A Look at the Book of the Restless Anonymous

Gholamreza Azizi*
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-7-22

■ Gomnam-e biqarar: tarikh shafahi-e zendegi va mobare3zat-e shahid Seyyed Hussein Alamolhoda (The Restless Anonymous: An Oral History of the Life and Struggles of Martyr Seyyed Hossein Alamolhoda)

■ Author: Marzieh Beigizadeh

■ Tehran: Islamic Revolution Records Center

■ First Edition: 2024 (1403 SH), 268 Pages

The book “Gomnam-e biqarar (The Restless Anonymous)” is organized into four chapters after the introduction and foreword. The first chapter is dedicated to the family background, birth, education, and the beginning of the struggles of Martyr Seyyed Hossein Alamolhoda, and the second chapter follows the events of his life and political struggles from his return to Ahvaz to his departure to Tehran and the plot to assassinate General Huyser. In the third chapter, the author follows the activities of this martyr after the victory of the Islamic Revolution until his martyrdom, and the fourth chapter is dedicated to describing the moral characteristics of the aforementioned. Finally, a summary of the material presented in the final part of the book entitled “The Last Speech” is provided. The book ends with appendices (images of documents and photographs)[1], a bibliography, and an index. With this explanation, the structure of the book seems generally appropriate. The division and chaptering of the book are appropriate to the text. The form of the book is also good in terms of the book's appearance: font, typesetting, page layout, illustrations, and cover design. The book's cutting is appropriate to the format of the work, and the overall quality of the printing and binding of the book is good.

In "Gomnam-e biqarar (The Restless Anonymous)," the respected researcher-author has tried to use sources such as documents, newspapers, and other research works in addition to interviews to verify the collected materials and analyze them, as well as the reason for the difference in readings (for example, subtitle 2 on page 44); And this is a point that the respected author himself has mentioned, which makes the book in question different from the works[2] that have previously been written about the martyr Seyyed Hussein Alamolhoda.[3]

The type of research is “biographical oral history” through interviews with relatives, acquaintances, and comrades of a person who is no longer alive at the time of writing the book (and has joined the kingdom of heaven on the wings of martyrdom). In this way, the respected author has undertaken a kind of “third-person biographical oral history.”

Interviews were conducted with eleven relatives, comrades, and friends of the martyr. The text of the book is fluent and documented, and its orality has been well preserved.

The negative point that a few of the interviewees agreed to be interviewed on the condition that their real names not be revealed accompanies the interviews. First, given the material presented by these individuals, the necessity of using some of the material presented (which does not add new and important information to previous knowledge, and that too under a pseudonym) is not clear to the reader. In addition, quoting from an “anonymous author” not only does not contribute to the authority of the work; on the contrary, it calls into question the citation of such statements. Because anyone can quote any point from anyone; without saying whom the speaker is, when and where this matter was said, and where the document of this conversation is kept.

Narration. When presenting interviews in the form of a book, the editors of oral history interviews sometimes resort to narration in order to better understand the “text”, which is also seen in the book The Restless Anonymous. In this book, out of the three types of referential, explanatory, and verification subtitles, two types of explanatory and verification subtitles have been used in the direction of narration.

The first weakness of explanatory subtitles (which are made with the intention of introducing people) is that they lack references. In addition, in some explanatory subtitles, a kind of excessive repetition and rhetoric is seen. For example:

• On page 23 of the book, different narratives about the year of Ayatollah Alamolhoda’s death are mentioned, but they are left without a conclusion.
• Javad Zargaran is introduced twice (p. 38, subtitle 1 and p. 41, subtitle 3).
• Seyyed Ahmad Mousavifar is also introduced in his own words on pages 71-72. However, on the same page 71, he is also introduced in the subtitle; without the content in the subtitle having more information than the text.
• On the other hand, for example, on page 112, Mr. Mohsen Ash’ari is quoted as saying, “Our son-in-law, Hajj Mohammad Yahyawi.” Moreover, in the subtitle of the same page, Hajj Mohammad Yahyawi is again introduced as the son-in-law of Mr. Ash’ari’s family; without providing any further explanation than what is provided in the text.
• On page 145, it is mentioned that “a Lebanese writer has done a similar thing,” but the subject is left without further explanation.

