Download or read book From Persian Empire to Islamic Iran written by Parviz S. Towfighi and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the relationship between Iranian nationalism and Islam, especially Shi'ism as the adopted official religion of the country by the founder of the Safavid Dynasty in 1501 A.D. It covers selected periods in fourteen centuries of theIranian history with greater emphasis on the last two centuries where secular Western reformist ideas overlap with progressive religious thinking, resulting in the COnsitutional Movement of 1905-1909.
Download or read book Early Islamic Iran written by Edmund Herzig and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Iran remain distinctively Iranian in the centuries which followed the Arab Conquest? How did it retain its cultural distinctiveness after the displacement of Zoroastrianism - state religion of the Persian empire - by Islam? This latest volume in "The Idea of Iran" series traces that critical moment in Iranian history which followed the transformation of ancient traditions during the country's conversion and initial Islamic period. Distinguished contributors (who include the late Oleg Grabar, Roy Mottahedeh, Alan Williams and Said Amir Arjomand) discuss, from a variety of literary, artistic, religious and cultural perspectives, the years around the end of the first millennium CE, when the political strength of the 'Abbasid Caliphate was on the wane, and when the eastern lands of the Islamic empire began to be take on a fresh 'Persianate' or 'Perso-Islamic' character. One of the paradoxes of this era is that the establishment throughout the eastern Islamic territories of new Turkish dynasties coincided with the genesis and spread, into Central and South Asia, of vibrant new Persian language and literatures. Exploring the nature of this paradox, separate chapters engage with ideas of kingship, authority and identity and their fascinating expression through the written word, architecture and the visual arts.
Download or read book Iran Empire of the Mind written by Michael Axworthy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-11-06 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iran often appears in the media as a hostile and difficult country. But beneath the headlines there is a fascinating story of a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and enormous cultural importance. A nation whose impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbours in the Middle East but on the world as a whole – and through ideas and creativity rather than by the sword. From the time of the prophet Zoroaster, to the powerful ancient Persian Empires, to the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis and current president Mahmud Ahmadinejad – a controversial figure within as well as outside the country – Michael Axworthy traces a vivid, integrated account of Iran’s past. He explains clearly and carefully both the complex succession of dynasties that ruled ancient Iran and the surprising ethnic diversity of the modern country, held together by a common culture. With Iran again the focus of the world’s attention, and questions about the country’s disposition and intentions pressing, Iran: Empire of the Mind is an essential guide to understanding a complicated land.
Download or read book A History of Iran written by Michael Axworthy and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of Iran, from the ancient Persian empires to today Iran is a land of contradictions. It is an Islamic republic, but one in which only 1.4 percent of the population attend Friday prayers. Iran's religious culture encompasses the most censorious and dogmatic Shi'a Muslim clerics in the world, yet its poetry insistently dwells on the joys of life: wine, beauty, sex. Iranian women are subject to one of the most restrictive dress codes in the Islamic world, but make up nearly 60 percent of the student population of the nation's universities. In A History of Iran, acclaimed historian Michael Axworthy chronicles the rich history of this complex nation from the Achaemenid Empire of sixth century BC to the revolution of 1979 to today, including a close look at Iran's ongoing attempts to become a nuclear power. A History of Iran offers general readers an essential guide to understanding this volatile nation, which is once again at the center of the world's attention.
Download or read book Turko Persia in Historical Perspective written by Robert L. Canfield and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-04-30 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book-length study to examine Turko-Persian culture as an entity.
Download or read book The Persians written by Gene R. Garthwaite and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Persians is a succinct narrative of Iranian history from thetime of Cyrus the Great in 560BC to the present day. A succinct narrative of Iranian history from the time of Cyrusthe Great in 560BC to the present day. Traces events from the rise of the Persian empire, throughcompetition with Rome and conquest by the Arabs, through to there-establishment of a Persian state in the sixteenth century, andfinally the Islamic Revoltuion on 1979 and the establishment of thecurrent Islamic Republic. Uses the most recent scholarship to examine Iran's political,social and cultural history. Focuses on rulership as a central theme in Iranianidentity. Also shows how land, language and literature relate to Iranianidentity.
