1. Khan, Mirza Malkom, “Persian Civilization,” Contemporary Review 54 (February 1891): 242Google Scholar.

2. Kreiser, Klaus, “Der japanische Sieg über RuBland (1905) und sein Echo unter den Muslimen,” Die Welt des Islams 21 (1981): 211Google Scholar, 221–22, 234.

3. Ḥabl al-matīn was published by two brothers, one in Calcutta, the other in Tehran (1893–1931). See Mohammad Sadr-Hashemi, Tārīkh-e jarāyed va majallāt-e Īrān, 4 vols. (Isfahan, 1364 Sh./1985), 1:200–208.

4. Rajabzadeh, Hashem, “Russo-Japanese War as Told by Iranians,” Annals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies 3, no. 2 (1988): 145Google Scholar, 152, 159.

5. On Akhtar see Koloğlu, Orhan, “Akhtar, journal persan d'Istanbul,” in Zarcone, Thierry and Zarinebaf-Shahr, Fariba, eds., Les Iraniens d'Istanbul (Paris, Tehran and Istanbul, 1993), 133–40Google Scholar; Anja Pistor-Hatam, “The Persian Newspaper Akhtar As A Transmitter of Ottoman Political Ideas,” in ibid., 141–47; Parvin, Naser al-Din, “Akhtar-e Eslāmbol,” Iranshenasi 7, no. 2 (1374 Sh./1995): 323–46Google Scholar; Ra'isniya, Rahim, Īrān va ‘Omānī dar āstāneh-ye qarn-e bīstom, 3 vols. (Tabriz, 1374 Sh./1995)Google Scholar, vols. 1–2. There are microfilm collections of Akhtar at Cambridge University Library, University of Chicago (Middle East Documentation Center), Tokyo University (Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa), and a small collection at Munich University (Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen Orients sowie für Turkologie). I am indebted to Professor Kôichi Haneda, Tokyo, for a copy of his institute's microfilm of Akhtar.

6. For further details on public opinion and letters to the editor in Middle Eastern newspapers see Christoph Herzog, Raoul Motika and Anja Pistor-Hatam, Presse und Öffentlichkeit im Nahen Osten (Heidelberg, 1995). On merchants’ letters to Akhtar see Anja Pistor-Hatam, “Non-European Views on the Expansion of Europe: Conflicting Views and Emotions Expressed by the Readers of a 19th Century Persian Newspaper,” ibid., 107–114.

7. Akhtar, 7 February 1877, 2–8.

8. Nateq, Homa, Mīrzā Malkom Khān, rūznāmeh-ye Qānūn (Tehran, 1351 Sh./1972), 1Google Scholar.

9. See Tabataba'i, Mohammad M., Tārīkh-e taḥlīlī-ye maṭbū'āt-e Īrān (Tehran, 1367 Sh./1988), 39Google Scholar.

10. See Pistor-Hatam, Anja, “Iran and the Reform Movement in the Ottoman Empire: Persian Travellers, Exiles and Newsmen Under the Impact of the Tanzimat,” in Fragner, Bert et al, eds., Proceedings of the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies (Rome, 1995), 561–88Google Scholar, 572–74.

11. See, for example, Suzuki, Hitoshi, “A Note on the Jan. 20, 1891 Akhtar Article Concerning the Persian Tobacco Concession,” Annals of Japan Association for Middle Eastern Studies 1 (1986): 310–31Google Scholar.

12. Browne, Edward G., The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909 (Cambridge, 1910), 46–49Google Scholar.

13. Schwentker, Wolfgang, “Japan im 19. Jahrhundert,” in Jürgen, Osterhammel, ed., Asien in der Neuzeit 1500–1950. Sieben historische Stationen (Frankfurt a. M., 1994), 102Google Scholar.

14. Suganami, Hidemi, “Japan's Entry into International Society,” in Bull, Hedley and Watson, Adam, eds., The Expansion of International Society (Oxford, 1984), 186Google Scholar.

15. Sukehiro, Hirakawa, “Japan's Turn to the West,” in Jansen, Marius B., ed., The Cambridge History of Japan, 5 vols. (Cambridge, 1989), 5:443–44Google Scholar.

16. Beasley, William G., The Rise of Modern Japan (London, 1990), 84–85Google Scholar.

17. “Civilization and enlightenment” was one of the Meiji government's slogans. See Sukehiro, “Japan's Turn to the West,” 467.

