In Joon, master chef Najmieh Batmanglij distills one of the world's oldest and most influential cuisines to capture its unique flavors in recipes adapted to suit our busy lives. Najmieh's fans have been making meals from her Food of Life for more than 30 years. For Joon she has simplified 75of her favorite dishes and shows how, with the right ingredients and a few basic tools and techniques, authentic Persian food can easily be prepared at home. The recipes in this bookeach accompanied by a photograph of the finished dishcome straight from Najmieh's kitchen and include not only the classics of Persian cooking, but also some soon-to-be favorites, such as quinoa or kale cooked Persian-style. You'll discover delicious side dishes, from cooling, yogurt-based salads and tasty dips and spreads, to more sustaining platters of grains, beans and fresh herbs; tasty kukusfrittata-style omelets filled with vegetables and herbs; spice-infused fish;

The Grande Dame of Iranian Cooking Esteemed American chef. Award-winning cookbook author. Persian cooking instructor. Iranian immigrant. Storyteller. Mother of two acclaimed sons - Zal, a filmmaker; Rostam, a musician. Born in the middle of the 20th century in Tehran, Iran. Lives in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Consults with restaurants around the world. Member of Les Dames d'Escoffier.

In the essays collected here, Abbas Milani uses an impressive array of cross-disciplinary Western and Iranian theories and texts to investigate the crucial question of modernity in Iran today. He offers a wealth of new insights into the thousand-year-old conflict in Iran between the search for modernity and the forces of religious obscurantism. The essays trace the roots of Shiite Islamic fundamentalism and offer illuminating accounts of the work of Iranian intellectuals-both men and women-and their artistic movements as they struggle to find a new path toward a genuine modernity in Iran that is congruent with Iran's rich cultural heritage. Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran challenges the hitherto accepted theory that modernity and its related concepts of democracy and freedom are Western in essence. It also demonstrates that Iran and the West have more that brings them together than separates them in their search for such modern ideals as rationalism, the rule of law, and democracy. These essays will reward the scholar and the general reader alike, and will go far toward explaining the enigma that is Iran today.

Forugh Farrokhzad was born in Tehran in 1935 and died in a car crash at the age of 32. During her short, tumultuous life she was married and divorced; had a son, who was taken away from her; had love affairs; made an award-winning documentary film; adopted a child from a leper colony; and published several collections of poetry. In her writing as well as her lifestyle, she challenged female stereotypes and shocked the establishment, but her talent was unmistakable. Fiercely honest, insightful, and often wonderfully lyrical, her work has earned her a secure place in the thousand-year tradition of illustrious Iranian poets. This revised and updated edition of Another Birth and Other Poems, includes an introduction, letters, interviews, a timeline of Forugh's life and creative work, two essays analyzing her finest poems, and the Persian text of the poems on facing pages. Forugh Farrokhzad's poetry is as poignant today as it was half a century ago, when it scandalized Iranian society. This book brings into perspective the full evolution of Forugh's work, from introspective reflections on womanhood, love, and religion to broader visions of modern society as a whole.

This new bilingual edition of The Mirror of My Heart - the poems in Persian and English on facing pages - is a unique and captivating collection introduced and translated by Dick Davis, an acclaimed scholar and translator of Persian literature as well as a gifted poet in his own right. In his introduction he provides fascinating background detail on Persian poetry written by women through the ages, including common themes and motifs and a brief overview of Iranian history showing how women poets have been affected by the changing dynasties. From Rabe'eh in the tenth century to Fatemeh Ekhtesari in the twenty-first, each of the eighty-four poets in this volume is introduced in a short biographical note, while explanatory notes give further insight into the poems themselves.

Nowruz - the Persian New Year - is one of the world's great festivals, a full month of activities celebrating the earth, the arrival of spring, and the rebirth of nature. Most of all, it is a festival for families. Children and adults alike can share in preparing special meals, decorating the house, and performing the many ceremonies that welcome the New Year. This book is a guide to customs thousands of years old yet as vital as ever - enjoyable for families no matter where they live or what their beliefs. Happy Nowruz offers twenty-five fun, easy, and innovative Nowruz recipes, with lots of photos to show you what to do. This is an ideal guide for parents, teachers, and kids - age six and older - to know more about the origins of Nowruz and to get everyone involved in preparing for the arrival of spring by: - baking Haji Firuz cookies - germinating seeds in eggshells - coloring eggs - making a Nowruz garland - jumping over fires - setting the Haft-sinn (seven-s) holiday table - planting narcissus and hyacinth bulbs - selecting and buying goldfish - banging spoons for trick-or-treating - cooking the Nowruz dinner - enjoying the Outdoor Thirteen picnic

Together, Hafez, a giant of world literature; Jahan Malek Khatun, an eloquent princess; and Obayd-e Zakani, a dissolute satirist, represent one of the most remarkable literary flowerings of any era. All three lived in the famed city of Shiraz, a provincial capital of south-central Iran, and all three drew support from arts-loving rulers during a time better known for its violence than its creative brilliance. Here Dick Davis, an award-winning poet widely considered our finest translator of Persian poetry (The Times Literary Supplement), presents a diverse selection of some of the best poems by these world-renowned authors and shows us the spiritual and secular aspects of love, in varieties embracing every aspect of the human heart.

