Best of
Iran

1996

Bihzad, Master of Persian Painting


Ebadollah Bahari - 1996
    He flourished during the golden age of artistic achievement in the late Teimurid and early Safavid periods, working in Herat and then in Tabriz. This illustrated book traces the roots of the style developed by Bihzad, its heritage and its legacy in Iran, Mughal India and Ottoman Turkey.The author approaches the subject by attempting to relate the paintings to the stories and themes they portray, thus enabling us to appreciate Bihzad's work in a way that has generally been neglected by Western art historians. Bahari has examined Bihzad's paintings in libraries and collections all over the world and this study brings together a huge body of the work.

Unveiling the Hidden Words


Diana Lorice Malouf - 1996
    A study of the translation of the Arabic verses of the Hidden Words by Shoghi Effendi who was uniquely placed to render the words of his great-grandfather into English of outstanding beauty and charm.

Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society


Charles Melville - 1996
    this book on Safavid Persia is divided into two sections, the first of which includes studies on the historiography and the religious politics of the period. Among the contributions to the second section are chapters on the silk industry, which brought European merchants into the country and at the same time exposed the Persian economy to the vagaries of world trade on the capital city of Esfahan, beautified by successive Shahs and on the Safvids' reluctance to adopt firearms and artillery, which was one of the factors in the collapse of the dynasty when the Afghans invaded Persia in 1722.

Mediaeval Isma'ili History and Thought


Farhad Daftary - 1996
    This volume, the result of some of the most recent scholarship in the area and written by leading contemporary authorities in the field, sheds a new and more realistic light on their history.