This lecture will examine Iran’s political interactions with Sub-Saharan Africa under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Much of the scholarship on Pahlavi Iran’s global interactions has focused on its relations with the West. Comparatively little attention has been paid to Iran’s relations with the countries of the Global South, and the literature on its interactions with Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly sparse. This has led some to assume that the Shah had little interest in this part of the world, or that it did not play a particularly important role in late Pahlavi foreign policy. In fact, as will be discussed in this lecture, from the early 1960s and with increasing urgency in the 1970s, Imperial Iran worked to carve out a position for itself on the African continent, and developed deep political, cultural and economic ties with the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Robert Steele is now a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics  after a spell at the University of California, Los Angeles.  He has written a book on the inside story of the Persepolis celebrations of 2500 years of Iranian monarchy and is currently researching Iran's policy towards sub-Saharan Africa. This will be  a zoom lecture, starting at 7pm.  The link will be published shortly before the event.

    [caption id="attachment_917" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sevruguin, Antoin:           Kashan bazaar[/caption] Shahs and their courts, royal art and architectural patronage, capital cities, and dynastic histories still dominate narratives of Iran’s past. Although these narratives provide us with invaluable insight into the history of Iran, they only address a small portion of people, artifacts, buildings, and cities of its past. In other words, royal figures and architecture consisted of a minority of the population and built environment of the capital cities of Tehran, Isfahan, or Shiraz, while they were virtually absent from the lives of many other cities across the Iranian Plateau. So, who built those cities? And how? This talk focuses on the reconstruction of the city of Kashan, a provincial urban center in central Iran, after a devastating earthquake in the late eighteenth century. By examining the regional and local political histories of Kashan concerning its notable households and their architectural patronage, this study discusses the role the local elites played in the revival of the city’s economy and built environment with no significant dynastic interference from outside. Nader Sayadi is a post doctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  He is a specialist in Islamic art, architectural, and urban history with a concentration on early modern global economic history. His academic and professional background is in historic preservation and architectural design. His research interests include textile history, the built environment of manufacturing, commerce, trade, and mobility, the material culture and built environment of power and piety. His talk will cover the architectural and urban history of the city of Kashan, in the eighteenth through the nineteenth century from the viewpoint of the local economy and the craft of silk weaving. This talk will be held on zoom.

The talk will look at the rise of Jews in the Iranian public sphere between 1900 and 1925, starting with a background of the conditions faced by Iranian Jews in the nineteenth century and their involvement and interest in the Constitutional Revolution. This would include questions about parliamentary representation, greater access to the press, and the expansion and modernisation of Jewish education. A discussion of the development of the Jewish press will follow, covering the change in tone, language, and self-confidence in the years 1915-1925 between three major Iranian-Jewish publications. This will be followed by a short discussion of Iranian-Jewish poetry from the period, showing how it parallels developments in the press. The talk will end with the story of the MP and newspaperman Shemuel Hayyim as the culmination of the expansion of the Jewish public sphere, asking how his arrest and execution set the tone for the community as it headed into the Pahlavi period. Daniel Amir is a DPhil student of Iranian history at Oxford University. He has worked with the BBC and as a freelance journalist.

This event will be to celebrate the publication of this lavishly illustrated book by Barbara Brend, independent scholar of Persian art. The Khamseh is a set of five poems by the 12^th century poet Nizami. They recount the story of the love of the Sasanian king Khusrow for Shirin, a queen of Armenia; the ill-fated love of Leila and Majnun; the storied told by seven princesses to Bahram Gur; and the story of Alexander the Great. Both illuminated manuscripts were made in Herat in the 15^th century and one of them contains paintings by the incomparable Behzad. Barbara Brend will give an account both of the poems and of the miniatures.  A reception will precede her talk. This event is open to members of the Iran Society and their guests, who need to register beforehand.        

Ali Ansari is the Professor in Modern History with reference to the Middle East at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where he is also the founding director of the Institute for Iranian Studies. He is a senior associate fellow at RUSI and sits on the Governing Council of the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS).  The lecture will be held at the Army & Navy Club and will be preceded by the AGM of the Iran Society. The lecture will start at 7pm, preceded by the AGM (for members only) at 6, with an interval for drinks in between.

Little is known outside Iran about the silverwork produced in Iran during this period. John Rogers, of the Chiswick Auction House, has been studying the subject for some years and has acquired a small collection himself. His talk will be about the current state of his knowledge of this subject and he will bring some of his own items to show. Members are welcome to bring items of their own for discussion if they wish. As numbers will be limited, this lecture will be a ticketed event for members and guests (max 1 guest per member). Nearer the time details will be sent out as to how to register. The lecture will be held at the Army & Navy Club at 7pm.

Statue of Sir John Malcolm in Westminster Abbey Sir John Malcolm left Scotland at a very young age to join the army of the East India Company in Madras. In 1799 he was sent to lead a diplomatic mission to Iran. Two further missions followed in 1808 and 1810. This was at a time of some rivalry between London and the East India Company over their conflicting policies on Iran, which ended with all diplomatic dealings with Iran being conducted from London. In 1815 he wrote the monumental History of Persia.  Stuart Horsman is a member of the Iran Society council. The lecture will be held on 15th November at 7pm at the Army & Navy Club

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.