The Iran Society, founded in 1935

Tracing water buffalo in the medieval Islamic world

In present day north-western Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, water buffalo are a common component of livestock farming, thriving in wetland environments and providing milk, meat, and, until recently, animal traction. Like other established populations in Egypt or southern Italy, however, the story of how and when they arrived there is mysteriously opaque, based on art historical discussions of ancient representations, […]

Prof. Ashley Jackson: World War II in Iran – the Allied Occupation

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 […]

The Allied Occupation of Iran and Iraq in World War II – Part 2

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 […]

Maziyar Ghiabi: History and Intoxication in the Lives of Iranians

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 […]

Roberta Marin: Safavid carpets in Italian collections

Army & Navy Club 36-39 Pall Mall, London, United Kingdom

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 […]

Sahba Shayani: The Women of the Shahnameh

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 […]

Dr Layla Diba: Kamal al Molk and the Invention of the Modern Iranian Landscape

Abstract: The recent discovery of a group of six late 19th century Iranian oil on canvas landscape paintings and a large corpus of 19th century Iranian photographs held in a private collection outside of Iran, has provided the impetus for this lecture. The corpus of landscapes was painted by the leading court painter of the […]

Dr Fereydoun Ala: Prince Abbas Mirza (1789-1833)

Prince Abbas Mirza, son of Fath Ali Shah, was Crown Prince and, as was the tradition, was Governor of Tabriz. He  modernised the army and many institutions and was the first interface with visiting European envoys, who had to pass through Tabriz on their way to Tehran. He died young and many regretted that he […]

Prof. Nacim Pak-Shiraz: Women in Iranian cinema

Army & Navy Club 36-39 Pall Mall, London, United Kingdom

Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz is Personal Chair of Cinema and Iran, and Head of Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh. After a B.A. in Tehran, she completed a graduate programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, followed by an M.A. in the Anthropology of […]