Iran's ancient Kings could be removed from history textbooks, replaced with events within Islamic period?

From Shahnameh, “Book of Kings”, Iran’s national epos, written by the poet Ferdowsi in the 11th century

The same thing happened in Pakistan - the regions pre-Islamic history has largely been expunged from the schools history books. The radical Islamist political factions in Pakistan - walked out of Parliament in protest of its inclusion - saying - their history comes from Arabia.

There goes Cyrus the Great!!

Yaqub Tavakoli, the head of the history research team in the Iranian Ministry of Education, stirred a controversy last week when he said that due to coming changes in history textbooks, chapters pertaining to the political and military history of Iran’s kings would be gradually removed. According to Tavakoli, they will be substituted by new chapters on important Muslim thinkers and philosophers in Iran. He noted that the Ministry of Education also intended to put more emphasis on the Islamic revolution in history textbooks (Mehr, September 22).

Tavakoli’s statement was met with strong criticism from Iranian education professionals and historians. Historian Khosro Mo’tazed fiercely criticized the suggested history textbook reform, saying that the changes mentioned by Tavakoli were unfeasible. The kings of Iran, Mo’tazed said, were an inseparable part of Iran’s historical heritage and deeply rooted among the Iranian people. He further added that Iran’s ancient history could not be taken out of Iranian history, and that those who wanted to remove Iran’s kings from textbooks intended to strike a blow against Iran’s history and destroy its future (Tabnak, September 26).

In the wake of the strong reactions to Yaqub Tavakoli’s announcement, a senior Education Ministry official had to emphasize last week that Tavakoli’s statement was only a suggestion. The Education Ministry official in charge of textbooks related that a plan to introduce changes in history textbooks was indeed being examined, but that no final decision had been made (Mehr, September 23).

It should be noted that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has recently addressed the need to introduce changes in the curricula of social sciences and humanities faculties in Iran’s universities to adapt them to Iranian and Islamic values. Consequently, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in Iran issued an instruction to update the social sciences and humanities curricula in the universities.

On several occasions over the past several years, Iranian senior officials have also addressed the need to update school textbooks. For example, an Iranian Education Ministry official said during an education convention held in Tehran in January 2008 that Iran’s textbooks must be based on the values and beliefs commonly held in Iran. At the same convention, the deputy minister of education criticized the textbooks in use in Iran, saying they were not based on the study and education philosophy of the Islamic republic (Fars, January 22, 2008). It should be noted that as part of the curricula reform enacted following the Islamic revolution (1979), history subjects pertaining to Iranian kings were significantly reduced.

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