Content note: Persian constitutionalist newspaper front page; masthead woodcut shows a field of bodies and rising crowds (Quranic Last Trumpet imagery). This object is shown as it was published. Why
صور اسرافیل (Sur-i Israfil), year 2 no. 3, Yverdon, 8 March 1909
Front page of the exile edition of Sur-i Israfil, printed at Yverdon, Switzerland. The masthead woodcut shows a winged figure blowing the trumpet over a field of bodies and rising crowds, under the Quranic verses on the Last Trumpet that give the paper its name. Beneath, a short notice argues that under international law a ruler may be recognised only by force of control or by the nation's constitution. The tell is the borrowed scriptural frame around a political argument.
- Date
- March 8, 1909
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Sur-i Israfil (Persian constitutionalist weekly, second series published in exile in Yverdon, Switzerland)
- Country
- Switzerland
- Medium
- Newspaper pages
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Swiss Confederation
- Leader
- Ernst Brenner
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (digitised copy credited to Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, urn:nbn:de:hbz:5:1-77172), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (issued 1909, before 1931); Commons tags PD-US-expired, PD-Iran
Sur-i Israfil, year 2 no. 3 (Yverdon, 8 March 1909); Mirza Jahangir Khan / Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda (series editors); via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
سال دوم شماره ۳ صفحه ۱ وَنُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ فَإِذَاهُم مِنَ الأَجْدَاثِ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ يَنسِلُونَ صور اسرافیل فَإِذَا نُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ فَلَا أَنسَابَ بَيْنَهُمْ عنوان مراسلات و تلگرافات ایوردون - سویس ادارهٔ صور اسرافیل Yverdon-Suisse Soure-Esrafil قیمت اشتراک سالیانه ایران — (۲۰) فرانک شهر تبریز — (۱۵) فرانک ممالک خارجه — (۲۵) فرانک هفتگی سیاسی تاریخی اخلاقی پانزدهم صفر المظفر ۱۳۲۷ هجری مطابق ۸ مارس ۱۹۰۹ مسیحی موافق قوانین حقوق بین‌الملل دول حاضره، هر عصر وقتی میتواند کسی را بسمت سلطنت بشناسند و با او معامله کنند که یا قوت و غلبهٔ شخصی اختیارات قطعه را متصرف شده عادلانه یا ظالمانه امور آنرا اداره کنند، و یا اینکه قوهٔ ملیه یعنی قانون اساسی مملکت سلطنت او را تصدیق نماید. و چون استثنائی درکار نیست سلطنت محمد علی میرزا نیز در ایران باید مندرج در تحت یکی از این دو شق باشد تا دول حاضره بتوانند او را نمایندهٔ دولت ایران شناخته با او قرض بدهند قرارداد بگذارند و معاهده کنند. [uncertain word readings] اعلان هر یک از مشترکین عظام وجه آبونهٔ سالیانه هفتگی صور را پس از دریافت نمرهٔ سیم بپردازد دیگر روزنامه برای او فرستاده نخواهد شد. [remainder of the notice not transcribed]
Year two No. 3 Page 1 And the Trumpet will be blown, and behold, from the graves they will hasten to their Lord. (Quran 36:51) Sur-i Israfil [The Trumpet of Israfil] And when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no kinship among them. (Quran 23:101) Address for correspondence and telegrams Yverdon - Switzerland Administration of Sur-i Israfil Yverdon-Suisse Soure-Esrafil Annual subscription Iran - (20) francs City of Tabriz - (15) francs Foreign countries - (25) francs Weekly, political, historical, moral Fifteenth of Safar al-Muzaffar 1327 Hijri, corresponding to 8 March 1909 CE In accordance with the laws of international law of the present states, in every age a state can recognise someone as holding sovereignty, and deal with him, only if either by personal power and dominance he has taken possession of the powers of a territory and administers its affairs, justly or unjustly, or the national power, that is the constitution of the country, confirms his sovereignty. And since no exception is at issue, the sovereignty of Muhammad Ali Mirza in Iran too must fall under one of these two categories, so that present states can recognise him as the representative of the Iranian state and lend to him, make contracts with him and conclude treaties. [uncertain word readings] Notice Each of the esteemed subscribers should pay the annual subscription for the weekly Sur after receiving the third number; the newspaper will not be sent to him thereafter. [remainder of the notice not transcribed]
Masthead, address and price block, date and the legal paragraph are transcribed with some uncertain word readings (marked in text); only the first sentence of the subscriber notice is given. Quranic verses are given with vowel marks normalised, which may differ slightly from the print; the verse references in the translation are FRAME's, not on the page. The ribbon inscriptions in the woodcut are illegible at this size. Translation is literal, machine-made and not checked by a fluent reader.
