Conference Program | August 2

Panel 1: Old and New Forms, Media, and Techniques of Visual Representation in Nineteenth-Century Iran and Ottoman Empire

• Lale Uluç Boğaziçi University, Turkey
• Basak Tekin Erciyes University, Turkey
  A Qajar Period Lion Depicted Miraj Miniature: An Iconographical Analysis Based on Safavid Religious and Cultural Connections
• Mahbobe Ghods Columbia University, US
  Illustrious Illustrations: The Life and Influence of Ali Quli Koie
• Başak Kilerci Bogazic University, Turkey
  Painting and Photography in Qajar Iran and Ottoman Empire

Panel 2: (P) The Social Elite, Court Life, and the State in the Safavid Period

• Kadir Turgut Istanbul University, Turkey
• Nozhat Ahmadi Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
  The Social Base of the Elite during the Reign of Shah Abbas I show abstract

  Shah Abbas era is rightly considered to have been meritocratic. While outstanding individuals rose to various social arenas, we still know little about the factors that contributed to this condition. This paper offers a survey of the high officials of Abbas’ government clarifying their status, social milieu, and the procedure for their selection. We ask whether kinship ties helped in taking hold of an office or whether considerations of merit had a role. What qualities —social status, lineage and personal traits — may have counted for a given position? And what differences may be found in Shah Abbas’ assignments between the early, mid, and later years of his reign? Text and statistical analysis of chronicles of the period constitute the foundations of this paper.
• Fatemeh Orouji University of Tabriz, Iran
  The Method of Women's Education in the Safavid Royal Harem
• Farahnaz Bahrampour Tabriz Central Library, Iran
  State Budget and Financial Planning in the Safavid Era

Panel 3: Iran in Late Antiquity (I): Resistance, Surrender, Co-Existence, and Integration

• Parvaneh Pourshariati Ohio State University, United States
• Mehrdad Ghodrat Dizaji Urmia University, Iran
  The First Arab Conquests in Sasanian Azerbaijan show abstract

  One of the interesting subjects in Sasanian studies is the situations of Iranian provinces during the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods. Despite the importance of Azarbaijan for the Sasanians, the fall of Sasanian rule and Arab conquests in this province has not been thoroughly studied. An analysis of present sources and the process of events reveal that the collapse of Sasanian rule in Azarbaijan had already begun with the defeat of Sasanian forces by the Byzantine army of Heraclius in AD 627. After that, the province was no longer within the power of the Sasanians. The defeat of the Sasanian forces by Byzantium is one of the main reasons for the quick penetration of Arabs into Azarbaijan. According to the Arabic sources, this infiltration occurred during the caliphate of ‘Umar b. al-Khattāb, between the years AH 18-22/AD 639-643. According to Balādhurī, the first conqueror of Azarbaijan was Hudhayfa b. Yamān who arrived in Ardabīl and made a peace treaty with the marzbān. After him, ‘Utba b. Farqad al-Sulamī went from Shahrizūr to Urmia and put pressure on the inhabitants. In AH 22/AD 643, the Mūqhān region and some parts of the lower shore of the Aras River fell through Sarāqa b. Bukair. However, the resistance against Arabs in this province was local. The resisting forces had their own innovative way of fighting the Arabs, but after a while they had to compromise with them.
• Fariba Taghavi Independent Scholar, United States
  Sex, Wine and Murder: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of the Barmakids
• Safura Borumand Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
  The Bukhtishu Family: Physicians or Politicians - A Survey of Their Influence at the Abbasid Court

Panel 4: Modes and Limits of Cultural Translation

• William BeemanUniversity of Minnesota, United States
• Gholamreza Ijad Sabzevar Teacher Training University, Iran
  A Postcolonial Critique of English Translations of Rubáiyát of Khayyam
• Katayoun Pakatchi Iranian Linguistics Association, Tehran, Iran
  Domestication and Foreignization in Translations of Children`s Literature Over Time
• Hossein Nazari University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  Orientalist Fiction in Naipaul's Non-Fiction: Representations of Iran and Islam in Beyond Belief

Panel 5: Literary Appropriations and Innovations in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

• Aftandil Erkinov Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies, Uzbekistan
• Sibel Kocaer School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
  Rastin Mehri School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
  The Ottoman Vīs u Rāmin: The Translation and Alteration of a Pre-Islamic Romance
• Paul Losensky Indiana University, Bloomington, US
  Poet as Anthologist: Defining a Fresh Tradition in the Bayāż of Sāʾeb Tabrīzī

