Arts & Culture

My Top 10 Iranians

//iranian.com/main/blog/masoud-kazemzadeh/my-top-ten-lists-best-and-worst-political-leaders-world

(wow, my post had more than 17,640 clicks)

This is simple and has only one correct answer

Ferdosi

Anyone who doesn't agree ask:  If we wanted to have only one of us to be alive (or have lived) who would that be.

I rest my case.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My extended list: 

Dehkhoda  +++ Immediate second

Khayam

Molana

Amir Kabir

Karim Khan

Mossadegh

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

The greatest Iranian who ever lived;,

was Ferdowsi(bbhs). Cyrus(bbhs) & other  kiaani greats lived among generations who shared the same psyche, spoke the same language, cherished the same principles & loved the same kiaani Iran . Ferdowsi on the other hand lived alone among the  generation of shaikhak goats who were mere strangers to him be it in ideals, language, culture or values.  He lived alone, dreamed alone & died alone and was takfirred by his contemporary shaikhak detractors such as Attar. Folks like shaikh Salman Farsi or modern shaikh such as Masoud Behnood & the rest of these panelists? or "pianists" of omari shotori same old same old are in no position to determine who is the greatest Iranian.. greatest karbalaii yes..greatest fence sitters yes.... greatest Iranian not. Dr Ala, AO & VPK choices are right on the mark &  purple all over...goodi goodi.

Cheers!!! 

Here is a different list

General Khosrowdad,

General Rabii,

General Rahimi,

General Jahanbani,

General Badrei,

and many other military officers who protected Iran and kept its citizens safe and secure for decades and most importantly for standing tall and not apologizing to the criminal mullahs and their thugs until the last drop of their blood!

Dear Shemirani

Thank you for good observations and very good insight. One thing I want to add is not to assume anything is static. Right now Bahrain is beyond reach while Baghdad is taking orders from Tehran.

I don't want to diverge too much from the topic so will put the rest of this in a different blog ...

Anyway there are many other heroes: Add Shapur Bakhtiyar; Farrokhzad as well as all the unknown protectors. Many of whom are being held right now in the Islamist regime prisons. 

Thanks dear Shemirani. I

Thanks dear Shemirani. I will look into it when I have tim.e Have a great Thankgiving day. 

"It is the chain of communicat­ion, not the means of production­, that determines a social process."

-- Robert Anton Wilson

.............

Vildemose jan, Yes of course, the simplest way for you  to have all sources asnad o madrak is  to listen to this two links, i like him because each time he says something he refers to a book or article.

(each video takes two hours make sure you have enough time)

Armitage Smith agreement

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOwpMfQg2Ps

and Bahrein

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvJ2OT9QIM0&feature=related

 big feodal who helped on

 big feodal who helped on armitage-smith agreement, who sent a letter (when he was the foreign minister) to uk's embassy for them to go to Bahrein and iran lost it ,

 Dear Shemirani, can you please provide a link to your source?

"It is the chain of communicat­ion, not the means of production­, that determines a social process."

-- Robert Anton Wilson

................

VPK jan, ba shoma kamelan movafegham, albate taking back Bahrein looks impossible to me, we should watch out not loosing Tomb bozorg and Abu mousa islands because our arabian neighbours cheshm dookhtan big time !

Good remark DK jan, Masoud Behnoud had the audacity to compare Ahmad shah qajar to Juan Carlos in his Parazit interview , .....ahmad shah ke joz reshvegiri az uk hich kari baraye Iran anjam nadad shod ye padeshahe democrate az nazare in aghae tahsilkarde lol  !!!! i wonder what this antelectuals are smoking to say such absurdity !!

Man nemidoonestam R.Jahanbegloo inghadr gharghe islam e hanooz !!! very desappointing !

We should add Sattar khan & Bagher khan (and the two others i don't remember their names ) the constitualists . they were Iran's "grand hommes" aswell !!

Pirooz Nahavandi

Was a Great Iranian and I will grant you that without reservation. Good for him and for us. His memory shall remain but he was not the only one. How about Ya'qub Laith Saffari or Babak Khorramdin. 

These poeople gave up their lives for Iran and its freedom. Never flinching in face of danger. You got to be fair and put them all in the halls of greatness. If there was an Iranian Valhalla they would all be there as well as Maziar and yes  Muqanna!

Would Tolstoy Have Picked Baha'u'llah ?

Early on in the selection process, Baha'u'llah The Persian born Prophet of the Bahai Faith, was eliminated as one of the great Iranians; In my opinion, a testament to how little, even our learned Iranians appreciate the still unfolding consequences of Baha'u'llah's teachings  for new era of Global civilisation , or further how shortsigted our intellengensia may be in their consideration of Baha'u'llah's contribution to mankind about the furure well being of humanity, in His forty years of prison and exile away from his land of birth Iran.

