Thursday, January 31, 2008
Crown Prince Reza PAHLAVI
An address by Reza Pahlavi of IranGeorgetown University - January 30th, 2008I am indeed very pleased to be back at Georgetown University, and to once again have the opportunity to spend some time with you and discuss important matters which, without a doubt, concern all of us in these troubled times.Iran’s clerical regime’s continued support for terrorism and confrontational behaviour, both regionally and beyond, its lack of transparency on issues such as its nuclear program, its continued repression of its citizenry, and a host of other issues, has rightfully led the world to the conclusion that, as such, this regime cannot be trusted. The Iranian people continue to suffer while the world ponders where all this might lead to. There are numerous topics worthy of discussion. But in light of time, I have chosen to focus tonight on the most recent issues preoccupying the international community.Let me start by stating that, despite a brief respite owing to the hype created by the publication of the National Intelligence Estimate last December, my homeland Iran, has managed to once again reclaim – for all the wrong reasons – its coveted place as one of the leading headline grabbers in world affairs. Not even Pakistan’s tense situation following the assassination of my friend, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, nor the chaotic presidential elections and its violent aftermath in Kenya, as well as the continuing crisis in Iraq and the Levant, have managed to keep Iran and its contentious rulers off the front pages. At the same time, as the primary season peaks here, and people are increasingly consumed by the election fever sweeping America, Iranians are also being asked to go to the polls on March 14 – to elect a new Majlis (parliament). Interestingly, despite the fact that Iran keeps making headlines on a whole host of other issues, and unlike the constant emphasis being made about the “free and fair” nature of the forthcoming Parliamentary elections in Pakistan, or the degree of irregularities in Kenya’s much disputed presidential elections last month, very little effort is underway to accurately describe the hoax and circus that is being passed on as “elections” by the ruling clerics in Iran. While news is gradually surfacing that more than two thirds of the 7000 plus candidates, who have registered to contest 290 seats in the “Islamic Consultative Parliament,” are likely to be “disqualified” – for a variety of reasons, but primarily based on the extent of their commitments to the tenets of the autocratic constitution – there has been no attempt to try and apply the same standards that are being demanded of, say President Musharaf in Pakistan, to the ruling autocrats of Iran!What is worse is that the international media, eager in having an entrée into Iran, are so obsessed with the prospect of getting a “live interview” with any one of Iran’s controversial figures over such contentious issues as their calling for the “wiping of Israel from the face of the earth,” or other similarly preposterous statements, that they pay little to no attention to the fact that they are being hoodwinked into a trap that essentially helps the clerical authorities achieve their aim of passing off their classic Soviet-style elections as something genuine or likely to make a difference to the overwhelming majority of the people. Let me be clear: the upcoming Majles elections in Iran is nothing but a sham, and the Iranian people – whether they are compelled by a variety of reasons to take part, or whether they are able to withstand enormous pressure and boycott the elections – know full well that, no matter who gets into the next Majles, they are unlikely to truly represent their will, desire and vision for Iran. Consequently, the next Majles will continue to remain a mere pawn in the hands of the “Supreme Leader” and his cohorts.Let me now turn to a different subject which must today be at the top of the mind of every student of Iranian affairs: The effect of the NIE, especially amongst Iranians. From my perspective, the most positive aspect of the NIE has been the fact that in the ongoing dispute between Iran and the international community over the regime’s exposed nuclear program and ambitions, the worst option – namely the dreaded military option, against which I have continuously spoken – has been firmly placed in context. In the weeks prior to the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, despite the fact that it was clearly obvious that diplomatic efforts were by no means exhausted in pressuring the clerical regime to adhere to the will of the U.N. Security Council and the I.A.E.A. vis-à-vis it’s uranium enrichment program, there was, nonetheless, a crescendo of media-based hype and frenzy, giving the impression that the military option was likely to be exercised much sooner than anyone imagined.As a consequence of the NIE, there is no question that focus has once again been shifted to reliance on negotiations and diplomatic measures in attempting to resolve this matter. So, while the United States has maintained that its military option has not been removed from the table, there is now a much more sober atmosphere that is most conscious about not allowing matters to get out of hand.While this development has been a source of relief to me and many Iranians who were dreading the prospect of a catastrophic war, it has at the same time served to lower morale amongst ordinary citizens looking for international moral support of their struggle for democracy and human rights, by creating the false impression that the U.S. and its allies were caving into the Islamist regime’s pressures in places like Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.This impression was fuelled, not only by the kind of misleading publicity the NIE generated within the international media, but also by the way in which the regime’s propaganda machine projected it as its ultimate vindication and victory over “the Great Satan and its European surrogates.” The level of misperception and deliberate misrepresentation regarding the actual meaning and content of the National Intelligence Estimate has been such that key figures of the clerical regime – believing their own propaganda – have actually demanded that Iran be exonerated of all suspicions, and that its nuclear case at the Security Council be terminated and handed back to the IAEA.It is a fact that – as a consequence of the NIE – the Islamic regime has been able to gain extra time in the “cat and mouse game” it has so masterfully played with the international community for the past several years. However, it was also inevitable that they could not continue misrepresenting realities beyond a very limited period of time. Fortunately, as we speak, the implications of the NIE report can be viewed in much more sober terms as they pertain to Iran – as opposed to whatever connotation one might want to attach to it from the perspective of U.S. politics. As far as Iran is concerned, the NIE confirms the fact that the clerical leadership had in fact concealed and mislead the world about their plans for acquiring and developing nuclear weapons, in the sense that according to the report, it was not until 2003 that they actually put a halt to their “nuclear weapons” program – meaning Iran’s nuclear weapon design and weaponization work. The remainder of the report, while making a number of other comments with varying “degrees of confidence,” entirely misses a critical point in that the underlying reason behind the regime’s troubles with the U.N. Security Council had little to do with its at-the-time covert weaponization work, but instead was due to the regime’s opacity and failure to cooperate with the IAEA on one hand, and its continuing production of fissile material and haste in the development of long range missiles on the other. To be clear, there was never any question that, unless the Iranian authorities properly addressed the demands that were being put to them over these issues, nothing would be resolved. Hence, it is no surprise that after a delay of some 30 days or more, the “5+1” group are once again in the process of circulating a draft text that will be the basis of a third punitive U.N. Security Council resolution against Iran.Within