Panel 6: Frontier Lives and Interfaces in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

• Linda Darling University of Arizona, United States
• Akihiko Yamaguchi University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, Japan
  Settlement Patterns and the Religious Composition of Early Eighteenth-Century Iran According to Ottoman Fiscal Surveys
• Metin Atmaca Freiburg University, Germany
  Between Two Sects Between Two States: Sulaimaniya on the Ottoman-Iranian Frontier
• Joanna de Groot University of York, UK
  Another Look at The Desert and the Sown: Nomads, Rulers and Settled Communities in the Kerman Region in the Nineteenth Century

Panel 7: Dimensions of Social Inequality in Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Iran

• Hassanali Mehran International Monetary Fund, United States
• Ali Banuazizi Boston College, United States
  Education, Occupation and Social Mobility in Pre-Revolutionary Iran
• Djavad Salehi-Isfahani Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, United States
  Equality of Opportunity in Education in Iran show abstract

  Ideas about economic justice figure prominently in Iran's political discourse, but the public debate follows a narrow interpretation of economic justice limited to equality of outcomes. Missing from the debate is the concept of equality of opportunities, defined as the extent to which circumstances beyond an individual's control determine her outcomes. In this paper I study inequality of opportunity in education in Iran both in attainment, measured by years of schooling, as well as in achievement, measured by scores of Iranian 8 graders in international math and science tests. I show that while gender as a circumstance is no longer a source of inequality, family background and the characteristics of the community in which a child grows up heavily influence his or her chances of success in education.
• Valentine M. Moghadam Northeastern University, Boston, United States
  Explaining the Gender Gap in Employment and Political Participation in Iran

Panel 8: Seljuq Architecture of Iran (sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation)

• Sussan Babaie The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK
• Robert Hillenbrand University of Edinburgh, UK
  Structure versus Ornament in the Seljuq Architecture of Iran
• Lorenz Korn University of Bamberg, Germany
  Monuments of Sunni Faith? Inscriptions and Architecture of Seljuq Iranian Domed Mosques
• Alireza Anisi Iran Cultural Heritage Organization, Tehran, Iran
  The Friday Mosque at Ardabil: A Re-Examination

Panel 9: Immigrants and Diasporic Identities

• Laleh Shahideh University of San Francisco, United States
• Vahideddin Namazi Université de Montréal, Canada
  A Study of the Entrepreneurship of Iranian Immigrants in Canada show abstract

  This paper presents the life-experiences and the professional trajectories of forty immigrants working as drivers at a Montreal taxi company. A number of participants formed business partnerships with other Iranian immigrants. However, these partnerships were between partners who barely knew each other, and in every case, a lack of technical expertise and business know-how led to the collapse of the businesses. While other studies have been critical of the cultural and work behaviors of Iranian immigrants, this study has found that these same characteristics, when observed within the parameters of a well managed work environment, have had a positive impact on the performance and functioning of this company.
• Behzad Sarmadi University of Toronto, Canada
  An Iranian 'Bachelor' in Dubai: The Politics and Social Hierarchies of Urban Transformation

Panel 10: Ideology & Perceptions of Iran's Security in the Islamic Republic's Regional and International Policy Making

• TBA
• Leila Salehiravesh University of Vienna, Austria
  Regional Development and Iranian Perceptions of Energy Security
• George Sanikidze Ilia State University, Georgia
  Islamic Factor in the Politics of Iran and Turkey toward Georgia

Panel 11: Gender, Empowerment, and Violence

• Afsaneh Kalantary, Cultural Anthropologist, United States
• Zahra Tizro York St. John University, UK
  Iranian Women's and Men's Narratives on Marriage, Love and Violence within Marital Relationship
• Roksana Bahramitash Université de Montréal, Canada
  Gender and Entrepreneurship in Iran

Panel 12: Iran and India: Dialogues on Civilization, Culture, Religion and Identity

• Homa Katouzian St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK
• Monica Ringer Amherst College, United States
  The 'Dakhmeh' Debate: Zoroastrian Ritual Practice between Tradition and Scientific Modernity show abstract

