Afsaneh Najmabadi about Lion and Sun and other Persian orders

[Mitya Ivanov]

If somebody cares:

In some papers and articles - and in Wiki as well - we can read the Order of Aftab was founded in 1873 by Nasser al-Din Shah in St. Petersburg. Nope: it was founded by his firman in February 1873 - three months before shah's arrival to Russia.

This and many other interesting facts about Persian orders in "The Eclipse of Fe(Male) Sun" (pages 63-97) in Najmabadi's "Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards, Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity" (2005).

I've got a HQ pdf of this book from someplace of the Web (I really don't remember where from) so I'm ready to share it. The only problem I don't know if such sharing is legal. And it is 3,6 MB (i.e. exceeds the usual limit of attachment here). If somebody really needs the book - please, write me: herussia@gmail.com

[James Hoard]

Does she include a copy of the firman in her book or simply quote another secondary source?

James

[Mitya Ivanov]

She writes: For the text of this decree see:

Iran, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1916. - Salmanah-i vizarat-i umur-i kharijah. Tehran: Baradaran-i Baqirzadah. Page 246.

So it seems that she'd read it herself.

[James Hoard]

She writes: For the text of this decree see:

Iran, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1916. - Salmanah-i vizarat-i umur-i kharijah. Tehran: Baradaran-i Baqirzadah. Page 246.

So it seems that she'd read it herself.

I wonder. In the case of the 1836 decree of Fath Ali Shah on the order of the Lion and Sun, she can give an exact date, but in the case of the Aftab she can only say "February 1873".

Her article, despite the many footnotes is not actually very reliable. Her figure 12, for example, is not an illustration of the Order of Lion and Sun, but the Nishan-i-Aghdas. It does not date from 1836 but from 1870. There are no such illustrations in the 1836 firman.

Throughout the text she confuses nishan and khilat.

Sahib, in the context of the order means lord, sire or sir, not "holder". Thus a much closer analogy to chevalier than she is able to explain.

Cheers,

James

[Mitya Ivanov]

Yeah, I've noticed some more mistakes and strange things in the book. The only thing I know for sure (not from the book) is the Order of Aftab was not founded in Russian St.Pete:)

[James Hoard]

Yeah, I've noticed some more mistakes and strange things in the book. The only thing I know for sure (not from the book) is the Order of Aftab was not founded in Russian St.Pete:)

Yes, it seems you are right about the latter. See my other post regarding the first class Aftab badge elsewhere.