The present study tries to show a wider-than-usual use of ta'ârof, that is the deliberate play with the so-called “ritual courtesy, or politeness” formulas that can alter the readers' opinion about a character, for instance that result in prejudice, sympathy, etc. towards the characters. Politeness, in both everyday conversations and literary texts, is an excellent device for expressing certain individual opinions. Depending on or irrespective of the conversation partner, individual interests or opinions can be expressed or withdrawn. What I try to prove is that their use— quantity, types etc.—can be a form of expressing the author's direct attitude. I have chosen works of the “classics” of modern fiction (Sâdeq Hedâyat, Bozorg ‘Alavi, Sâdeq Čubak and Jalâl Âl Ahmad). Based on the selected examples from the works of the writers I have chosen, I attempt to demonstrate and prove my presumption. The exaggerated insistence on a certain style or just the exaggerated refusal to use a certain style can be a tool for the writer to influence—beforehand—the readers’ impression of a certain character or characters. This effect can be rough, sarcastic, etc.

This article includes part of the linguistic material we documented in 2002 from a galesh ranch in central-eastern Mazandaran. It transcribes, translates, and glosses two texts related by a patriarch on his long, eventful life: the dramatic elopement with the girl he married, his successful family life and career as a pastoral nomad, and his long resistance against the laws forcing the galesh families to evacuate the forest for good. Notwithstanding our dialectological purpose, namely documentation of the largely understudied language of Mazandaran within the long-standing tradition of Iranian philology, the article may also provide raw material for the anthropologist, sociologist, and historian, as it relays an unrecorded tradition just before its total disappearance.

This article seeks to develop an interpretation of ornament as geometric pattern that embodies metaphysical intent in Iranian monuments of the fifth/eleventh century. The proposed argument elucidates cultural meaning relevant to a particular time and specific place, with implications for broader application.1 Reading geometric patterns as visual commentary, this approach relates the presence of patterns in art accompanied by a Qur'anic inscription to both the practice of pattern-making and the contemporary discourse concerning mathematics, philosophy, and the Islamic sciences in Iran. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of a passage from the Qur'an (59:21–24) inscribed on the tomb towers at Kharraqān, in which the Qur'anic term, amthāl, is taken literally to refer to the patterns executed on the monuments.

From the beginning of her career, Simin Behbahani stresses her intention to reflect contemporary concerns in her poetry. She has continued to use the traditional form of ghazal and to affirm the ghazal's capacity to reflect the contemporary environment. Behbahani tells us how she changed the structure of the ghazal to suit her poetic needs. This paper focuses on the poetic conversation as a feature of Behbahani's poetic style which leads her poetry firmly into present time. Early female poets in Iran made use of poetic conversation to bring attention to a changing social system and, especially, issues of concern to women. Behbahani refines and perfects the technique of poetic conversation. Her poetic conversations range from a single-voiced complaint to complex commentary involving more than one perspective. In particular, a character identified only as “you” at times represents society or a companion, and may even bring the poet face-to-face with herself. This character widens the scope of the poetic drama. Behbahani's poetic conversations convey a femininity that is complex and a sensibility that is modern.

The Kurdish novel emerged in 1935 and, towards the end of the twentieth century, established itself as a literary genre with a significant quantity and quality. However, until the last decade of the previous century the Kurdish novel was entirely dominated by Kurdish men and there is no single novel written by a Kurdish woman. During recent years, however, Kurdish women novelists have contributed to the development of this genre. This article aims to assess Kurdish women's novel-writing and, through analyzing and discussing their style and themes, tries to find out their main characteristic generic features. An attempt is made to see if there are thematic and stylistic differences between Kurdish novels written by the women and their male counterparts.

This paper is a phenomenological study of one of Simin Behbahani's better known poems, “Raqqaseh,” which is about the nightly ritualized dance of a dancing girl in a tavern. It will argue that the tavern in this poem could be viewed as a cultural container for socially dangerous representations and impulses, like the metaphoric sexualized body of the dancing girl. The tavern could also be viewed as a semiotic register for the symbolic representation of the dominant normative social discourse. By viewing the dance as performance, the communicative association of the symbolic significance of the dancing girl's body and the tavern and its audience will also be discussed. This paper will argue that the reader too is implicated in the performative function of the text.

This article examines the American Presbyterian education project in Iran from the early nineteenth century to 1940. While most literature on the subject concerns Iranian state-missionary relations and Presbyterian boys' schools in Iran, this article seeks to address the interactions between American Presbyterians, the Iranian state, and students and families of Iranian girls' schools. A study of the Presbyterians' flagship girls' school in Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh and its sixty-six-year history reveals missionary intentions, tactics, and accomplishments, as well as the adaptations and accommodations pressed upon them by the Iranians they served. Despite the school's promotion of modern American norms and Christian teachings, the young graduates of Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh developed a strong sense of loyalty to both Iran and Islam, thus turning an evangelist mission into an important feature of the construction of Iranian nationalism and modernity.