  This paper explores the controversy surrounding the Zoroastrian abandonment of the dakhmeh in Tehran in 1935 as a window onto Zoroastrian modernism and Parsi-Irani relations. Kay Khosrow Shahrokh, head of the Zoroastrian Anjoman in Tehran, Member of Parliament, and champion of the abandonment of the dakhmeh, believed strongly in the need for Zoroastrian religious reform and religion’s profound relationship to citizenship, nationalism and Zoroastrian identity. The arguments marshaled in the dakhmeh dispute were symptomatic of religious debates circulating amongst the Parsi and Irani Zoroastrian communities in a period defined by modernist attempts to revisit and revise Zoroastrian tradition.
• Afshin Marashi University of Oklahoma, United States
  Patron and Patriot: Dinshah Irani and the Revival of Indo-Iranian Culture
• Reza Zia-Ebrahimi St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK
  An Emissary of the Golden Age: Manekji Limji Hataria in Pre-Nationalist Iran
• Dinyar Patel Harvard University, United States
  The Iran League of Bombay: Parsis and the Appeal of Pahlavi Nationalism

Panel 13: New Perspectives on the Art and Archaeology of Hellenistic and Middle Iranian Western and Central Asia (330 BCE-642 CE)

• Askold IvantchikUniversity of Bordeaux III, France
• Rachel Mairs Merton College, University of Oxford, UK
  Ai Khanoum and the Achaemenids
• Carlo LippolisUniversità degli Studi di Torino, Italy
  A Ceremonial Centre for the Arsacid Kings: Parthian Nisa
• Fiona Kidd University of Sydney, Australia
  Hellenism at Akchakhan-kala? The Painting and Visual Culture of Middle Iranian Chorasmia
• Matthew Canepa University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, United States
  New Images of Iranian Kingship in the Middle Iranian Era: Rupture and Innovation in the Art and Ritual of Iranian Kingship

Panel 14: Iranian Historiography (I): The Turko-Mongol Period (sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation)

• Charles Melville University of Cambridge, UK
• Andrew Peacock University of St Andrews, US
  Historiography under the Great Seljuqs: Sources, Themes and Patronage
• Stefan Kamola University of Washington, United States
  Authority and Influence in Late Ilkhanid Historiography
• Birgitt Hoffmann University of Bamberg, Germany
  Themes, Narratives and Explanations in the Historical Writings of Hamd-Allāh Mustaufi
• Sevket Kücükhüseyin University of Bamberg, Germany
  Āqsarā'ī's Musāmarat al-Akhbār: A Guideline of Good Governance for Timurtāsh b. Chobān?

Panel 15: Iranians in Istanbul

• Touraj Atabaki International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Farzin Vejdani University of Arizona, United States
  Contesting Iranian Nationalism in Early Twentieth-Century Istanbul
• Anja Pistor Hatam University of Kiel, Germany
  Iranian Merchants as 'Concerned Individuals': Persian Networking in Nineteenth-Century Istanbul
• Houchang E. Chehabi Boston University, United States
  Mir Mehdi Varzandeh: A Cosmopolitan Patriot

Panel 16: Animals in Iranian History

• Richard W. Bulliet Columbia University, United States
• Alan Mikhail Yale University, US
  Animals in the Ottoman Empire: The Safavid Connection
• Arash Khazeni Pomona College, United States
  Through an Ocean of Sand: Pastoralism and the Equestrian Culture of the Eurasian Steppe
• Abbas Amanat Yale University, United States
  Speaking Donkeys as Human Alter Egos

Panel 17: (P) Architectural Styles & Sacred and Profane Spaces and Cityscapes since the 13th Century

• Seyyed Hossein Hosseiniseddiq Islamic Azad University, Gorgan, Iran
• Seyyed Mohsen Hosseini Islamic Research Foundation of Astan-e Quds-e Razavi, Iran
  A New Perspective on the Faryumad Jāmeʿ Mosque and its Inscriptions Based of Recent Documentation
• Bagher Pourjavad Asl Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization of East Azerbaijan, Tabriz, Iran
  A Comparative Study of Architecture and Urbanism in Tabriz and Istanbul in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
• Alireza Azarpour Tabriz Islamic Art University, Iran
  The Image of an Iranian City

Panel 18: Writing in the "Diaspora": Authorship, Representation, Audience, Circulation, & Reception