Iran, these past several weeks have been a period of extreme concern and anxiety. Although there is general relief over the lowered prospects of military conflict, there is today grave concern about the fact that the U.S. and the international community might be willing to forego the cause of democracy and human rights in Iran, should the Islamist clerical regime demand it as its price in exchange for halting its agitations in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Such a development, were it to occur, would not only serve to demoralize freedom loving people and democratic movements world wide, but it would more dangerously hand victory to murderers and terrorists throughout the Middle East.I believe that the current thrust of U.S. policy in the Middle East which is centred on the resolution of the long standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a positive development and one which I hope will be sustained by the next administration. Undoubtedly, the resolution of this 60 year old conflict will serve as the cornerstone of moderation and stability in the region as a whole. However, have no doubt that Tehran’s theocracy also has its plan, one which is not compatible with the regional and the international community’s vision of a two state resolution. Through its surrogates and allies in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, the clerical regime is guaranteed to do its utmost to derail and block the current initiative from ever taking off. I believe President Bush’s public comments on Iran, during his recent trip to the Middle East, are partly reflective of his administration’s realization of the same. Of course, this feeds into a greater general unease about the clerical regime’s implicit and explicitly declared long term regional ambitions, threatening the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, rendering the clerical regime a problem State irrespective of who takes charge of the next U.S. Administration.In closing, I must state the sobering fact that, in the course of the past three decades, since the arrival of Ayatollah Khomeini and the establishment of the world’s first modern-day theocracy, we have witnessed a pattern of escalating violence, war and conflict at unprecedented levels. A cursory review of some of the regional developments during this period in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon and Israel, clearly illustrate the point I am making. Uncertainty about the future, coupled with constant fear of violence and instability, has deprived the people of the Middle East from creating the kind of environment that is both peaceful and conducive for developing their full potential. The question which begs attention is: what must be done to avoid a similar pattern in the next 30 years, or better yet, how best to put an end to it?Seen from that perspective, the choices are very clear. It is essential that forces of moderation, tolerance and enlightenment succeed in isolating and neutralizing the forces of darkness and violence which have no compunction whatsoever in resorting to mass terror in order to promote their hateful agenda. It is in this overall battle of ideas that the solid and unwavering moral support of the West and its liberal democratic values are so essential in determining the final outcome.I firmly believe that the people of Iran have a huge role to play in this great battle. As a nation, we have experienced and directly endured the consequences of an inept, corrupt and oppressive government that has failed to meet the daily needs of a robust population that is craving to play its rightful part, in line with the demands of the 21st century. I am convinced that with the establishment of secular democracy in Iran – something that is fully understood and compatible with the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Iranians – and the end of the regime’s sponsorship of terror, the region will get its chance to start anew. A democratic Iran will usher a new era that will, within a generation, positively transform the Middle East and beyond.Therefore, let me conclude by saying that my compatriots need your moral support today in their struggle for freedom and human rights. We need to be assured that the free world will never deviate over matters of principle.Help us help you in the greater battles that must be won, if we are to succeed with the positive visions we all share: putting an end to tension, violence and instability, and promoting peace, understanding and tranquillity in the Middle East.
NEW DELHI - India 's lucrative outsourcing industry struggled
The disruption which has hit a swath of users from Egypt to Bangladesh -- began to affect much of the Middle East on Wednesday, when outages caused a slowdown in traffic on Dubai 's stock exchange.
Such large-scale disruptions are rare but not unknown. East Asia suffered nearly two months of outages and slow service after an earthquake damaged undersea cables near Taiwan in December 200 6.
Such large-scale disruptions are rare but not unknown. East Asia suffered nearly two months of outages and slow service after an earthquake damaged undersea cables near Taiwan in December 200 6.
ALEXANDER HODZKO as adiscoverer of the Azerbaijan culture in the West
Please open the link below
This is a dangerous for Iran in terms of her ancient legacy. Thanks to prodigious funding and support for Soviet-era invented narrative-history, there is now a movement to establish "Azarbaijani Studies" in the west - the link you see is in Poland. Iranians are incredibly silent and say nothing just as Iranian figures are being "Turkisized" - figures such as Nizami, Ganjei, Babak Khorramdin, Shah Ismail, etc.We all share the burdon of responsibility for defending Iran's true legacy and heritage.
My regardsKaveh Farrokh
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Al-Qaed in Iran
It is for past three days and nights Al-Qaed terrorists are hired by the cleric regime are charging at university dormitories and murdering university students at night. Now, Iranian people rise from every corner of world, and assist university students to defend themselves. They need us more than ever.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Teen alleges she was assaulted by Victoria police
Police burtality os common practice in Canada, and this victim of police was lucky to cause awarness. There are other police victim that no one hears about them.
CTV.ca News Staff
The Victoria Police Department and B.C.'s police complaints commissioner have launched separate investigations into police conduct after a teenager alleged she was assaulted and tied to a door by officers at a city lockup.
The Victoria Police Department and B.C.'s police complaints commissioner have launched separate investigations into police conduct after a teenager alleged she was assaulted and tied to a door by officers at a city lockup.
Iran Reports 7th Shipment of Russian Nuclear Fuel
By VOA News 26 January 2008
Iran's official news agency says the country has received a seventh shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia for its first atomic power plant.
Iraqi Archaeologists Excavate New Sites and Find ‘Rare’ Parthian Artefacts
http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/January2008/25-01.htm
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Iraqi archaeologists have resumed excavations in southern Iraq uncovering three important ancient sites and collecting magnificent items.
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Iraqi archaeologists have resumed excavations in southern Iraq uncovering three important ancient sites and collecting magnificent items.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Iranian people fear new wave of sanctions
By Anuj Chopra in TehranThursday, 24 January 2008
Mustafa Ibrahim, 52, has been dreading a new wave of sanctions for more than a year. Since the first wave was imposed on Iran in December 2006, there has been a visible impact on his printing business. It has made doing business directly with European manufacturers and dealers of printing plates cumbersome, forcing him to seek the costly services of middlemen in Dubai. Profits have shrunk by nearly half, and he is now considering opting for cheaper Chinese imports, which he fears will diminish his quality.
