Cultural renewal, civilizational resilience keep Iran alive through history
By Ali Akbar Salehi
Head of Iranology Foundation
At every turning point in its history, Iran has emerged transformed yet intact, a nation reborn through crisis, continuity, and creativity. This is not merely a matter of geography or politics; it is a story of cultural resilience and civilizational renewal. What has kept Iran alive through invasions, revolutions, and modern upheavals is its extraordinary capacity for cultural dynamism and civilizational refinement.
The Iranian identity has never been static. Over centuries, it has absorbed shocks, from Mongol conquests to Western cultural incursions, and reconstituted them into something distinctly its own. Iran has not only survived these encounters but turned them into sources of intellectual and moral energy. This embodies what I describe as cultural alchemy where external challenges are transformed into internal growth.
Throughout history, Iranians have shown that endurance does not mean rigidity. On the contrary, it is flexibility, the spirit of moderation and synthesis, that defines Iranian civilization. From the ethical humanism of Ferdowsi and Sa’adi to the spiritual universality of Hafez and Rumi, Iranian thought has long reflected a culture of coexistence and inner balance. I believe the Iranian temperament is one of tolerance and reflection, enduring differences while learning from them.
When Islam entered Iran, it did so as a faith without a unified intellectual structure. It was the Iranian scholars who gave it philosophical coherence and global reach. Figures such as Avicenna, and Farabi, though diverse in belief and method, embodied a Persian tradition of intellectual organization and synthesis. Iran did not merely receive Islam; it systematized, refined, and universalized it. This civilizational contribution, often overlooked, remains one of the most profound in world history.
But the dialogue between Iran and the world has never been one-sided. To understand Iran’s place today, we must listen to those who have interpreted its essence, both from within and beyond.
Iranian cultural thinker Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti, in his work ‘Where Is Iran, Who Is Iranian?’, reminds us that Iran is not defined by uniformity but by its unity within diversity. Ethnic, linguistic, and religious pluralism have long coexisted here without annihilating one another. Iran is neither wholly Eastern nor Western; it is a middle world, a bridge where Eastern wisdom meets Western rationality. Beheshti urges us to rediscover this equilibrium at a time when we risk seeing ourselves through the distorted mirror of Western gaze.
The late Palestinian scholar Edward Said also offers a critical lens. His seminal book ‘Orientalism’ revealed how the West’s knowledge of the East was often a mechanism of control, a cultural prelude to political domination. Said demonstrated that representation itself is a form of power: by defining the “Other,” the West defined itself. This insight matters deeply for Iran. In today’s world of mass media and digital narratives, the struggle over meaning continues. Social networks and global news platforms now play the role that Orientalist scholarship once did, shaping perceptions and legitimizing influence.
Iran, therefore, must move beyond defending its image toward shaping its own global narrative. To be meaningful in the 21st century, Iran must not merely be seen; it must speak, intelligently, confidently, and creatively. The real battle is over narrative, not territory.
Here, the warning of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, the Iranian writer who coined the term Gharbzadegi (Westoxication), remains strikingly relevant. Al-e Ahmad saw Western domination not only in technology or politics but in thought, in the erosion of inner authenticity. He argued that when a nation begins to perceive itself only through Western categories, it loses the power to define its own destiny. His call was not for isolation, but for rooted engagement: a dialogue with modernity that does not dissolve identity.
Today, the same challenge persists. Globalization has intensified both communication and confusion. Iran must rediscover its cultural self-confidence, not through nostalgia, but through renewal. To “return to oneself,” as Al-e Ahmad urged, is not to retreat from the world but to enter it from a place of strength.
The Islamic Revolution of 1979, in this sense, represented more than a political upheaval; it was a civilizational statement. At a time when material ideologies, capitalism, communism, and secular nationalism, seemed to exhaust humanity’s moral vocabulary, Iran’s revolution reintroduced religion and spirituality into public discourse. Its reverberations were global: new academic centers for the study of religion and Islam emerged across Western universities, and the idea that faith could coexist with modern life gained renewed legitimacy.
Forty-five years later, the task before Iran is not to repeat the past but to reinterpret it. The continuity of Iranian civilization depends not on the preservation of forms but on the renewal of meanings. Our challenge is to transform inherited wisdom into contemporary relevance, to turn tradition into a living resource rather than a museum relic.
Cultural resilience, after all, is not the mere survival of heritage; it is the power to recreate heritage under new conditions. Iran’s future, like its past, will be defined by this creative continuity. We must move from reaction to action, from defending our image to designing our message.
Iran is not a relic of the past; it is a living civilization, a vessel that holds within it faith, art, and intellect. To preserve Iran is to preserve a space where meaning, moderation, and humanity can still coexist. In a fractured world hungry for identity and balance, Iran’s enduring voice, if it speaks with wisdom, can once again illuminate the global conversation on civilization.