The memoirs of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander to be put on Amazon
There is no doubt to the fact that oral history is one of the means to record various events of history and it becomes a more authentic and important means to describe the historical events if and when it can portray the advantages as well as disadvantages of any concerned period of history in a fair and impartial manner.
Interviews are one of the methods used to record the facts of oral history and it is while reading these interviews of the concerned person only that the reader gets a firsthand account of the events that took place and based upon the memory of the interviewed person, the reader gets to know more about important as well as unspoken sections and perspectives of modern history which are often hidden or unnoticed from the general masses. The reader also gets to know more about various known and unknown character traits of the person interviewed; which itself is effective in shaping up of the oral history.
The first encounters of Iranians with the phenomenon of oral history goes back to the initial years of victory of Islamic revolution of Iran and the writing and recording of events related to the Islamic revolution and the war of holy defense which itself is a kind of recording the nature and identity of the modern history. Among the abovementioned efforts, the description of lives of individuals who spent most of their lives for various campaigns and activities before the victory of Iranian Islamic revolution and also the revolutionary as well as military activities during the early years after the victory of Islamic revolution and during the period of eight years of holy defense is extremely useful for many interested readers and specifically the absence of memoirs by commanders who were present in the war was one of the vacuums which made its presence felt in the field of memoir writings of the period of holy defense.
From the abovementioned perspective, the book titled "Dusty Melons" (Kalekhaye Khaki) can be regarded as one of the first works of oral history in the holy defense literature; this work contains the narrations by one of the commanders of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
This book has been written by MrGolAliBabayi and HosseinBehzad. It narrates the memoirs of Iranian commander in chief Mohammad Ali Ja’fari in the form of interview and starting from his birth in the summer of 1956 CE (1335 SH) at NajafAbad in Yazd province until the summer of the year 1982 CE (1361 SH) i.e. the year of BeytolMoqaddas operation as well as the liberation of Khorramshahr.
The "Dusty Melons" (Kalekhaye Khaki) has 12 chapter which are titled as follows: children of Najafabad-Yazd; till the University of fine arts; Khomeini, O Imam; students of Imam's path; cultural revolution; defeating the siege of Susengerd; victory of ideology; spouse or fellow comrades; Ashura brigade; at operational headquarters' Qods (Jerusalem) in the battle of Fath'; towards Jerusalem; and the final chapter which includes pictures and illustration and other documents attached to the book.
The book gives a large amount of additional information regarding people, places and other events in a detailed manner. Moreover, several other documents, layouts, tables and images are also included in the book which is very useful and effective in shedding light upon the variety of contents of the book. For example the last chapter alone contains 116 photos and illustrations from the people and places related to the book.
One of the important and interesting points regarding this book is the presence of memoirs of other characters that are present in various events mentioned in the book and fought alongside the narrator. The author has not refrained from mentioning the memoirs of other commanders and fellow comrades who took part in various operations wherever he felt the strong need to do so. Such an action itself has had great effect upon providing a deeper perspective to the reader regarding the conditions prevalent during various events and provides the grounds for the unspoken memoirs -which may have been forgotten with time- to be recorded in history.
This book can be regarded as the pioneer for the other commanders who fought during the eight years of holy defense to come forward with their memoirs. Moreover, the second volume of this book is also supposed to be written soon. The electronic section of SoorehMehr publication wants to put this book on Amazon website during the current year and make the work available to the interested readers on a much wider platform.
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