Religious Education in Iranian Schools during the Pahlavi Era: A Study through Ta‘līmāt-e Dīnī Textbooks

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

Authors

1 A. in History of Islamic Culture and Civilization, Faculty of Theology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor at the Department of History of Islamic Culture and Civilization, Faculty of Theology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/ihc.2026.21423

Abstract

Textbooks, beyond their pedagogical function, constitute important sources for the study of intellectual and cultural transformations as well as official educational policies across different historical periods, including contemporary Iran. ... As a result, officially sanctioned religious instruction also came to constitute an important component of the curriculum in these schools. Within this framework, officially sanctioned religious instruction formed a significant component of the school curricula at both levels. Given the importance of curricular texts and content in school-based education, textbooks specifically devoted to religious instruction, entitled Taʿlīmāt-e Dīnī (Religious Education), were compiled. This raises the question of how the content of these textbooks evolved during the Pahlavi period and what dimensions of religious education in this era are illuminated by the substantive and formal changes in Taʿlīmāt-e Dīnī textbooks. Based on the findings of this study, which employs a qualitative content analysis methodology, Taʿlīmāt-e Dīnī textbooks during the Pahlavi period underwent a developmental trajectory in accordance with broader cultural and social transformations as well as the educational policies of the state. Whereas in the early Pahlavi period these textbooks were primarily structured around three themes—doctrinal beliefs, jurisprudence and religious rulings, and ethics—with a strong emphasis on the ritual dimensions of religion, in the later Pahlavi period, owing to shifts in educational policies and changes in textbook authorship, greater attention was paid to the social and economic dimensions of religion. Consequently, religious rulings pertaining to individual and social life assumed a more central position in the content of religious textbooks.

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Main Subjects

Iranian History of Culture
Volume 3, Issue 1
March 2026
Pages 178-201

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History

  • Receive Date: 10 October 2025
  • Revise Date: 02 January 2026
  • Accept Date: 12 April 2026
  • Publish Date: 21 March 2026

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