Yussef E'tesami (also known as, E'tesam-al-Molk, Mirza Yusuf E'tesami Ashtiani; 1874–1938), was an Iranian journalist, politician, publisher, translator, and writer. He was a member of the second

Majles The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...

(from 1909 to 1912). His daughter was poet

Parvin E'tesami Parvin E'tesami (1907 – April 5, 1941) also known as Rakhshandeh Etesami ( fa, رخشنده اعتصامی), and Parvin Etesami ( fa, پروین اعتصامی), was an Iranian 20th-century Persian poet. Life Parvin E'tesami was born in 1907 ...

Biography

Yussef E'tesami was born in 1874. His father, Mīrzā Ebrāhīm Khan Mostawfī Eʿteṣām-al-Molk was from Ashtian and the head of finance of the Iranian province of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

. He was the elder brother of the architect and painter Abolhassan E'tesami, and the father of the poet

. In the 1890s, Yussef E'tesami established the first typographical printing house in

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

. He was a member of the Iranian Parliament or

in 1909–12, and founded the ''Bahar'' journal in 1910. At various junctures, he served in the Ministry of Education and headed the Royal and Majles Libraries. The ''Bahar'' journal was a sixty-four-page monthly published in two periods; from April 1910– October 1911 and from April 1921–December 1922. As noted in the first issue, the purpose of ''Bahar'' was “to provide a … forum for various significant topics of scientific, literary, ethical, historical, and artistic interest to people of understanding, and to acquaint the public with valuable information.” Most of the journal's material was written or translated by Yussef E'tesami, and a large part devoted to Western culture. To

Edward Granville Browne Edward Granville Browne FBA (7 February 1862 – 5 January 1926) was a British Iranologist. He published numerous articles and books, mainly in the areas of history and literature. Life Browne was born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, ...

(1928, 489) ''Bahar'' appeared "very modern and European in tone;" and in ''

Encyclopaedia Iranica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article ...

'', Heshmat Moayyad points out its "liberal and humanistic" orientation. In addition to his contributions to ''Bahar'', Yussef E'tesami's produced about forty volumes of translations, in particular some Persian translations of

Qasim Amin Qasim Amin (, arz, قاسم أمين; 1 December 1863, in AlexandriaPolitical and diplomatic history of the Arab world, 1900-1967, Menahem Mansoor – April 22, 1908 in Cairo) was an Egyptian jurist, Islamic Modernist and one of the founders ...

's ''Tahrir al-Mara'',

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

's ''Les Misérables'', vol. 1, and Friedrich Schiller's ''Kabale und Liebe''. He is the author also of a commentary in Arabic of Abolqassem

al-Zamakhshari Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian peoples, Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca, Makkah and settled there for five years and has been known since then as Jar Allah ‘God's Ne ...

's ''Atwaq ad-Dahab'', a three-volume catalog of manuscripts in the Majles Library. He died on 2 January 1938 in Tehran.

References

Sources

* Browne, Edward G. 1928. ''A literary history of Persia'', vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar. 1977. Biographical note. In ''Poems of Parvin Etessami'', ed. Abolfath Etessami, p. 342. Tehran: Abolfath Etessami. * E'tesami, Abolhassan. 1958. Biographical note. ''Tehran University News Bulletin'' 374, pp. 34–7. {{DEFAULTSORT:E'tesami, Yussef Iranian journalists Iranian publishers (people) Iranian translators 1874 births 1938 deaths People from Tabriz Iranian Esperantists Members of the 2nd Iranian Majlis Deputies of Tabriz for National Consultative Assembly Deputies of Tehran for National Consultative Assembly Members of the 3rd Iranian Majlis People of Qajar Iran Iranian magazine founders