The Shadow-Texts of National History: Poetic Participation in Iran and Afghanistan

Abstract This article analyzes a little-known practice called iqtirāḥ —“test of poetic talent” or “poetic competition”—that proliferated in twentieth-century Persian-language periodicals. It examines two case studies: one Tehran 1928, which mythologized Nādir Shah (r. 1736–1747), Turko-Persian monarch, as national hero, and Kabul 1932, eulogized Muḥammad 1920–1933), ruling monarch at the time, for restoring an Afghan homeland imagined unified. The frames afterlife Persianate modes sociability that were reconfigured by modern periodicals to serve demands romantic nationalism twentieth century. By critically examining ways composition interacts with formation historiography, this also shows any clear-cut distinction between is arbitrary.