The report of the visit to the library and museum of the Parliament, which took place on the 1st of Amordad, 1402 (23 July, 2023), with several co-religionists and members of the Zoroastrian Association of Tehran, is given below.
At 8:45 am, as per the call of the Tehran Zoroastrian Association, we and those who had signed up to visit the library and museum of the parliament and offer a wreath to the sculpture of Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh, gathered in front of the entrance, and with the guidance of Esfandiar Ekhtiari, the representative of Zoroastrians in the Parliament, we went inside. We went.
First, we entered the old parliament building. We sat on the chairs where representatives such as Modares, Taghizadeh, and other representatives used to sit and make decisions for the country’s benefit. When we asked which was the seat that Arbab Keikhosrow sat in, the guide answered that he was a member of parliament and did not have a specific seat.
Mohammad Hossein Khalili, the head of the Parliament Museum, first told the audience about the history of the parliament.
Head of the Parliament Museum: This building, which is nearly 154 years old, was at first the residence of Mirza Hossein Khan, the Qazvini general of Mushir al-Dowleh (the famous prime minister of the Naserid period), and after the death of Mushir al-Dowleh, Gholam Ali Khan Malijak and his wife Akhtar al-Dowleh (daughter of Naser al-Din Shah) lived in it. In 1285, when Muzaffar al-Din Shah Qajar issued the constitutional order, the king’s court took over this house, and the parliament building was established there. In the first rounds, the parliament was not like this and had no seats; When Mohammad Ali Shah cannonaded the parliament and destroyed and closed it, Arbab Keikhosrow rebuilt this parliament in the French parliament style and used the chairs you see here today.
This parliament has seen several events, the first of which was the closing of the parliament with cannon by Russian Colonel, Liakhov. A fire broke in 1373 (1995) after which it was completely rebuilt. Even the chairs you sat on today differ from those that Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrukh brought to this parliament, but this model was chosen and used from among the five models made for reconstruction. This parliament has several historical events in its heart. After the incident that closed the parliament, Reza Khan overthrew the Qajar regime in the fourth parliament and established the Pahlavi monarchy. In this same parliament, with the efforts of Dr Mohammad Mosadesh, oil was nationalized. The capitalization bill was approved, which was the cause of the assassination of prime minister, Hassan Ali Mansour. The only sad event in the parliament was separation of Bahrain from Iran. This parliament last held a meeting on the 16th of Bahman 1357 (5th of February 1979).
Mohammad Hossein Khalili added that Valiullah Nasr was the first person who suggested building the parliament library, but it still needed to be done. After the parliament was cannonaded and closed, Arbab Kheikhosrow founded this library.
Bayat, another guide, said: the parliament library has housed books in the field of humanities for nearly 120 years, and this is a unique collection in the country. Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh tried hard to collect various books in the field of human sciences. The books kept in this library are in French, Russian, German, English, and Persian languages. This library has nearly 500 books about Zoroastrian religion. We request all researchers and book lovers to come to this library. Membership in this library only needs a national card, and you can use the parliament library from Saturday to Thursday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. He added that the construction of the parliament library began in 1332 (1954), and two years later, in 1334 (1956), this library was opened during the fourth parliament period.
Zoroastrian representative in the parliament, Esfandiar Ekhtiari, said: First of all, let us remember the late Parviz Farvahar, who was responsible, every years, for the preparation of visits to the library of the parliament; may his soul rest in peace. The second point is that Arbab Kheikhosrow became representative in the second parliament, and our first representative was Arbab Jamshid Jamshidian. He was the representative of Zoroastrians in the National Assembly for eleven terms. Of course, he was a representative from the second term to the 22nd term, but due to the wars and the closure of the parliament, this parliament was in a state of disrepair for several years.
The last point is that Arbab Jamshid Jamshidian and Arbab Kheikhosrow Shahrokh were both heads of the supply department of the parliament and were not members of parliament.
In the end, a video about the fire of the parliament in 1373 (1995) and how it was rebuilt was played for the visitors. Then, we went from the old parliament hall towards the museum of gifts and photos from the old parliament hall, where there were calligraphy works and paintings by Kamal al-Molk and his students. Upon entering, when we stood in the room in front of the entrance, Esfandiar Ekhtiari pointed with his hand to the right side of the entrance and said, this is the picture of Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh, which is mounted on the wall.