Perhaps Count Leo Tolstoy said it best:

"We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but there 
 was a Turkish prisoner, Bahá'u'lláh, in Akka, Palestine, who had the key. . . 
 Bahá'u'lláh's teachings now present us with the highest and purest form of religious teaching. . . 
Very profound, I know of no other so profound." 
  Leo Tolstoy — 1908 

for this watch the video below (skip to 1:19 for what Tolstoy  said about Baha'u'llah)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBpAFaVV72c

Would Tolstoy Have Picked "Baha'u'llah ?

Massoud Behnoud's views are known but Jahanbegloo lost me ...

As far as Massoud Behnoud is concerned he lost me long time ago ...

Shadi Sadre's Rebuttal of Massoud Behnoud's Endorsement of IRI Constitution 

Ebrahim Golestan to Massoud Behnoud: "The Shah's Coronation Made Me Wanna Vomit" (BBC) 

But Now I can add Ramin Jahanbegloo to the long list of Bankrupt ANN TELECTUALS ...


Mel Brooks: Unemployment Insurance History Of The World

They should swap

Mosadegh with Darius the Great or Reza Shah the great.

There's only one Greatest Iranian!

Pirooz Nahavandi - Greatest Iranian ever lived!

Funny that Professor of Islamic Law ...

she can't read or write a line of Arabic - LOL.

Dear Shemirani

I agree 100% about Mossadegh I did not know the Bahrain part. But he was and is the single most overrated person in Iranian recent history. If not for him there would not have been so much division among progressives. 

I did not put Mohammad Reza Shah because his reign ended in disaster. I still appreciate his very progressive actions. But the final result was not so good. Of course he is vastly better than many. 

Regarding Bahrain I think Iran has every right to forcibly retake it. Whenever the military power balance allows it. The behavior of Saudi thugs made is very clear Bahrain's future is with Iran not with its regime.

Subtle Steering, Nice Try!

A strong common thread in the selection criteria seems to be violence aversion ... at a critical time in Iranian history when sadly justice and restoration of basic rights have to come through "violent" moves by the population. 

But remeber, the word "violence" is never mentioned when a house needs to be cleansed of termites. In fact, it's a colorful, happy event.

There must a distinction between violence and pest control.

Nice try, London! 

...

جنابِ بابک ک ...

در نکته تو روشنگری است اما کو گوشِ شنوا ! این دسته و فرقهٔ ایرانی به دنبالِ گوشتِ کبابی است و بیچاره کلب الجیران ! نیمی از هم میهنانِ ما از اصلِ تاریخ این دیوانِ قتال بی‌ خبرند و حال چه می‌‌شود کرد آن زمانی‌ که گویند که اینان خوشند که کبوترِ حرمند... این روز‌ها هیچ حرفِ حساب خریداری ندارد و کرور ماشا الله به این همه سیاسیونِ روزگار !

...........

Zartosht

Kourosh kabir

Darius

Amir kabir

Reza Shah Kabir

Mohamad reza shah (...specially because of his woman's right of vote that i can use now !! :D

And certainly not mossadegh because he wasn't the hero that they want us to believe (big feodal who helped on armitage-smith agreement, who sent a letter (when he was the foreign minister) to uk's embassy for them to go to Bahrein and iran lost it , Iran's oil didn't need to be nationalised because before mossadegh iran's oil already belong to the governement of iran and not to the owner of the land (like in mexico) ... and his few years he was on power was a catastrophe..... i think very avamfarib va jahtalab ......he was not the hero described everywhere ! it's desappointing but true !

Takes Left Wing Namak Nashnass "Baroness" to Select Mossadegh

Not that Potkin Azarmehr's views are always my cup of tea ...

potkin azarmehr and haleh afshar channel4

But he sure does have a point here:

//azarmehr.blogspot.com/2008/01/haleh-afshar.html

Trala La La La ...

Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise

LOL

Related:

Arise Baroness Afshar: First Iranian Woman In the House of Lords by Darius KADIVAR

Official Bio:

Born in Iran, Professor Afshar is one of the most prolific Muslims in Britain today. She was an undergraduate at the University of York in the 1960s, became a committed Marxist during the Iranian revolution and describes Feminism as “my most important and constant commitment.” Professor Afshar has served on the British Council and the United Nations Association of which she is Honorary President of International Services. She is also Visiting Professor of Islamic Law at the International Faculty of Comparative Law, University of Strasbourg.

In addition to her academic studies, she has written widely as a journalist on Muslim women and the ‘War on Terror’.

A Great Show ....

This was a great show (program).  We need more to appreciate the people who gave us our identity.