• Goulia Ghardashkhan Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
• Sanaz Fotouhi University of New South Wales, Australia
  Diasporic Iranian Literature in English and Representations of History
• Somaye Malekian Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
  Construction of Identity through the Relationship between Self and Other: A Postcolonial Reading of Firoozeh Dumas' Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without an Accent
• Leila Pazargadi Nevada State College, United States
  See(k)ing the Self: Investigating the Serialization of Iranian-American Memoirs
• Babak Elahi Rochester Institute of Technology, United States
  At the Threshold of Iranian Studies

Panel 19: Linguistic Encounters between Turkish and Iranian Languages

• John Perry University of Chicago, US
• Oleg Kshanovskyi Shevchenko National University, Kiev, Ukraine
  Early Turkic Migrations in Western Iran According to Linguistic Data show abstract

  This paper discusses the generally accepted historical version about coming of the first Turks in the Middle East only in XI century A.D., which does not meet the linguistic reality. Indo-European structure of Persian language began to change its fusion type to Turkic agglutinate structure long before XI century, that is, according to most historians, long before the active relationship with the speakers of Turkic dialects. The most of more than twenty features in all levels, conjugated with agglutinate technique of morphemes bounding, were not observed in Old Persian. However, in Middle Persian at all levels one can find the elements specific to agglutinate languages. It is obvious that Persian language during the period from ancient to modern under the strong external influence changed its fusion morphological type to agglutinative.
• Chiara Barbati Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
  Notes on the Turco-Sogdian Variety show abstract

  In 1990, N. Sims-Williams and J. Hamilton published late Sogdian texts containing a number of Turkish elements and described their language as “turco-sogdien” (Documents turco-sogdiens du IX -X siècle de Touen-houang, London). In 2009, Y. Yoshida, on the occasion of the Festschrift in honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams, analyzed in detail the linguistic features of these texts. Giving consideration to some of Yoshida's statements, this paper focuses on discussing two specific points, namely, the plural ending -t as a marker of plural for the first and second person plural pronouns and the enclitic pronouns placed after nouns, in order to explain whether they are Turkicisms or not.
• Ketevan Gadilia Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow, Russia
  On the Nature of Direct Object Marking

Panel 20: Shifting Perspectives: Narrative Strategies and their Effects in Classical Persian Poetry

• Fatemeh Shams Esmaeili University of Oxford, UK
• Cameron Cross University of Chicago, United States
  Killed by Fate, Buried in Snow: The Paradox of Just Kingship in the Shāhnāma
• Edmund Hayes University of Chicago, United States
  The Fate of the Nations: History, Narrative Strategy and Communal Identity in 9th-11th Century Iran
• Richard Gabri Northwestern University, United States
  Framing Language in Ferdowsi's Shāhnāma
• Laurie Pierce University of Chicago, United States
  Storytelling and Structure: the Unique Organizing Vision of Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār

Panel 21: The Ottomans and the Safavids in a Persianate World: Convergences and Divergences

• Sara Nur Yıldız Orient-Institut Istanbul, Turkey
• Snjezana Buzov Ohio State University, United States
  Persianate Origins of the Ottoman Kanun
• Kaya Şahin Indiana University, Bloomington, United States
  From Metadoxy to Orthodoxy: The Safavid Problem and the Birth of Ottoman Sunnī Islam
• Sooyong Kim Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
  Persian Poets and Their Place in the Emerging Ottoman Canon of the Sixteenth Century
• Ferenc Csirkés University of Chicago, United States
  Chaghatay Oration, Ottoman Eloquence, Qizilbash Rhetoric: Turkish Literature in Safavid Iran

Panel 22: Iranian Graphic Design and Contemporary Visuality (workshop sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation)

• Sussan Babaie The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK
• Reza Abedini Graphic Designer, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan University of Toronto, Canada
• Shahrzad Changalvaee Graphic Designer and Artist, Tehran, Iran
• Iman Raad Graphic Designer, Tehran, Iran

Panel 23: Urban Politics and Social Classes in Tehran

• Dariush Borbor Architect and Urban Planner, Tehran, Iran
• Mina Saeidi University of Nanterre Paris, France
  Parvin Ghassemi University of Tehran, Iran
  Public Intervention, Private Investment and Participation of the Inhabitants in Urban Policies in Tehran
• Azam Khatam York University, Canada
  Beyond Navvāb Highway: Urban Modernism and Economic “Rationality” in Tehran
• Marjan Hajjari University of Melbourne, Australia
  The Notion of “Urban Public Space” in North and South of Tehran

Panel 24: Shifting Aesthetics, New Readings: Poetic and Musical Transitions in Iran