Then we left the old Parliament building, and in the warm weather of the first day of Amordad month 1402 (2023), we walked towards the parliament library by the ancient walls of the old parliament, while taking a look at the yard with pine trees in it, that were casting their shade. First, we stood in the large entrance hall of the library where the statue of Arbab Keikhosrow and Yousef Ashtiani (famous as Etesam al-Mulk, father of Parvin Etesami) were standing. In front of the statues the library guide explained the library’s history.
The guide said: Sami al-Dowleh, the parliament speaker at the time, bought several volumes of books on the constitutional rights of other countries and brought them to Iran. They translated them into Farsi, and using its contents, they could write the country’s first constitution based on those laws. Therefore, with these explanations that I gave, 1285 Solar (1879) year, the year of the victory of constitutionalism, can be considered the basis for establishing the [parliament library. But its fundamental founder is Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh, who founded the Library of Parliament at the end of the second term of the Parliament. At that time, the number of books in the Parliament Library was only 51 volumes. Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh bought 202 volumes of books from the Library of Mirza Abul Hasan Jelveh for the amount of two thousand five hundred dinars for the Parliament Library on Esfand 8, 1290 (29 July 1912). Then, on Amordad 8 1291 (30 July 1912), one thousand and ninety-one volumes of books in French, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, English, German, and Russian languages, which Ehtesham al-Sultaneh had offered for the establishment of the National Library, were added to the Parliament library. Fifty volumes were also purchased later.
Initially, the library was supposed to be officially opened at the same place as Hoz Khaneh. However, this did not happen due to various events, obstacles, and delays between legislative periods. Hossein Pirnia (Motamen al-Molk), the chairman of the National Council, was against the library’s opening in that tiny place. He believed that a suitable place for the library should be considered first. Therefore, in 1302 (1923), after some time, the 4th period Parliament bought the buildings located east of Baharestan Palace and its mansions. One of these buildings was a stable and carriage house. They turned it into a library. In 1304 (1925), this library was inaugurated in presence of nobles and elites. Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh chose a person named Mashayekh Naqibzadeh as supervisor of the library, and in 1305 (1926) a list of the books was prepared by Yusef Ashtiani. This place, known today as the Parliament Library, was opened by Farah Diba, the wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Taghi Tafazoli, head of the parliament library, in 1339. Arbab Kheikhosrow had close connection with the Parsees of India. Because the Parsees of India were advanced in the printing industry, he took several books from the Persians of India and gave them to this library.
The guide then continued: “If one wants to search for a book, the best way is to visit the library website, www.ical.ir and search for the desired book, then come to this library and benefit from the contents of that book.”
Then we went to the section on converting manuscripts and printed books into digital books.
The guide of this department said: The job of this department is to scan old sources. Here we scan documents from all periods, from constitutionalism to revolution. So far, we have scanned one and a half million copies of the revolution period and 280,000 publications of the Qajar period and the first and second Pahlavi period. We also digitized stone, lead, calligraphy, and old prints. This center has connections with Yeganegi library. He added that if you have a handwritten or old book at home, we will digitize the book for you here for free. After taking a digital copy of the book for storage in the library center, we will return the other digital copy to you along with the book. Among these devices that we use here, there are some in the Yeganegi library, which themselves do the work of converting books into digital versions.
When our visit to this part was over, we went to the book restoration department, and Jafari, the person in charge of the restoration, gave explanations there. Jafari said: All books and objects, like humans, have a period to live and stay; of course, by restoring the book, we will postpone the death time of the books.
This is how we process our work: after arriving the books are first disinfected so that the destroying factors are destroyed and will not be able to damage the book any further. Then we try to restore the books. For example, this book that I have now was damaged by a termite. We were only able to remove the acidic agent from the page so that the book would not be destroyed, but parts of the pages of the book that the termite destroyed can no longer be repaired. In the restoration work, we try to make it clear that the book has restored because otherwise, restoring the book to its original form is a kind of forgery. Still, we do this restoration so that the fixed part is invisible. But, we do the restoration in a way that the restored part doesn’t show much.
