Education, Religion and the Discourse
of Cultural
Reform in Qajar Iran
Monica M. Ringer
This is the most comprehensive and analytical account of educational reform in 19th
century Iran. This book locates educational reform within the broader context of the
process of modernization in a non-Western society. It is based on a wide variety of
sources and is the only history of the New schools and Anjoman-e Ma'aref. Topics
include: the Nezam-e Jadid, the Dar al Fonun, the New schools, foreign, missionary
and minority schools, students abroad, the Anjoman-e Ma'aref. It emphasizes the
evolving attitudes of proponents and opponents of educational reform towards its benefits
and dangers. The book describes modernizati at posed by educational reform to the ulama.
It charts the dialectic between competing visions of Iranian polity, society and culture.
What others say about this book:
"Monica Ringer's book provides a perspective essential to understanding the
deep-seated religious, cultural and political tensions in Iran's centuries-long attempts
at modernization. Her study of the nature, impact, and legacy of modernization in Qajar
Iran, the pivotal role of educational reforms and the reactions of the religious
establishment, is critical to understanding many of the forces unleashed in the Iranian
Revolution of 1978-79".
John L.Esposito, , Georgetown University.
"Monica Ringer's book unlocks the process of modernization and
reform in Qajar Iran. The study is especially valuable for its focus on the institutional
and ideological threat of "new" education to the religious establishment, as its
nuanced treatment of the proponents' and opponents' own changing understanding of the
benefits and dangers of educational reform problematizes the response to modernization in
nineteenth century Iran. This is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding
the stumbling blocks associated with modernization in non-Western countries."
Houchang. E. Chehabi, Boston University
"This important contribution to the study of Qajar Iran seeks the
roots of the country's tortuous struggle with modernity in the educational debates of the
nineteenth century. Arguing that modernization in the Qajar period cannot be seen as a
cumulative and undifferentiated process, Ringer shows how even the ulama could endorse
reform, including the sending of students to Europe, as long as they believed that change
was a matter of remedying a deficiency and compatible with cultural and religious
integrity. Over time the traditionalists were challenged, though not entirely eclipsed, by
secular reformers who saw Iran as backward and who advocated importing Western educational
models as the best guarantee for a strong nation. The echo of both arguments can be heard
in Iran until today."
Rudolf P Matthee, University of Delaware
"Modern education has long been deemed the single most critical force working to
transform the Muslim societies found between North Africa and Iran. Yet, education is
never an innocent enterprise. Dr. Ringer's fine analysis of Qajar Iran on the brink of
modernity reveals the agonizing religious and cultural adjustments as well as the
socio-ideological challenges posed by the gradual introduction of European educational
institutions from the 1830s until the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911."
Julia Clancy-Smith, University of Arizona.
Specifications:
2001:xv+342pp,bibliography, index
ISBN:1-56859-131-4(paper): $24.95
Bibliotheca Iranica: Intellectual Traditions Series, No. 5
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