Mustafa Ibrahim, 52, has been dreading a new wave of sanctions for more than a year. Since the first wave was imposed on Iran in December 2006, there has been a visible impact on his printing business. It has made doing business directly with European manufacturers and dealers of printing plates cumbersome, forcing him to seek the costly services of middlemen in Dubai. Profits have shrunk by nearly half, and he is now considering opting for cheaper Chinese imports, which he fears will diminish his quality.
Persian Gulf's Roudan City Under Study
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Stratigraphical studies in Roudan city, located 35 kilometres from Strait of Hormoz in Persian Gulf, have resulted in the discovery of architectural layers ranging from the third millennium BCE up to the Parthian (248 BCE-224 CE) and Sasanian (224-651 CE) dynastic eras.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Powers agree modest new Iran sanctions draft
BERLIN (Reuters) - World powers agreed on Tuesday on the outlines of a new sanctions resolution against Iran, but diplomats said the draft did not contain the punitive economic measures that Washington had been pushing for.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Discovery of an Achaemenid-Persepolitan Architectural Style in Sorvan
LONDON, (CAIS) -- During the second season of the archaeological research in the village of Sorvan, located in Nurabad Mamasani in Fars Province, archaeologists have unearthed further Achaemenid architectural evidence. The second season of archaeological research began on December 31st 2007 by Iranian and Australian archaeologists under a joint team under the directives of Alireza Asgari and Daniel Potts.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Canada needs to be added in list of nations for violation of human rights
Canada placed US name in list of country that violated human rights under section of torture. Also, Canada needs to add its own name in the list because Canada violate human rights all the time. Canadian police all the time, torture ethnic people in their custody, and some die in hand of authority.
In Canada organize crime have police in their payroll, courthouses are in payroll of powerful class, and organize crime.
The above comments are not just allegation but reality. You want fact, soon you will have facts that how Canada is violating human rights.
Gearing up for another Durban
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/295480
Jan 20, 2008 04:30 AM Anna Morgan
After years of debate, the UN General Assembly recently allocated a budget for a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa.
Jan 20, 2008 04:30 AM Anna Morgan
After years of debate, the UN General Assembly recently allocated a budget for a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa.
Why Do You Torture Us, Canada?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lionel-beehner/why-do-you-torture-us-ca_b_82373.html
Oh Canada. Americans look up to you, both literally and figuratively. But your laid-back-ness and refusal to offend the powers that be in Washington can make us cringe--as it did last week when you redacted the United States from your torture manual.
French-Iranian filmmaker released from Iran
France's Foreign Ministry confirmed the return of Montreal-based filmmaker Mehrnoushe Solouki to Paris late Friday morning, the same day Iranian officials permitted her departure after nearly a year in Tehran.
The charge made by Robert Gates
Globe and Mail Update
January 18, 2008 at 7:58 AM EST
In a Los Angeles Times report published Wednesday, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said NATO forces involved in a brutal and apparently interminable struggle against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan "don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations." The assessment has been rejected in North Atlantic Treaty Organization capitals as a bizarre and offensive slur. But could he be right - not with respect to Canada, but with.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Nasreddin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin
[edit] Delivering a Khutba
Once, Nasreddin was invited to deliver a khutba. When he got on the minbar (pulpit), he asked "Do you know what I am going to say?" The audience replied "NO", so he announced "I have no desire to speak to people who don't even know what I will be talking about" and he left.
The people felt embarrassed and called him back again the next day. This time when he asked the same question, the people replied "YES". So Nasreddin said, "Well, since you already know what I am going to say, I won't waste any more of your time" and he left.
Now the people were really perplexed. They decided to try one more time and once again invited the Mullah to speak the following week. Once again he asked the same question - "Do you know what I am going to say?" Now the people were prepared and so half of them answered "YES" while the other half replied "NO". So Nasreddin said "The half who know what I am going to say, tell it to the other half" and he left!
Once, Nasreddin was invited to deliver a khutba. When he got on the minbar (pulpit), he asked "Do you know what I am going to say?" The audience replied "NO", so he announced "I have no desire to speak to people who don't even know what I will be talking about" and he left.
The people felt embarrassed and called him back again the next day. This time when he asked the same question, the people replied "YES". So Nasreddin said, "Well, since you already know what I am going to say, I won't waste any more of your time" and he left.
Now the people were really perplexed. They decided to try one more time and once again invited the Mullah to speak the following week. Once again he asked the same question - "Do you know what I am going to say?" Now the people were prepared and so half of them answered "YES" while the other half replied "NO". So Nasreddin said "The half who know what I am going to say, tell it to the other half" and he left!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ahmadinejad's Academic Pilgrims
By Robert SpencerFrontPageMagazine.com Monday, January 14, 2008
When Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University, Columbia’s President Lee Bollinger offered to travel to Iran himself, in the interests of promoting freedom of speech there: “Let me,” he implored Ahmadinejad, “lead a delegation of students and faculty from Columbia to address your university about free speech, with the same freedom we afford you today. Will you do that?”
When Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University, Columbia’s President Lee Bollinger offered to travel to Iran himself, in the interests of promoting freedom of speech there: “Let me,” he implored Ahmadinejad, “lead a delegation of students and faculty from Columbia to address your university about free speech, with the same freedom we afford you today. Will you do that?”
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Tehran Pledges to Answer UN Nuclear Questions by March
Iran's foreign ministry is pledging to answer all questions that the United Nations nuclear agency still has about its past nuclear activities.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Dozens killed in Iran blizzards
At least 28 people are reported to have died in Iran's heaviest snowfall in recent years. Eight people froze to death as severe blizzards left 40,000 people stranded in their cars, authorities said. Although most have now been rescued, another 20 people are reported to have died in car crashes caused by the weather, officials said.
