OḴOWWAT

 

OḴOWWAT (Brotherhood), the name of four newspapers and one magazine published in Tabriz, Rašt, Shiraz, Kermānšāh, and Baghdad in the early 1900s.

1-In Tabriz, the first issue of Oḵowwat newspaper was appeared on the 2 Ḏu’l-ḥejja, 1324/17 January 1907, and would continue to be issued three times a week.  No reference is made, in the masthead, to the editors, writers, or publishers. It should be noted that, Oḵowwat, contrary to Moḥammd ʿAli Tarbiat’s assertion (E.G. Browne, row 35), is not among the three anti-constitutionalist newspapers published in Tabriz by Mirza Aḥmad Baṣirat, the headmaster of Baṣirat school, and contains several fatvās from the pro-constitutionalist clergies of Najaf (see CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION vi).

Oḵowwat, measuring 22x35.5 cm, was lithographed in four pages of two columns by an unidentified printer.  The annual subscription was 35 qerān in Tabriz. The library of etude iraniennes of Sorbonne University (Universite Paris III), houses the only existing copy of Oḵowwat.

Bibliography:

E. G. Browne, Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, no. 35.

Ḥosayn Naḵjavāni, “Tāriḵčā-ye entešār-e ruz-nāma va majallāt dar Āẕarbāyjān va Tabriz.”  Majallahā-ye dāneškada ye adabiyāt, 15/1, 1963, p. 3.

Ḥosayn Omid, Ketāb-e tāriḵ-e farhang-e Āẕarbāyjān, Tabriz, 1954, vol. II, pp. 40-41.

Moḥammd Ṣadr Hāšemi, Tāriḵ-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Iran, Isfahan, 1948-53, column 54.

Ṣamad Sardāriniā, Tāriḵ-e ruz-nāma va majallahā-ye Āẕarbāyjān, Tehran, 1981, p. 104.

Moḥammad ʿAli Tarbiat, Dānešmandān-e Āẕarbāyjān, 1975, p. 407.

 

2-The weekly, Oḵowwat-e Širāz was published from Rabiʿ I, 1326 to the end of Jomādā I of 1326/15 May through June or July of 1908 in Shiraz, and at least five issues were printed. It was affiliated with the Anjoman-e oḵowwat-e Širāz (see ANJOMAN-e OḴOWWAT) and for this reason the publication has been referred to as “Anjoman-e oḵowwat ” (Browne, column 67).

Oḵowwat-e Širāz was a religious and moralistic paper affiliated with the Neʿmat-Allāhi Order. It was edited by ʿAbd-al-Karim Maʿruf-ʿAli, and contained reform-minded news and articles.  Measuring 21x 34 cm, it was lithographed in the Eslāmiya printing house in four pages of two columns without illustrations.  The annual subscription fee was 15 qerān in Shiraz and 17 qerān in the rest of Iran. The Fars Central Library of Shiraz houses the complete series of the paper.

Bibliography:

Ḥasan Emdād, Širāz dar goḏaštā va hāl, Shiraz, 1960, p. 84.

Moḥammd Ṣadr Hāšemi, Tāriḵ-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Iran, Isfahan, 1948-53, columns 58, and 715.


3- The weekly Oḵowwat of Rašt was disseminated from 8 Šabʿān 1328 to 24 Jomādā I 1325/15 August 1910 through the 22 June 1911. Numbers 2 through 11 of the journal were named Oḵowwat -e ʿĀli. It was published by Hādi Mawlavi and Ḥasan Moʾyyad, the cofounders of Oḵowwat -e ʿĀli school in Rašt. Hādi Mawlavi was a significant leader in Ṣafi-ʿAlišāhi Order.

Oḵowwat, although published by a Sufi order, was a reformist and nationalistic journal. It published news and poetry, and as Browne has noted, it was noteworthy from a literary perspective (Browne, column 36). Measuring 22x36 cm, it was printed in the Saʿādat and ʿOrvat-al-voṯqā printing houses in 4 pages of two columns, without images.  The cost of a one-year subscription in Rašt was 10 qerāns. The revenues, as appeared in the masthead of the first issue, were allocated to needy school children. A complete collection of this Oḵowwat is held by Cambridge University, while the central library of Tehran University and the Moʾassesa-ye moṭāleʿāt-e tāriḵ-e moʿāṣer both have scattered issues.

Bibliography:

E. G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, Cambridge, 1914, no. 36.

Ebrāhim Faḵrāʾi, Gilān dar jonbaš-e mašruṭiyat Tehran, 1974, p. 319.

Jaʿfar Ḵomāmizāda, Ruz-nāma-ye Irān az āḡāz tā sāl-e 1329, Tehran, 1993, column 38.

Fereydun Nowzād, Tāriḵ-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Gilān az āḡāz tā Enqelāb-e Eslāmi, Tehran 2000, pp.74-75.

Hyacinth Louis Rabino, ūrat-e jarāyed-e Iran va jarāyedi ke dar ḵārej az Iran be zabān-e Farsi ṭabʿ šoda-ast, Rašt, 1329/1911, column 10.

