‘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. […]
Milan has a fabulous collection of Safavid carpets. Robert Marin, currently in England, hails from the Università Ca' Foscari of Venice. Roberta is well known to the Iran Society and to the Oriental Rug & Textile Society, having lectured to us before. She took an MA in Art and Archaeology with a focus on Islamic […]
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 […]
Sevruguin, Antoin: Kashan bazaar 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 […]
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 […]
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 12th century poet Nizami. They recount the story of the love of the Sasanian king Khusrow for Shirin, a queen of Armenia; the ill-fated […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
