“Ghani is unique: a scholar and film obsessive of vast erudition who owes no favors to man or studio.[read more>>]

The Persian Gulf: The Economic and Political History of Five Port Cities, 1500-1730 provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the Persian Gulf at a time of major political change, including the successive arrival of the European ‘trading empires’.[read more>>]

Dutch relations with Oman from 1651 to 1806 were substantial and the written accounts provide the most detailed picture of the political and socio-economic situation in that country during this period.[read more>>]

Little is known about the Arab migrants who settled on the Iranian coast between Bushehr and Lengeh in the late 1500s. They were a disparate group of small tribes of sailors, traders, fishermen, pearl divers, and cultivators. Although they were all referred to as the Bani Hula, they were not a uniform group. In fact, they were each other’s fiercest competitors for access to the pearl banks. This frequently led to bloody and murderous encounters and feuds.[read more>>]

Links with the Hinterland focuses on two related themes: the importance of what goes on in a port city’s hinterland, and, the importance of a safe and secure road that connects a port city to its markets.[read more>>]

This study .[read more>>]

Bandar Abbas, once a small fishing village, became the gateway port for Iran after Shah Abbas defeated the Portuguese in 1622. However, with the fall of the Safavids and the withdrawal of the British East India Company in 1759 the port went into decline; by 1793 Bandar Abbas was under the direct control of Oman.[read more>>]

A small, sleepy port in the Persian Gulf, Bandar-e Lengeh has had a varied and checkered history since its launch onto the historical scene around 1750. In those days the tribal people of the region felt at home on both sides of the Gulf and often went to wherever they thought would offer them a better life.[read more>>]

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>>]