TEHRAN – Top works published on the Islamic Revolution over the past year were honored during the second edition of the Islamic Revolution History Book Awards on Tuesday.

“Absolute Value of a Conspiracy: The Neqab Coup in Documents” won the award for best documentary research.

In this book, scholars Shadab Asgari and Esmaeil Qamarian Moammareh delve into the Neqab (Mask) Coup, which is also known as the Nojeg Coup.

The Coup was attempted on July 9, 1980, by several hundred nationalist Iranian high-ranking officers and paratroopers who made their way to the Nojeh air-force base near the city of Hamadan to lead a military revolt against the newly-established Islamic Republic. 

In the oral history category, the award went to “The Leader’s Mosque: An Oral History of the Keramat Mosque” written by Morteza Ansari based on research and interviews by Hassan Soltani, Ahmad Asgari and Seyyed Mohammad-Amir Ahmadi.

The book chronicles the history of the Keramat Mosque located near the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad. Due to its massive programs for social and religious activities, the mosque is the very epitome of a perfect Islamic center where the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was the imam during the 1970s. Accordingly, it is also known as “the Leader’s Mosque”.

The award for best research and historical study was given to “Iran in the Process of the Revolution: Imam Khomeini and the Clash between Tradition and Modernity”.

Mostafa Taqavi-Moqaddam has authored the book to answer why the Islamic Revolution broke out.  

“A Cautious Contemplation: A Passage to the Political and Social Life of Ayatollah Hajji Sheikh Hadi Barikbin” was selected as best book in the biography and memoir category.

Written by Masud Atashgaran, the book is a biography of Sheikh Hadi Barikbin, a top cleric who was the representative of the Leader in Qazvin from 1981 to 2014. He died in 2017. 

In the documentation section, no books were qualified as best. However, “Days of Sabzevar” was awarded an honorable mention.

The book shed light on the contributions the people of the northeastern Iranian city of Sabzevar made to the Islamic revolution during the 1980s.

It has been authored by Mahmud Shamabadi, Mohammad Keikhosro and Abolfazl Rezai based on research by Esmaeil Hashemabadi and Mohammad Asgharzadeh.

The organizers also paid tributes to several cultural figures, including actor Ali Soleimani for his efforts to promote books on the Islamic Revolution. He died of COVID-19 in 2021.

Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili was among the officials attending the awards ceremony organized at the Islamic Revolution Martyrs Cultural Complex. 

The Institute for Contemporary History and the Iran Book and Literature House launched the awards in 2021 to honor publications on the theme of the history of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Photo: An author (R) is honored during the 2nd Islamic Revolution History Book Awards at the Islamic Revolution Martyrs Cultural Complex in Tehran on April 19, 2022. (Fars/Fatemeh Amuzad)

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