Prince Arfa' was a remarkable man, The son of a Tabrizi cloth merchant, by dint of hard study and good fortune he attracted the attention of Naser ed-Din Shah and rose rapidly through the bureaucracy. He became ambassador at St Petersburg and consul in Tiflis (Tbilisi) where he built a substantial house that still stands, although a little dilapidated, today, and a summer palace in Borjomi, which is better preserved.  In his retirement he built a magnificent palace for himself in Monaco, known as Villa Daneshgah (University), now known as Villa Ispahan. His biography by Michael Noel-Clarke, Prince Arfa’: Memories of a Bygone Age: Qajar Persia and Imperial Russia 1853–1902 was published recently. Yuliya Smyk lives in Monaco and has studied this building for some years. Her talk will be followed by the Christmas party, for which tickets must be purchased. Details of price etc will follow.

Dr Homa Katouzian is the Iran Heritage Foundation Research Fellow, St Antony’s College, and Member, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. He is Senior Editor, Iran Namag, A Quarterly of Iranian Studies; Co-editor, Routledge book series in Iranian Studies; and Editor, International Journal of Persian Literature. He taught and published in economics for eighteen years, but his recent and current research interests are in Iranian history and politics, the comparative sociology of Iranian and European history, and modern and classical Persian literature. He has published a great number of books about the recent history and economics of Iran and a few years ago gave us a very entertaining lecture about the scurrilous mediaeval poet Obeyd Zakani. This event is for members only.   Members will be required to register in advance to attend.  

Join the historian Tom Holland in illustrated conversation with Ali Ansari discussing the role of the Persians in world civilisation, looking at their contributions to religion, philosophy, politics, literature and wider culture, including horticulture and fashion. From Paradise and the walled garden to the business suit and the high heel: what has been the impact of ‘Persia’ on the Western imagination?

Tom Holland is a best-selling historian and co-host of the ground-breaking podcast The Rest is History, described by one commentator as ‘probably the most listened-to podcast in the country’. His many books include Persian Fire (2006), The Shadow of the Sword (2013), and Dominion (2020). His latest book Pax about the heyday of the Roman Empire is due out this spring.

Ali Ansari is Professor of Iranian History at the University of St Andrews, an occasional guest on The Rest is History, and author of Modern Iran since 1797 (2019), The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (2012), and Iran: A Very Short Introduction (2014). He is currently researching a book on the Politics of History in Modern Iran.

Iran has a long history of trade and cultural relations with China, going back to almost mythological times. At present, China plays a very big part in Iran's economy.  This lecture will take a quick run through the historical relationship and then concentrate on the role that China has played with Iran in the 20th century. Dr William Figueroa joined the Cambridge University Centre for Geopolitics in 2022 as a postdoctoral research associate.  His dissertation, ‘China and the Iranian Left: Transnational Networks of Social, Cultural, and Ideological Exchange,’ explores connections between Iranian and Chinese constitutionalists, socialists, and Maoists from the early 1900s to the late 1970s, and forms the basis of his current book project. This lecture is open to members and their guests only. Registration is required for this event:  Members will be sent a link to register in due course.

In late antiquity, the Roman and Sasanian Empires were actively engaged with one another in both conflict and collaboration. It would be on the battlefield however, that leadership would be put to the test the most, with generals competing for success and their respective ruler’s favour. The late sixth century was a time of conflict and therefore a large amount of attention has been given to examining campaigns, battles, and diplomatic encounters, with little attention given to the practicality of military command. This talk aims to tackle a critical aspect of the lives of military men: how did both empires deal with their respective generals according to their battlefield success or defeat?  Can we find similarities or differences between the methods they implemented, and the significance they play in understanding the military culture of the two empires? Sean Strong, one of the winners of last year's Iran Society study grants, is undertaking doctoral research at Cardiff University on the wars between the Sasanians and the Romans, where he has encountered some striking differences in the way each side commanded its armies, reflecting perhaps some national characteristics. The lecture will be held at the Army & Navy Club. It is a joint BIPS/Iran Society event and is free to members of both organisations and their guests. Registration is required before the event. A link will be circulated to members shortly beforehand.  