• TBA
• Gay Breyley Monash University, Australia
  Nazila T University of Tehran, Iran
  The Glass House is Black: Poetics and Power in the Work of Forough and Nazila show abstract

  This paper examines the work of the iconic Forough Farrokhzad and the contemporary rapper ‘Apranik’. It focuses on their respective representations in Farrokhzad’s film The House is Black (1962) and Rahmanian and Hibbard’s The Glass House (2008). While Farrokhzad, as director, mediates her vision of a marginalised world, ‘Apranik’ belongs to a marginalised community mediated by the Glass House directors. However, across decades and poetic genres, the two women share both common obstacles and an agency that is articulated through their texts. Through analysis of their different contexts and poetic practices, this paper explores some of the ways poetics and power relations have changed in Iran over the last fifty years, as well as aspects that have shown little change.
• Sasan Fatemi University of Tehran, Iran
  Shifting Aesthetics of Iranian Vocal Music: From Farabi to Contemporary Tastes show abstract

  This paper explores shifts in aesthetics of Iranian vocal music, especially the tasnif, over the past century. It examines historical context and analyses the relationship between music and lyrics, arguing that poetry’s dominant role in contemporary music ensues from a pedagogical approach dating from the early twentieth century. While all evidence suggests that contemporary aesthetics differ significantly from those of the distant past, the issue of musical aesthetics is longstanding. Farabi considered the effects of the relationship between music and poetry on structure and meaning, complexity and perceived beauty. This paper examines the relevance of Farabi’s theories to contemporary debate. It addresses notions of ‘classical’ and ‘popular’, and the roles of music and poetry in religious and other contexts.
• Leila Sadeghi Author, Iran
  From Macro and Micro Structures to a Novel Structure: Macro-fiction in “Hunting the Shadow”, by Ebrahim Golestan show abstract

  According to Van Dijk, all phenomena have macro and micro structures. This paper examines the interaction of these structures, resulting in a novel one: Macro-fiction. Macro-fiction is a layer of patchy structures, joined together to build an unsaid story. Separate stories are connected through the cohesive elements they share. Moreover, the cognitive mechanism and information structure of a story in micro-structure level is in harmony with the plot and the general idea of the fiction. This idea is inspired of classic Persian literature such as “The Conference of the Birds” (1177) and continued in contemporary literature as well. This paper demonstrates what macro-fiction is and how it could be created in a fictional discourse of Ebrahim Golestan's short story collection, “Hunting the Shadow”.

Panel 25: Literary and Poetic Styles and Innovations (Eleventh to Thirteenth Century)

• Julia Rubanovich Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
• Christine van Ruymbeke University of Cambridge, UK
  Belles-Lettristic Early-Medieval Persian Mirror for Princes
• Christine Noelle-Karimi Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
  Across the Hindu Kush: Notions of Space in Sanā’ī’s Karnāma-i Balkhī
• Seyede Pouye Khoshkhoosani University of Arizona, United States
  Complexity in Language: Nizāmī Ganjavī and Metaphors  

Panel 26: (P) Diplomacy in Qajar and Early Pahlavi Periods

• Elham Malekzadeh Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
• Nasrollah Salehi Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation, Tehran, Iran
  Mīrzā Muheb-Ali Khān Nāzim al-Mulk: And the Issue of Iran & Ottoman Delimitation
• Ahad Ebadi Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran
  Diplomatic Missions in Tabriz during the Constitutional Revolution: The Ottoman Consulate
• Abolfazl Shahsavanpor and University of Tabriz, Iran
  Jalil Nayebian University of Tabriz, Iran
  German-Iranian Political and Economic Relations in the Weimar Era, 1918-1933

Panel 27: Iran & Israel: Beyond Diehard Banalities and Clichés

• Farhad Kazemi New York University, United States
• Lior Sternfeld University of Texas at Austin, United States
  The Unexpected Allies: Mosaddeq and the Israeli Right Wing
• Orly Rahimiyan Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  From the "New Jew" to the "Little Satan": The "Israeli" in Iranian Eyes since the Latter Part of the Twentieth Century

Panel 28: Heterotopic Spaces and Identities in Modern Persian Literature

• Claus V. Pedersen University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Ahmad Shakeri University of Limoges, France
  The Return: In Search of Utopia; Representation of Utopia in André Gide and Jalal Āl-e Ahmad's Books
• Ali Ferdowsi Notre Dame de Namur University, United States
  National Mysticism: The Unity of Author (biography/literature) and Nation (land and history) in Ismail Fasih's Work
• Ahmad Mola Independent Scholar, Iran
  Transgressing the Boundaries of Sub-Culturalism: “Tetraglot” Narrative Strategies in Shahriar Mandanipour

