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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Armenian merchants of New Julfa were recognised by contemporaries as being among the most successful international merchants of the 17th and 18th 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
The Takkiyya Mu’avin al-Mulk is a building complex in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, dedicated to the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn ʿAli at the Battle of Karbala in 680, an event of seminal significance to Shiʿi Islam. Private takkiyyas built by social elites were a phenomenon of the Qajar period, […]
The talk will focus on the American Presbyterian mission, which began in the early 1830s and began to decline with the Great Depression’s retrenchment and Reza Shah’s nationalist requirements, eventually leading to the shutting of all mission schools in 1940, except for the one which they ran for their own children, which continued until the 1978-79 […]
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE The Sasanian era (ca. 224-651 AD) was a period of unprecedented cultural, scientific and economic achievements in Iranian history. Ideologically, the Sasanian empire was founded upon the religion of Zoroastrianism, a main feature of which was the worship of the sacred Fire in dedicated fire temples. Many […]
