In this presentation, Sydney Marting talks about language reform in order to “purify” the Persian language of foreign words began to occur in Iran in the late 19th century. Martin argues that despite Iran’s changes in governance from the Qajar dynasty, to the Pahlavi dynasty, to the Islamic Republic, Iranian leaders promoted and shaped the language reform movement in an attempt to increase their power.
This talk was part of the “Iran’s New Century and the Formation of National Identity” panel that the Iran 1400 Project sponsored at the Middle East Studies Association’s (MESA) 55th annual meeting.
Sydney Martin is the Project Director of the Iran 1400 Project. He received his BA in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the Iran 1400 Project, he studied in Tajikistan with a Fulbright-Hays scholarship and interned at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