Alberta premier threatens to sue blogger
Canadian politicans are like the cleric regime, in case, Canadian politicans do not like someone, they use civil action against someone in order to silent the person. It is a shame, and Canadian police is like the cleric regime's police officer burtality is top priority.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/01/10/4765203-sun.html
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=8b9ac07f-966b-4fd6-bbbb-db028ee1c31b&k=58541
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/01/10/4765203-sun.html
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=8b9ac07f-966b-4fd6-bbbb-db028ee1c31b&k=58541
New Ammunition for Bush Against Tehran
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmsKTURI66j-ZnzyHoNWZiwk9atwD8U2K88O0
By ROBERT BURNS – 17 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Persian Gulf confrontation between U.S. and Iranian forces ended without a shot being fired. But it handed the Bush administration new ammunition in its battle to convince allies that the Tehran government is a threat even without nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Persian Gulf confrontation between U.S. and Iranian forces ended without a shot being fired. But it handed the Bush administration new ammunition in its battle to convince allies that the Tehran government is a threat even without nuclear weapons.
Iraqi civilian death toll more than 150000
About 151,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in bomb attacks and other violence in Iraq in the first three years after the invasion, according to the most comprehensive study yet into the number of fatalities.
Iran Accuses U.S. of Faking Persian Gulf Video
TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard accused the United States on Wednesday of fabricating a video showing Iranian speedboats confronting United States Navy warships in the Persian Gulf over the weekend, according to a report carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency and state-run television.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Palaeolithic Iran Under Study
http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/January2008/09-01-paleolithic.htm
LONDON, (CAIS) -- An Iranian and international archaeological team have began their studies on the oldest human and animal remains found near Iran's Kermanshah city.
Archaeologists Resume Mamasani Excavations
http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/January2008/09-01.htm
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Archaeologists have started the second phase of archaeological research in Nourabad Mamasani located in the country's southern Fars Province.Alireza Asgari from Iran's Archaeology Research Centre and Daniel Potts from Australia's Sydney University are in charge of the project which started on December 31st, 2007.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Vandals Smash Achaemenid Column Bases of Susa's Apadana Palace
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Column bases of the Achaemenid Apadana Palace of ancient Susa in Khuzestan Province have recently been demolished by vandals.
The palace’s remaining column bases have been broken into two pieces and the Old-Persian cuneiform inscriptions on the base have been obliterated, the Khuzestan Cultural Heritage Lovers Society (Tariana) spokesman Mojtaba Gahestuni told the Persian service of CHN on Sunday.
The stone inscriptions have been severed and scattered around the ancient archaeological site, he added.
“The reason for the destruction of the artefacts is not clear,” Gahestuni remarked, adding, “The incident probably results from the vandals’ ignorance of the historical significance of the relics.”
He went on to say that many problems are caused by the lack of protection and appropriate fencing around the site which covers about 360 hectares.
“The Khuzestan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (KCHTHD) undertook the installation of rods around the zone, but the measure was inadequate and has not prevented unauthorized people from entering the precinct,” Gahestuni explained.
According to Gahestuni, the use of concrete and iron rods for demarcation purposes has even led to some damage to the area.
The Apadana Palace is also being threatened by the construction of a preparatory school on its perimeter.
In early December, Tariana sent letters to the Islamic regime’s president Mahmud Ahmadinejad, asking him put a stop to the project – but the letter not so surprisingly was ignored.
The school building, which is to be four stories tall, will spoil the horizontal view from the palace ruins.
In addition, the historical metropolis of Susa, which has been inhabited for over 7000 years, is being spoilt by regime’s Municipality’s construction of a passenger bus terminal in the Shush city’s southern section.
Experts have previously given warning of the chaotic situation at the site, pointing out that such disorder has facilitated the illegal activities of smugglers who have managed to carry out excavations in search of antiquities.
The palace’s remaining column bases have been broken into two pieces and the Old-Persian cuneiform inscriptions on the base have been obliterated, the Khuzestan Cultural Heritage Lovers Society (Tariana) spokesman Mojtaba Gahestuni told the Persian service of CHN on Sunday.
The stone inscriptions have been severed and scattered around the ancient archaeological site, he added.
“The reason for the destruction of the artefacts is not clear,” Gahestuni remarked, adding, “The incident probably results from the vandals’ ignorance of the historical significance of the relics.”
He went on to say that many problems are caused by the lack of protection and appropriate fencing around the site which covers about 360 hectares.
“The Khuzestan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (KCHTHD) undertook the installation of rods around the zone, but the measure was inadequate and has not prevented unauthorized people from entering the precinct,” Gahestuni explained.
According to Gahestuni, the use of concrete and iron rods for demarcation purposes has even led to some damage to the area.
The Apadana Palace is also being threatened by the construction of a preparatory school on its perimeter.
In early December, Tariana sent letters to the Islamic regime’s president Mahmud Ahmadinejad, asking him put a stop to the project – but the letter not so surprisingly was ignored.
The school building, which is to be four stories tall, will spoil the horizontal view from the palace ruins.
In addition, the historical metropolis of Susa, which has been inhabited for over 7000 years, is being spoilt by regime’s Municipality’s construction of a passenger bus terminal in the Shush city’s southern section.
Experts have previously given warning of the chaotic situation at the site, pointing out that such disorder has facilitated the illegal activities of smugglers who have managed to carry out excavations in search of antiquities.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam
In a recent analysis, “Was Barack Obama a Muslim?” I surveyed available evidence and found it suggests “Obama was born a Muslim to a non-practicing Muslim father and for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father.” In response, David Brock’s organization, Media Matters for America (MMfA), which calls itself a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media,” has criticized one of my sources of information.
Iran boats 'threatened US ships'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7175325.stm
Five Iranian speedboats harassed three US navy ships at the weekend, approaching them and radioing a threat to blow them up, US officials say.
Five Iranian speedboats harassed three US navy ships at the weekend, approaching them and radioing a threat to blow them up, US officials say.
Who will save Iran from tyranny of the cleric regime?
For Machiavelli "end justifies means". Thus burtality is product of greater good for all. However, Cyrus the Great visioned a happy state of life for people in His Kingdom, using reason before taken any action against anyone.
