By any measure, Nader Shah—founder of the Afsharid Dynasty—ranks as a towering figure in Iranian history. Rising from the humblest of origins, he became a military commander of genius, restored an embattled Persia to imperial greatness, and proceeded to wield the power of the throne with a ruthlessness that approached derangement. Yet much about the man and his tumultuous times remains obscure.[read more>>]

Although most people do not speak of theater and Iran in the same breath, dramatic expression has always been a fixture of Iranian culture.[read more>>]

This study illuminates the 2,500-year social history of sexual relations in Iran.[read more>>]

Games Persians Play is a study of the history, development, and change in the games played in Iran. Iranians, young and old, rich and poor, male and female, played a large variety of games during their 2500-year history.[read more>>]

Agriculture was the mainstay of Iran’s economy in the nineteenth century, yet little is known about it.[read more>>]

Until Now, there have been no books and only a few articles available in English that deal with the actual practice of medicine in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Iran.[read more>>]

In the nineteenth century, Iranian reformers wanted to create an independent, modern state that could stand on its own feet.[read more>>]

Guilds, Merchants and Ulama analyzes the major functions and characteristics of these groups, and discusses how they each coped with the pressures of the world market to which Iran was increasingly exposed and which resulted in the disappearance of jobs reducing Iran’s economic and political independence.[read more>>]

Throughout history, many an ambitious diplomatic initiative has slipped into obscurity, but few have been so thoroughly forgotten as the efforts of a young man named[read more>>]

“This is an important book for those interested in Russian, Central Asian, and Persian studies.” – Choice, January 2008.[read more>>]