Vaqaye‘-e Ettefaqiyeh (1851–1861) and the Education of the Iranian Nation in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the discussions of the genesis of the print media in Iran by analysing the first official weekly gazette published for ten years in the country. It first, examines the present scholarship on Vaqaye‘-e Ettefaqiyeh, which disregards the official Qajar gazette as a mouthpiece of the government, portrays it as only one of the administrative reforms of Amir Kabir, or considers it a precursor to more noteworthy print media of the turn of the twentieth century. Then, building upon and expanding such scholarship, this article demonstrates that as the only form of print media in Iran, the Qajar gazette firstly, contributed to the popularisation of reading in Iran, and secondly, introduced Iranians, both those who bought and read it as well as those who heard it read aloud in public spaces, to the current proceedings of the Qajar court, historical developments outside Iran, and most importantly, modern technological and democratic developments in Europe and the New World.