Mahciavelli did read Cyrus the Great books, and praised Him and that is how Machiavelli came with concept of a prince needs to be a cunning fox and brave like a lion.
Machiavelli praised Prophet Moses civil disobediance against tyranny of Pharo. Machiavelli came to conclusion that love is not so abiding, once people are out of hazard, they would forget their savior. Thus, fear, fraud, and force became corner stone of his thoughts about how a prince shall govern a nation.
Today the cleric regime is using Machiavelli political thoughts to rule Iran with Iron fist, and only a person who would act like Moses, and Cyrus the Great could save Iran from hands of the cleric regime.
Mahciavelli did read Cyrus the Great books, and praised Him and that is how Machiavelli came with concept of a prince needs to be a cunning fox and brave like a lion.
Machiavelli praised Prophet Moses civil disobediance against tyranny of Pharo. Machiavelli came to conclusion that love is not so abiding, once people are out of hazard, they would forget their savior. Thus, fear, fraud, and force became corner stone of his thoughts about how a prince shall govern a nation.
Today the cleric regime is using Machiavelli political thoughts to rule Iran with Iron fist, and only a person who would act like Moses, and Cyrus the Great could save Iran from hands of the cleric regime.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Iran Says No Plans to Normalize Relations With US
By VOA News 06 January 2008
Iran has attacked President Bush's planned trip to the Middle East and says it has no plans to normalize relations with the United States.
My view on above news:
The US and the cleric regime are playing cat and mouse game, it is obvious someone is benefit from this game. Now, who is gaining what?
It is interesting Saddam Hussein was saying that Iraq did not have WMD and US attacked Iraq, now clearly the cleric regime is tuanting the whole world withn nuclear bombs and second genocide of Jewish people, and we are watching.
I do not mean let's bomb Iran, I mean let's topple the cleric regime by empowering Iranian people to remove the cancer from surface of earth.
It is interesting Saddam Hussein was saying that Iraq did not have WMD and US attacked Iraq, now clearly the cleric regime is tuanting the whole world withn nuclear bombs and second genocide of Jewish people, and we are watching.
I do not mean let's bomb Iran, I mean let's topple the cleric regime by empowering Iranian people to remove the cancer from surface of earth.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Who is Bahram Moshiri?
According to this piece of edvidence, Mr. Bahram MOSHIRI i s misleading and distorting Iran's history.
Sixth Salt Man is the Next Victim of Disregard for Iran's Pre-Islamic Cultural Heritage
LONDON, (CAIS) -- The Sixth Salt Man is being damaged due to the Zanjan Industries and Mines Organization’s total disregard for the Iran’s pre-Islamic cultural heritage.
The organization, which possesses the right to exploit the salt from the Chehrabad Salt Mine, wherein all six of the “salt men” were discovered, has prevented the Zanjan Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department (ZCHTHD) from making an appropriate covering to safeguard the Sixth Salt Man.
The Sixth Salt Man was discovered by chance when the remains were partially uncovered by a rivulet created by an early June rainfall that trickled into the salt mine, which is located in the Hamzehlu region near Zanjan.
However, it was left in-situ due to the dearth of equipment necessary for its preservation.
ZCHTHD experts have only diverted the rivulet and covered the Sixth Salt Man with salt and earth.
The winter rainfalls will seriously damage the Sixth Salt Man due to the lack of a covering over the area where he is buried, ZCHTHD official Abolfazl Afshari told the Persian service of CHN on Wednesday.
Experts believe that the Sixth Salt Man lived during the late Parthian dynastic era, roughly around 1800 years ago.
The First Salt Man is on display at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran and the other four are being kept at the Rakhtshuikhaneh Museum in Zanjan.
The organization, which possesses the right to exploit the salt from the Chehrabad Salt Mine, wherein all six of the “salt men” were discovered, has prevented the Zanjan Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department (ZCHTHD) from making an appropriate covering to safeguard the Sixth Salt Man.
The Sixth Salt Man was discovered by chance when the remains were partially uncovered by a rivulet created by an early June rainfall that trickled into the salt mine, which is located in the Hamzehlu region near Zanjan.
However, it was left in-situ due to the dearth of equipment necessary for its preservation.
ZCHTHD experts have only diverted the rivulet and covered the Sixth Salt Man with salt and earth.
The winter rainfalls will seriously damage the Sixth Salt Man due to the lack of a covering over the area where he is buried, ZCHTHD official Abolfazl Afshari told the Persian service of CHN on Wednesday.
Experts believe that the Sixth Salt Man lived during the late Parthian dynastic era, roughly around 1800 years ago.
The First Salt Man is on display at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran and the other four are being kept at the Rakhtshuikhaneh Museum in Zanjan.
Friday, January 04, 2008
IN REMEMBRANCE OF CYRUS THE GREAT, UCLA January 26 2008
ActivistChat wrote:
'In Search of Cyrus the Great' is a factually-based documentary film in need of your help and participation. Please support this Great Documentary Film to educate today & tomorrow generation of great leadership for true change away from Machiavelli and deceptions as source of many wars ...... 7008 ActivistChat
'In Search of Cyrus the Great' is a factually-based documentary film in need of your help and participation. Please support this Great Documentary Film to educate today & tomorrow generation of great leadership for true change away from Machiavelli and deceptions as source of many wars ...... 7008 ActivistChat
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Iran Train Explosion
The cleric regime had nuclear mishab and claimed inocent lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRHU4cqa2ao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRHU4cqa2ao
Soudavar Memorial Lecture Series
Following the success of the first four series on 'The Idea of Iran', the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) and the British Museum with the support of the Soudavar Memorial Foundation are pleased to announce the fifth series of lectures, which will be held as a one day symposium. Contributions by seven eminent scholars will cover aspects of the early Isamic period in Iran. Please see details below and the attached programme.
The Idea of Iran:
the early Islamic period
Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, Brunei Gallery, SOAS
Date: Saturday 2 February 2008
Time: 9.55am-4.30pm (Registration from 8.45am)
Admission: £15.00; conc. (OAPs & LMEI Affiliates) £10.00; Students free (to include lunch and refreshments).
