Iranian History and Historiography: Perspectives and Prospects

Abstract Drawing attention to the large number and extensive variety of books published on history in Iran (1988 to the present), this paper distinguishes three interrelated institutional sources of such publications: state, state‐favored, and non‐state institutions. It is argued that no single institutional source enjoys an uncontested monopoly on the production, dissemination, and reception of the material. Rather, the plurality of historic and historiographic views extends across different spectrums. The impact of translations into Persian is highlighted. Examples are cited from five fields of historical enquiry–national, intellectual, Islamic civilizational, and global histories, as well historiographic methodology. Conditions seem promising for the congelation of a maturer critical approach to historiographic discourse.