Download or read book Religion Culture and Politics in Pre Islamic Iran written by Bruce Lincoln and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Religion, Culture, and Politics in Pre-Islamic Iran, Bruce Lincoln offers a vast overview on different aspects of the Indo-Iranian, Zoroastrian and Pre-Islamic mythologies, religions and cultural issues.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History written by Touraj Daryaee and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is a guide to Iran's complex history. The book emphasizes the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran's past.
Download or read book Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires written by Charles Melville and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-25 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the establishment of the new Safavid regime in Iran. Along with reuniting the Persian lands under one rule, the Safavids initiated the radical transformation of the religious landscape by introducing Imami Shi'ism as the official state faith and in this as in other ways, laying the foundations of Iran's modern identity. In this book, leading scholars of Iranian history, culture and politics examine the meaning of the idea of Iran in the Safavid period by examining contemporary experiences of both insiders and outsiders, asking how modern scholarship defines the distinctive features of the age. While sometimes viewed as a period of decline from the high points of classical Persian literature and the visual arts of preceding centuries, the chapters of this book demonstrate that the Safavid era was nevertheless a period of great literary and artistic activity in the realms of both secular and theological endeavour. With the establishment of comparable polities across western, southern and central Asia at broadly the same time, the book explores some of the literary and political interactions with Iran's Ottoman, Mughal and Uzbek neighbours. As the volume and frequency of European merchants and diplomats visiting Safavid Persia increased, especially in the seventeenth century, and as more Iranians recorded their own travel experiences to surrounding Muslim lands, the Safavid period is the first in which we can document and explore the contours of Iran's place in an expanding world, and gain insights into how Iranians saw themselves and others saw them.
Download or read book Iran in the Early Islamic Period written by Bertold Spuler and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a translation of Bertold Spuler’s groundbreaking work on the transformation of Iran from a Persian Zoroastrian Empire to a province of the Arab Muslim Empire to a land divided by a number of Persian and Turkish kingdoms.
Download or read book Medieval Persia 1040 1797 written by David Morgan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The medieval period of Persia's remarkably continuous, history began with its conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the seventh century AD and gave way to the modern period at the end of the eighteenth century when the influence of the West became pervasive. Without an understanding of the confused legacy of these centuries, no-one can hope to understand the complexities and dynamism of modern Iran. Concise, clear and colourful, David Morgan's book is the best and most up-to-date short account of its subject in the English language.
Download or read book Iran s Epic and America s Empire written by Mahmoud Omidsalar and published by eBooks2go, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Shahnameh is Iran's national epic. It is a compendium of Iranian myths, legends, and history. Unlike other Indo-European epics, it is not about a war, like the Iliad, or an individual, like the Odyssey, Beowulf, or the Ramayana. The central character of the Shahnameh is Iran, which it glorifies both as subject and hero. Unlike other classical Indo-European epics, the Shahnameh is not in a dead language. It is intelligible to every speaker of Persian in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.
Download or read book Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire written by Parvaneh Pourshariati and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation It proposes a convincing contemporary answer answer to an ages-old mystery and conundrum: why, in the seventh century CE, did the seemingly powerful and secure Sasanian empire of Persia succumb so quickly and disastrously to the all-conquering Arab armies of Islam? Offering an impressive appraisal of the Sasanians' nemesis at the hands of the Arab forces which scythed all before them, the author suggests a bold solution to the enigma. On the face of it, the collapse of the Sasanians - given their strength and imperial power in the earlier part of the century - looks startling and inexplicable. But Professor Pourshariati explains their fall in terms of an earlier corrosion and decline, and as a result of their own internal weaknesses. The decentralised dynastic system of the Sasanian empire, whose backbone was a Sasanian-Parthian alliance, contained the seeds of its own destruction. This confederacy soon became unstable, and its degeneration sealed the fate of a doomed dynasty.
Download or read book Safavid Iran written by Andrew J. Newman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Safavid dynasty, which reigned from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century, links medieval with modern Iran. The Safavids witnessed wide-ranging developments in politics, warfare, science, philosophy, religion, art and architecture. But how did this dynasty manage to produce the longest lasting and most glorious of Iran's Islamic-period eras?Andrew Newman offers a complete re-evaluation of the Safavid place in history as they presided over these extraordinary developments and the wondrous flowering of Iranian culture. In the process, he dissects the Safavid story, from before the 1501 capture of Tabriz by Shah Ismail (1488-1524), the point at which Shiism became the realm's established faith; on to the sixteenth and early seventeenth century dominated by Shah Abbas (1587-1629), whose patronage of art and architecture from his capital of Isfahan embodied the Safavid spirit; and culminating with the reign of Sultan Husayn (reg. 1694-1722).Based on meticulous scholarship, Newman offers a valuable new interpretation of the rise of the Safavids and their eventual demise in the eighteenth century. "Safavid Iran," with its fresh insights and new research, is the definitive single volume work on the subject.
