Simin Daneshwar – Jalal Al Ahmad, Owrazan (Iran) September 1954

Owrazan  Jalal Al Ahmad

Although our villages form the core of our social organization as well as the foundation or our civilization.

They are taken into account neither in our present Policies nor in our educational schemes. No village attracts the curiosity of our scholars or the attention of our Government authorities or any sympathy on the part of our politicians. The few Orientalists and Dialectologists who have visited some of our villages, have published nothing concerning the way of life and customs’ of the people in those villages.

No one is to be blamed for this state of affairs, because the village is only one of the innumerable Persian subjects which call for study.

The present brochure has been compiled with regard to such a minor subject as a village situated in North Persia. The author can claim no authority in dialectology or anthropology or economics. An attempt has been made to describe a village as minutely as possible and to show bow its le for their occupants struggle for their existence.

I have dealt with this village merely because it is the birth place of my forefathers. Otherwise it is one of several thousand Persian villages where plugging is done in a primitive way, and the villagers often fight over water supply and are deprived of public baths and a sufficient supply of sugar for their tea. The ensuing notes have been taken almost all random during my six visits to the village and stay of not less than 12 months there. They form, therefore, neither a travel book nor any study of dialectology or folklore.

Owrazan, as the village is called, is situated at the foot of the mountains on the East of Taleqan (as being situated in Khorasan) where no school or Gendarmerie is to be seen and men light their pipes with the flint. Its population has often been estimated at 700. According to the headman, about one hundred families lived there in 1947, amounting to 500 people. There are 80 villages in Taleqan, including Owrazan in the upper part, scattered on both sides of Shahrood River which flows at the foot of a large valley and joins Qezel-Owzan on its Northern way to the Caspian Sea. The Upper Taleqan is mountainous and colder, while the Lower Taleqan is closer to the plains. Tonokabon is on its Northern and Alamout on its western sides. Its Southern neighbor is Savojbulaq. Once during the past decade influential men planned to construct a main road to Taleqan. Little progress, however, was made; and the present routes are passable by mules Shahrood River carries all the timber cut during autumn.

The people of Taleqan call their own dialect “Tati”.

In their economic life as well as their education and language they have affinities with Mazanderan. I include in the present brochure certain phrases and words from the local dialect, and have shown the pronunciation in Roman characters.

Simin Daneshwar (Translation)

Tehran / September 1954 J. A.