Some of the most fascinating human epochs lie in the borderlands between history and mystery. So it is with the life of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire in the sixth century bce. By conquest or gentler means, he brought under his rule a dominion stretching from the Aegean Sea to the Hindu Kush and encompassing some tens of millions of people. All across this immense imperium, he earned support and stability by respecting local customs and religions, avoiding the brutal ways of tyranny, and efficiently administering the realm through provincial governors. The empire would last another two centuries, leaving an indelible Persian imprint on much of the ancient world. The Greek chronicler Xenophon, looking back from a distance of several generations, wrote: Cyrus did indeed eclipse all other monarchs, before or since. The vision of the biblical prophet known as Second Isaiah anticipates Cyrus' repatriation of Jews living in exile in Babylon with these words of the Lord: He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please.

Despite what he achieved and bequeathed, much about Cyrus remains uncertain. Persians of his era had no great respect for the written word and kept no annals. The most complete accounts of his life were composed by Greeks. More fragmentary or tangential evidence takes many forms - among them, archaeological remains, administrative records in subject lands, and the always tricky stuff of legend.

Given these challenges, Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World is a remarkable feat of portraiture. In his vast sweep, Reza Zarghamee draws on sources of every kind, painstakingly assembling detail, and always weighing evidence carefully where contradictions arise. He describes the background of the Persian people, the turbulence of the times, and the roots of Cyrus' policies. His account of the imperial era itself delves into religion, military methods, commerce, court life, and much else besides. The result is a living, breathing Cyrus standing atop a distant world that played a key role in shaping our own.

Iran's national epic, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, has traditionally been regarded by both Persians and Westerners as a poem celebrating the the central role of monarchy in Persian history. In this groundbreaking book, Dick Davis argues that the poem is far more than a patriotic chronicle of kingly deeds. Rather, it is a subtle and highly ambiguous discussion of authority, and far from being a celebration of monarchy, its most famous episodes and heroes amount to a radical critique of the institution. Davis demonstrates that the public world of kingly authority is shadowed in the poem by a series of tragic father-son relationships, and that in both the royal and familial spheres, authority figures are invariably presented as morally inferior to those whom they govern. The Shahnameh's complex aesthetic structure and its tragic resolution of problems of authority and hierarchy make it an artistic artifact able to take its rightful place beside the major masterpieces of world literature.

Simorgh: Portraits on My Mind is one of Abbas Milani's most self-reflective and engaging books, named

after the fabulous bird in Iranian mythology and poetry that personifies

the quest for knowledge, solace, and self-discovery.

The rise of the Islamic regime in Iran following the revolution of 1979

marked an era of cataclysmic change, accompanied by myriad

conspiracy theories about its origins. The portraits presented in Simorgh,

each a cross between a brief essay and a short story, explore the

lives and loves, youthful illusions and utopian dreams, the harrowing

experiences of prison and exile, and the diasporic accomplishments

and exilic traumas of individuals who either actively or inadvertently

paved the way for the revolution - or whose lives were crushed by the

nightmarish reality of contemporary Iran.

The subjects of these portraits, all contemporaries of Milani, include

some of Iran's most renowned writers, politicians, scholars, and activists,

alongside friends and family members who act as a poignant chorus to

the unfolding saga. Abbas Milani, who lived and worked in Iran until 1987

and was deeply embedded in the crosscurrents of these lives, o ers an

intimate perspective on their stories. Together, these portraits weave a

cohesive narrative, creating a cumulative e ect that is both profound

and compelling.

Abbas Milani has served as the founding director of

the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University since

2005. His extensive body of work includes The Persian

Sphinx: Amir-Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the

Revolution and The Shah. He is currently working on a

book about Reza Shah. Simorgh, originally written and

published in two volumes in Persian has been masterfully

translated into English by Mahasti Afshar.

Engaging and insightful, Simorgh is Milani at his best and will enthrall both

those new to his work and those already familiar with it.

