Ma`rifat Farhangi Ejtemaei

Military defeat of Iran by Russia and Britain and gradual familiarity with colonialism and developed West during two recent centuries made a deep gap in Iran's history of thinking which led to the confrontation between tradition and modernity. This confrontation which still continues after many years of conflict had a determining role in the political and cultural scene of Iran during Constitutional revolution period, and pulled many thinkers towards different directions with its rhythm. In the meantime, Malek Al-Sho'ara' Bahar and some other scholars like him who inclined towards modernity and westernization during first confrontations between tradition and modernity carried Islamic-Iranian tradition haltingly, due to his connection to literature. So, the present paper seeks to study Bahar's views on West and native tradition (modernism and modernity) with regard to the intellectual and social context of that time in order to shed light on the intellectual trends influencing contemporary developments in Iran's society.