Dr O’Sullivan has undertaken extensive research in the German and British archives on the subject of secret operations by both sides during World War II in Iran, and has produced two books on the subject. The first one deals with the German effort and the second one deals with the British counter-effort. His work shows why the Allies needed to occupy Iran at the time.

To be followed by the Christmas Party.  Admission by paid ticket only.

THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT.  PLEASE EMAIL THE OFFICE TO BE PUT ON THE WAITING LIST.

In the wake of the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the new régime aimed for an independent domestic cinema with Islamic and educational content in the service of the revolution. Cinema as both an industry and an art-form went through a process of cleansing and purification. As a result, many young non-professional Islamic revolutionaries started making their own state-funded ideological films. However, this new wave of Iranian cinema didn’t find its true cause until the start of the Iran-Iraq war. War became the main focus of these young Islamic filmmakers. This new wave of Iranian cinema, known as the Sacred Defence Cinema, has gone through several phases and continues to be an important but less known part of the cinema of Iran. This presentation is an aesthetic and socio-political analysis of the Sacred Defence Cinema through all its phases. The presentation includes both documentary and fiction films, with a focus on two of the most prominent figures of this cinema: Morteza Avini and Ebrahim Hatamikia.

Georgians made many important contributions to Iran, particularly under Shah Abbas I, as military men, provincial governors and builders.  Allahverdi Khan Undiladze, who built the eponymous bridge over the Zayandeh Rud in Isfahan, was a Georgian.  In Georgia, however, wherever one looks at a ruined church one is told that it was destroyed by Shah Abbas. Did Iran contribute nothing to Georgia other than ruin and destruction? Professor Rayfield is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He has written many books about Russian and Georgian history and literature. He has translated Georgian poets and prose writers into English and is also the author of the Georgian-English dictionary.  He is much in demand as a lively and entertaining lecturer on Georgian history and literature. Members of the British-Georgian Society are invited to this lecture, which should make for some animated discussion afterwards.

The lecture will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting at 6.15pm

The Mosque of Shaykh Lutfallah in Isfahan is one of the most significant of the many historical buildings of Iran, and it is certainly one of the most beautiful. However, it is also one of the most misunderstood buildings in the country, and conclusions regarding a number of aspects of the mosque still elude academics. Built on the eastern side of the Maydan-i Naqsh-i Jahan in the early 17^th century, the building was part of Shah Abbas’s new capital in Isfahan and has long been associated with Shaykh Lutfallah, a character about whom relatively little is known. If you ask a local of Isfahan, you will be told that the mosque was built for use by the harem of Shah Abbas, but what evidence is there for this? Through a study of both the building itself, the inscriptions which it bears and the religio-political setting in which it was founded we will shed some light on the originally intended purpose of the mosque. A study of this building can, in turn, help us to understand the complex relationship between crown and clergy during this remarkable period in Iran’s history. Fuchsia Hart is a DPhil candidate based in the Khalili Research Centre at the University of Oxford. She holds a BA in Persian with Old Iranian and an MPhil in Islamic Art with Arabic, both from the University of Oxford. Fuchsia is primarily interested in the material and visual culture of Shiʿism. Her DPhil research is investigating the visitation of Imamzadahs, with a focus on the shrine of Fatimah Maʿsumah in Qom.

By kind invitation of SOAS, this event is open to all. Tickets cost £10 (£5 for students) and can be obtained online only via the following link   

A Musical Performance of Scottish and Persian Songs and Poems by Robert Burns & Hafez

with guitar and santur accompaniment.

We are grateful to the Azima Foundation, the British Council, the London Middle East Institute and SOAS, University of London for their generous support for this event.

 Robert Burns: Ploughman Poet, Scotia’s Bard, Master of the Standard Habbie. Hafez: Master of the Ghazal, his Divan in every Iranian home, his work unsurpassed in Persian literature. Separated by four centuries and over 4000 miles, by culture, by history, by religion, by language, they can’t really have anything in common – can they? Are Burns and Hafez “Bards Apart” or have they got far more in common than that which divides them? Join us for this lively and light-hearted event in celebration of both these great poets and you – the audience – will decide! In keeping with the traditions of both Scotland and Iran, the two bards’ key poems and songs will be performed with a bit of context and discussion. For those who don’t understand Persian – or 18th century Scots – we have English subtitles! Performed by Talking Sheep: the acclaimed group from Edinburgh https://talkingsheep.scot/#burns_beginners CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE LIVE VIDEO RECORDING OF THIS EVENT   Bards Apart event.mp4   For Robert Burns:             Mark Meiklejohn, Mark Percival, Valerie Sim For Hafez:                             Parmis Mozafari, Saeed Talajooy Master of Ceremonies:  Lucy Deacon, a Scots Persian scholar, who will explain it all!

John Harding, a member of the Iran Society, has spent most of a lifetime mountaineering.  He will be sharing with us his experiences of mountaineering in Iran. Copies of his recently published book will be available for purchase.

This talk will look at the conditions of the urban poor in Iran at the end of the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on the repeated crises caused by sharp rises in the price of bread. It examines the evidence which supports the notion that Iran experienced a “golden age” of bread riots in the 1890s and early 1900s, just before and indeed contributing to the outbreak of the constitutional revolution. The 1890s are often seen as an interregnum, a period between the Tobacco Protest of the early 1890s and the constitutional revolution of 1905, when political activity was in abeyance or semi-clandestine, revolution finally galvanized as much by external events as domestic politics. Yet the story of the bread riots paints a different picture, and writes into the narrative of these years the experience of the urban poor. Iran’s cities in these years were convulsed by popular protests at intolerable conditions. From the perspective of the hungry poor, the revolution of 1905-6 appears, not as the project of a discontented intelligentsia, dazzled by European constitutionalism, nor of a modernist, oppositional clergy, but as the logical outcome of a deepening political and social crisis. Stephanie Cronin holds the Roshan Institute Visiting Research Fellowship at St Antony’s College and is a member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. She has also held an Iran Heritage Foundation fellowship for many years. She is the author of Armies and State-building in the Modern Middle East: Politics, Nationalism and Military Reform (I. B. Tauris, 2014); Shahs, Soldiers and Subalterns in Iran: Opposition, Protest and Revolt, 1921-1941 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Tribal Politics in Iran: Rural Conflict and the New State, 1921-1941 (Routledge, 2006); and The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910-1926 (I. B. Tauris, 1997). She is the editor of  Subalterns and Social Protest: History from Below in the Middle East and North Africa (Routledge, 2007); Reformers and Revolutionaries in Modern Iran: New Perspectives on the Iranian Left (Routledge, 2004); and The Making of Modern Iran; State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941 (Routledge, 2003). She is currently working on a social history of modern Iran “from below”.