The poet Muhtasham Kāshānī (d. 1588) is today known primarily for his strophic elegy on the martyrdom of Imam Husayn at Karbalā, but such devotional poems make up only a tiny fraction of large oeuvre. Far more substantial are two works of a very different tenor, Nuql-i ‘Ushshāq (The Lover's Confection) and Risāla-yi Jalāliyya (The Glorious Epistle). Using an innovative combination of prose and poetry, these works tell the story of the poet-narrator's stormy affairs with, respectively, an upper-class courtesan and a footman attached to a nobleman's house. As part of the larger literary movement known as the maktab-i vuqū‘ or “realist school,” these purported autobiographical accounts of Muhtasham's amorous adventures reveal a sophisticated culture of eros and desire that differs strikingly from the usual representations of the state of literature and the arts under Shah Tahmāsp. After situating these works in their historical, literary, and cultural contexts, the article turns to a close analysis of an extended passage from each work to show how Muhtasham integrates lyric poetry, narrative, and setting to depict the pursuit of desire in the urbane world of early modern Persia.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the Qajar dynasty (1797–1925) of Iran engaged in a continuous process to build a regular army under the leadership and tutelage of professional European military missions. These continuous attempts at military reform and Europeanization reached a peak with the creation of the Persian Cossack Brigade (1879–1921) by the Russian military mission. This article focuses on the genesis of the Brigade and the Russian military mission, which followed some of the previously unsuccessful European military missions. The scholarly literature has paid little attention to the fitful beginnings of the Brigade. This article, however, deals with the early challenges faced by the Brigade during the period between 1879 and 1894, at the end of which it was on the verge of dissolution. The article tackles formative issues raised in under-explored Russian archival material and supplemented by Russian-language primary sources, as well as other relevant sources. It attempts to re-evaluate the origins of the Persian Cossack Brigade and provide a well-balanced portrait of the Brigade in light of the changing regional politics of the period.

This paper explores the possibility of a considerable undercounting of women's labor force participation in the official surveys in Iran. According to the official data, the proportion of females in the total active labor force was about 15.5 percent in 2006. Furthermore, according to the official data the share of female in total active labor in agriculture was about 10 percent in 1996. An examination of a large body of field research on the subject, however, suggests a much higher participation rate, about 40 percent of total agricultural labor. This paper will examine these studies and explore the reasons behind the underestimations. Pointing at the growing visibility of urban women in public space, the increasing share of skilled and educated women, rising cost of living, and the need for both male and female incomes to support an urban family, some observers have suggested that the official data underestimate urban female labor participation, as well. Informal urban labor, however, has not been adequately studied. Anecdotal information, however, suggests the existence of a significant female informal economy in both traditional and modern industries. In 2001, I undertook a micro study of 350 working age women in the affluent northern part of Tehran and found that a large number of educated upper and middle class women were active in the informal market. This finding was in sharp contrast to the studies in other developing countries in which informal participants are generally poor and unskilled and are unable to join the modern formal economy. This paper will also explore the reasons for undercounting of urban female labor.

Masculinity, like other kinds of social identity, is an ongoing construction in a dialogue between one's self-image and others' perceptions of one. The interplay between ethnicity and masculinity is a main theme in this article. Due to geographical displacement, the Iranian man's masculine identity has been challenged and renegotiated on the one hand by Iranian women's struggle for emancipation and on the other hand by the Swedish mediawork. Iranian men are displaced from the position of having a powerful gaze, which fixed and controlled women into a position of being an object of the gaze of others. The dominant gaze in Sweden makes them (in)visible in the same way their gaze makes women (in)visible in Iran.

This article focuses on Persian linguistics with the emphasis on grammar and word formation in the twentieth century. After presenting a brief overview of the history of the study of grammar in Iran, I discuss the recent trends in linguistics from diachronic to synchronic aspects. In Persian diachronic linguistics, we will see that most works focus on the reading, and deciphering of the old texts. In synchronic studies, there are three main stages: 1) traditional linguistics, 2) structural linguistics, and 3) generative or formal linguistics. I show how each one of these stages affects Persian linguistics in the twentieth century. Finally, I conclude the article by looking at the current state of Persian linguistics and the future prospects for the field.

The patronage system at the Mughal court drew many Safavid poets and men of learning to India who interacted with Indians at various levels. In an unusual case, the young Iranian poet ‘Urfī's attachment to his patron, Prince Salīm (later Emperor Jahāngīr), was interpreted by some as more than merely professional and the poet's death at a young age gave rise to speculations of intrigue. Mughal princesses were also actively involved in the literary scene of the time. In another instance, the association of Princess Zībunnisa, daughter of the Emperor Awrangzīb, with Persian poets was sometimes personal, leading to gossip and scandal about her. It turns out that in both cases stories about the sexual aspects of the relationships between Mughal patrons and Iranian poets arose in the eighteenth century and are more reflective of the concerns of the literary culture of that period. This paper explores the power and gender dynamics of these poet–patron relationships in the context of the general Iranian–Indian tension at the Mughal court and a highly developed and creative tradition of crafting biographical accounts.