This bilingual edition of Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz has the original Persian verses facing the English translations. The three Shirazi poets whose work is featured here, Hafez, Jahan Malek Khatun, and Obayd-e Zakani, lived at the same time (the mid fourteenth century), and certainly knew of one another - Obayd wrote at least two poems about Jahan Khatun, and Jahan Khatun quotes Hafez in one of her poems. It's extremely likely that, during the 1340s and early 1350s at least, they also knew one another personally. The poetic life of the city during this period centered on the court of the ruling family, the Injus; Jahan Khatun was an Inju princess, while her uncle, Abu Es'haq, the head of the family and the ruler of the city, was a great patron of poets.

A very engaging saga... Washington Post Book World A powerfully resonant work... Publishers Weekly Outstanding foreign fiction... USA Today Savushun (pronounced sa-voo-shoon ) is a folk tradition, surviving in Southern Iran from an undateable pre-islamic past, that conjures hope in spite of everything. The novel chronicles the life of a Persian family during the World War II Allied occupation of Iran. It is set in Shiraz, a town which evokes images of Persepolis and pre-islamic monuments, the great Persian poets, the shrines, sufis and nomadic tribes all within a historical web of the interests, privilege and influence of foreign powers, corruption, incompetence and arrogance of persons in authority. The story is seen through the eyes of Zari, a young wife, and mother, who copes with her idealistic husband while struggling with her desire for traditional family life and her need for an individual identity. simin daneshvar lives and continues to write in Iran.

The life of Taj al-Saltaneh, daughter of the ruler of Iran, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, epitomized the predicaments of her changing era. Overcoming her limited education within the harem walls, Taj chronicled a thirty-year span in the life of a generation that witnessed a shift from traditional order to revolutionary flux. It is as though she had chosen this moment to recall her personal history-a tale filled with wonder and anguish-in order to record a cultural and political leap, symbolic of her time, from the indulgent, sheltered, and often petty world of her father's harem to the puzzling and exposed, yet emotionally and intellectually challenging world of a new Iran.

Now almost one hundred years later Taj's memoirs are relevant and qualify her not only as a feminist by her society's standards but also in comparison with feminists of her generation in Europe and America. Beyond her fascination for the material glamors of the West at the turn of the twentieth century-fashion, architecture, furniture, the motorcar-she was also influenced by Western culture's painting, music, history, literature and language. And yet throughout this time she kept her bond with her own literary and cultural heritage and what she calls her Persianness.

Despite her troubled life of agony-an unloving and harsh mother; a benevolent but self-indulgent father; an adolescent, bisexual husband; separation from her children; financial difficulties; the stigma of leading a libertine lifestyle and the infamy of removing her veil-Taj's is a genuine voice for women's social grievances in late-twentieth century Iran, and one that reveals a remarkable woman in her own right.

This new paperback edition, now also available as an eBook, coincides with the release of the audio book read by the Iranian-American actress Kathreen Khavari. Abbas Amanat, who edited the book, and wrote its superb introduction and historical biographies, has written a new preface that adds details that have emerged since 1993 about Taj al-Saltaneh's tragic life after 1914.

Located in the Straits of Hormuz, the island of Qeshm has had a tumultuous history. Qeshm: The History of a Persian Gulf Island is the first serious, book-length study of the island's history.

From the fourteenth century onward, the island was an important dependency of the Kingdom of Hormuz, often providing drinking water to Hormuz. The island remained critical as a source of water and foodstuffs for the Portuguese, beginning in the early-sixteenth century. Throughout the seventeenth century, Qeshm remained a bone of contention between Portugal, the Dutch and the English East India Companies. Later, it was a coveted tile in the mosaic of Persian Gulf domination aspired to by the Soltans of Oman, despite the pretensions of the Qajar court. The natural resources of Qeshm include salt, the purest in the Persian Gulf, naphtha, and firewood. From Nader Shah's naval ambitions to the commercial competition of the early-twentieth century, Qeshm features in innumerable mini-crises, both local and international. In 1935 the British abandoned their coaling station on the island at the insistence of Reza Shah.

Qeshm's history stands in stark contrast to the popular image of this staid, somewhat sleepy island. This book, brilliantly researched by two of the foremost scholars of Iranian history, is essential reading for anyone interested in a region whose strategic, political, economic and financial importance continues to grow.

The renowned Russian Iranist Ilya Pavlovich Petrushevsky devoted his career to the study of agriculture and feudal relations in Iran. In this book he analyzes them, giving particular attention to Azerbaijan and Armenia from 1500 to 1900.

Petrushevsky first examines Iran's feudal class and its organization, and points out that Safavid Iran was not a national state, as others have argued. This is followed by a study of the specific institutions related to feudal landownership, to wit: soyurghal and mo afi; tiyul; and molk. He gives special attention to the terminology of social relations, because it is complex and variable across different regions and periods. Furthermore, he studies the productive forces in the agricultural sector of the feudal peasantry, and the question of whether peasants were tied to the soil or not. Finally, he investigates, in great detail, how peasants reacted to their oppression.

