Tal'at Bassari (, 1923 – 18 September 2020), was an Iranian Baháʼí poet,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, academic, and writer.

Biography

Born in the city of

Babol Babol (; Mazandarani: ), famously known as the City of Orange Blossoms and the Global City of Wetlands, is the capital city of Babol County. This city, which was the center of Mazandaran during the Zand dynasty era, now serves as the telec ...

along the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

, Bassari received a PhD in

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and lectured at secondary schools in the Iranian capital

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. ...

. She was the first woman to be appointed as vice-chancellor of a university in Iran when she worked at the

Jondishapur University The Academy of Gondishapur or Academy of Jondishapur (, Farhangestân-e Gondišâpur), also known as the Gondishapur University, was one of the three Sasanian centers of education (Ctesiphon, Ras al-Ayn, Gundeshapur) and academy of learning in ...

Ahvaz Ahvaz (; ) is a city in the Central District of Ahvaz County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is home to Persians, Arabs and other groups such as Qashqai and Kurds. Languages spok ...

, during the 1960s. The university was instated in the 20th century by the

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty () is an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian royal dynasty that was the Pahlavi Iran, last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah, Reza S ...

to commemorate the ancient

Sasanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

academy of

Gundeshapur Gundeshapur (, ''Weh-Andiōk-Ŝābuhr''; New Persian: , ''Gondēshāpūr'') was the intellectual centre of the Sassanid Empire and the home of the Academy of Gundeshapur, founded by Sassanid Emperor Shapur I. Gundeshapur was home to a teaching hos ...

. In the aftermath of the

Islamic revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

and because of her belief in the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

, she was dismissed from her university position and eventually migrated to the United States. Bassari published extensive critiques on Persian literature including the national epic

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

written by the celebrated Persian poet

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

. Her critiques have been listed by prominent Iranian historian

Iraj Afshar Iraj Afshar (; 8 October 1925 – 9 March 2011) was a bibliographer, historian, scholar, professor, and a figure in the field of Persian studies. Afshar was a professor emeritus of the University of Tehran. He was a consulting editor of ''Ency ...

as recommended descriptive reading surrounding the literature of Shahnameh. In 2018, she published a 347-page book titled ''Women of Shahnameh'' (

Ketabsara Ketab Sara Co. () sometimes written as Ketabsara, is a global publishing house founded in December 1981, in Tehran, Iran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administ ...

; 2018) that studied the female characters in the epic. Each character is individually analysed and include Soudabeh, wife of

Shah Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous Per ...

Kay Kāvus Kay Kāvus (; ); sometimes ''Kai-Káús'' or ''Kai-Kaus'', Firdawsī, ''The Sháh námeh of the Persian poet Firdausí''. Oriental Translation Fund. Volume 21 of Publications, Oriental Translation Fund. Translated by James Atkinson. Printed for ...

Tahmineh use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kingdom of Samangan , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = , ...

, wife of the hero

Rostam use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kabulistan , death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a we ...

Gordafarid Gordāfarīd () is one of the heroines of the '' Shāhnāmeh'' "The Book of Kings" or "The Epic of Kings", an enormous poetic opus of Persian literature written by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD. She was a champion who fought against Sohrab (another Ir ...

, a champion who symbolised courage and hope for women, and

Faranak Farānak () is a female character in the Persian epic ''Shahnameh''. She is married to Abtin and the mother of Fereydun. Etymology Farânak is derived from the word ''Parvâneh'', which means "butterfly" in Persian. Like many other words and name ...

, mother to Fereydoun who is a hero from the Kingdom of Varna. In 1967, she had also published a biography on

Zandokht Shirazi Zandokht Shirazi, also Zanddokht Shirazi (; 1909 – 1953), also known as Fakhr ol-Molūk (فخرالملوک) was a prominent Iranian feminist, poet, school teacher and women's rights activist.Sanasarian, Eliz Biography Her birthname was Fakhr ...

, a pioneer in the feminist movement in Iran. She resided in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. She also worked on the editorial board of the New Jersey–based magazine, Persian Heritage. She identified as Baháʼí. Bassari also assisted in books on the life of the influential Persian Bahai poet

Táhirih Táhirih (Ṭāhira) (, "The Pure One," also called Qurrat al-ʿAyn ( "Solace/Consolation of the Eyes") are both titles of Fatimah Baraghani/Umm-i Salmih (1814 or 1817 – August 16–27, 1852), an influential poet, women's rights activist and th ...

, and contributed with Persian to English translations in academia.

Recognition

A portrait of her was amongst those exhibited at the ''Women of Persia'' art exhibit in Issaquah Highlands,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, United States of America.

References

External links

Talat Basari

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basari, Talat Iranian feminists 20th-century Iranian poets Iranian literary critics Iranian women literary critics Academic staff of the Academy of Gondishapur 1923 births 2020 deaths Shahnameh Researchers People from Babol Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States 20th-century Iranian women 21st-century Iranian women 21st-century Iranian poets

Biography

Recognition

See also

References

External links