Susan Mokhberi, "The Persian Mirror: French Reflections of the Safavid Empire in Early Modern France" (Oxford UP, 2019)
When I/we think about the early modern relationship between France and Persia, Montesquieu's 1721 Lettres persanes is a text that comes to mind immediately. Susan Mokhberi's The Persian Mirror: Reflec...
28 Okt 202158min
Antonio Panaino: What is Zoroastrianism?
Howard speaks with University of Bologna Iranian specialist Antonio Panaino about Zorastrianism: What is it? How was it influenced by, and in turn influence, other religious and cultural traditions? A...
25 Aug 20212h 28min
Shankar Nair, "Translating Wisdom: Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia" (U California Press, 2020)
During the height of Muslim power in Mughal South Asia, Hindu and Muslim scholars worked collaboratively to translate a large body of Hindu Sanskrit texts into the Persian language. Translating Wisdom...
15 Juli 20211h 2min
Donna Stein, "The Empress and I: How an Ancient Empire Collected, Rejected and Rediscovered Modern Art" (Skira, 2020)
In the 1970s, American curator Donna Stein served as an art advisor to Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, the Shahbanu of Iran. Together, Stein and Pahlavi generated an art market in Iran, as Stein encourage...
9 Juni 202146min
Mikiya Koyagi, "Iran in Motion: Mobility, Space, and the Trans-Iranian Railway" (Stanford UP, 2021)
Completed in 1938, the Trans-Iranian Railway connected Tehran to Iran's two major bodies of water: the Caspian Sea in the north and the Persian Gulf in the south. Iran's first national railway, it pro...
1 Juni 202158min
Mehr Afshan Farooqi, "Ghalib: a Wilderness at My Doorstep: A Critical Biography" (Allen Lane, 2021)
Mirza Ghalib is one of the most celebrated poets in the Urdu literary canon. Yet, at the time, Ghalib was prolific in both Urdu and Persian. His output in Persian output dwarfs his Urdu writing (at le...
20 Maj 202141min
Imprisoned in Iran: A Conversation with Wang Xiyue
For 40 months, Wang Xiyue was imprisoned in Iran on false charges of espionage. A doctoral candidate in history at Princeton University, Wang Xiyue joins the show to discuss his imprisonment and U.S.-...
5 Apr 20211h 9min
James Pickett, "Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia" (Cornell UP, 2020)
James Pickett's new book, Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020) analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who creat...
21 Jan 202158min
