Iran Debates

A biography of Muhammad Musaddiq, who was prime minister of Iran between 1951 and 1953 until he was deposed in a CIA-backed coup d'etat and who has long been regarded as one of the great anti-colonial campaigners of the post-war era.

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In recent years, Iran has gained attention primarily for negative reasons - its authoritarian religious government disputed its nuclear programme and controversial role in the Middle East - but there is much more to the story of this ancient land than can be gleaned from the news. This authoritative and comprehensive history of Iran, written by Homa Katouzian, an acclaimed expert, covers the entire history of the area from the foundation of the ancient Persian empire to today's Iranian state. Writing from an Iranian rather than a European perspective, Katouzian integrates Iran's significant cultural and literary history with its political and social history. Some of the greatest poets of human history wrote in Persian - among them Rumi, Omar Khayyam, and Saadi - and Katouzian discusses and occasionally quotes their work. In his thoughtful analysis of Iranian society, Katouzian argues that the absolute and arbitrary power traditionally enjoyed by Persian/Iranian rulers has resulted in an unstable society where fear and short-term thinking dominate. A magisterial history, this book also serves as an excellent background to the role of Iran in the contemporary world.

Iran was the first country in the Middle East to experience (in 1905-6) a popular revolution that demanded the rule of law and parliamentary government. However, the democratic constitution established by the revolution plunged the country into a period of turmoil and, despite subsequent popular democratic movements, most notably in the early 1950s and during the Iranian revolution of 1978-9, the country has lived under arbitrary rule for most of the century. Katouzian offers a theoretical framework for studying Iranian history, state and society, which is then applied to social and political developments from the Constitutional Revolution to the fall of the Pahlavi state. This analysis affords essential insights into the present situation in Iran and the alternative prospects for its future, especially relevant since the recent accession of President Khatami.

Sadeq Hedayat is the most famous and enigmatic Iranian writer of the 20th century. This book is the first comprehensive study of Hedayat's life and works set against literary and political developments in a rapidly changing Iran over the first half of the 20th century. Katouzian discusses Hedayat's life and times and the literary and political circles with which he was associated. But he also emphasises the uniqueness and universality of his ideas that have both influenced and set Hedayat apart from other Iranian writers of the period and have given him a mystique that has been instrumental in his posthumous success with acclaimed works such as The Blind Owl.

'In the breath that I die, for you, I'll be longing/ Wishing to turn into the dust of your belonging' - Sa'di, Expressions of Love. With poetry which speaks across the ages, Sa'di (1210-1281) is a vital classical poet and a towering figure of the medieval Persian canon. Comparable in skill and stature to other Persian poets such as Ferdowsi, Hafez, Rumi and Omar Khayyam, Sa'di's verses--best known through his 'Bustan' and 'Golestan' address universal themes of passion, love and the human condition in works which are both psychologically perceptive and beautifully crafted. His mystical writings, contemporaneous with Rumi, reveal a degree of depth, wisdom and insight which have placed Sa'di in the pantheon of world literature. In this essential new translation of Sa'di's work, a leading expert on Iranian studies, Homa Katouzian, seeks to bring the poet's lyrics to a new readership. The book provides the Persian text and Katouzian's English translation side-by-side, creating an indispensable tool for students and enthusiasts of Iranian history, literature and culture.

Following a two-pronged approach, this volume studies both those who the Constitutional Revolution influenced in their works and those who addressed the Revolution with their work, influencing it directly. Through analysing their works, this volume explores influential poets and writers from the period, including Iraj, Vaziri, Afrāshteh, Yazdi, Bahār and ‘Eshqi. It covers female poets who are often overlooked, as well as the significant satirical poets whose work educated and entertained the readers and criticized socio-political events. Analysing the mainstream and marginal poets, this volume argues that the margins initiated Persian poetry's evolution. As Persian poetry and its multifunctional legacy became the standard-bearer of the Constitutional movement, this volume is an essential contribution to understanding Iran.

Humour in Iran is a close and comprehensive study of satire and humour – in verse and prose – over the eleven hundred years since the emergence of classical Persian literature. Combining Persian original texts with their English translations, it covers a range of texts and authors, from the lampoon in Ferdowsi's great epic of the ancient kings in the tenth century through such master satirists as Obeyd Zakani, Sa'di, Rumi, Khayyam, Hafiz, Anvari, Sana'i, Khaqani, Suzani, Qa'ani, Yaghma, and so on. The book also includes twentieth-century authors such as Iraj, Dehkhoda, Bahar, Eshqi, Aref, Hedayat, Jamalzadeh, Al-e Ahmad and more.

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This unique book is the first publication on the art of teaching Persian literature in English, consisting of 18 chapters by prominent early-career, mid-career and established scholars who generously share their experiences and methodologies in teaching classical and modern Persian literature across various academic traditions worldwide. The volume is divided into three parts: the background to teaching Persian literature, teaching Persian literature: pedagogy, translation and canon, and thematic and topical approaches to the Persian literature class. It includes such topics as the history of teaching Persian literature, the traditional teaching of Persian literature, the political and ideological intentions revealed in the formation of the Persian literature curriculum, the necessity to include marginalized modern Persian literature, such as women's or diaspora literature, and more applied approaches to curriculum development and teaching.

Bahram Beyzaie is one of Iran's leading playwrights and auteur filmmakers. This book examines several of Beyzaie's films and plays and their preoccupation with the modalities and transformations of Iranian contemporary, historical and mythical identity from different perspectives. The chapters analyse Beyzaie's influential plays, such as Arash and So Dies Pahlevan Akbar, and his filmic magnum opuses, such as The Crow, Bashu, the Little Stranger and Killing Mad Dogs, from a range of critical perspectives, including ecofeminist, sociopolitical, new-historicist, archetypal and psychoanalytical readings. They also explore Beyzaie's dialogue with filmic genres such as noir, different Iranian languages such as Gilaki, Iranian epics and ritual practices such as ta'ziyeh plays and javanmardi chivalry cults. Together, the chapters show how Beyzaie's works negotiate narratives of belonging and undermine the dominant exclusionist discourses in Iran. They use the resources of Iranian folk and performance traditions to comment on the position of women, children, intellectuals, and minorities in society.