Feudal Relations in Iran Azerbaijan and Armenia,1500-1900, translated from the Russian for the first time by the eminent scholar and historian Willem Floor, is a major contribution to our understanding of the socio-economic and political development of Iran. It is a must read for all those interested in the history of Iran and the Caucuses during this period.

The history of modern Iran has been momentous, precarious, and turbulent. The country's struggle with democracy started in 1906 with the Constitutional Revolution that established Iran's first parliamentary democracy and ended in 1921 with a coup d'état that eventually brought a new monarch to power. Sepahdar: Fathollah Khan Akbar is the biography of a consequential player during this period.

By the 1880s, Fathollah Khan Akbar had inherited enormous wealth from his uncle, and had added to it from running the Gilan and Mazandaran customs administrations. He was an important provincial landowner who on several occasions had hosted Mozaffar al-Din Shah. However, as the Constitutional Revolution started to take shape and protests hit home, he became involved in national politics and came out in support of the cause and the Majles.

Over his forty-year political career, during which he witnessed the rule of five monarchs, Sepahdar experienced setbacks such as imprisonment and kidnapping, as well as victories such as the 1909 Triumph of Tehran, which he personally financed while exiled from the city by the shah. Throughout these ups and downs, and while Iran had been divided into zones of Russian and British influence, Sepahdar played all sides while maintaining a strong sense of patriotism and independence. During both his short premierships, he repeatedly defied British authorities when Iran's interests were at risk.

This book is for those interested in Iran's political history in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It sets out, in granular detail, the events, obstacles, and characters involved in the struggle to form an independent democracy. And it provides much new information, including how Sepahdar and the future Reza Shah Pahlavi collaborated to achieve a coup that was bloodless. As a bonus, the preface by Goli Akbar Kashani, Sepahdar's granddaughter, is suffused with family stories and memories.

Khosrow and Shirin is a love story by Nezami Ganjavi--considered the greatest medieval Persian romance poet--based on historical characters of the seventh-century Iranian court. Written 850 years ago, the narrative poem is presented here for the first time in a stunning modern-verse English translation by Dick Davis, the pre-eminent translator of Persian poetry.

The love between an Iranian prince (Khosrow) and an Armenian princess (Shirin) is at the center of this tumultuous tale in which the exigencies of politics and warfare intertwine with no less powerful forces of erotic desire and the quest for personal and spiritual fulfilment. Nezami vividly dramatizes the clash between heroism and sensuality as they are pitted against the desire for the amenities of order and humane civilization. These marvelously presented discordant themes result in a complex love story based on conflicting concepts of love, one regarding the beloved as a prize to be conquered and possessed, the other unrequited and all-consuming, relishing the very notion of the annihilation of the self through love.

Davis has captured the energy and poetry of Nezami's original in a delightful, contemporary idiom, and given us a story to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its luminous lyrical mastery. Davis's superb introduction and textual commentary provide insightful background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Davis's translation. Khosrow and Shirin will enchant both the classicist and the general reader, to captivate a new audience for Nezami's masterpiece.

I gaze into the mirror of my heart,

And though it's me who looks, it's you I see.

So speaks one of the many distinctive voices in this new anthology of verse by women poets writing in Persian, most of whom have never been translated into English before; this is especially true of the pre-modern poets, such as the unnamed author of the lines above, known simply as the daughter of Salar or the woman from Esfahan.

One of the very first Persian poets was a woman (Rabe'eh, who lived over a thousand years ago) and there have been women poets writing in Persian in virtually every generation since that time until the present. Before the twentieth century they tended to come from society's social extremes. Many were princesses, a good number were hired entertainers of one kind or another, and they were active in many different countries - Iran of course, but also India, Afghanistan, and areas of central Asia that are now Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Not surprisingly, a lot of their poetry sounds like that of their male counterparts, but a lot doesn't; there are distinctively bawdy and flirtatious poems by medieval women poets, poems from virtually every era in which the poet complains about her husband (sometimes light-heartedly, sometimes with poignant seriousness), touching poems on the death of a child, and many epigrams centered on little details that bring a life from hundreds of years ago vividly before our eyes.

The Mirror of My Heart is a unique and captivating collection introduced and translated by Dick Davis, an acclaimed scholar and translator of Persian literature as well as a gifted poet in his own right. In his introduction he provides fascinating background detail on Persian poetry written by women through the ages, including common themes and motifs and a brief overview of Iranian history showing how women poets have been affected by the changing dynasties. From Rabe'eh in the tenth century to Fatemeh Ekhtesari in the twenty-first, each of the eighty-three poets in this volume is introduced in a short biographical note, while explanatory notes give further insight into the poems themselves.