Assistant Professor of History, University of Tabriz
Abstract
Qajar Historians were among the first generations of Iranian people who in 19th century faced the west as an unknown and vague entity. It was difficult and probably impossible for them to grasp a sound understanding of Europe and western civilization in that time. They ought to draw a right depiction not only of the economic, militaristic and intellectual products of the west, but also of the other face of this civilization, i.e. its colonizing plans. But unfortunately, they weren’t successful to give a thorough and complete picture of the west. Their approaches to introduce Europe (Farang in their words) were in most cases incomprehensive and inadequate; a natural consequence of their sketchy and vague familiarity with it. The present paper aims to examine these Qajar historians’ approaches to Europe, western civilization and its multifarious aspects.
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