Books in the Iranian Studies series

Iran has undergone considerable social and political upheaval since the revolution and this has been reflected in its cinema. Focusing on the practices of regulation, production and reception of films in Iran, this book explores the politics of Iranian cinema in its post-revolutionary context.

Examines Iran and its position in the contemporary world. This book contains chapters on social developments in the country including gender relations, contemporary politics, international relations, relations with the US and Israel, nuclear weapons and energy programmes, oil and the development of the economy.

Offers an analysis of the poetry and fiction of Afghanistan. This book demonstrates that, within the trajectory of the union between modern aesthetic imagination and politics, the modernist intervention enabled many contemporary poets and writers of fiction to resist the overt politicization of the literary field, without evading politics.

Featuring contributions from scholars of Iranian studies and/or comparative literature, this collection provides a scholarly analysis of Hedayat's life and work using various methodological and conceptual approaches.

Examines Iran and its position in the contemporary world. This book contains chapters on social developments in the country including gender relations, contemporary politics, international relations, relations with the US and Israel, nuclear weapons and energy programmes, oil and the development of the economy.

Examines the Islamic roots of the Baha'i faith through the Qur'anic studies of the Bab (Siyyad Ali Muhammad). This book focuses on both the development of the Babi movement and the continuities and discontinuities with Shi'i Islam.

Despite changes in sovereignty and in religious thought, certain aspects of Iranian culture and identity have persisted since antiquity. This book examines the history of Iran from its ancient roots to the Islamic period, focusing on pre-Islamic Persian religions and literature and their influence upon later Muslim practices and precepts in Iran.

Culture and Cultural Politics Under Reza Shah presents a collection of innovative research on the interaction of culture and politics accompanying the vigorous modernization programme of the first Pahlavi ruler. Examining a broad spectrum of this multifaceted interaction it makes an important contribution to the cultural history of the 1920s and 1930s in Iran, when, under the rule of Reza Shah Pahlavi, dramatic changes took place inside Iranian society. With special reference to the practical implementation of specific reform endeavours, the various contributions critically analyze different facets of the relationship between cultural politics, individual reformers and the everyday life of modernist Iranians.Interpreting culture in its broadest sense, this book brings together contributions from different disciplines such as literary history, social history, ethnomusicology, art history, and Middle Eastern politics. In this way, it combines for the first time the cultural history of Iran¿s modernity with the politics of the Reza Shah period.Challenging a limited understanding of authoritarian rule under Reza Shah, this book is a useful contribution to existing literature for students and scholars of Middle Eastern History, Iranian History and Iranian Culture.

Based around the three key themes - historiography, politics and economy, art and architecture - this collection examines the latest research on Safavid Iran. The book, dedicated to the renowned Safavid historian Roger Savory, will supplement and re-interpret the existing literature on the subject.

This book examines gender and the transformation of contemporary Iran. In particular it documents the changes in women's lives, challenging the idea that the revolution put back the clock for women and showing how they have now become agents of social change rather than victims.

Persian in Use is an elementary Persian language and culture textbook designed for first-year language students at a university level and specifically focused on teaching contemporary Persian as it is actually used. With its colorful and lively design, the textbook offers an integrative approach combining new vocabulary summarized thematically and lexically, interactive dialogues, straightforward explanations of grammatical features, engaging classroom and homework exercises, and samples of literary and popular writings.

Critical approaches to the study of topics related to Persian literature and Iranian culture have evolved in recent decades. The essays included in this volume collectively demonstrate the most recent creative approaches to the study of the Persian language, literature, and culture, and the way these methodologies have progressed academic debate. Topics covered include; culture, cognition, history, the social context of literary criticism, the problematics of literary modernity, and the issues of writing literary history. More specifically, authors explore the nuances of these topics; literature and life, poetry and nature, culture and literature, women and literature, freedom of literature, Persian language, power, and censorship, and issues related to translation and translating Persian literature in particular. In dealing with these seminal subjects, contributors acknowledge and contemplate the works of Ahmad Karimi Hakkak and other pioneering critics, analysing how these works have influenced the field of literary and cultural studies. Contributing a variety of theoretical and inter-disciplinary approaches to this field of study, this book is a valuable addition to the study of Persian poetry and prose, and to literary criticism more broadly.

This collection will explore the myriad encounters which have taken place between Iranians and Russian in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will include some discussion of diplomacy and foreign policy but a central objective of the collection will be to widen the scholarly perspective to incorporate an understanding of other types of encounter, whether political, economic, social, cultural, or intellectual, and both friendly and hostile, especially as these developed beyond the official and elite levels. In particular it will attempt to understand the complexities of the impact on Iran of the Russian presence on its northern borders: the very expansion of Tsarist empire during the nineteenth century threatening Iran¿s independence yet bringing ideas of social-democracy to its doorstep, the Soviet Union in the twentieth century similarly contradictory in its effect, sustaining radical Iranian politics while advancing its own strategic interests.

"Focusing on the Avestan and Pahlavi versions of the Sih-rozag."