Enquiries & Bookings: Vincenzo Paci: E vp6@soas.ac.uk; T 020 7898 4490; F 020 7898 4329
Keynote Speaker:
Iranian Identity after Conversion to Islam
Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Director, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University
Speakers:
Why is Iran not an Arab Country
Professor Hugh N Kennedy, Professor of Arabic, SOAS
The Persistent Older Heritage in the Mediaeval Iranian Lands
Professor C. Edmund Bosworth, Former Professor of Arabic Studies, University of Manchester and Honorary Professor, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
Social and Economic Life in Early Islamic Iran
Professor Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia University
Quiddities, algorisms, oranges—Iran in Islamic science and beyond
Professor Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Professor in Islamic Studies, University of Tübingen
The Cross and the Lotus: An Armenian Miscellany
Professor James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University
What happened to the Sasanian hunt in Islamic art?
Professor Robert Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic Art, University of Edinburgh
Cheques should be made payable to the ‘London Middle East Institute’
Please note that although you will be able to register on the day itself from 8.45am onwards we are unable to guarantee that seats will be available and advise that in order to secure a place you register in advance.
London Middle East InstituteM110School of Oriental & African StudiesRussell SquareLondonWC1H 0XG
E-mail: vp6@soas.ac.ukTel. No: 0207 898 4490Fax: 0207 898 4329Web: www.lmei.soas.ac.uk
The Idea of Iran: the early Islamic period
The fifth in the series ‘The Idea of Iran’ will be held as a one day symposium at which contributions by seven eminent scholars will cover aspects of the early Islamic period. Both the London Middle East Institute, SOAS and the British Museum remain indebted to the Soudavar Memorial Foundation for its continued support without which the series would not be possible.
9.30 Registration
9.55 Welcoming remarks
10.00-10.45 Speaker 1 - Keynote
Iranian Identity after Conversion to Islam
Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Director, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University.
Islam, like Zoroastrianism, is a religion that concerns itself not only with the spiritual aspects of life, but embraces and legislates for all other aspects of life. Therefore, conversion to Islam brought profound changes, social, cultural or otherwise, in Iranian society. One could easily expect that Persia, fully occupied and ruled by the Arabs for at least 200 years after the Arab conquest, would change its identity from Persian to Arab as all other countries in the Middle East and North Africa such as Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, each of which were heirs to brilliant ancient civilizations. But this did not happen. Persia while adopting the Islamic religion kept its Persian identity, primarily through tenaciously sticking to its language and thereby to the canons of its distinct culture. Three hundred years after the Arab invasion, the poet Ferdowsi crystallized the Iranian true sentiment with regard to the Persian identity in his immortal Shahnameh, a reminder to Persians of their long and glorious history, their splendid kings, their outstanding warriors, and the great nation that the Iranians had been. His work became symbolic of a dichotomy that characterizes Persian history. The question is why Persia proved an exception to the norm?
10.45-11.30 Speaker 2
Why is Iran not an Arab Country
Professor Hugh N. Kennedy, Professor of Arabic, SOAS, London.
This paper discusses the reasons for the survival of the cultural and political identity of Iran through the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. A contrast will be drawn with Syria and Egypt where the pre-Islamic culture was marginalised and the pre-Arabic languages effectively disappeared from common use. It will show how "Iranianness" survived both in the semi-independent principalities which survived the conquests and among the officials and bureaucrats of the Islamic caliphate. It will finish by considering the Shahnameh as a sign of the emergence of New Persian as a language of high culture.
11.30-12.00 Coffee
12.00-12.45 Speaker 3
The Persistent Older Heritage in the Mediaeval Iranian Lands
Professor C. Edmund Bosworth, Former Professor of Arabic Studies University of Manchester and Honorary Professor, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studie, University of Exeter.
Continuity of tradition with the pre-Islamic past can be traced in governmental attitudes and practices and, in some instances, a continuity of personnel from Zoroastrian past to Islamic present in the post-conquest period (i.e. after the 7th century A.D.). Despite a tradition amongst Muslim rigorists that “Islam cancels the past”, there was in several Iranian ruling lines an attempt to establish links, real or imagined, with the pre-Islamic past. Thus the Samanids of Transoxania and Khurasan, sprung from the dehqan class, had a genealogy provided for them that went back to the father of the Sasanid-period emperor Bahram Chubin; various petty dynasties of the Caspian coastlands and the Elburz mountains interior, themselves comparatively late Islamised, traced their roots back, with considerable plausibility here, to local pre-Islamic families; eulogists of the Daylami Buyids connected them with the Sasanid ruling institution; even a power in as late as the 12th-13th centuries, the Ghurids, coming from an obscure and backwards part of central Afghanistan, managed to find roots in the past of the heroic, legendary, national Iranian past.
12.45-1.30 Speaker 4
Social and Economic Life in Early Islamic Iran
Professor Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia University.
The three-and-a-half centuries that followed the Arab conquests of the 7th century C.E. witnessed profound changes in the social and economic circumstances of the region that is today circumscribed by the boundaries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Conversion to Islam is the most obvious of these changes, but conversion was directly linked to economic changes and to urbanization. Economically, the growth of a cotton industry gave Iran for the first time in history a major export product. This presentation will describe the evidence for a cotton boom in early Islamic Iran and show how it was linked to the spread of Islam, the growth of cities, and a cultural efflorescence that made Iran the most important region of the Islamic caliphate. It will also show how this economic dynamism waned in the eleventh century, partly due to climatic deterioration, leading within a century to a significant shrinkage in Iran’s economic and cultural importance.
1.30-2.15 Lunch
2.15- 3.00 Speaker 5
Quiddities, algorisms, oranges—Iran in Islamic science and beyond
Professor Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Professor in Islamic Studies, University of Tübingen.
