The Library of Memoirs

"Flight through Southern Window "," The First Narration of Cherry Red Notebook "and" Stopped in Time"

Mohammad Ali Fatemi
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2019-7-30

Note: We read the Introduction of three books of memoirs in the following. The first common feature of these books is that they consist memoirs and life story. Another feature that brings them closer to oral history range is that the mentioned temporal, spatial, and individual characteristics in the heart of memoirs are related to important events in the history of our country or in certain regions.

Familiarity with "Hajjibaba"

The book "Flight through Southern Window: a Narration about martyr Alireza Hajibabai" written by Seyed Mohammad Razavi and published by the Office of Cultural Affairs and Sustainability Studies of the Department of  Province Affairs and the Assembly of Art Center and Sura Mehr Publication in 2019.

This book, with four-hundred pages has eight chapters and 62 pages of documents and photos. In the list of chapters, these titles have a historic aspect: The ceremony of the fortieth day of martyrdom of Imam Khomeini's son  (RA), a march on  22^nd October 1978, the establishment of Hamedan’s Revolutionary Guards , the bombardment of Nojhah military station and the beginning of the imposed war, Bazideraz operations, Ramadan operations, ... The chapter of documents and photos mostly includes documents and  The text of the documents has been typed so that the reader can use them better. The last photo on the last page of book is also a memorial picture of the meeting of general Hajj Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, with a martyrs' parents that book is in the name of him.

The book's introduction indicate that this book is "a narration of a determined and honest presence of a Basij militant in the field of sacred defense" and a chapter of book is dedicated to "Operation ... September 2^nd, 1981 ... Operation of martyrs of Rajaee and Bahonar. The operation took place in areas of Sarpol-e Zahab, and martyr Hajibabi was the commander of the most important area. "

The narration of the book is based on the life story of martyr Alireza Hajibabai, based on the words of the family, friends and comrades of the martyr, according to specified time section in his life. These narrators and other names mentioned in the text are introduced in the appendixes of pages. The feature of text is that the compiler of book has chosen and put together the key and the most influential words. Although the text, in the usual way, is not based on a single-narrator and continuous narration; this feature made the reader, follow the text and events.

The reader, in this process,  is familiar with the main character of the narration, who was known as Hajibaba among his comrades, and "in addition he was in charge of Border Guard Group in the first days of the war, he was also in charge of logistics of the group ... He made a desert bathroom and was active a lot. " Also, when he was appointed as the deputy commander of the operation of Hamadan's Guard Corps, his behavior was not changed. In Al-Mahdi city, we were supposed to dig a well, he was one of those who help more than others in this work. "Finally, he was martyred in 1982, it was 25 years old ..."

Year 1984

"The First Narration of Cherry Red Notebook" by Mahmoud Ranjbar, faculty member of Gilan University. This book has been produced at the Office of Culture and Sustainability Studies of Arts Center of Gilan and Mazandaran Provinces and published by Sura Mehr Publications in 2019. At the beginning of book, the author, who is also the narrator of memories, is introduced as follows:" when he was a teenager, he went to warfront. Unluckily he was encountered with hard situation and shocking events that he wrote some of them in the book Cherry Red Notebook at the time of war and he gave two notebooks of these events to Art Center to be rewritten after some years.( the book " the second narrations of Cherry Red notebook have been already introduced on Iranian oral history website" ). This book with 332 pages and 74 pieces of memoirs, and narrator or author wrote about their life story.  Reader go along with him in text when he was going to go war. The narrator explains how he entered the military training course and passed it. Then, he was sent to the west of country, he narrated memoir of Kurdistan till the end of the book; it was 1984, Iranian forces were faced with a counter-revolutionary forces supported by Saddam Army.

 The memoirs "The First Narration of Cherry Red Notebook" originate from the same notebook of Iraqi imposed war against Iran. The narrator wrote the original text as a daily note in days that were in border of teen and youth age; while he was traveling from north of country to the west of country. His memories are more related to life than war; living with warriors for several months; living near the people of rural areas of Kurdistan, and writing own observations about them; and finally, memories of a time when he was in charge of wireless telephony in a mission lasted the last days of year 1984. The book ends with photos related to these memories.

Until 1981

Another book published by the Office of Culture and Sustainability Studies of Gilan Province's  Art Center and Publication of Surah Mehr in 2019, is "Stopped in Time: Memories of Abolqasem Hosseinjani". This 287-page book has been written and edited by Mir Amaddin Fayyazi. The note of Art Center on book tells the reader: "although Abolqasem Hosseinjani is a familiar name in the field of literature, it was politically influential person in Gilan, especially in the past. He went to Tabriz and continued his religious and political activities in an area larger than Bandar-e Anzali[1], where these activities caused him to be arrested and hold in detention in Joint Anti-Sabotage Committee for several months. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was the governor of Bandar-e Anzali, also an elected representative of the people in Islamic Consultative Assembly, an effective person in many small and important events in the province [Gilan] and a witness of significant events." The unit of photo and documents, the book confirms this introduction using documentary evidence.

The compiler of book also introduced the narrator:" The first meeting of interview was held in Tehran, and then we do interview with him in Bander-e Anzali more than four sessions in the early months of 2013. After that, we held several meetings in Tehran and in the room of meetings of Art Center's Literary Creation Department. In the style of oral memoirs published by the Gilan’s Art Center, the interviewer's questions were removed from the text of narrator's memoirs, and the memories, which were based on the linear process of events, were unified." These attachments are related to adventures in memories.

The memoirs of narrator proceed to 1982 and end on page 154. Then these titles can be seen: "An introduction for a delay points a continuous dialogue ...", "Attachment One: the translation of 27th Sermon of Nahj al-Balagha[2] ... "," Attachment Two: the translation of the letter of Imam Ali to the ... governor of Basra "," Attachment Three: Description of the Meeting of Interior Ministry Representative with the governor of Bander-e Anzali and the scroll of free fishermen and the hunters of Pareh[3] " Attachment Four: the report of tenth session of first period of Islamic Consultative Assembly on June 30th, 1980, reviewing the credentials of Abolqasem Hosseinjani Myandahi, the elected representative of  Bandar-e Anzali ".

The narrator "Stopped in Time" can be distinguished in two parts; first, the part of personal life that shows how difficult conditions he has passed until the days he was known in his hometown. Second, the part of political and social activity that began before the victory of Islamic Revolution and until the stopped memoirs are retelling. Memories of this part are related to particular region and geography; both in Tabriz and Bandar-e Anzali. This feature has raised the historic aspect of the narrator's observations. Of course, if we assume the year 2019 as a destination for the narrator's memoir, the loss of 37 years of memories about his lie can be felt in the book.  Abolqasem Hosseinjani now has a reputation as a poet, writer and translator, and several of his poems about Ashura[4] have become popular.