belief'. Furthermore, Adamiyat rejected the work of his scholarly colleagues due to racist opinions; he 'dismisses as worthless the writings of a number of Jewish scholars', among them the noted scholar Nikki Keddie, and 'accused Firuz Kazimzadah, a historian who happens to be a Bahaʾi, of harbouring a "fanatic hostility" towards Iran and Iranians, and ascribes these feelings to his religious affiliation'.''Ibid''., p. 164. This, despite the anti-Bahāʾī sentiment that forced Kazemzadeh out of Iran.

References

* Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, by the Gale Group, Inc.

External links

About Fereydun Adamiyat on the Iranian Students News Agency website, 2014

About Fereydun Adamiyat on the Islamic Republic News Agency website, 2014

Yarshjiter, Ehsan, ''A History of Persian Literature'', Edited by Charles Melville, Volume X, I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adamiyat, Fereydun People of Pahlavi Iran 1920 births 2008 deaths Writers from Tehran Historians of Iran 20th-century Iranian historians Social historians Ambassadors of Iran to the Netherlands Ambassadors of Iran to India Iranian expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century Iranian diplomats