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This book looks at how fiqh, Islamic family law, is interpreted and administered in two Muslim countries. It studies the complex relationship between the classical textbooks and modern codes of personal status law which in principle are based on them, but which in fact diverge from them both in substantive law and in methods of procedure and judgment. Based on extensive fieldwork in the courts and outside, it focuses on the dynamics of marriage and the consequences of its breakdown, as well as the way litigants manipulate the law in order to resolve marital difficulties. It illustrates the interaction between Islamic law and the social construction of marriage and divorce in Iran and Morocco, showing women can turn even the most patriarchal elements of Islamic law to their advantage and achieve their personal marital aims. ... Read more

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Persian poetry, a literary heritage as rich as any in the world, found a brilliantly versatile voice when Dick Davis began his career as a translator several decades ago. Yet his English-language renderings ranging from epics such as The Shahnameh and Vis & Ramin to the concentrated wisdom of Rumi and Hafez--are just one measure of his gifts with words. Davis is also an acclaimed poet, with a voice and sensibility very much his own.
At Home, and Far from Home, his ninth book of poetry, focuses on Iran and how it stirs him. Some of the poems draw on his scholar's knowledge of Persian history and culture to reach into long-ago lives and minds: poets, artists, adventurers. In others, he weaves a gossamer net to catch subtleties of love, grief, or spiritual yearning. In still others, he looks at himself as a traveler, translator, and, for many years, an Englishman in a country often suspicious of the West. Sometimes the tone is witty, sometimes tender, but keen imagination and sharp intelligence are always in play as he explores the pull and aura of Iran.
It is a remarkable collection--proof that, as Davis writes of another poet,
The insubstantial filigree
Of singing words or wordless song
Can bring us back where we belong. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 9419 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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An introduction to the history, geography, culture, and people of Iran. ... Read more

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This book sets out to investigate ways in which women, religion and culture have interacted with each other in the context of 19th and 20th century Iran. It covers topics as seemingly diverse as the social and cultural history of Persian cuisine, the work and attitudes of 19th century Christian missionaries, the impact of growing female literacy on women's lives during the 20th century, and the longer-term consequences of developments since 1979 on the position of women in contemporary Iran. ... Read more

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Stephen C. Poulson investigates cycles of social protest in Iran from 1890 to the present era. This work covers the following social movements: the 1890-92 Tobacco Movement; the 1906-09 Constitutional Revolution; two post-World War II movements, the Tudeh (Masses) and the National Front; the 1963 Qom Protest; and the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution. Poulson shows how various Iranian political actors have framed their dissent, drawing on both regional and Western-influenced modes of protest to achieve their ends. ... Read more

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The Lur nomads live in Luristan in the west of modern Iran. Two Danish scholars, Carl Gunnar Feilberg and Lennart Edelberg, visited this region in 1935 and 1964 respectively, and assembled two valuable ethnographic collections which provide a remarkable perspective over time on the historical transformation of Lur nomadism at a critical time when the sedentarization of these people was gathering momentum. This book discusses Lur material culture and practices within the wider social, political and administrative setting which historically allowed their nomadism to flourish but in the end curbed it. Theories linking modeern pastoral nomadism in this area with ancient forms of life are critically evaluated in the light of recent archaeological data from the Zagros, a cradle of early agriculture and domestication of sheep and goats.A generously illustrated descriptive catalogue presents the collections grouped under subject headings with short introductions: Settlements; Imamzadehs and Cemeteries; Transport; Domestic Animals; Hunting; Agriculture; Furniture and Household Equipment; Cooking and Food Storage; Weaving; Tools for the Manufacture of Skin, Wood and Metal; Dress and Personal Equipment; Musical Instruments. The Lur perpetuated ancient nomadic ways in a region which first saw their development out of prehistoric hunter-gatherer subsistence. Here is a fully documented record of their material legacy. ... Read more

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This collection explores the social transformation of Iran, stressing the importance of political culture and ideology. The contributors argue that the Iranian regime has been able to maintain its credibility and the loyalty of the people because it built a legitimate Islamic political culture. They address specific aspects of Iran's political culture, and discuss such topics as the relationship of the individual to society, ``Westoxication,'' Shi'ism, and the Islamization of film culture. ... Read more

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Can Islamic societies embrace democracy? In Democracy in Modern Iran, Ali Mirsepassi maintains that it is possible, demonstrating that Islam is not inherently hostile to the idea of democracy. Rather, he provides new perspective on how such a political and social transformation could take place, arguing that the key to understandingthe integration of Islam and democracy lies in concrete social institutions rather than pre-conceived ideas, the every day experiences rather than abstract theories. Mirsepassi, an Iranian native, provides a rare inside look into the country, offering a deep understanding of how Islamic countries like Iran and Iraq can and will embrace democracy.