This article analyzes two-dimensional images documented in the work of fourth/tenth century mathematician Abu al-Wafā' Būzjānī, which appear in his treatise, On Those Parts of Geometry Needed by Craftsmen. These images record three-dimensional tessellations of the sphere, geometric constructions, which may have served as a basis for architectural monuments and the interior design of domes in Islamic Iran. Such designs were very likely the result of collaborations among mathematicians and artists. As explained here, the construction of the icosahedron on a sphere, as presented in Būzjānī's treatise, is not mathematically correct. But the construction of the spherical dodecahedron is precise. Būzjānī's studies of the sphere as a three-dimensional form deserve further consideration as an important component in the development of mathematical thinking.

Although the first Persian language newspaper was published in Iran 170 years ago, Iranian journalism is a twentieth century creation, indeed a product of the 1906 Constitutional Revolution. The press played a significant part in the revolution, especially by promoting the demand for the rule of laws enacted by parliament, rather than decrees issued by the king or the religious leaders. Once a constitution had been declared, many journalists felt relieved of all restrictions and engaged in bitter, personal attacks on their opponents, including the monarch and his family. Many papers also opposed a press law that was passed soon after the revolution, arguing that it was meant to suppress their newly-gained freedom. Five more press laws have been passed in Iran since then, but the debate over press freedom and the rule of law in the country does not appear to be anywhere near resolution.

Although considered a ‘modern’ poet, unlike most of her contemporaries (e.g. Ahmad Shamlou, Mehdi Akhavan-e Sales, and Nader Naderpour), Simin Behbahani, has, on the whole, avoided the free verse forms of shi‘r-i nu and has chosen to employ the most popular classical genre of Persian lyric poetry, the ghazal, as the chief vehicle for her poetic expression. Behbahani has been praised by many literary critics for her use of innovative metric schemes, especially from the mid-1970s onwards, and she is perhaps one of the first Persian poets since the medieval period to do so with any success. This article, however, will focus on features other than meter (such as imagery, language, and structure) to examine how innovative or traditional Behbahani's ghazals are in these respects. There is a tangible tension between the old and the new in Behbahani's ghazals, which has yet to be fully explored. After a broader discussion of how Behbahani has reworked the classical ghazal and how her remolding of this traditional genre has been received by literary critics, I will examine two poems from her 1973 collection Rastakhiz [Resurrection] in order to demonstrate how the poet blends the old with the new in her ghazals.

Note by Iranian Studies: Journalism has the potential to make a reporter feel at least as important as the subject of his or her reports. The temptation can be even stronger in global journalism, with reporters from the affluent nations covering the traumas of the people in more problem-ridden parts of the world. By contrast, in Tom Fenton's account of Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral in 1989, a seasoned reporter goes beyond the apparently chaotic and frenzied action by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iranians to see the historic significance of the event and the man.

Thomas Trail Fenton, born 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland, retired from CBS in 2004 after a thirty-four year career. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1952 and was an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1952 to 1961, serving in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Fenton began his career in journalism at The Baltimore Sun, where he worked until 1970, reporting from Europe and the Middle East, including the June 1967 Israeli-Arab war and the May 1968 student protests in France, which earned Fenton an award from the Overseas Press Club.

Fenton joined CBS News as a correspondent in the Rome Bureau in 1970, followed by assignments to the bureaus in Tel Aviv, Paris, London and Moscow. He became Senior European Correspondent in 1979. He reported on the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. After the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah in 1979, Fenton was the first western journalist to interview Ayatollah Khomeini. He later returned to Iran to report on the hostage crisis that had followed the occupation of the American Embassy in Tehran. During the 1990s, Fenton covered the break up of the Soviet Union, the wars in the Balkans, and the violence in the Middle East and Africa. After retiring, Fenton wrote Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All in 2005.

The contributions of Shī‘a scholars and noblemen to the advancement of knowledge is well documented. These contributions culminated in the institution of dār al-‘ilm during the Buyids (334–447/945–1055). While the advent of the Saljūqs signaled the disappearance of the dār al-‘ilm, the Shī‘a minority continued to serve in the production of both religious and secular knowledge, despite the increasingly strict social policies under the Saljūqs. This article examines the remarkable role of Abu al-assan Muahhar, the naqīb of Ray Alids, who provided protection as well as immense support for scholars of his time. It further elucidates the sectarian tensions that affected the institutionalization of the sciences, hence a greater need for the opportune support afforded by the naqīb Muahhar.