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Akhtar : A Persian Language Newspaper Published in Istanbul and the Iranian Community of the Ottoman Empire in the Late Nineteenth Century  by Lawrence, Tanya E  [1]
Libra Kitap, Istanbul, 2015. 

ISBN 10: 6059022189 ISBN 13: 9786059022187 

By the second half of the nineteenth century Istanbul had become an important social and political environment for many Iranian activists and politicians who had been exiled from Iran. This community formed a highly active opposition base involved in Iranian politics from abroad. Although a certain amount of background material can be found in the literature concerning this community, no significant work has yet been carried out on its impact on political, social and literary reform in Iran. The publication of Akhtar from Istanbul is but one of the many agents of change that was a product of the Iranian colony in Istanbul. The present work is a preliminary investigation of the Iranian community of Istanbul in the late nineteenth century as studied through the lens of the offices of Persian-language newspaper Akhtar.

Mavi Boncuk |

Sample Article

AḴTAR newspaper
a Persian newspaper published in Istanbul, 1876 to 1895-96.


AḴTAR, a Persian newspaper published in Istanbul by Āqā Moḥammad-Ṭāher Qarāǰadāgī (or Tabrīzī) beginning on 16 Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa 1292/13 January 1876. For many years Aḵtar appeared weekly, and from time to time even more frequently. The first Persian newspaper to be published outside Iran, it was also one of the few to be printed with movable type, and soon acquired a wide reputation as a well-written periodical of moderate views. Among its well-known contributors were Mīrzā Āqā Khan Kermānī, Shaikh Aḥmad Rūḥī, and Mīrzā Mahdī Tabrīzī. E. G. Browne, writing in 1888, described it as “the only Persian newspaper worth reading.” Its main field of interest was politics and social conditions, and in spite of its moderate tone and the fact that Āqā Moḥammad-Ṭāher had originally started it at the suggestion of an Iranian diplomat in Istanbul, Mīrzā Naǰaf-qolī Khan, it soon attracted unfavorable notice in government circles in Tehran and came under attack by government-sponsored newspapers there. In 1313/1895-96, doubtless as a result of diplomatic representations, it was suppressed by the Ottoman government, and did not reappear. According to E. G. Browne, Āqā Moḥammad-Ṭāher was still living in 1914.



Bibliography:
M. S. Hāšemī, Tārīḵ-eǰarāyed va maǰallāt-e Īrān I, pp. 63-65.
E. G. Browne, Press and Poetry, pp. 17-18, 36-37.
(L. P. Elwell-Sutton)
Originally Published: December 15, 1984
Last Updated: July 29, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 7, p. 730
Cite this entry:
L. P. Elwell-Sutton, “Aktar newspaper,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/7, p. 730; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aktar-2-persian-newspaper (accessed on 13 May 2014).

See also: ĀQĀ KHAN KERMĀNĪ (1854-55 to 1896), Iranian writer and intellectual, and an outstanding example of a first-generation secular nationalist. His main goal seems to have been the upholding of reason and modern science, both of which he viewed as directly and unavoidably opposed to religion. His lifetime struggle was in the name of Iran rather than Islam, which he came to blame for the political downfall and cultural decline of the Iranians.

[1] I graduated from Jesus College, Oxford in 2009 where I read Persian with Islamic Studies. During the course of my undergraduate degree, I spent eighteen months in Iran studying Persian language and literature. I obtained my M.A. in History from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and wrote my dissertation on the late nineteenth century Persian language newspaper Akhtar which was published by the Iranian community in Istanbul. I will be spending the 2014-2015 academic year in Istanbul and Tehran carrying out archival research towards my dissertation.