18. Waqit was published in Istanbul from 1875 until 1883.

19. Akhtar, 10 March 1880, 106.

20. Akhtar, 8 December 1886, 79.

21. Akhtar, 10 March 1880, 106.

22. “Engelīsān-e mamālek-e Āsiyā kh^wāhand shod” (Akhtar, 13 October 1881, 15).

23. Akhtar, 13 October 1886. Japanese modernizing reforms in the European sense are usually seen as having begun with the restoration in 1868, although their historical roots reach back into the beginning of the 17th century. See Schwentker, “Japan im 19. Jahrhundert,” 102.

24. The Japanese newspaper is referred to as Akhbārnāmeh-ye Zhāpūn. Since the first newspaper named “Japan” (Nihon) and published in Japanese only appeared in 1889, the paper mentioned by Akhtar could have been the English journal Japan Herald, established in 1862. See Prakke, Henk, Lerg, Winfried B. and Schmolke, Michael, eds., Handbuch der Weltpresse, 2 vols. (Opladen, 1970), 1:269Google Scholar; Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 9 vols. (Tokyo, 1983), s.v. “Newspaper.“

25. Akhtar, 2 December 1880, 370–71.

26. The importance of education was also highlighted by contemporary Persian intellectuals. In 1898, a “Society of Learning” was formed in Tehran that collected funds for the establishment of secular schools. Its chairman once pointed out the meaning of education, citing Japan as a successful example: “It is education that separated humans from animals, useful citizens from useless ignoramuses, civilized beings from savage barbarians. Education generates light in cultural darkness. Education teaches us how to build steam engines, power plants, railways and factories. Education has enabled Japan to transform itself in one generation from a backward, weak society into an advanced, powerful nation. Education, likewise, will enable Iran not only to regain its ancient glory, but also to create a new generation that will be conscious of individual equality, social justice, personal liberty, and national progress” (cited in Abrahamian, Ervand, “The Causes of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 10 [1979]: 401CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

27. Quoted from Dore, R. P., “Education: Japan,” in Ward, Robert E. and Rustow, Dankwart A., eds., Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton, 1964), 188Google Scholar.

28. Beasley, Rise of Modern Japan, 93.

29. Dore, R. P., “The Legacy of Tokugawa Education,” in Jansen, Marius B., ed., Changing Japanese Attitudes towards Modernization (Princeton, 1965), 100–101Google Scholar.

30. Beasley, Rise of Modern Japan, 94. The percentage of children attending official schools varied according to the region or town they lived in. See Rubinger, Richard, “Education from One Room to One System,” in Jansen, Marius B. and Rozman, Gilbert, eds., Japan in Transition from Tokugawa to Meiji (Princeton, 1986), 213Google Scholar.

31. Rubinger, “Education from One Room,” 228.

32. In fact, there was no Japanese minister of education in 1880, the first one being nominated in 1885 (Mori Arinori, 1885–89). However, a decree for a ministry of education (mombusho) had already been enacted in 1871. See Beasley, Rise of Modern Japan, 95; Rubinger, “Education from One Room,” 202, 224–25.

33. Akhtar, 10 March 1880, 106–107. For the code see Beasley, Rise of Modern Japan, 94.

34. Akhtar, 23 February 1881, 80.

35. Akhtar, 3 February 1890, 191.

36. Ibid.

37. Akhtar, 8 December 1886, 79.

38. Akhtar, 9 June 1880, 208–209.

39. Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, s.v. “Newspapers.“

40. Albert A. Altman, “The Press,” in Jansen and Rozman, Japan in Transition, 236–38.

41. Ibid., 327.

42. Ibid., 245.

43. Benedict, Burton, The Anthropology of World's Fairs: San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915 (Berkeley and London, 1983), 2Google Scholar.

44. Akhtar, 8 March 1892, 204. The Japanese also built traditional pavilions in 1904 at the St. Louis fair and again in 1915 in San Francicso (Benedict, Anthropology of World's Fairs, 21, 23).

45. Akhtar, 6 October 1891, 31.

46. “It boasted the largest number of admissions (over sixty-four million) of any world's fair to date and seems to have generated the kind of interest and enthusiasm in Japan that the Paris 1889 exposition did in France or the Chicago 1893 world's fair did in the United States” (Benedict, Anthropology of World's Fairs, 36–37).

