TEHRAN – An exhibition dedicated to media correspondents and the history of journalism in Iran will open to the public at Khorasan Great Museum, which is located in Mashhad, northeast Iran.

The 12-day exhibit will kick off on Thursday, a day before the National Journalist Day, which marks the anniversary of the killing of an Iranian reporter in Afghanistan in August 1998.

Large copies of newspapers dating from the Qajar era, Pahlavi era, and a select of ones issued on the onset of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War have been selected to be put on show at the exhibit.

Newspaper attachments, old subscription forms and receipts, office letterheads, Press ID Cards, books [of journalism] and pamphlets, special stamps for Reporter’s Day, magazines, and pens for Qajar-era journalists are among other items to be showcased.

The history of newspaper and book publication in Iran can be traced back to the mid-19th century when Mohammed Shah, the third Shah of the Qajar dynasty was in power (1834-1848). According to the Iran Chamber Society, it is also documented that the flashing history of print in Iran started with Zaboor-e Davood in Jolfa district of Isfahan, a province in central Iran, during the mid-17th century and regular printing began with the Fath-Nameh and Jahadieh ressaleh (thesis) in Tabriz during the early 19th century.

However, there are some discrepancies and arguments between researchers and historians about the above facts. Also, some scholars believe Fath-Nameh and Jahadieh are not two separate titles but two different editions of the same book, which is highly unlikely.

AFM/MG