In the course of a few centuries, a pluriethic and plurireligious civilization of extraordinary vibrancy developed under the aegis of, initially, Arabian Islam in the vast swath of territories encompassing Western Asia and North Africa. Not the least achievement of this civilization was the pursuit of science and learning beyond any utilitarian consideration and shared among all religious, linguistic and ethnic segments of population. Thus it is of little wonder that the people of Iran, one of the most numerous constituent groups among caliphal subjects, were notably involved in related activities as well. Indeed, several of the most prominent figures of a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to, medicine and auxiliary fields, mathematics and astronomy, philosophy, and even Arabic grammar, hailed from Iran. Some of them became household words even beyond the boundaries of their own cilivilization. Names that spring to mind include Sibawayh, al-Khwarizmi, Rhazes, Haly Abbas, Avicenna, al-Biruni, to mention but a few, and where applicable, in their medieval Latin form. In the presentation here to be introduced, these and numerous others will be situated in their respective cultural and disciplinal context, not omitting the subsequent reception of Islamic learning in the Latin West.
3.00-3.45 Speaker 6
The Cross and the Lotus: An Armenian Miscellany
Professor James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University.
The medieval Armenian collection of didactic tales and precepts, Zroyc' plnje k'alak'i, "Tale of the City of Brass", which exists in MSS and in numerous printed editions even down to recent years, includes such Persian and Islamic material as the counsels of Anushirvan and the legend of King Bahlul, as well as the Wisdom of Ahiqar and local hagiographies. In various respects the book's organization, literary form, and unifying themes suggest a close analogy to the Buddhist Saddharmapundarika sutra (Lotus Sutra of the Good Law). This text in its turn reflects the conventions of storytelling and aesthetics of Iranian Central Asia.
3.45-4.30Speaker 7
What happened to the Sasanian hunt in Islamic art?
Professor Robert Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic Art, University of Edinburgh.
The lecture focuses on a textile which can be shown to be no later than the early 9th century and which re-uses a familiar theme of Sasanian court art - the royal hunter. It is a test case of the many ways in which early Islamic artists copied, grappled with, misunderstood and popularised the Sasanian heritage. Analysis will reveal how the original meaning is gradually lost as the image shrinks in size, is duplicated or even quadrupled, acquires extra detail or suffers crucial iconographic degradations. A similar process of transition can be demonstrated in other media, such as metalwork and pottery, but costly textiles travelled across wider distances and with greater ease; hence echoes of this theme can be found as far afield as China and Western Europe. Such textiles document the busy afterlife of Sasanian themes in the most unexpected guises.
4.30 Closing remarks
4.35 Tea
the early Islamic period
Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, Brunei Gallery, SOAS
Date: Saturday 2 February 2008
Time: 9.55am-4.30pm (Registration from 8.45am)
Admission: £15.00; conc. (OAPs & LMEI Affiliates) £10.00; Students free (to include lunch and refreshments).
Enquiries & Bookings: Vincenzo Paci: E vp6@soas.ac.uk; T 020 7898 4490; F 020 7898 4329
Keynote Speaker:
Iranian Identity after Conversion to Islam
Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Director, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University
Speakers:
Why is Iran not an Arab Country
Professor Hugh N Kennedy, Professor of Arabic, SOAS
The Persistent Older Heritage in the Mediaeval Iranian Lands
Professor C. Edmund Bosworth, Former Professor of Arabic Studies, University of Manchester and Honorary Professor, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
Social and Economic Life in Early Islamic Iran
Professor Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia University
Quiddities, algorisms, oranges—Iran in Islamic science and beyond
Professor Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Professor in Islamic Studies, University of Tübingen
The Cross and the Lotus: An Armenian Miscellany
Professor James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University
What happened to the Sasanian hunt in Islamic art?
Professor Robert Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic Art, University of Edinburgh
Cheques should be made payable to the ‘London Middle East Institute’
Please note that although you will be able to register on the day itself from 8.45am onwards we are unable to guarantee that seats will be available and advise that in order to secure a place you register in advance.
London Middle East InstituteM110School of Oriental & African StudiesRussell SquareLondonWC1H 0XG
E-mail: vp6@soas.ac.ukTel. No: 0207 898 4490Fax: 0207 898 4329Web: www.lmei.soas.ac.uk
The Idea of Iran: the early Islamic period
The fifth in the series ‘The Idea of Iran’ will be held as a one day symposium at which contributions by seven eminent scholars will cover aspects of the early Islamic period. Both the London Middle East Institute, SOAS and the British Museum remain indebted to the Soudavar Memorial Foundation for its continued support without which the series would not be possible.
9.30 Registration
9.55 Welcoming remarks
10.00-10.45 Speaker 1 - Keynote
Iranian Identity after Conversion to Islam
Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Director, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University.
Islam, like Zoroastrianism, is a religion that concerns itself not only with the spiritual aspects of life, but embraces and legislates for all other aspects of life. Therefore, conversion to Islam brought profound changes, social, cultural or otherwise, in Iranian society. One could easily expect that Persia, fully occupied and ruled by the Arabs for at least 200 years after the Arab conquest, would change its identity from Persian to Arab as all other countries in the Middle East and North Africa such as Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, each of which were heirs to brilliant ancient civilizations. But this did not happen. Persia while adopting the Islamic religion kept its Persian identity, primarily through tenaciously sticking to its language and thereby to the canons of its distinct culture. Three hundred years after the Arab invasion, the poet Ferdowsi crystallized the Iranian true sentiment with regard to the Persian identity in his immortal Shahnameh, a reminder to Persians of their long and glorious history, their splendid kings, their outstanding warriors, and the great nation that the Iranians had been. His work became symbolic of a dichotomy that characterizes Persian history. The question is why Persia proved an exception to the norm?
10.45-11.30 Speaker 2
Why is Iran not an Arab Country
Professor Hugh N. Kennedy, Professor of Arabic, SOAS, London.
This paper discusses the reasons for the survival of the cultural and political identity of Iran through the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. A contrast will be drawn with Syria and Egypt where the pre-Islamic culture was marginalised and the pre-Arabic languages effectively disappeared from common use. It will show how "Iranianness" survived both in the semi-independent principalities which survived the conquests and among the officials and bureaucrats of the Islamic caliphate. It will finish by considering the Shahnameh as a sign of the emergence of New Persian as a language of high culture.
11.30-12.00 Coffee
12.00-12.45 Speaker 3
The Persistent Older Heritage in the Mediaeval Iranian Lands
Professor C. Edmund Bosworth, Former Professor of Arabic Studies University of Manchester and Honorary Professor, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studie, University of Exeter.