Democracy in Modern Iran challenges readers to think about Islam and democracy critically and in a far more nuanced way than is done in black-and-white dichotomies of Islam vs. Democracy, or Iran vs. the West. This essential volume contributes important insights to current discussions, creating a more complex conception of modernity in the Eastern world and, with it, Mirsepassi offers to a broad Western audience a more accurate, less clichéd vision of Iran’s political reality.

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"Antoin Sevruguin (late 1830s-1933) was a celebrated photographer of late-nineteenth-century Iran. Sevruguin had two lifelong obsessions. The first was a cherished desire to record Iran in all its facets on glass plates; the second was to capture light in his photographs the way he so admired in Rembrandt's paintings."--BOOK JACKET. "In addition to his numerous pictures of urban life and portraits made in his famous studio in Tehran, Sevruguin made a photographic inventory of the landscape, archaeological sites, and people of Azarbaijan and continued the project in Kurdistan and Luristan (in southwestern Iran)."--BOOK JACKET. "In this generously illustrated book, the first ever devoted to Sevruguin and his singular work, six distinguished authors explore the photographer's life and career."--BOOK JACKET. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Must Have Book
If the area of your study or/and interest involves Art,Photography,History ofAsia and Near East this is a must have book. Sevruguin went to Iran and stayed there for almost all of his life. This book is a collection of the first photographs from Iran (that of course he took). Through Sevruguin's eyes the reader/viewer is able to discover a new world. Not only this world is new to you if you are a western viewer, but also these photographs reveal yet another angle for a native viewer, such as myself, since many of these photographs have never displayed back in Iran. I think, in a broader sense, as long as one keeps in mind that these are representations of one culture through the eyes of an outsider, this book is useful and interesting.

Gorgeous and mythical
One of my favorite photo essays on the old middle east.Wonderful collection of photographs and fascinating history.

Uncovers a lost treasure
"Sevruguin and the Persian Image" presents the Smithsonian's collection of one of Qajar Iran's preeminent photographers.In addition to the photographs, the volume contains valuable histories of early photography in Iran, the career of Antoin Sevruguin, and how the collection itself came about.The double entendre of the title refers to how Sevruguin's art was informed by and catered to the Orientalist tastes of a Europe in which he was educated. Yet as an Armenian Christian who was born, lived, died and was buried in Tehran, he presented a different image of Iran than the typical Orientalist photographers of the day. "Sevruguin and the Persian Image" is both a solid examination of a photographer's art as well as a thoughtful analysis of the Western image of Iran in the late nineteenth century.

excellent photos - nastalgic
this is a great collection of some excellent photos of iran at the turn of the last century - it chronicles everyday life, including peasants, and the aristocracy and monarchy - there is a great picture of tehran's bustlingmain street, with horse-drawn, rail carriages, and the throngs of crowds,some of whom are temporairly mesmerized by the photographer perched on somerooftop.A must-have for iran-history-nastalgic buffs.Only wish therewas more... ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

graphic design hope for iran
Ondanks de gespannen politieke situatie in Iran geeft een jonge generatie Iraanse grafisch ontwerpers met hun culturele affiches nieuwe impulsen aan de Islamitische toegepaste kunst.
Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, media-kunstenares Shirin Nesrat en Marjane Satrapi in haar autobiografische Persepolis-strips reageren in hun werk direct of indirect op hun vaderland Iran. En vooral over hoe het na de Khomeini-revolutie van 1979 fundamentalistisch-Islamitisch omzwaaide. Ofschoon werkend in het westen blijkt hun gehechtheid aan bijvoorbeeld de klassieke soefi of ghazal-poëzie of even hoogstaande prentkunst uit Iran oftewel Perzië als relatief onafhankelijk Arabisch cultuurcentrum groot.
Eenzelfde onafhankelijkheid kenmerkt veel hedendaagse Iraanse grafisch ontwerpers, die evenwel daar nog werken. Sinds Morteza Momayez, de Iraanse pionier van het moderne grafisch ontwerp eind 2005 overleed, zijn de ogen gericht op de 39-jarige Reza Abedini. Behalve als docent aan de kunstenfaculteit van de Universiteit van Teheran is hij zelfstandig art-director en stimulator van de jonge Biennale voor het Iraanse grafisch ontwerp.
Abedini's ontmoeting met Hans Wolbers, Nederlands tijdschriftontwerper en creatief directeur van bureau Lava, op een designcongres in Helsinki (..) leidde tot een boek over de "nieuwe visuele cultuur van Iran." Hiervoor selecteerde Abendini met Wolbers in Iran hedendaagse affiches, boekomslagen en vrij werk van grafische ontwerpers, waaronderMomayez, maar ook van studenten en hemzelf. Jaarlijks studeren zo'n 800 grafisch ontwerpers af.
Abedini lijkt nu de interessantste "culturele" ontwerper. Uitgekiend stapelt hij wolken calligrafie op en tegen mensfiguren of beeldfragmenten. Zijn asymmetrische composities volgen de diagonale stijl van revolutionaire pionier-ontwerpers als Rodchenko, El Lissitzky of de Nederlander Piet Zwart, begin 20e eeuw. Zelf noemt Abedini ook recentere Poolse en Duitse affiches als invloedsbronnen. Maar de Iraniër Morteza Momayez blijft de grootste inspirator. Van hem koos men een suggestieve affiche met een man wiens hoofd binnen een opmaakgrid zit geklemd. Trek zelf je conclusies, want het boek informeert nergens over de specifieke onderwerpen van de affiches met hun fraai gecalligrafeerde maar onleesbare teksten. Jammer, met deze onnodige zelfcensuur (?) wordt deze vormgeving domweg gereduceerd tot exotische decoratie, terwijl het daaraan juist vaak ontstijgt.
Een gemiste kans, temeer omdat in september 2004 dezelfde affiches wel vertaald werden bij een uitstekend interview met Abedini in het designblad Items, gepubliceerd door dezelfde uitgeverij.

