Jamshid Arjumand Tehrani

Arjmand, Jamshid (b. 1945), film critic, translator and poet of the Gulha Programmes. Born in Tehran, he joined the Pan-Iranist Party at the age of 12 in the early 1950s under the administration of Muhammad Musaddiq. When the latter was ejected from power with the 19 August Coup of 1953, he went underground to issue mimeographed manifestos. However, his political activities soon turned to cultural ones, as he began work in the summer of 1954  on the editorial board of the magazine Firdawsi, published by Nasir Nayyir Muhammadi, while contributing works of free verse in the same period. He was introduced to the field of modern Persian literature by the writers Isma'il Shahrudi and Nusrat Rahmani. He underwent the shock of directly witnessing an accident which killed his mother in 1958, followed by his father's death two years later, leaving him deeply traumatised. Nonetheless, he managed to recover through dogged persistence, so that he was able to enter university. At the same time he published  translations and articles in  Firdawsi, under the editorship of Ni'matullah Jahanbanu'i, and  Sitara-yi Sinama, whose editor-in-chief was Parviz Nuri. In 1961 he was arrested twice for political activities on behalf of the National Front (the democratic organisation led by the house-arrested Musaddiq) and was imprisoned in the Qizilqal'a Penitentiary. He was badly injured in a student demonstration in 1962. He was finally able to finish law school in 1963, when he married Rushanak Kishavarz, daughter of Sayyid Muhammad 'Ali Kishavarz, spokesman of the reconstituted National Front. He set out to study administrative management, then broke off the programme to work as a researcher at the Economic Research Institute and was thus afforded the opportunity to travel extensively throughout Iran, publishing his studies in the Tahqiqat-i Iqtisadi (‘Economic Studies’) quarterly, while carrying on his journalism, translation, article writing and film critique. He founded the Society of Film Critics in 1966 and  in the same year was elected to the board of film critic judges for the Festival of Film for Children and Young Adults. He traveled to France in 1969 to study for a doctorate in Economics and Tourism at the University of Aix-Marseille. He completed his first book translation the same year. Returning to Iran the following year, he undertook extensive and continuous translation and writing work. After 1979 and the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he joined the editorial board of the satirical weekly Ahangar under the editor-in-chiefship of Manuchihr Mahjubi. When it was closed down, Arjmand joined the foreign news department of the Bamdad daily. When it in turn was axed, he moved on to the Mizan daily, which soon suffered the same fate. He has undergone two heart operations, but is as active as ever with his researches and translation work, while now serving as the editor-in-chief of the Bima u Kishawarzi (‘Insurance and Agriculture’) quarterly affiliated with the Insurance Fund of Agricultural Produce. His works include: Dar bara-yi chand cinamagar (‘On Several Film Directors’; 1&2); Dar bara-yi sinama (‘On Cinema’); Film-sakhtan (‘Filmmaking’); Sinamagar (‘The Film Director’); Dastur-i khatt va nigarish (‘A Manual of Orthography and Writing’); Dastnama-yi shiva-yi nigarish (‘A Handbook of Writing Style’); Gurba ru-yi shirvani-yi dagh (translation of the play ‘Cat on a Hot Thin Roof’ by Tennessee Williams); 21 original screenplays, including the reputed Gul Aqa; Huquq-i nivisandih (a dissertation on ‘Writer's Rights’); Jami'a-shinasi-yi radiyu u televizion (‘The Sociology of Radio and Television"); Chihrih-yi 'Uryan-i Amrika ("Unveiled Face of America’); Junbish-i muqavimat-i Irland (‘The Resistance Movement in Ireland’); Nikula Kuchulu (‘Little Nicola’); Sampa (‘Sampe’, about a well-known illustrator); Dunya-yi kuchak-i Dun Kamiliyu (‘The Little World of Don Camillo’, translation of the screenplay of the Italian film); Tarikhcha-yi radiyu u tiliviziyon (‘The History of Radio and Television’); Sang-i Qaysar (‘Caesar's Stone’); Justuju-yi khatt-i mubarizih dar athar-i Mas'ud-i Kimiya'i (‘Tracing the Line of Struggle in the Works of Mas'ud Kimiya'i;); Taswir-i bihisht (‘The Image of Paradise’); Naqd-i film (‘Film Critique’, comprising selections of critiques from the 1960s through the 1990s); Miniyatur-i irani, Rang-ha-yi nur: A'ina u bagh (‘Persian Miniatures, Colors of Light: Mirror and Garden’); Shuhar-i madrasa'i (‘The Husband from School’); A'in-i Hindu va 'irfan-i islami (‘Hinduism and Islamic Mysticism’ (original French title: Les relations de L'Hindouisme et du Soufisme: ‘Le Majma' al – bahrayn’); Iraniyan, Yunanian u Rumiyan (‘Persians, Greeks and Romans’ - original French title: Iraniens, Grecs et Romains). He has edited more than 100 books, including: Arz-i malakut (‘The Heavenly Earth’); Zaval-i tamaddun-i sawdagari (‘The Decline of Commercialist Civilisation’); Shumal u junub (‘North and South’); Tars, umid u pishdavari (‘Fear, Hope and Prejudice’); Zhapun kishvar-i shumarai yak (‘Japan: Number One Country’); Azra u gul; Firishta-yi 'idalat (‘Angel of Justice’); Para-ha-yi duzakh (‘Fragments of Hell’).

Jashn-nama-yi 45 sal-i kar-i Aqa-yi Jamshid-i Arjmand (1-45).