Panel 29: New Evidence for Pre-Islamic Iranian Religious and Epic Traditions: The Manichaean Kephalaia Manuscript at the Chester Beatty Library

• Zsuzsanna Gulacsi Northern Arizona University, United States
• Jason BeDuhn Northern Arizona University, United States
  Iranian Epic in the Chester Beatty Kephalaia
• Paul Dilley University of Iowa, United States
  The "Law of Zaarades": New Sources for Zarathustra in the Chester Beatty Kephalaia
• Iain Gardner University of Sydney, Australia
  Mani's Last Days

Panel 30: Female Religious Authority in Twentieth-Century Shi‘ism

• Abbas Amanat Yale University, United States
• Roja Fazaeli Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

  Mirjam Kuenkler Princeton University, United States

  Mujtahidas in the Islamic Republic of Iran: New Opportunities for Old Role Models?
• Irene Schneider University of Göttingen, Germany
  The Discourse about CEDAW: Voices of Female Jurists in Iran

Panel 31: Words, Naming, Referentiality, and Cross-Cultural and Intra-Cultural Translation and Interpretation

• Maia Sakhokia Institute of Oriental Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia
• Farhang Farbod Independent Scholar, Iran
  Popular Beliefs of the Persian-Speaking People as Reflected in Borhân-e Qâti’
• Susanne Kurz Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany
  Sexual Intercourse and Its Meanings: Ethical and Medical Aspects of Indo-Persian Erotological Treatises
• Shafique Virani University of Toronto, Canada
  Ismāʿīlīsm: An Orismological Approach

Panel 32: The Persian Tradition of Practical Geometry

• Hooman KolijiUniversity of Maryland, College Park, United States
• Elaheh Kheirandish Harvard University, United States
  Persian Sources on Practical Geometry
• Carol Bier Textile Museum, Washington, DC, United States
  Persian Monuments of Practical Geometry show abstract

  This paper explores the ceramic technologies of fired brick that were used in the structure and ornament of tomb monuments at Kharraqan and Maragha. Considering historical cultural contexts, comparative architectural data, and contemporary treatises on geometry, this study fosters renewed appreciation of geometry and its applications in pre-Mongol Iran. For more than a century before Hulegu Khan appointed Nasir al-Din Tusi as chief astronomer to establish an observatory at Maragha, artisans were constructing local monuments with the most elaborate geometry ever yet seen in Iranian architecture – all made of clay. Visually complex ornament of cornices with muqarnas, recessed niches and arches, panels with extraordinary patterns, and unique three-dimensional structures -- all captivate attention, with beauty perceived but resistant to easy analysis.
• Jan P. Hogendijk University of Utrecht, Netherlands
  Practical Geometry in Isfahan: an Exceptional Tiling in the Friday Mosque

Panel 33: “Meet Me in Lālah-Zār!”

• Houman Sarshar Independent Scholar, United States
• Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan University of Toronto, Canada
  Pre-Revolutionary Tehran and the Making of a Revolutionary Pop Art
• Farzaneh Hemmasi University of Pennsylvania, United States
  Listening To and Through: Pre-Revolutionary Musiqi-ye Pāp and Political Ambiguity
• Golbarg Rekabtalaei University of Toronto, Canada
  FilmFarsi: Public Morale in an Immoral Popular Cinema show abstract

  'Film-Farsi,' charged with “corruption,” “immorality,” and “Westoxication,” has been almost fully dismissed in both pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary literature on cinema. In this paper I contend that the Iranian commercial cinema of 1950s-1970s, informed by Hollywood, Indian and Egyptian cinemas, was substantial in revealing difference by exhibiting local references and moral lessons contextualised in the socio-historical dynamics of Iran, while already embedded in a global order. I argue that 'Film-Farsi' was important in enacting and facilitating the contestations of Iranian modernity by depicting the negotiations of tradition/modernity, low/high culture, official/unofficial, rural/urban and other societal transformations in a rapidly changing Iran. It was through the negotiations of the problematics of urban transformations that 'Film-Farsi' came to sublimate social tensions in entertaining cinematic forms, especially in commercially successful dancing and singing performances.
• Ida Meftahi University of Toronto, Canada
  The Theatrical and Quotidian Self of the Reel Persian Dancer show abstract

