To attend this webinar please register in advance using this link. After registering you will be sent joining details. The webinar is open to non-members. https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SOrteMzhQSqPXHO20dadlg The Allied occupation of neutral Iran in 1941 was to open a supply route to support the Soviets against the German invasion of the USSR which, but for the defence of Stalingrad, would have led to the capture of the oilfields of Iran and Iraq, on which the UK depended. The operation was a logistical triumph, involving building new docks, extending the railway network, importing rolling stock and locomotives, assembling aircraft at the dockside, as well as building hundreds of miles of roads and importing thousands of trucks, which all gave employment to thousands of Iranians. After the victories of Stalingrad and Alamein, the German threat to the east evaporated and most of the British and American troops were withdrawn to fight in Italy. The operation was thereafter forgotten, at least in England, as a sideshow. The military memoirs of the time supply the detail of the operations on the ground which, since there was very little resistance, lacked military excitement. What Professor Jackson has achieved in his book is to paint a much broader picture, including Iraq, that shows the strategic drama created by Rashid Ali and the mufti of Jerusalem, combined with the earlier threat to the oilfields of Iran posed by the Soviets, who were then in pact with Germany. This was at a time when it looked as though Egypt might be lost and the Allies had precious few troops or equipment to spare. Professor Jackson is Professor of Imperial and Military History at King’s College London and a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has published widely on aspects of British imperial history, with a special interest in the Empire during times of war and with regional specialisms in the history of Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Middle East.  

To attend this webinar please register in advance by using this link. After registering you will be sent joining details. The webinar is open to non-members. This lecture follows on from the talk given by Professor Ashley Jackson on 9th November and will take up the story from the beginning of the occupation of Iran in 1941. The occupation of neutral Iran was to open a supply route to support the Soviets against the German invasion of the USSR which, but for the defence of Stalingrad, would have led to the capture of the oilfields of Iran and Iraq, on which the UK depended. The operation was a logistical triumph, involving building new docks, extending the railway network, importing rolling stock and locomotives, assembling aircraft at the dockside, as well as building hundreds of miles of roads and importing thousands of trucks, which all gave employment to thousands of Iranians. After the victories of Stalingrad and Alamein, the German threat to the east evaporated and most of the British and American troops were withdrawn to fight in Italy. The operation was thereafter forgotten, at least in England, as a sideshow. The military memoirs of the time supply the detail of the operations on the ground which, since there was very little resistance, lacked military excitement. What Professor Jackson has achieved in his book is to paint a much broader picture, including Iraq, that shows the strategic drama created by Rashid Ali and the mufti of Jerusalem in Iraq, combined with the earlier threat to the oilfields of Iran and Iraq posed by the Soviets, who were then in pact with Germany. This was at a time when it looked as though Egypt might be lost and the Allies had precious few troops or equipment to spare. Professor Jackson is Professor of Imperial and Military History at King’s College London and a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has published widely on aspects of British imperial history, with a special interest in the Empire during times of war and with regional specialisms in the history of Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Middle East.  

Maziyar Ghiabi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Prior to this post he was a Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford and a Titular Lecturer at Wadham College; and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).  He obtained his doctorate in Politics (2017) and MPhil (2013) at St Antony's College at Oxford supported by a Wellcome Trust scholarship in Society & Ethics. He is the author of several publications, including two books: Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Power and Illicit Drugs in the Global South (Routledge, 2018). He sits on the Editorial Boards of Third World Quarterly, the Journal of the Social History of Drugs and Alcohol (Chicago University Press), and the Journal for Illicit Economies and Development (LSE Press). His lecture will begin a brief history of the cultivation and consumption of opium in Iran and conclude with a discussion of how governmental and volunteer organisations in Iran deal with their drug problem. His excellent and highly readable book Drugs Politics has just won the MESA Book of the Year Award. The Zoom lecture is open to all, but prior registration is required. Register in advance for this webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q28m13-WR0ya99wEpWtiCw After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Roberta Marin is well known to the Iran Society and to the Oriental Rug & Textile Society, having given us both lectures before. An expert in the art of the Islamic world from the Mediterranean to Iran, she is now based at Ca'Foscari University, Venice. The talk will be live at the Army & Navy Club, with a Zoom option for those unable to attend. Entry is free for Iran Society members.

Sahba Shayani is instructor in Persian at the Oriental Institute, Oxford. He received his M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in Iranian Studies in 2011 and is currently writing his doctoral dissertation at the same institution on the representation of women in Persian literature. Sahba's research focuses on the creation, use and re-use of female archetypes in both classical and modern Persian literature. He is also interested in female poets of Greater Iran, especially in the Qajar period (1785 -- 1925 C.E.), epic literature, literary translation, and Persian language pedagogy. The lecture is open to non-members, who will be encouraged to join the Iran Society. Please click on the Zoom link to join: https://zoom.us/j/96852244913?pwd=eG15Smd1UzNoMlVyUzZlVEl1RWt2Zz09

      Nader Shah ruled Iran from 1736-1747. A military genius, he campaigned almost non-stop in  the Caucasus, Ottoman Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, through to Mughal India, where he famously captured the Peacock Throne. His career ended with assassination at the hands of his own men. This talk will give a general overview of how Iran was transformed from an embattled, invaded, and partitioned realm into what was perhaps the foremost military power in Eurasia—one which brought many neighbouring kingdoms, and even empires, into its orbit. It will explore the meteoric rise of Nāder, the man at the heart of this new ‘Empire’ (Shāhanshāhi), and the transformations which brought about his colossal Empire and, in turn, the transformations which the Empire brought to Iran and the Persianate world more broadly. Mohammad Amir Hakimi Parsa is a PhD student at SOAS. He took a BSc in Mathematics at Royal Holloway before moving to SOAS to study history, In between, he worked as an analyst in the Dept of Energy & Climate Change and at MECS, and wrote articles for Encyclopaedia Islamica.  His extraordinary knowledge of Nader Shah stems from his study of original documents at the Al-Biruni Library in Tashkent.  For all that, he has the gift of lecturing in an easily accessible style that appeals to the non-specialist. The lecture is free and open to non-members, who will be invited to join the society via the website. To register, please follow this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m14iuRuOSO-5gd6j99ShKA After registration you will receive an email with joining instructions