Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub Through the Eyes of Mostafa Malekian

One of the figures who perhaps had the greatest influence on me, both scientifically and ethically, was Dr. Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub. He taught at the Faculty of Literature and Humanities, but I would attend his classes. He possessed a high degree of human morality and was, in the truest sense, noble and magnanimous; for this reason, he left a deep impression on me, even more so than the two professors I mentioned earlier. In my view, Professor Zarrinkoub was, in our contemporary history—that is, from the Constitutional Revolution onward—one of the very few individuals whose mastery of our culture was in a kind of balance and equilibrium with his mastery of Western culture, in the fields of literature, history, and philosophy simultaneously. Therefore, firstly, he viewed everything from multiple perspectives, and secondly, he was truly fair in his judgments. Among the professors in whose presence I have been, I was never as astonished by anyone's breadth of knowledge as I was by Zarrinkoub's; even later, when I entered the Qom Seminary, no professor there impressed me as much as Dr. Zarrinkoub did. Zarrinkoub was very humble, kind, and extremely helpful to those who were engaged in study and research. I never saw any intellectual stinginess in Zarrinkoub, and every time I remember him, my soul is mingled with regret; because I always tell myself that one could have benefited from him far more than this. Of course, I benefited from his presence as much as I could and attended all the classes he held, whether at the master's level or the doctoral level. Yet, despite this, I still feel this regret. I say with absolute certainty that those who are renowned today as top-tier professors of Persian language and literature have never written a single paragraph like Dr. Zarrinkoub, neither in terms of scholarly rigor nor in terms of the eloquence and fluency he possessed in writing. Despite his fame, Professor Zarrinkoub still remained underappreciated, and I take this opportunity to advise my young friends that those who wish to know our culture well must certainly read through a collection of Zarrinkoub's works and not dismiss any point lightly, for Zarrinkoub reflected and presented the result of his reflection; now, after reflection, we may accept or reject his word, but we must not treat his word lightly or ignore it. Despite all the ifs and buts that were raised about the book "Two Centuries of Silence," with some saying that writing this work was more influenced by emotion, I must say that he, in any case, later apologized himself. I never saw him recant "Two Centuries of Silence." Of course, one must always consider the pressures; in the face of these pressures, he always maintained a spirit of peacefulness and a desire for tranquility. In general, I believe that even if we accept that Zarrinkoub recanted in the book Two Centuries of Silence, firstly, the truths that exist in this book are undeniable. Secondly, it is, in fact, one of the signs of truth-seeking and scholarly fairness if a person, at some point in their life, realizes that something they said was mistaken and accepts it; as Zarrinkoub did. But all these matters aside, Zarrinkoub's record is truly a brilliant one, and I am very saddened to see that his works have not received the attention they deserve in these years.

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Dr. Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub from the Perspective of Mostafa Malekian

Source: My Student Years Interview

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