  Coinciding with the expansion of Tehran’s nightlife, since the 1950s, the raqqas(ah)of cabaret entered the cinema screen, gradually dominating the Iranian pre-revolutionary popular cinema. As in private-sector theatres of Lalah-zar, cabarets and kafahs, and the “traditional” mutribi scene, raqqas’s presence guaranteed the financial success of the independent film industry through attracting male audiences. Her character in films often resonated with myths surrounding her in everyday life. Analyzing film-farsi productions from 1950s-1970s, interviews, and the press discourse, this paper examines raqqas as a socio-historical subject. It investigates the social, biopolitical and economic factors that constructed her fictive-self onscreen and conditioned the aesthetics and semiotics of her dancing body onstage.

Panel 34: In the Mirror of Isfahan: Seventeenth-Century Safavid-Ottoman Design

• Massumeh Farhad Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, United States
• May Farhat American University of Beirut, Lebanon
  A Pro-Safavid Silsilename
• Seyed Mohammad Ali Emrani University of Munich, Germany
  Imperial Capitals and Urban Gardens: Isfahan and Istanbul in the Seventeenth century
• Sussan Babaie The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK
  Urban Baroque and European Town Views of Isfahan and Istanbul
• Nuha N. N. Khoury University of California, Santa Barabara, United States
  From the Astrolabe of the Mind: The All-Encompassing City and the Ideal Mosque

Panel 35: Iranian Historiography (II): The Politics of History in Modern Iran (sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation and the British Institute of Persian Studies)

• Charles Melville, University of Cambridge, UK
• Oliver Bast University of Manchester, UK
  Inverting the Gaze: Iranian Historians Writing the History of Europe: The Case of Fereydoun Âdamiyat
• Lloyd Ridgeon University of Glasgow, UK
  Ayatollah Khomeini and his Mystical and ‘Irfāni Writings show abstract

  An important dimension of Ayatollah Khomeini’s worldview is his perspective on mysticism. Some observers witness reflections of this outlook throughout the whole of his life, indeed, it has even been claimed that Khomeini believed he himself had achieved mystical union. The idea of mystical union was discussed by Khomeini in great detail in the 1930s. Subsequently Khomeini remained silent of the mystical tradition until the 1980s when a small volume of his ghazals was published which reflect the deep stylistic influence of Ḥāfiẓ. More intriguingly in a letter prefacing the ghazals, Khomeini denied that he had ever experienced anything mystical. If this claim is to be believed, it falsifies the claim that Khomeini himself had completed the so-called “four journeys”.
• Shahram Kholdi University of Manchester, UK
  Politics of History and Factional Rivalry in the Islamic Republic of Iran
• Ali M. Ansari University of St Andrews, UK
  History, Myth and Nationalism in Early Twentieth-Century Iran

Panel 36: Science and Culture in the Nīzārite Sphere: the Dustūr al-Munajjimīn and its Contribution to Our Understanding of Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Iran

• Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine, United States
• Mohammad Karimi Zanjani Asl University of Bonn, Germany
  Shāhnāma or ʿAlīnāma? The İmāmite vs Nīzārite Conflict on the Epic Tradition of Iran
• Eva Orthmann University of Bonn, Germany
  Astrology and History: The Dustūr’s place in Islamic Historiography
• Malihe Karbassian University of Bonn, Germany
  The Interspheral Cosmic Palaces in ’Umm al-Kitāb

Panel 37: Patrimony, Religion, Society, and Politics in Qajar Iran

• Joanna de Groot University of York, UK
• Naofumi Abe University of Tokyo, Japan
  Continuity of Patrimony and Islamic Inheritance System in Iran: The Case of Najafqolī Khān Donbolī’s Family in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century
• Nobuaki Kondo Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan
  Shariʿa Court Records from Nineteenth Century Tehran show abstract

