Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate the recipients of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Achievement Awards whose accomplishments were recognized at the ceremony held by the Iranian Culture and Art Club of Fresno on June 9. During the ceremony, ten students under 9 years old made presentations on subjects ranging from animals and colors to seasons and holidays. Seven students between 10 and 16 years old also spoke about various subjects and recited poems in Persian. A grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute made possible gift certificates for these and other outstanding students as well as supported Persian language learning tools during the academic year 2012-2013.

Already appealing to top graduate students worldwide, UNC’s allure will only increase thanks to the creation of Roshan Institute Fellowships for Excellence in Persian Studies. These new fellowships, made possible through Roshan Institute Fund for Excellence in Persian Studies established by a grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, will provide much-needed support for Carolina’s efforts to attract and retain graduate students of the highest quality. Plus, they will allow the University to increase diversity among its graduate student population by helping offset additional costs incurred by international and out-of-state students.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce the launch of the Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture Program in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. New Roshan Institute Instructor in Persian Language and Culture, Dr. Ladan Hamedani will teach introductory courses on the modern Persian language and on Persian art, culture, history and literature during the Fall 2013 semester. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to support this three-year pilot initiative to develop the Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture Program, which includes fellowships for graduate students.

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From Timur’s tent in Samarqand to Shah ‘Abbas’s palace in Isfahan and Humayun’s tomb in Delhi, the pavilion has been an integral part of Persianate gardens since the Achaemenid garden in Pasargadae in the sixth century BC. Here, Mohammad Gharipour places both the garden and the pavilion within their historical, literary and artistic contexts, emphasizing the importance of the pavilion, so overlooked in the study of Iranian historical architecture. He does so by examining the representations of gardens and pavilions in religious texts (such as the Zoroastrian Aban Yasht or the Qur’an), the poetry of major Persian poets (such as Ferdowsi, Sa’di, Rumi and Hafez), miniature painting, sculpture and carpets, as well as accounts of travelers to Persia. Gharipour thereby highlights the spiritual, symbolic and religious aspects of gardens, as well as their more social and economic functions, reflecting patterns of patronage and ownership. This book reaches back through Persia’s rich history to explore the relationships between human beings and their domestic environments and will be a valuable resource for Art History, Architecture and Iranian Studies.

Literature on the Great Game presents a strong dichotomy between European aggressors and Oriental victims. However, Qajar Iran possessed its own forgotten imperial project in Central Asia, explored here through an 1844 travelogue published anonymously in Iran as Safarnameh-ye Bokhara. This text, whose author is identified here as Qajar statesman ‘Abbas Qoli Khan, details a diplomatic exchange with the amir of Bokhara over the life and death of Rev. Joseph Wolff and the infamous disappearance of British agents Stoddart and Conolly. Notably, ‘Abbas Qoli Khan pressed Qajar claims to Marv to the amir, utilizing a discourse of historical and cultural unity between Iran and Greater Khorasan, in contrast to that of difference and hierarchy common in Anglo-Russian imperial projects. Published in Iranian Studies, Volume 46, Issue 4, 2013.

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