From Kashf al-Maḥjūb to Kashf-i Ḥijāb (Removal of the Ḥijāb)(A Reflection on the Iranians’ Symbolic Engagement with the Allegorical Aspect of Modernity)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Reza Javid ¹
• Hadi Noori ²
• Mohammad Reza Gholami Shekarsaraei ²

¹ PhD Candidate, Cultural Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

10.22067/jhistory.2025.91099.1351

Abstract

Modernity disrupted the minds and worldviews of the first Iranian travelers to the West, clashing with their symbolic perspective of culture up to that time. In such a context, modern subjects, spaces, and commodities stood out to the travelers to an extent that obscured the aims of their mission like a veil. The present study tries to answer this question: How did the clash between the symbolic and semantic system of Kashf al-Maḥjūb in Iranian culture and the allegorical semantic system based on the unveiling of women, spaces, commodities, and modern experience in the West shape early Iranian travelers’ perception of the West? This study employs Walter Benjamin’s theory and methodology, aiming to study and analyze the early experiences of Iranians’ traveling to Farang (as reflected in travelogues and other sources). It is concluded that the Iranian’s first encounter with western modernity was entrapped in binary oppositions such as good and evil, heaven and hell, and sacred and profane. This was one of the major obstacles hindering an accurate and precise understanding of the nature of modernity and its central product, which is capitalism. A lingering sense of shame before the West’s dazzling external magnificence and the central place of feminine allure, along with the sense of guilt over its corruption preoccupied Iranian modernity for many years to come.

Keywords

• allegory
• symbol
• The Arcades projects
• Benjamin
• Kashf al-Maḥjūb
• modernity

Main Subjects

• Other

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