Highlighting certain fallacies in a recent anthropological study of three branches of the Ni‘matu’llāhī Sufi Order in modern Iran, this review article tries to cast light on the little-understood relationship between legalistic Islam and Persian Sufism. It also attempts to clarify the connection (or rather, lack thereof) between Sufism and the Pahlavi state and the current Islamist regime, while discussing the subtle distinction between and ‘irfān in the mystical philosophies of Shi‘ite Islam. Some of the vicissitudes of three decades (1978–2008) of suppression and persecution of Sufis by the fundamentalist Shi‘ite state in Iran are also chronicled.

The curtailment of women's rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has received a great deal of scholarly attention. Among the legal changes that have profoundly affected women's lives are divorce laws. If the legal arena has not given women much room for maneuver, the realm of cultural representation, particularly cinematic production by women, has provided a fertile ground for self-expression and resistance. Through an analysis of Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Kim Longinotto's ethnographic documentary, Divorce Iranian Style (1998), and two feature films, Blackboards (2000) by Samira Makhmalbaf and Ceasefire by Tahmineh Milani (2006), this article explores representations of the ways in which women work within and against the grain of the dominant structures of power.

The International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) fortieth anniversary celebration at the University of Toronto provided an opportunity to research and record the development of Iranian studies at the university. Iranian studies emerged in 1961 as a major sub-field of the newly established Department of Islamic Studies (now the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (NMC)). Presently, the university has a diverse and yet cohesive cadre of academic talent and offers a breadth of courses, which makes it unique in Canada. The language-based discipline of an earlier generation of scholars has become the present multi-faceted program of today, addressing a wide variety of academic and community interests. The University of Toronto academic tradition, the scholarship of early faculty, and the immigration of Iranians have contributed to shaping Iranian studies in Toronto.

Poverty and insecurity in Afghan cities are intricately intertwined with conditions of “informality.” The term and the realities it describes refer to living situations in which basic needs and activities such as work, housing, and social security are unprotected by laws and standards. Immersion into such a convolution of informality determines the life of a majority among urban populations in Afghanistan and conveys a deep sense of insecurity for the urban poor. The paper looks at how rapid and unprecedented urban growth in Afghanistan goes along with rising levels of livelihood insecurity and explores how the urban poor cope with livelihood risks through a range of informal arrangements. Conceptually, the notion of “informal security regimes” helps capture informality as a coping strategy and how it relates to urban poverty in Afghanistan. Informed by extensive empirical fieldwork, the paper identifies different elements of the “informal security regime” in urban Afghanistan and explores their specific operations. The paper is mainly focused on the Afghan capital, Kabul, supplemented with evidence from other urban sites in Afghanistan.

Since his inauguration in August 2005, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced mounting criticism over his administration's political, economic, and social agenda. Observers noted a significant degree of rising discontent among various segments of the population as evidenced, for example, by the public unrest witnessed in June 2007 in response to the introduction of gasoline rationing.1 The situation in the months leading to the Eighth Majles Election was distinctive because this dissatisfaction also began resonating among segments of the political elite, prompting the emergence of not only reformist, but also conservative opposition to Ahmadinejad.

In this article I describe what I see as the subliminal messages of desire and intimacy in the following Iranian movies: Gabbeh (1995), The Blue Scarf (1994), May Lady (1997), and Born in the Month of Mihr (2000). I argue that although the Islamic legal discourse has reasserted itself after the revolution of 1979 and appears to have become dominant, the “erotic” discourse that is ever so subtly embedded in Persian poetry and popular culture is alive and possibly thriving. Taking a light-hearted approach, I discuss representations of love and sex in these four films within the context of the dynamic tension between the legal discourse that regulates the gaze, ahkam-i nigah, and the erotic discourse that subverts the very same regulations, nazar-bazi.

In his speech at Columbia University, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad stated that there are no homosexuals in Iran. His attempt was to avoid the subject and any ensuing controversies that could hamper the nuclear talks at the United Nations General Assembly the following day. The present study will argue that the denial of homosexuality has been selectively applied to situations when the most prudent alternative was to overlook the issue or to keep quiet about it. A few years earlier, while the former president, Mohammad Khatami, was still in office, this attitude determined the course of action in dealing with Mohammad Khordadian, a famous Los Angeles based Iranian-American male cabaret dancer who was also rumored to be gay. In the spring of 2002, Khordadian visited Iran for the first time in more than twenty years. The authorities considered it an offense that he dared to challenge the morality codes of the Islamic Republic by crossing the border into Iran without any apprehension. The imprisonment and trial of Khordadian is a unique case in focus.