The relationship between tradition and modernity in the works of contemporary Iranian intellectuals (from the Qajar period to the present)

The confrontation of tradition and modernity in contemporary Iran is a complex, sensitive and precise issue with many intellectual, historical, political and social delicacies. In addition to addressing the different angles of the issue and providing diverse materials and resources that are sometimes very heterogeneous and inconsistent; the study of this issue also requires some sort of intellectual and scientific classification and reconstruction. The most fundamental challenge that Iran has faced for at least the past 150 years has been the confrontation of tradition and modernity and how to overcome this historical bottleneck. In this confrontation, some people find the only way to escape from the status quo as westernization and blind imitation of the west. Some also insist on the traditions of the past, the traditions that have been associated with many impurities and superstition in the course of events and historical developments and need to be refined and revised. But the past experience reminds us that don’t follow the path of extremist traditionalists and the radical modernists method because they have always failed. In this research, first, the tradition and modernity are defined and explained from the point of view of different scholars using a descriptive- analytical method, and then the historical background of the course of change and transformation are presented at the outset of constitutional movement as a proof of the result. Finally, the comparative analysis of the above issue is discussed and the most important areas of the research are examined.