Events - 2021

This event will be co-hosted by the Gingko Library to celebrate the publication of Revealing the Unseen: New Perspectives on Qajar Art.   The articles in the first section of the book are dedicated to the arts of painting, illumination and lithography. The second section is also concerned with works on paper but looks at newly introduced techniques such as fingernail art and photography. The third section looks at different materials: tiles decorated with mounted falconers, ikat velvet textiles, carpets as diplomatic gifts and a type of armour known as chahar ‘ayna. The two final articles focus on artefacts acquired through diplomatic and commercial exchanges. A presentation will be made by Gwenaëlle Fellinger, Senior Curator in the Department of Islamic Art in the Louvre Museum where she is in charge of Qajar Art and Melanie Gibson, Senior Editor of the Gingko Library Arts Series. Her publications focus on sculpture, ceramics and glass produced around the Islamic world. Gingko Library will be offering copies of the book for sale at a generously discounted price. The event will be held live at the Army & Navy Club, with Zoom for those unable to attend. There will be a reception upstairs at 6.30. The talk will start at 7pm. Entry is free to members of the Iran Society and to guests of Gingko Library, but prior registration is essential to gain admission. Registration details from info@iransociety.org      

‘Mirrors for Princes’ are mediaeval prose works of advice for rulers or prospective rulers on how they should exercise kingship. They were usually written by a ruler for the benefit of his son and heir, or by a high-ranking official or a senior religious scholar, in which case they were sometimes commissioned by the ruler. They have their origins in the cultural world of pre-Islamic Iran. The first ‘Mirrors’ of the Islamic era were written by Persians in Arabic, but with the re-emergence of the Persian language they were written in Persian. This talk focuses chiefly on two of these Persian-language ‘Mirrors’ which are generally regarded as the finest examples of the genre. They are the delightful and entertaining Qabus-nama written by the ruler of a principality in the Caspian region for his son, and the Siyasat-nama or ‘The Book of Government’, written by the famous Seljuq vizier, Nezam al-Molk, at the request of the Sultan. David Blow is the author of Shah Abbas: the ruthless king who became an Iranian legend - a very readable account of life in Iran in Safavid times. He also compiled Iran through Writers' Eyes, a compendium of travel writing about Iran from earliest classical times to the present day, published with support from the Iran Society. The lecture will be held at the Army & Navy Club, for members and their guests.