47. Akhtar, 17 March 1890, 240.

48. Benedict, Anthropology of World's Fairs, 2.

49. Schwentker, “Japan im 19. Jahrhundert,” 113.

50. Soviak, Eugene, “On the Nature of Western Progress: The Journal of the Iwakura Embassy,” in Shively, Donald H., ed., Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture (Princeton, 1971), 7–34Google Scholar.

51. Kreiser, “Der japanische Sieg,” 213.

52. Akhtar, 30 December 1890, 155; 6 January 1891, 163; 13 January 1891, 171; 27 January 1891, 188–89; 3 February 1891, 195–96; 17 February 1891, 211. For the Ottoman-Japanese diplomatic activities concerning the Ertughrul see Kreiser, “Der japanische Sieg,” 213–14.

53. Masaharu (1852–1921), a former judge and member of the Japanese Liberty Party, wrote a travel account of his journey to Iran and the Ottoman Empire, consisting of two volumes, published in Tokyo in 1894. The first volume has been translated into Persian by Hashem Rajabzadeh and I. Ni-ia as Safarnāmeh-ye Yūshīdā Māsāhārū nakhostīn ferestādeh-ye Zhāpon be Īrān-e dawreh-ye Qājār, 1297–98 hejrī qamarī (Mashhad 1373 Sh./1994). On Masaharu's life see the Introduction of this book and Hashem Rajabzadeh, “Īrān va Īrāniyān az negāh-e Yūshīdā nakhostīn ferestādeh-ye Zhāpon be darbār-e Qājār,” Iranshenasi 5, nos. 2–3 (1372 Sh./1993): 381–97, 566–79. Traveling with Masaharu, the Japanese officer Noboyoshi Furukawa also wrote an account of his travels in Iran. His book was published in Tokyo in 1890 after having been used by Masaharu for his own account (Rajabzadeh, Safarnāmeh, 20). I am indebted to Professor Rajabzadeh, Osaka, who kindly provided me with a copy of his translation of Masaharu's travel account.

54. Nihon jinmei daijiten (The Big Bibliographical Encyclopedia of Japan) (Tokyo, 1979), 6:479. This information was made available to me by Elisabeth Kaske, Heidelberg, to whom I am grateful for her assistance with this Japanese source.

55. See Rajabzadeh, “Russo-Japanese War,” 145; Mohammad Hasan Khan E'temad al-Saltaneh, al-Ma'āerva al-āār (Tehran, 1363 Sh./1984), 331.

56. Akhtar, 23 March 1881, 115–16 and 30 March 1881, 123–24. Unfortunately, Masaharu's report on his visit to the Ottoman Empire, which is kept in the Japanese Foreign Office, has not been published yet. Professor Rajabzadeh has suggested that it is highly unlikely that a report written for government purposes would have been handed over to a foreign newspaper before government officials had even had a chance to look at it. Therefore, one may conjecture that the “report” given to Akhtar consisted of the private notes of one of the mission's members.

57. Quoted from Marius B. Jansen, “Changing Japanese Attitudes Toward Modernization,” in idem, Japanese Attitudes, 43–97, 65–66.

58. Akhtar, 23 March 1881, 116.

59. See, for example, Pistor-Hatam, Anja, “Tanẓîmât oder ittiḥâd: zwei Konzepte osmanisch-persischer Einigung,” Turcica 27 (1995): 247–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60. Akhtar, 30 March 1881, 123–24 (emphasis added).

61. Tsunoda, Ryusaku, Bary, Wm. Theodore de and Keene, Donald, eds., Sources of Japanese Tradition (New York, 1960), 623Google Scholar.

62. Beasley, Rise of Modern Japan, 99.

63. Ḥabl al-matīn, 5 August 1912, cited in Rajabzadeh, “Īrān va Īrāniyān,” 383.

64. Black, Cyril E. et al, The Modernization of Japan and Russia: A Comparative Study (New York, 1975), 115–16Google Scholar. Black et al describe the Muslim reluctance to borrow from “infidels” in the following terms: “Islam's antipathy to innovation based on foreign models was enhanced by the success of Ottoman statecraft. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries this statecraft expanded the empire's position in Europe at the expense of Christian peoples perceived as infidels inherently inferior to Moslems. Later political and intellectual leaders gradually overcame their sense of innate superiority and became curious about the modern West, but it was not until the twentieth century that modern-minded leaders came to full ascendancy in Turkey.“

65. Akhtar, 24 September 1879, 307.