Download or read book Ancient Persia written by Anna Vanzan and published by White Star Publishers. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book investigates the pre-Islamic Iranian culture that developed between the 5th millennium BC and the 7th century AD in the immense territory extending from the Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia. This chronological overview illustrates the key aspects of this civilization, from the prehistoric era to its development and the establishment of its empires. It examines the Achaemenids, who continued the empire created by the Babylonians and Assyrians, the Seleucids, who revived the Achaemenid political and cultural cosmopolitanism destroyed by Alexander the Great, and the Parthians and Sassanids, who transformed the empire into the greatest crossroads of religion, civilization, language and trade between East and West. This historical journey is supplemented by detailed considerations of the arts, religions, traditions and customs of the ancient populations of the Iranian plateau who, despite the constant pressure they faced, managed to maintain a cultural unity that has endured into modern times. The book, which is based on the latest scientific research, is written for the general public in a narrative that combines a clear style with scientific accuracy. The historical tableau that emerges conveys the complexity of a world that fascinated all the cultures that came into contact with it, from those in the Far East to the European populations. At the same time, it offers significant insights that will help readers understand what is happening today in a cultural and geographical area that, unfortunately, the West continues to observe with hesitant admiration. AUTHOR: Anna Vanzan, a specialist in Iranian and Islamic studies, graduated from the University of Venice with a degree in Oriental Languages, earning her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University. Her research focuses mainly on the world of Persianized culture (Iran, Central Asia and Islamic India), paying special attention to the cultural history of these areas, where she has conducted research studies. She has published numerous essays in Italian and international magazines, and her most recent book, La storia velata, donne dell'Islam nell'immaginario italiano (Edizioni Lavoro, Rome 2006), was awarded the Feudo di Maida Prize in 2006. She has taught courses on Islamic civilization at Italian and foreign universities, and currently teaches at IULM University in Milan. Vanzan is executive editor of Afriche&Orienti magazine and contributes to Italian and foreign publications and radio programs. Illustrated throughout
Download or read book Safavid Iran written by Andrew J. Newman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Safavid dynasty, which reigned from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century, links medieval with modern Iran. The Safavids witnessed wide-ranging developments in politics, warfare, science, philosophy, religion, art and architecture. But how did this dynasty manage to produce the longest lasting and most glorious of Iran's Islamic-period eras?Andrew Newman offers a complete re-evaluation of the Safavid place in history as they presided over these extraordinary developments and the wondrous flowering of Iranian culture. In the process, he dissects the Safavid story, from before the 1501 capture of Tabriz by Shah Ismail (1488-1524), the point at which Shiism became the realm's established faith; on to the sixteenth and early seventeenth century dominated by Shah Abbas (1587-1629), whose patronage of art and architecture from his capital of Isfahan embodied the Safavid spirit; and culminating with the reign of Sultan Husayn (reg. 1694-1722).Based on meticulous scholarship, Newman offers a valuable new interpretation of the rise of the Safavids and their eventual demise in the eighteenth century. "Safavid Iran," with its fresh insights and new research, is the definitive single volume work on the subject.
Download or read book Iran s Regional Relations written by Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-05 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the interplay between domestic-level changes and region-wide interaction, this book provides a comprehensive analytical and theoretical survey of Iranian foreign relations in the Middle East from Antiquity until the Islamic Republic. It charts developments from the earliest regimes in Persia, including the Median kingdom and the Sassanid Empire, through rule by, amongst others, Abbasids, Mongols, Safavids and Qajars, up to the modern states of the Shah and the Islamic Republic. Throughout the author reflects on the enduring factors which have shaped Iran’s relations with the rest of the region, factors such as geography, culture, the belief systems of policy makers, the structures of decision-making and government, and sub-regional systems. Overall, the book provides a deep analysis of Iranian foreign relations in the Middle East over 4,700 years.
