Download or read book Hebrew and Persian Revival Movements in the 19th Century written by Sara Molaie and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 19th century, two prominent figures, Eliezer Ben Yehuda and Manekji Limji Hataria led two language revival movements. They both belonged to ethno-religious minority in their general societies and desired to return to their ancestral lands: Palestine in the case of Ben Yehuda and Iran in the case of Manekji. Ben Yehuda was committed to the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language and emphasized the importance of Palestine as the land of Jews while Manekji, as a Zoroastrian leader attempted to revive pre-Islamic Persian language and stressed the standing of Iran as the ancestral land of Zoroastrians. They both devoted their lives to form new national identity. In the case of Ben Yehuda, despite all the challenges, he met his dream coming true, while Manekji enjoyed much less success. These two stories illustrate the growth of linguistic nationalism in the cases of Hebrew and Persian and demonstrate why two movements with similar roots would ultimately have very different fates. The study compares the two movements in the examination of Benedict Anderson's theory of nationalism. This paper is a comparative historical study of the revival movements of Hebrew and modern Persian in the 19th century through the lens of two prominent individuals, Eliezer Ben Yehuda and Manekji Limji Hataria. Both men were committed to using language to form new national identities, and they forged new tools for doing so both at the intellectual level and through the formation of community-level groups. In the case of Ben Yehuda, however, these efforts were challenging but ultimately highly influential, while Manekji enjoyed much less success. These two stories illustrate the growth of linguistic nationalism in the cases of Hebrew and Persian and demonstrate why two movements with similar roots would ultimately have very different fates. The paper will proceed in four parts. The first section introduces Benedict Anderson’s theory on the role of language and religion in nationalism. The second reviews the revival of Hebrew and the role of Ben Yehuda, while the third discusses the revival of Persian under the leadership of Manekji. Finally, the fourth part examines the role of language and religion in response to Benedict Anderson’s theory of nationalism.