Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The traditional gymnasium of urban Iran and neighboring countries such as Turkey, Afghanistan and Tajikistan is known as the zūrkhāna. The zūrkhāna (lit. the house of strength) is recognized as an institution where the “ancient sport” (varzish-i bāstantī) is practiced and learned. Apart from the athletic values the zūrkhāna represents for the Persian people, this ancient Iranian institution has been a symbol of their very identity. As complex as Iranian identity is, the zūrkhāna in many ways manifests this complexity by being a focal point where a variety of contradictory facets of Iranian identity meet. While the zūrkhāna has been a citadel of traditional moral ideals, namely, the ethics of Javānmardī (literally ‘young-manliness’, also translated by some as ‘chivalry’), the zūrkhāna has also been at times a hangout for thugs and in the political atmosphere of the 1953 Iranian coup d’état that overthrew Moṣaddiq, the former prime minister of Iran, it played a very political role. In my paper, I will portray the zūrkhāna as an image of the Iranian collective memory that reflects a mutually shared set of beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes. I will do so, firstly, by providing a survey of the traditional athletics of the zūrkhāna, secondly, by treating the multifaceted roles of the zūrkhāna, and thirdly by explaining the trilateral symbolic facets that constitute the contradictory character of the zūrkhāna within the context of nationalism, Sufism and Shi’ism through the examples of three major figures in the history of this institution.