  Although the role of the ‘ulama was critically important for the history of nineteenth- century Iran, their daily activities are difficult to describe. In particular, their activity as specialists in Islamic law has been neglected in previous studies. One reason for this has been a lack of sources. Unlike their Ottoman counterparts, Iranian shari‘a court records are scarce and not well-known, and have not been examined extensively by researchers. However, recent discoveries of Iranian shari‘a court records have make it possible to use them for research. In this paper, I analyze three court registers from nineteenth-century Tehran to explore the functions of shari‘a courts in that society.
• Mateo Farzaneh Northeastern Illinois University, United States
  Between Piety and Self Interest: Struggle between Akhund Khurasani and Shaykh Fazlullah Nuri
• James M. Gustafson Western Washington University, United States
  The Household Politics of Revolution: The Ahmadis of Kerman in the Constitutional Movement

Panel 38: The Crisis of Legitimacy: Transformations in Governance and Civil Society in the Contemporary Islamic Republic of Iran

• Paola Rivetti Dublin City University, Ireland
• Maaike Warnaar University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
  Iran's Competing Discourses of Regime Legitimacy
• Paola Maria Raunio University of St Andrews, UK
  From Ballots to Bullets: The Iranian Women’s Rights Movement after the Presidential Election of 2009
• Marianne Boee University of Bergen, Norway
  The Quest for Codification of Family Law in Contemporary Iran: Conceptions of Nation, Gender and Religion
• Shabnam J. Holliday University of Plymouth, UK
  'Democracy’ as a Source of Legitimacy in Contemporary Iran

Panel 39: Language and Historiography in Early Ottoman-Iranian Encounters

• Fariba Zarinebaf University of California, Riverside, United States
• Ali Anooshahr University of California, Davis, United States
  The Fate of Persian in Early Ottoman Historiography: The Hasht Bihisht of Idris Bitlisi
• Hasan Karatas University of St. Thomas, United States
  Amasya: The Ottoman Window to Iran in the Fifteenth Century
• Emine Fetvaci Boston University, United States
  Şehinşehname of Mehmed III: An Unexamined Ottoman History in Persian Verse
• Baki Tezcan University of California, Davis, United States
  The Ottomans in the Persian World History of Lari (d. 1572)

Panel 40: Rethinking Transnational Iranian Women's Activism: Challenges, Frameworks and Modalities

• Nasrin Rahimieh University of California, Irvine, United States
• Philip Grant University of California, Irvine, United States
  The End of Mardanegi: Men, Masculinity and the Iranian Women's Movement
• Esha Momeni University of California, Los Angeles, United States
  Women, the Women's Movement and the State: the Limits of Reformism
• Negar Sammaknejad University of California, Irvine, United States
  The Effect of the Emigration of Women's Movement Activists on the Iranian Women's Movement Subsequent to the 2009 Presidential Elections
• Leyli Behbahani School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
  Possibilities of Transnational Feminist Activism: a Study of Two Iranian Networks

Panel 41: The Place of Space in Modern Iranian Literature

• M.R. Ghanoonparvar University of Texas at Austin, United States
• Blake Atwood University of Texas at Austin, United States
  Tehran’s Textual Topography: Mapping Urban Youth Culture in Yusef Abad, 33rd Street
• Dena Afrasiabi University of Texas at Austin, United States
  Madman in the Attic: Illness, Space and Gender in Goli Taraqqi's Scattered Memories
• Ahmad Aminpour University of Texas at Austin, United States
  Housing the Homeland

Panel 42: Ismāʿīlī Thought in Persian Poetry and Prose

• Farhad Daftary Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
• Eric Ormsby Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
  Nasir-i Khusraw’s Final Summation of Religion and Philosophy
• Alice C. Hunsberger City University of New York, Hunter College, United States
  Nasir-i Khusraw’s Philosophy of the Intellect and Soul Dynamics
• Sayyad Jalal Badakhchani Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
  Poems of the Resurrection: A New Diwan show abstract

  Hitherto unknown and recovered in 1958 during the renovation of an old building in the vicinity of Birjand the Diwan-i Qa’imiyyat or Poems of the Resurrection constitute 157 odes (4784 hemstitches) dealing with the history, theology and hermeneutic rendering of the religious doctrines of the Nizari Ismailis during their governance of numerous fortresses in Iran and Syria (1090-1256). Its recovery has been described in Iran as an ‘event’ in the history and development of Persian poetry. Hasan was close friend of the famous Iranian philosopher-scientist Nasir al-Din Tusi and consequently his poems reflects some of the ideas expressed in Tusi’s writings.
• Nadia Eboo-Jamal Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
  Ismāʿīlī History in the Poetry of Nizari Quhistani

Evening Program: Opening Remarks, Awards Ceremony, and Reception, sponsored by the Association for Iranian Studies