Necla Rüzgar looks at the striking similarities between the vibrant world of Persian and Turkish miniatures and Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of the carnival
All posts filed under “Books & Literature”
Routes of Modernism
Aria Fani on the life and accomplishments of leading Iranian literary scholar Karim Emami (1930 - 2005), and a new ‘illuminating’ English-language collection of his writings
Druze Muse
More than 70 years after her untimely death, a Druze princess-cum-icon continues to inspire. Iain Akerman reflects on the life and legend of Asmahan
The King
Dreams, decrepitude, and despotism - Amir-Hussein Radjy examines Iranian-Dutch writer Kader Abdolah’s latest novel about the legendary Iranian monarch Nasereddin Shah
The Reed Flute
‘Morocco was not a place that would give you the luxury of forgetting it; it seeped, slowly but surely, into your bones, and burned its image between your eyes’
Sex, Drugs, and Gol-o-Bolbol
Before David Bowie, ZZ Top, the Sex Pistols, and Johnny Thunders, there were the Qajars. Joobin Bekhrad looks at the dynasty’s influence on Iranian artists, designers, and musicians today
A Thousand Years of the Persian Book
Kevin Schwartz on an exhibition at Washington, DC’s Library of Congress celebrating a millennium of Persian textual production from Iran and beyond
Reflections of Persia
‘Riccardo’s Iran, discovered and rediscovered … becomes a mirror in which the world and its distant lands appear before one’s eyes’
Do You Remember?
Pendar Nabipour on the post-Revolution generation of Iran, its collective memories, and the celebration of the popular culture of the 80s and early 90s
Tales of 1,001 Chairs
‘Chairs have always been symbols of power in Egypt’ - a chat with Manar Moursi and David Puig about the phenomenon of Cairo’s street chairs