خلاصة:
Oral history is a relatively new method in historical studies that, using audio and visual tools, attempts to record and preserve the memories, observations, and hearings of an actor or witness of a historical event and occurrence in verbal form. In Iran, a massive number of memoir books in this genre have been produced in recent decades. «From Nazi Abad to Qasr Prison» is one of the newest examples of published oral history in Iran, which is dedicated to the oral memoirs of Dr. Mohsen Beheshti-Seresht—an Iranian researcher, university professor, and politician. This note has attempted, alongside a general introduction and description of this work, to identify the prominent and distinguishing points of this book from other similar books in such historiography and to provide them to the audience within the limits of a book review note. The author believes that reasons such as avoiding 'individual-centricity' and 'central narrator'; focusing on depicting the political, social, and cultural atmosphere of society during that period; avoiding slogans and ideology; the honest tone of the narrator; and the appropriate and proper use of linguistic subtleties such as irony, etc., have turned the present book into a valuable and readable text that arouses the empathy and companionship of the audience and persuades them to reread two sensitive decades of contemporary Iran.
ملخص الجهاز:
The book is the result of eight two-hour sessions of conversation and interview between Dr. Yaqub Khazaee (Assistant Professor of the History Department at Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin) and Dr. Beheshti Seresht, which took place in the autumn of 1398 SH in Qazvin and, after transcribing the tapes and preparing the text, was again reviewed and approved by the memoirist (see: Introduction, p.
In his three-page introduction, while avoiding verbosity and providing clarifications typically seen in oral history books, Dr. Khazaee concisely and briefly first addresses topics such as the importance of memoirs and note-taking by historical actors, the wave of collecting and compiling the oral memoirs of contemporary Iranian political actors, and their initial reactive characteristic in response to the interviews and notes of the previous regime's officials and some opposition leaders abroad; he then, regarding the present book, refers to important points such as the narration of the history of the 40s and 50s SH through the lens of an idealistic religious student and the fluctuations of his thought and action, and concludes the introduction with a report on the process of preparing and compiling the book.
The young Beheshti Seresht experiences a period of tireless idealistic efforts, both through university activities (theater, book exhibitions, cultural and political student camps, study and intellectual teams, mountaineering groups, etc.
For example, in one part of the book, regarding the subject of the change in the ideology of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization in the year 1354 SH, the narrator says: "According to Marxist theories, armed struggle has no place at all.
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