My six people:

1. Zartosht

2. Cyrus the Great

3. Ferdousi

4. Eb-e-Sina

5. Reza Shah Kabir

6. My parents (as one choice)

To everybodySince when a

To everybody

Red wine said:

باز آمدند و از عقیده و عملیاتِ فرنگی‌‌ها رو برداشتند... چقدر زشت ،لااقل نیامدند کار را درست یاد دهند و بگویند که در این امر مجاز نیست که افرادِ سیاسی جزوِ بزرگان یاد برداری شوند، چون سیاسیون خونریزند و به هر حال دشمنِ یک سطح از جامعه و این شرط نباشد که تو اینان را از بهترین نامی‌،اگر از یک سیاسی اسم برده شود،آن فهرست جزوِ اسهالاتِ روان محسوب و دگر منظورِ عقلانی ندارد.

تنها دانشمندان و ادبا،خلاقیون و ابتکاریون هستند که گر تو بخواهی یا نخواهی ،به صورتِ مسلسل در این فهرست،جای گیرند و نامی‌

Also:

Since when a leader is considered great because his son thought he is great? World independent historians and thinkers and humanists give the title of great to a leader not his son.

My list

in no particular order and no particular time frame. There are many more but you got to draw the line some where: 

Zartosht

Kouroush

Daryush

Aryo Barzan

Bozorgmehr

Babak Khoramdin

Karimkhan zand

Great reza shah

Mohamad reza shah 

Mossadegh

Amir Kabir

General Ayat Mohagheghi

Great Ferdousi

Saddi

Rudaki

Khayam

Molana

...

باز آمدند و از عقیده و عملیاتِ فرنگی‌‌ها رو برداشتند... چقدر زشت ،لااقل نیامدند کار را درست یاد دهند و بگویند که در این امر مجاز نیست که افرادِ سیاسی جزوِ بزرگان یاد برداری شوند، چون سیاسیون خونریزند و به هر حال دشمنِ یک سطح از جامعه و این شرط نباشد که تو اینان را از بهترین نامی‌،اگر از یک سیاسی اسم برده شود،آن فهرست جزوِ اسهالاتِ روان محسوب و دگر منظورِ عقلانی ندارد.

تنها دانشمندان و ادبا،خلاقیون و ابتکاریون هستند که گر تو بخواهی یا نخواهی ،به صورتِ مسلسل در این فهرست،جای گیرند و نامی‌ نیکو به جای گذارند.

My list

• Zartosht
• Cyrus the Great
• Ferdowsi
• Avicenna 
• Khwarazmi
• Reza Shah the Great
• Ya'qub Laith Saffari
• Bozorgmehr
• Karim Khan Zand
• Ahmad Kasravi
• Muqanna - aka Veiled Prophet of Khorasan :-)
• Khosrow Anushravan
• Mehrdad the Great aka Mithridates II of Parthia
• Khayyam
• Rudaki
• Nasir al-Din Tusi

The list is way too long to cover in any reasonable post. Therefore I am just mentioning a few. Apologies if I forgot to mention your favorite one. Maybe we should divide by: science; art; politics as well as ancient; post Islamic and modern. 

I would have added Saadi and Hafiz except for one thing. Their work did much to intermingle Persian and Arabic making a jumble. For that I have left them out sorry; I am not anti-Arab but prefer Persian to Farsi. 

The Greatest Iranian?Any

The Greatest Iranian?

Any Iranian who stood and struggled and made sacrifices for freedom and democracy.

Lack of Credible Criteria?

Reza Shah MUST be in that list. There ois no doubt about that. Look at his accomplishments. He modernized a nation that would have been in a totally different situation without him (look at our neighbors that are wealthy but intellectually poor, and of course, be real and don't think we did because we Iranians are special, no we're not, no nation or race is special!). Also, keep in mind accepting reality doesn't make you a monarchist (when do we abandon this kind of thinking?!!!). We're talking historical impact here not pushing personal agenda. 

What's the criteria for not including him? I'm sure we all agree deep inside that his vision AND achievements (and not just of these!) transformed the life of many generations in the past and to come.I think it'll take a few hundred more years before people can set aside their political stigma to be able to see things of this nature. I call it a political version of Oedipus Complex!

Also, I can't believe Behnoud and Jahanbegloo suggested Khatami to be in that list (of course gladly it didn't end up being there). First, they suggest not to include any MOASER person, but then they suggest Khatami?! Someone with no real achievements?! And it's not even clear what his impact on the history of our nation will be! It may turn out to be that he's an alien or a russian spy 5 years from now! Behnoud is always SATHI, but I'm really disappointed in Jahanbegloo.

Some of the discussion (although dramatized for TV production purposes) just shows the sad truth that we are still lacking 6 intelligent thinkers and scholars to put aside their political agenda and look beyond their selfishness and selfcenteredness. 

My list

1. Zartosht

2. Cyrus the great

3. Saadi

4. Ferdousi

5. Reza Shah

6. Mosaddeq

1, 3 & 4 for perserving persian culture and 2, 5, 6 for building and defending iran and iranians.

بقول ایرج میرزا

طلاب علوم روسفیدند



با این علما هنوز مردم

از رونق ملک ناامیدند!!!

he would have been told

mard chera sher meeegi, boro kashf kon.