The Efforts of Abolqasem Azad Maraghei in Changing Persian Script and Alphabet: Ideas and Consequences

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili , Ardabil, Iran.

Abstract

In the late Qajar period, coinciding with the exposure of Iranian intellectuals to global developments, new ideas entered Iran, among which were efforts to change the Persian script and alphabet. Abolqasem Azad Maraghei, one of the pioneers of this movement, advocated for the modification of the Persian script and its replacement with the Latin alphabet, aiming to facilitate education and increase public literacy. He believed that the inadequacies of the Persian script were one of the main obstacles to Iran's progress and that changing it could contribute to the country's cultural and scientific advancement. In this regard, Azad Maraghei designed a new alphabet called the "Easy Alphabet" and made extensive efforts to promote it. The purpose of this article is to examine the ideas, actions, and consequences of Azad Maraghei's efforts to change the Persian script and alphabet, and to analyze the impact of this movement on Iran's cultural and linguistic developments. The findings of the research indicate that Azad Maraghei's efforts faced numerous challenges, including social and cultural opposition, lack of governmental support, and practical difficulties. Despite these obstacles, he succeeded in initiating serious discussions about the reform of the Persian script and language.

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Publisher: University of Tabriz       Copyright © The Authors   

   

 

This is an open access article distributed under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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Iranian History of Culture
Volume 2, Issue 1
Spring & Summer
March 2025
Pages 84-104

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History

  • Receive Date: 14 January 2025
  • Revise Date: 22 February 2025
  • Accept Date: 23 February 2025
  • Publish Date: 21 March 2025

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