Continuity of tradition with the pre-Islamic past can be traced in governmental attitudes and practices and, in some instances, a continuity of personnel from Zoroastrian past to Islamic present in the post-conquest period (i.e. after the 7th century A.D.). Despite a tradition amongst Muslim rigorists that “Islam cancels the past”, there was in several Iranian ruling lines an attempt to establish links, real or imagined, with the pre-Islamic past. Thus the Samanids of Transoxania and Khurasan, sprung from the dehqan class, had a genealogy provided for them that went back to the father of the Sasanid-period emperor Bahram Chubin; various petty dynasties of the Caspian coastlands and the Elburz mountains interior, themselves comparatively late Islamised, traced their roots back, with considerable plausibility here, to local pre-Islamic families; eulogists of the Daylami Buyids connected them with the Sasanid ruling institution; even a power in as late as the 12th-13th centuries, the Ghurids, coming from an obscure and backwards part of central Afghanistan, managed to find roots in the past of the heroic, legendary, national Iranian past.
12.45-1.30 Speaker 4
Social and Economic Life in Early Islamic Iran
Professor Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia University.
The three-and-a-half centuries that followed the Arab conquests of the 7th century C.E. witnessed profound changes in the social and economic circumstances of the region that is today circumscribed by the boundaries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Conversion to Islam is the most obvious of these changes, but conversion was directly linked to economic changes and to urbanization. Economically, the growth of a cotton industry gave Iran for the first time in history a major export product. This presentation will describe the evidence for a cotton boom in early Islamic Iran and show how it was linked to the spread of Islam, the growth of cities, and a cultural efflorescence that made Iran the most important region of the Islamic caliphate. It will also show how this economic dynamism waned in the eleventh century, partly due to climatic deterioration, leading within a century to a significant shrinkage in Iran’s economic and cultural importance.
1.30-2.15 Lunch
2.15- 3.00 Speaker 5
Quiddities, algorisms, oranges—Iran in Islamic science and beyond
Professor Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Professor in Islamic Studies, University of Tübingen.
In the course of a few centuries, a pluriethic and plurireligious civilization of extraordinary vibrancy developed under the aegis of, initially, Arabian Islam in the vast swath of territories encompassing Western Asia and North Africa. Not the least achievement of this civilization was the pursuit of science and learning beyond any utilitarian consideration and shared among all religious, linguistic and ethnic segments of population. Thus it is of little wonder that the people of Iran, one of the most numerous constituent groups among caliphal subjects, were notably involved in related activities as well. Indeed, several of the most prominent figures of a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to, medicine and auxiliary fields, mathematics and astronomy, philosophy, and even Arabic grammar, hailed from Iran. Some of them became household words even beyond the boundaries of their own cilivilization. Names that spring to mind include Sibawayh, al-Khwarizmi, Rhazes, Haly Abbas, Avicenna, al-Biruni, to mention but a few, and where applicable, in their medieval Latin form. In the presentation here to be introduced, these and numerous others will be situated in their respective cultural and disciplinal context, not omitting the subsequent reception of Islamic learning in the Latin West.
3.00-3.45 Speaker 6
The Cross and the Lotus: An Armenian Miscellany
Professor James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University.
The medieval Armenian collection of didactic tales and precepts, Zroyc' plnje k'alak'i, "Tale of the City of Brass", which exists in MSS and in numerous printed editions even down to recent years, includes such Persian and Islamic material as the counsels of Anushirvan and the legend of King Bahlul, as well as the Wisdom of Ahiqar and local hagiographies. In various respects the book's organization, literary form, and unifying themes suggest a close analogy to the Buddhist Saddharmapundarika sutra (Lotus Sutra of the Good Law). This text in its turn reflects the conventions of storytelling and aesthetics of Iranian Central Asia.
3.45-4.30Speaker 7
What happened to the Sasanian hunt in Islamic art?
Professor Robert Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic Art, University of Edinburgh.
The lecture focuses on a textile which can be shown to be no later than the early 9th century and which re-uses a familiar theme of Sasanian court art - the royal hunter. It is a test case of the many ways in which early Islamic artists copied, grappled with, misunderstood and popularised the Sasanian heritage. Analysis will reveal how the original meaning is gradually lost as the image shrinks in size, is duplicated or even quadrupled, acquires extra detail or suffers crucial iconographic degradations. A similar process of transition can be demonstrated in other media, such as metalwork and pottery, but costly textiles travelled across wider distances and with greater ease; hence echoes of this theme can be found as far afield as China and Western Europe. Such textiles document the busy afterlife of Sasanian themes in the most unexpected guises.
4.30 Closing remarks
4.35 Tea
Russian Archaeologists Discover Remains of 2500-Year-Old Advanced Civilization in Kyrgyz Mountains
http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/January2008/02-01-archaeologists.htm
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2500-year-old advanced civilization, possibly Iranian at the bottom of Lake Issyk Kul in the Kyrgyz mountains in Russia.
Achaemenid Tablet Translation Remains Unpublished Due to Lack of Funding
LONDON, (CAIS) -- The translation of 2586 clay Achaemenid tablets has remained unpublished due to lack of government funding.
The tablets, written in cuneiform, were discovered along with a great number of other inscriptions at Persepolis in 1933 by the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.
Many of the tablets and tablet fragments were loaned to the university’s Oriental Institute in 1937 for study purposes.
The tablets, written in cuneiform, were discovered along with a great number of other inscriptions at Persepolis in 1933 by the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.
Many of the tablets and tablet fragments were loaned to the university’s Oriental Institute in 1937 for study purposes.
Farming Threatening Sasanian Eyvan-e Karkheh
http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/January2008/02-01.htm
LONDON, (CAIS) -- The Sasanian dynastic era city of Eyvan-e Karkheh, in southwestern Iran, is in danger of destruction by the agricultural activities of the Islamic Azad University.
Over recent years, the site has been turned into a reserve for scientific research by the university’s agriculture students, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.
Over recent years, the site has been turned into a reserve for scientific research by the university’s agriculture students, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.
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