During the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), Iran’s first revolution, both men and women took to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction with the existing autocratic regime. These protests and the connected revolutionary movement critically impacted the making of modern Iran as a nation state. Photography, which had become available and affordable to the general public for the first time through photographic picture postcards, played a crucial role in this process. Political news was circulated on these photographic picture postcards, complementing lithographed, illustrated newspapers and telegrams, while also playing a role in aesthetic and artistic changes, which led to a new kind of revolutionary portraiture. In this talk I will analyse the role of revolutionary portraiture by focusing on the role photography played in making the revolutionary heroes Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan into nation-wide known and recognizable celebrities. I will then examine how the role of revolutionary portraiture changed at the turn of the century from first providing an authentic document of political struggle to, in later years, the production of photographic souvenirs, a hollow imitation of the first. Mira Xenia Schwerda (PhD, 2020, Harvard University) is a historian of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art, specifically print and photography. As a Getty/ACLS postdoctoral fellow in the history of art, she is currently at work on her book manuscript-in-progress, tentatively titled "Between Art and Propaganda: Photographing Revolution in Modern Iran (1905–1911)." Cross-cultural contact and translation play a key role in her work, she is the co-editor of the journal "Art in Translation" and has published her academic work in both English and Persian. Dr. Schwerda has worked at the Harvard Art Museums, where she curated the photography section of the exhibition "Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran" and is the co-founder of the "Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series." She has taught courses in the history of photography, Islamic art history, and South Asian art history in the Department of Art History at the University of Edinburgh. She is a founding member and the managing director of "Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online." The lecture is for members and their guests and will be held at the Army & Navy Club, in the Drawing Room, preceded by the Annual General Meeting. Those wishing to attend will be required to register beforehand, as space is limited.  

The Armenian merchants of New Julfa were recognised by contemporaries as being among the most successful international merchants of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, with a trade network that extended East-West from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and North-South from the White Sea to the Indian Ocean. This lecture discusses the causes of this extraordinary success, focusing in particular on the Isfahan factor: the social capital that the Julfa Armenians accrued through their location in Isfahan, the cosmopolitan capital of the Safavid Empire. Edmund Herzig is the Masoumeh and Fereydoon Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies and a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. A historian of Iran, the Caucasus and Central Asia, he has worked on Safavid history (Iran and the World in the Safavid Age, 2012, with Willem Floor); on early modern trade and merchants (numerous articles and book chapters); on the post-Soviet Caucasus (The New Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, 1999); on the uses of history in contemporary Iran and the post-Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia (The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity, 2005, with Marina Kurkchian); and on the foreign relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran and the Former Soviet South, 1995).

From 1865, the Indo-European Telegraph Department (IETD) and its network formed a vital link between London and India. Initially constructed for imperial security, the IETD network played a transformative role in connecting empires, cultures and peoples across the British empire and beyond. But what was the telegraph network’s impact on Iran? And how was it used by local populations? Focusing on the tumultuous city of Shiraz in the 1890s, this presentation examines the diverse uses of IETD telegraph infrastructure by local communities. It ponders the impact of the IETD network in Iran and argues that the telegraph was not merely a 'tool of empire' but also a space where unintended users sought refuge, voiced demands, and formed identities. Sebastian Rose is a PhD candidate at Greenwich University. His current research focuses on a history of the telegraph and the role of the Indo-European Telegraph Department. His interests lie in connecting remote telegraph stations on the frontier of Britain’s Indian empire, to larger terrestrial and maritime trans-imperial and trans-regional networks. In particular, he is interested in analysing the agency and impact of local actors and ecologies in shaping and being shaped by telegraph infrastructure in Iran, the Gulf and the wider Indian Ocean world. Sebastian’s research also focuses on the political role of ‘technical experts’, analysing labour and work and its imprint upon the body, and the divergent systems and technologies of communication that functioned alongside telegraphy.

Sussan Babaie is Professor of the Arts of Iran and Islam at the Courtauld Institute. She is best known for her work on Persian and Islamic Art of the early modern period. She has written extensively on the art and architecture of the Safavid dynasty. Her talk will be held in St Columba's Church Hall, Pont Street, followed by a Persian dinner. This will be a ticketed event for members only. Members will receive booking information. Booking will close on 7th December.