Na de revolutie van 1979 emigreerden veel Iraanse kunstenaars. Tijdens en na de oorlog met Irak, 1980-88 ontwikkelden drie generaties grafisch ontwerpers in isolement affiches en boekomslagen met een internationaal karakter maar met een Iraanse ziel. Dat lijkt nog steeds zo, maar vervang op sommige ontwerpen de "woordbeelden" door Westerse letters, dan lijken ze toch wel op het alternatieve Amerikaans grafisch design uit de jaren negentig met grofkorrelige collages en "aangevreten" typografie.
Het blijft uiteraard bewonderenswaardig hoe Iraanse ontwerpers in een fundamentalistische samenleving hun eigen hedendaagse koers varen, niet alleen in de cultuursector ook in de reclame. Het kan namelijk ook akelig-anders zoals uiteraard niet afgebeelde, agressieve propagandaposters (of cartoons) uit de oorlogsperiode.e de Iraniër Majod Odderi een monster af met uitpuilende ogen, tegelijkertijd vlaggen van de VS.

[as published in Het Financieele Dagblad]

Fantastic Book
Here is a great chronicle of the revolutionary design work that is being done in Iran today. A MUST see for ALL designers -- Not just those interested in middle eastern work. Incredibly inspiring work. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Fascinating!
I couldn't put it down. For anyone interested in film (That's almost everyone!), this is the book to read. Lots of Hollywood, plus interviews with foreign directors. It includes fun stuff I didn't know about like when color movies first came out people claimed they made them feel dizzy. Mr. Morris has made sure to select only interesting interviews. Truffaut's last one is included. Although he was very sick at the time, his conversation is full of spirit and inspiration.

Solid and Wide-Ranging
It's true I like this genre--interviews with film directors--but this example is particularly substantial and wide-ranging, and particularly absorbing. (It reads very quickly.) The crew of interviewers is knowledgeable and skilled, and they invariably get interesting responses from their subjects. The interviews have been smartly edited to eliminate any dull filler or redundancy.

Some highlights: the interviews with Sirk, Fellini, and Haneke; a long conversation with Bresson, as always in a class by himself; and Truffaut's touching, last interview. If you like these directors--and others of their class--you won't want to miss these. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A solid choice
Ignorance breeds hatred when it's not necessary. "What is Iran?: A Primer on Culture, Politics, and Religion" is a guide hoping to drive Americans to gain a better understanding of Iran and its people by discussing its history, culture, and how Iran stands in the modern day in international affairs such as terrorism. For anyone who is looking for a solid introductory on the nation of Iran, "What is Iran?" is a solid choice that encourages readers direct their hate at the governments, not the people, and understand what Iran is truly responsible for. ... Read more

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This book covers the culture of Iran and its people. Included are pictures of Tehran's city streets and hotels in Iran. Book covers the history of Iran from when Iran was known as Persia up to when the coutry was renamed Iran. Statistical facts about the country which includes:area, climate,terrain,natural resources,land use,environment,geopgaphy,ethnic groups,religions,languages,and administrative divisions and much more. Included are pictures and details of the three cites that I worked in; along with pictures of the three hotels that I stayed at while working at an Airforce Base in Tehran, an Army Base in Zahedan, and a Naval Station in Bandar-e-Abbas. ... Read more

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Government interventions in the economies of developing countries frequently do not achieve their intended goals. Policymakers' expectations often fall wide of the mark when compared with actual behavior of consumers, producers and businessmen. In an important study that has wide significance for the field of development economics as a whole, Hadjikhani and Amid study the impact of trade and industrial policies on the economy and business behavior of Iran. Part one of the book deals with the impact of government policy on various aspects of foreign trade, while the second part studies the effects of various industrial relationships of Iranian firms with their foreign partners.
... Read more

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