The Iran Society, founded in 1935

Murder in the Legation: A dramatic reading

St Columba’s Church Hall, Pont Street

Our Christmas dinner will be preceded by a reading of a scripted play about the murder in 1918 in the British Legation of the British Military Attaché, the subsequent trial and its political consequences. The script was compiled by the great-grandson of the Military Attaché and will be performed by him with two recent members […]

From Golha to Golistan: Jane Lewisohn

Archiving and Preserving the 20th-century Persian Performing Arts Jane Lewisohn – SOAS Department of Music Jane Lewisohn has devoted many years to running the Golha project to preserve and archive recordings of classical Persian music and poetry. “In this presentation I will highlight some of the challenges the researcher is confronted with in archiving the Performing Arts […]

Dr Richard McClary: The Apotheosis of Brick Decoration in the Persianate World: Qarakhanid Monuments of Central Asia and Some Antecedents in Iran

This lecture examines structures built and decorated in brick during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Following an overview of the some of the antecedent structures built by the Buyids in Isfahan and Na’in, the focus turns to what can be seen to be some of the finest examples of brick decorated monuments in the wider […]

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 […]