The book had been illegally transferred to the U.S. by the family of Dr. Malekzadeh (his first name was not mentioned) and his daughter “handed it over” to the Library of Congress, Ali Modarresi told the Persian service of CHN on Sunday.
Modarresi made the remarks after a number of Iranian MPs asked about the fate of the book as “a written Iranian heritage” last week.
“The book was taken from the home of late Modarres by Dr. Malekzadeh, the doctor for the police at the time, on the night when Reza Shah’s police entered his home to send him into exile in Khaf,” he said.
“Since I needed the book for a research project two years ago, I began looking for Dr. Malekzadeh,” he added.
“I found out that his family had taken the book abroad. Through more research, I learned that the daughter of the family had handed the book over to the Library of Congress,” he explained.
According to Modarresi, access to the book is not allowed for the public or even for scholars. However, he said that library officials gave him limited access to the book two years ago after they learned that he was a grandchild of its writer.
“The book comprises eight volumes each of which contains about 500 to 600 pages,” he said.
“It is a comparative study of Iranian history from the Sassanid era to the Constitutional Revolution,” he stated.
He said that the book contains new information about the Constitutional Revolution, which could change views of contemporary Iranian history. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to gain access to the book,” Modarresi lamented.
A political activist and an MP of Iran’s National Consultative Assembly, Modarres began writing the book in 1923. Since he was forced into exile in Khaf in 1928, he could not complete the book.
Seven years later, he was transferred to Kashmar in northeastern Iran. He was killed by persons assigned by Reza Shah in that town in 1937.
Modarres has been praised by the Islamic Republic for his ideas suggesting a close involvement of Islamic rules in politics. He once wrote, “Our Religion is the same as our politics and our politics is the same as our religion… The source of our politics is our religion.”
MMS/YAW
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MNA