Criticism of the concepts of nation, Iranianness and national affairs in the opinions of Seyyed Javad Tabatabai

The aim of the following article is to criticize the concepts of nation, Iranianness, and national affairs in the opinions of Seyyed Javad Tabatabaei based on his latest book entitled Nation, State, and Rule of Law. In other words, in this book, Tabatabai spoke about the necessity of developing political modernity in Iran, but he did not adhere to the principles of political modernity in formulating political modernity. The main question of this article is; Based on the approach of renewal and the principles of political modernity, what is the criticism of Tabatabaei's definition of the concepts of nation-state, Iranianness, and national affairs?
KEYWORDS: The book of nation, state, and rule of law; Seyyed Javad Tabatabaei; the nation; Iranianness; a national matter; The political/modern nation; Ethnic and cultural nation.
INTRODUCTION
There are not many works that criticize Seyed Javad Tabatabai's ideas and points of view. In his article "Iranshahri and the Problem of Iran", Davud Feyrahi criticized Tabatabai's idea of Iranshahri (Feyrahi, 2019: 1-28). In the part of the conclusion of this article, Feyrahi points out two points: firstly, Tabatabai was aware of the need to formulate a comprehensive theory regarding the Iranian issue in a way that would be a guide for Iranians' national action in various fields, and secondly, … . Hojjat Fallah Totkar in an article entitled "Thoughts on the Conjunction of Ideology", has criticized one of the most important works of Tabatabai, i.e. the book Theory of the Rule of Law in Iran, mainly from the historical perspective and the conclusions he presented (Fallah Totkar, 2007: 86-93). Fallah Tutkar writes in part of the conclusion of this article... Another work that criticizes Tabatabai is the work of Seyyed Javad Miri under the title of Rereading the Idea of Iranshahri, which focuses on the criticism of Tabatabai's idea of Iranshahri (Miri, 2019). The General Theory of Religious Reform: Rereading Seyyed Javad Tabatabai's Narrative of Constitutional Political Philosophy is another work of Miri, in which he criticized Tabatabai's explanation of the concept of nation and national affairs (Miri, 1400: 17-26, 27 -34). These works have criticized aspects of Seyyed Javad Tabatabai's opinions; The present article aims to criticize Tabatabai's definition of the concepts of nation, Iranianness, and national affairs based on the approach of renewal and the principles of political modernity, focusing on his latest book entitled Nation, State and the Rule of Law.
Materials & Methods
To answer this question, based on the approach of renewal and the principles of political modernity, what is the criticism of Tabatabai's definition of the concepts of nation-state, Iranianness, and national affairs? The descriptive-comparative method has been used to explain that first Tabatabai's main opinions about the state, nation, and Iranianness from his book under the title of nation, state, and rule of law are presented and then these opinions are based on historical sources and The components of the ethnocultural definition and the modern/political definition of the nation have been struck.
Discussion & Result
... in connection with the unity of the nation and Iranianness ... Iranians were never homogeneous and pure in terms of language, ethnicity, and culture. Another point is that our identity and "feelings" in the Islamic era were mostly formed based on the Islamic religion and political institutions, in other words, it was defined under the institutions of the caliphate and monarchy, not based on the language component. This is one of the phenomena of the post-constitutional era when some politicians and enlightened thinkers wanted to "impose Iranianness" on their own people in order to rebuild the new Iranian identity.
CONCLUSIONS
 ... Tabatabai's definition of the concept of nation, national affairs, and Iranianness does not correspond to the modern/political definition but to the ethnocultural definition, and the criticism of Tabatabai's ideas starts from here because he renews the current problem of Iranians and how to face them. With that, he has considered the solution to be the redefining of tradition based on new theoretical foundations. On this basis, he explained the political philosophy of constitutionalism as the fourth pillar of the Iranian traditional system and announced in an ingenious prediction that Iranians will mark their future renaissance by returning to the political philosophy of constitutionalism, but in a strange contradiction, the concept of the state - The nation, which should be defined based on the standards of renewal and modern approach, is not defined based on the standards of renewal and modern approach... In other words, his Iranshahri idea does not have a modern approach and requirements, and the principles and vocabulary of political modernity and modern nation are absent in his definition of the concept of nation, national affairs, and Iranianness because he organized his Iranshahri idea and defined the aforementioned concepts. It emphasizes not only the common cause, the sovereignty of the nation, and the satisfaction and participation of individuals, but on the past and objective components such as religion, language, and descent. It speaks of a nation that is a product of nature and history; not an artifact of the will of individuals, ... and the last word is that Tabataba'i's narrative of Iran, his definition of the nation, national affairs, and Iranianness, has a fundamental contradiction with the explanation of the political philosophy of constitutionalism as a form of the forms of the modern state and cannot be combined with the modern state.