In the clarifications made, precedence and delay are also seen. For example:

• Mohammad Hussein Saadati (a pseudonym) is first mentioned on page 77, but information about him is provided in the subtitle on page 105, and this name is so to speak clarified.
• In subtitle number 3 on page 80, the “Ling and Naqshineh movement” is mentioned, while the “Ling” assassination movement is mentioned later on page 103, subtitle number 2, but the “Naqshineh movement” is not mentioned.
• In addition to Naqshineh, there are other cases of not addressing the topic raised, or not introducing the person mentioned in the text. For example, in the subtitle of page 34, Ayatollah Mohammad Mahdi Rabbani-Amlashi is mentioned but not explained, and the meaning of the “verses of the march day” (p. 26) is not stated.

On the other hand, there is heterogeneity in the introduction of people and topics in the explanation. For example, some are introduced in a short sentence (such as Ghayur Asli on p. 168, subtitle 3 or Mohsen Nozarian on p. 175, subtitle 1) and some others, such as riot of Khalq-e Arab (Arab People), have the longest subtitle in the book (pp. 151-153).

In contrast to explanatory explanations, the explanations that are made for the purpose of verification in the book are more complete (logical, substantiated, and documented). However, what is the desired explanation and how should it be done?

As the term suggests, explanatory means making clear and presenting a clear picture of an ambiguous, underused, or under-introduced statement during an interview. In other words, narrating in oral history usually means presenting documentary material that the compiler provides about people (not celebrities); places (with less fame); concepts, terms, and obscure phrases expressed in the interview; providing the exact date of the event mentioned by the narrator; referring to verses and narrations quoted in the text; refuting,[4] correcting, and completing the material said in the interview session, and the like, in order to establish a more comfortable connection between the readers and the text and to receive additional explanations and with the aim of removing ambiguity from the text or providing more information to the reader. In narrating, in addition to the above, it is also possible to express contradictions and differences in the narrators’ narration of the same subject. In narrating, at least three points should be considered: excerpt writing, documentary writing, and isomorphism.

Excerpt writing. The explanation should not be extended to excessive explanation and elaboration, and to bring in additional and low-value material, marginal and tasteful material, emotional and subjective material, and scattered information. For example, if the interviewee mentions Khorramshahr and Zahedan in his interview, the explanation about these two cities is considered excessive explanation; because there are few people who have not heard of these two cities and do not know where they are located; therefore, in excerpt writing, an attempt is made to introduce the “subject” with the fewest words.

On the other hand, it should be noted that excerpt writing should not be in a way that leads to underwriting and ignoring a relevant and essential material in a way that harms the clarification of the issue. As the ancients said: One should avoid distracting brevity and boring verbosity.

Documentary writing. In explanation, this rule, which is a requirement for compiling and writing any historical work, must also be observed. Therefore, explanations should be based on sources such as specialized dictionaries, specialized encyclopedias, and reference books for each field, documents, or other authoritative books.

Identical writing. Identical and parallel writing should also be observed in explanation. It is necessary that explanations written about similar "subjects" in the text (such as people, terms, and events) be proportionate. For example, we should not introduce a person on one line and another person on half a page. In this case, explanation should observe a certain limit and fluctuate within a certain minimum and maximum range for writing to ensure that we avoid underwriting or overwriting.

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Let us return to the book "Gomnam-e Biqarar (Restless Anonymous)".Although the important names and topics in the book are presented in the form of an index, two errors have been found in the index section of the book:

First, it was observed that some names used in the subtitles were not included in the index. For example, Darreh Gorg, Boroujerd, Iraq, Syria (subtitle 2, p. 131), Paveh, Muslim Kurdish Peshmerga Organization, Qasr Shirin, Sar-e Pol Zahab, Kurdistan, Yasser Arafat (subtitle p. 132) are not included in the index.

Second, the page numbers of the index related to the names from page 68 of the book onwards are incorrectly entered. In fact, it seems that two pages have been added to the number of each page from 68 onwards in the index. For example, according to the index, “Malek Ashtar” is on page 100 of the book; If this name appears on page 98 of the book (and therefore, when searching for names and surnames based on the index, from page 68 onwards, 2 pages must be subtracted).In addition to the above, despite all the efforts made by the respected author, there are still a few spelling and editing errors in the text. For example:

Error in the use of punctuation marks; Typical errors; Spacing errors;

In the list of interviews, number six is ​​the correct number for the second session.

In the footnote on page 177, reference is made to “Photo number 13”; whereas the photos are unnumbered.

Finally, the term “Nojeh coup” used on page 158 of the book is a misnomer, used instead of the Niqab coup. After more than four decades have passed since that event, it is not appropriate to mention the name of martyr Nojeh for a coup.

* Faculty member (retired), oral history researcher; greazizi@gmail.com