Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce its support of the British Library’s Persian manuscripts project. The Library has one of the most significant collections of Persian manuscripts in the world, in terms of both its size and importance. It consists of over 11,000 works and includes some of the most famous miniature paintings of the Persian school. The project involves creating catalogue records for manuscripts which are uncatalogued, standardizing the existing print records and creating digital files, as well as digitizing 50 of the most beautiful manuscripts. These records and manuscript pages will be available on the British Library’s website, allowing easy access to this remarkable collection to the widest audience.

Da (Mother): Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseini, as Recorded by Seyyedeh A’zam Hoseini was published by Sureh-ye Mehr, the official publisher of the Artistic Center of the Islamic Development Organization, in 2008. According to the publishers, it became the biggest seller in the shortest period in Iranian publishing history. This article analyzes the conditions of production, distribution and reception of that work, and compares it to the canon of other contemporary Iranian war narratives. It argues that the unusually wide and varied reception of a traditional discourse of sacrifice, nationalism and revolutionary fervor was facilitated by the fashionable format of the woman’s memoir, in addition to a formidable propaganda machine.

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to welcome new Assistant Professor Samad Alavi. Professor Alavi is a scholar of modern Persian literature and will complete his Ph.D. this winter at UC Berkeley. He presented his research on the Iranian critic and poet Mohammad Mokhtari at the 6th biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies in September. Accompanying him were former Roshan Institute Fellows James Gustafson and Stefan Kamola, who presented their own works on Qajar Iran and Persian historiography, respectively. The Institute would like to congratulate the newest Roshan Institute Fellow, Jipar Duishembieva, whose dissertation focuses on the intellectual environment of 20th century Central Asia. The Persian and Iranian Studies Program also announced a complete listing of events for the year.

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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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is happy to announce a grant to East West Center in support of the performing arts project, “Voices of Afghanistan”. This project illustrates that Afghanistan is home to an impressive array of musical genres. Each is distinct, yet they all share a vibrancy and depth indicative of their importance in the larger fabric of society. The lasting significance of the ghazals (Sufi poetic songs), folk songs, and traditional melodies to be performed reflect their ability to speak to our very human need for love, grace, and transcendence.

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate Safoura Norbakhsh for receiving the first Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies at UMD. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland conducting research on gender and sexuality in Persian Sufism.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to establish a Summer Fellowships Program at University of Chicago in connection with Persepolis Fortification Archive Project. The Persepolis Fortification Archive Project is a new phase in recording and distributing the information that brings about these changes, using electronic equipment and media alongside the conventional tool-kits of philology and scholarship. 

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is happy to announce a grant to Harvard University, supporting a development of a Digital Archive and a Website for Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran. The goal of Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran is to address a gap in scholarship and understanding of the lives of women during the Qajar era (1786 – 1925) in Iran by developing a comprehensive digital resource that preserves, links, and renders accessible primary-source materials related to the social and cultural history of women’s worlds in Qajar Iran.

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The University of Maryland will welcome His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to campus on Tuesday, May 7th. H.H. will be the latest in a long-list of world leaders to deliver the prestigious Anwar Sadat Lecture for Peace in the morning on “Peace Through Compassion: Connecting a Multi-Faith World”. In the afternoon His Holiness will participate in a dialogue on “A Meeting of Two Oceans: Dialogue on Sufism and Buddhism” organized by Roshan Institute of Persian Studies.