Moḥammd Ṣadr Hāšemi, Tāriḵ-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Iran, Isfahan, 1984, column 55.

Jahāngir Sartippur, Nām va nāmdārhā ye Gilān, Rašt, 1991, pp. 603-04.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Union Catalogue of Persian Serials and Newspapers in British Libraries, London, 1985, no. 615.

Morteżā Solṭāni, Fehrest-e ruz-nāmahā-ye Fārsi dar majmuʿa-ye ketābḵāna-ye markazi va markaz-e asnād-e dānešgāh-e Tehran, Tehran 1975, column 38.

 

4-The monthly magazine, Oḵowwat was published by the Ṣafi-ʿAlišāh order of Sufis in Kermānšāh from Ḵordād 1307 to Ordibehešt 1308/June 1928 through April 1929.  A total of 12 issues went to press.  The licensee and managing editor was Hajj ʿAbd-Allāh Mostašār-ʿAli (Neʿmati), who was also responsible for publishing Kowkab-e ḡarb after Oḵowwat's final issue.  In some of the issues ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Elhāmi is identified as the managing editor.  The magazine was devoted to subjects of spiritual interest, and poetry. The first issue of the magazine contains a biography and specimens of the poetry of Mirza ʿAli Khan Ẓahir-al-dawla, the successor to Mirza Moammad-asan Efahāni, Ṣafi-ʿAlišāh, the founder of afi-ʿAlišāhi Sufi order. Over the course of its publication, two images of Mirza ʿAli Khan Ẓahir-al-dawla, appeared in the magazine.

Measuring 15.5x23 cm, the magazine was published by Saʿādat printing house and ran 24 to 42 pages of one column. The cost of subscription was 24 qerān in Kermānšāh.  The collection of Oḵowwat magazines can be found in Āstān-e Qods library, Rašt National Library, Fārs Central Library, and at Princeton University.

Bibliography:

Kaveh Bayāt & Masʿud Kuhestāni-nejād, Asnād e maṭbuʿāt, (1286-1320 Š.), Tehran, 1992, pp. 77-76.

Rudolf Mach and Robert McChesney, “A List of Persian Serials in the Princeton University Library,” unpublished monograph, Princeton, 1971.

Esmāʿil Purqučāni, Fehrest e ruznāmahā-ye mawjud dar ketābḵāna-ye markazi-e Āstān-e Qods-e Rażavi, Mašhad, 1985, column 31.

Moḥammad Ṣadr Hāšemi, Tāriḵ-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Iran, Isfahan, 1984, column 57.

Morteżā Solṭāni, Fehrest-e majallahā-ye Fārsi az ebtedā sāl-e 1320, Tehran, 1977, column, 13.

Leylā Sudbaḵš, Fehrest-e našriyāt-e advāri dar ketābḵāna-ye markazi-e Fārs, Shiraz 1999.

 

5-The weekly newspaper, Oḵowwat, was printed in Baghdad, in both Persian and Arabic from 22 Rabiʿ I to 4 Šaʿbān 1328/April 3 through August 11, 1910, a total of 18 issues.  Moḥammad Taqi Yazdi received the license from the Ottoman authorities. Upon the objection of the Iranian authorities in Baghdad (Oḵowwat, tr. from Al-Ḥaqiqa, Baghdad, no. 3, and quoted in Majles, 3/42, 21 u’l-qaʿda 1372), however, Yazdi transferred the license to an Ottoman subject by the name of ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Al-Āḏari and took on the role of managing editor.  Thus, in certain Arabic sources, Al-Āḏari is the only name that appears in the newspaper (Ṭarāzi, II, p. 76), while Iranian resources only cite Moḥammad Taqi Yazdi.  

Oḵowwat was a political newspaper and advocated the solidarity of Iranians and Arabs, as well as the followers of Shiʿite and Sunni Islam (“Mąṭbuʿāt-e jadida,” Majles, 3/11, 4 Jomādā I 1328). Measuring 21x28, it was printed in 4 to 8 pages of 2 columns without illustrations by an unidentified printing house. The annual subscription fee in Baghdad was 30 piastres and in Iran, 20 qerān. Scattered issues of Oḵowwat are held in the Maktabat-al majmaʿ-alʿelmi-alʿArāqi in Baghdad, and the library of Cambridge University in England. 

Bibliography:

E. G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, Cambridge, 1914, no. 37.

Zāheda Ebrāhim, Dalil-al-jarāʾd va al-majallāt-al-ʿArāqiya, Kuwait. 1986, p. 26.

ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Al-Ḥasani, Tāriḵ-al-ṣeḥāfat-al-ʿArāqiya, Baghdad, 1957, fascicule 1, p. 55.

Moḥammad Ṣadr Hāšemi, Tāriḵ-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Iran, Isfahan, 1984, column 56.

Revue du monde musulman, II, 1910, p. 338.

Ursula Sims-Williams Union Catalogue of Persian Serials & Newspapers in British Libraries, London, 1985, no. 614.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: January 21, 2011

Last Updated: January 21, 2011