Understanding comes first, determination second, then decision and action. These are the steps a mature person ascends to reach the threshold of sound judgment in both deed and word.
Iran is not an easy country to understand, whether in its time, its people, or its land. This has not only been true since the Khomeinist era, but for centuries before it. Today, however, it is even more difficult and complex after nearly half a century of rule by a movement whose ideas are marked by excess and radicalism: a blend of fundamentalist revolutionary thought in the broad sense, revolutionary fundamentalism, Guevarist-style leftist revolutionary ideology, and a nationalist revolutionary outlook rooted in the Ferdowsian tradition of the Persian Shahnameh.
Veteran Iranian writer Amir Taheri wrote recently in this newspaper: “the wars involving Iran will not end without regime change in Tehran, which can only be realized by the Iranian people and the internal political dynamics of a complex society that has passed through half a century of crises.”
How well do we understand this complex society and this intricate Iranian reality? Do we in the Gulf, let alone the Arab world, possess a scholarly community dedicated to studying Iran from every angle, rather than focusing solely on immediate political and security affairs? Yes, there are a handful of centers in some Arab countries, but they have not produced a lasting impact, a sustained intellectual tradition, or a rich cumulative legacy.
Speaking of cumulative legacy, it is important to mention a distinguished and pioneering Saudi scholar in this field: Professor Ahmed Al-Badli. He studied Persian literature at the University of Tehran, earned his doctorate there in 1966, then returned to King Saud University in Riyadh, where he taught Persian literature.
This man, who translated several literary works from Persian into Arabic, including The Travels of Nasir Khusraw, never became the nucleus of a lasting Saudi, or even Arab, project for Persian and Iranian studies. I do not know why, nor who bears responsibility for that failure.
His friend, the Saudi writer and journalist Abdulrahman bin Muammar, wrote about him in Al-Majallah Al-Arabiyah, recalling the period when Bin Muammar headed Al-Jazirah newspaper in the 1960s: “He introduced readers to translations of high-caliber Persian literature unlike anything they had known before. Some even sought to distort the purpose behind publishing them, plotting against him and working to undermine him.” He also highlighted one of Al-Badli’s valuable contributions: his serialized translations in Al-Manhal magazine on the history of the Qajar dynasty, which, as the late Bin Muammar wished, deserve to be collected and published in book form.
In a profile written by Dr. Abdullah Al Madani for Okaz, he noted that the young man from Makkah became fascinated by the Persian language while working during the Hajj season. Al-Badli later said that, if it were up to him, Persian would be the first foreign language Saudi students should learn.
Al-Badli recounted that Iranians often refused to believe he was Saudi when he spoke to them. If we are to understand Iran’s “complex” society, we need an Al-Badli, indeed a whole tribe of them.
