By Salam Aleik | ( GlobalVoices.org) | – – How might someone in Tajikistan, the only Persian-speaking republic in the former Soviet Union, describe a beautiful and lively night spent in the company of family and friends? Perhaps he or she would use the word dilafruz, which literally means ‘firing the heart’. Azerbaijani folk art […]
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poetry
The Five Pillars of Iran: Poetry of Protest
By Nassrine Azimi | (Informed Comment) | – – Hiroshima—Throughout the massive public demonstrations in 2009, Iranians protesting against the notorious government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were often airing their anger and frustration at the abuses of the regime in rhyme. During this past week, people’s seething discontent has again spilled onto the streets, starting in […]
Informed Comment Fundraiser: Support Independent Journalism!
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Exciting news, folks: Informed Comment is in the midst of a major redesign and aims at becoming a magazine. The redesign is not cheap, and neither will be our plans to attract more writers for the site. And, we undertake this endeavor at a time when […]
Painting of the Day: Girl w/ Wine Cup, Isfahan, Iran, 1650
British Museum | Persian Watercolor in style of Muhammad Qasim | – – “Girl with a wine cup Style of Muhammad Qasim Safavid Iran, Isfahan, 1640-50 Ink and opaque watercolour on paper By 1650 drawings of young men or women holding wine cups in the countryside had become standard rather than hackneyed fare in Persian […]
Garden Party, 1640: Iranian Lady entertains European Gentleman
Metropolitian Museum of Art | Isfahan Tile | – – “At the center of this scene, a lady leans on a bolster pillow and languidly holds out a filled cup. Making somewhat immodest eye contact with the viewer, she displays burn marks, associated with mystics and lovers, on her lower arms. A male figure in […]
Image of the Day: “Jonah and the Whale” (Persian Miniature)
Metropolitan Museum of Art | (Persian Miniature Painting) | – – “Jonah and the Whale”, Folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles [A medieval World History]) Inscription: In Persian, on the arms of Jonah: “The sun’s disk went into darkness, Jonah went into the mouth of the fish.” The story of Jonah and the […]
Understanding Islam means understanding its and our Multiculturalism
Kishwar Rizvi | (The Conversation) | – – There has been much misinformation about Islam. Reports in Western media tend to perpetuate stereotypes that Islam is a violent religion and Muslim women are oppressed. Popular films like “American Sniper” reduce places like Iraq to dusty war zones, devoid of any culture or history. Fears and […]
Dylan, the American Left, and What We have Lost
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bob Dylan would no doubt be as distressed as the American corporate media to see an ideological interpretation of his 1960s anthems that helped win him the Nobel Prize in Literature. Especially after his 1966 motorcycle accident and retreat to Woodstock and domesticity, Dylan turned inward, […]
Love and Wine (Poem of the Day: Abu Nuwas of Baghdad)
Abū Nuwas al-Hasan ibn Hanī al-Hakamī (756–814) | Love and Wine | – – Ho! a cup, and fill it up, and tell me it is wine, For never will I drink in shade if I can drink in shine. Curst and poor is every hour that sober I must go, But rich am I […]
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