ABSTRACT
The first half of the twentieth century minus the Reza Shah period is unique in the whole history of Persian literature in the amount of satire, lampoons and invectives which were published largely though not entirely through the press, and usually with a political motive. It was characteristic of Iranian history that the fall of an arbitrary state, often even the death of a ruler, led to division and chaos. The first quarter of the twentieth century was a period of revolution, chaos and coup. And in the period after the fall of Reza Shah in 1941 up to the 1953 coup, chaos was resumed and was once again accompanied by licentious journalism and pamphleteering.
