Oral history of Golestan Palace, the oldest royal complex in Tehran, is being compiled by the research office of the palace, a UNESCO world heritage center.
So far, eight people, who witnessed the events and developments in the palace, have been interviewed by the office, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
The people who cooperated with the oral history project and helped gather information and documentation of the palace include Ahmad Dezvarei, director of the museums at Golestan Palace from 1960s to 2000s; Hassan Alaeeni, head of Golestan libraries from the 1980s to 2000s; Ahmad-Reza Heshmati, technical manager of the palace in 1990s and 2000s; and curator Mohammad Hassan Semsar who has been collaborating with the world heritage center since the 1950s and now is a senior member of the research office.
Other contributors are Rajab-Ali Azarmi, head of Golestan Palace world heritage center in the 1980s and 1990s; Seyyed Javad Hasti, manager of Golestan Photo House (in Persian: Album-Khaneh) from 1980s to 2000s; historic preservation specialist Abol-Hassan Mir-Emadi, who worked on the Wind Tower Mansion of the palace in the 1970s; and Ebrahim Qasemieh, deputy head of archive and administrative affairs at the Royal Library from the 1970s to 1990s.
First Volume
The eight veteran witnesses have presented accounts of events they saw at the palace. Their contribution are summed up into a body of information that to a large extent can be compiled as the first volume of the “Oral History of Golestan Palace.”
The oral history project was launched in the winter of 2016. The research office, headed by Homayoun Khodadad, noticed a gap in the contemporary history of the complex and undertook the project focusing on the past few decades. Most of the recorded information revolves around the buildings and architecture of the sprawling palace.
Through interviews with witnesses, the office put together interesting information about developments related to the palace, opening of museums, the parking lot plus reports about its treasured collection, Khodadad said.
The interviewees also presented some photos and documents that shed light on some obscure parts of the palace. “Letters, official decrees and old photographs helped us identify more people who had dealings with the palace,” Khodadad said and referred to a precious collection of old photos gifted to the palace by Ebrahim Qasemieh.
Members of the executive committee for studies at Golestan Palace, Hossein Ghiasvand and Faezeh Amin-Dehqan are in Khodadad’s team in the research office who are collaborating with him in compiling the palace history.
“Oral history is an interdisciplinary field of study between history and psychology,” Amin-Dehqan said in a meeting on oral history of the palace in August 2017. “It deals with history when we are looking for historical information and documentations, but involves psychology in the process of interviews and dialogues.”
“Oral history flourished over the years following World War II. Many existing writings and documents from the war were created by people who were involved in the brutal war, reflecting their observations and memories,” Amin-Dehqan said.
“We refer to oral history when existing documents fail to meet our historical curiosity…History is divided into a physical domain and an intellectual framework. The physical side owes its existence to wars, victories, plunder, peace contracts and geographical territories in the past. The spiritual domain goes back to the minds and thoughts of the people who lived during the time.”
The Gap
“Significant events and incidents have taken place in Golestan Palace in the past half century. The impact of the events such as 1979 Islamic Revolution and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War on Golestan Palace has not been recorded anywhere. Therefore we decided to compile an oral history by referring to the memories of individuals who had direct exposure to what indeed took place at the palace.”
“The idea of an oral history for Golestan Palace was floated in 2015 with the purpose of filling the historical gap,” Amin-Dehqan added.
Golestan Palace, affiliated to and supervised by Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, is the only remnant of Tehran’s historical citadel (Arg), a collection of erstwhile royal structures that were once enclosed within large thatched walls.
The citadel was built during the rule of Shah Tahmasb I of the Safavid Dynasty (1501-1722). It was rebuilt in the time of Karim Khan (1705-1779), the founder of the Zand Dynasty, and was later turned into a palace and royal court for Qajar rulers (1786-1925).
