جاباني، محمد. سرزمین و مردم قوچان. مشهد: نشر اطلس، ١٣٨۵، ٣٨٧ص
Jabani, Muhammad. Sarzamin va Mardum-i Quchan. Mashhad: Nashr-i Atlas, 1985, 387pp.
ABSTRACT
The Land and People of Quchan
سرزمین و مردم قوچان
In this book, Muhammad Jabani draws from interviews and documents that he has gathered over the years from local sources and combines it with his own ideas, to present a portrait of The land and people of Quchan. Although this portrait is not free from the detriments of ethnic tensions, on account of the author’s attachment to his native city, it contains the kind of detailed information that can only be articulated by those who love their own culture.
The first three sections rely on historical books to describe the founding of Quchan and the history of old provinces and cities of the region, including Khabushan and Ustuva. The citations of these sources, however, are limited to listing the name of the books.
Thereafter the book depicts New Quchan along with its neighbourhoods. The author describes the town’s food and clothing, and provides an extremely detailed account of the trade, so much so that many of the city’s shops are listed with their addresses.
He also provides statistics pertaining to schools and libraries and concludes with a consideration of several contemporary artists.
Apart from descriptions of the local language and customs, he speaks about the local sports and games, the latter part of which is perhaps the most outstanding of the entire book as it contains detailed descriptions of a remarkable number of local games.
The book has also a section dedicated to the geography of the region, ethnic division and traditions of the surrounding villages.
Overall, the organisation and format of this book is such that every now and again many pages are devoted to relatively trivial issues which take precedence over important ones. The latter are comparatively neglected, completely overlooked, or suddenly appear in unexpected sections.
Iradj Esmailpour Ghouchani
Translated by Niki Akhavan