Iran

In Quatrain no. 23 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, we find an explicit denial of the afterlife. This denial is repeated throughout the poetry, and it surely was one of the more challenging themes in this poetry for Victorian Britain and the United States. Of course, […]

Iran

“And we, that now make merry in the Room:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:22

Juan Cole

Quatrain no. 22 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám again invokes the image of the way the living are walking atop those who lived and died before them, leaving them alone in the “room” of the world. The departed dead are dressed in blooms, i.e. flowers grow […]

Climate Crisis

Drought, Sand Storms and Evacuations: how Iran’s Climate Crisis gets Ignored

The Conversation

By Sanam Mahoozi, City St George’s, University of London (The Conversation) – Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war in June. Although a ceasefire was declared the same month, news coverage of Iran continues to focus on the conflict’s aftermath and the Middle East’s tense political situation. Meanwhile, Tehran – home to more than 10 […]

Donald Trump

Terror from the Skies in the Middle East: Israel and the Ghost of Bomber Harris

Juan Cole

Here is my essay for this week’s Tomdispatch.com . Check out the great Tom Engelhardt’s introduction at that site, where he reminds us of the eerie similarity of today’s Washington strategy toward the Middle East, of intensive bombardment, to that of Nixon-Kissinger in Southeast Asia. For people of my generation, it raises the sad question […]

Iran

“Ah, my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:20

Juan Cole

Stanza no. 20 in in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám celebrates wine as a means of escaping lingering shame and the dread of an unknown future. It is about, as the hippies used to say in the 1960s, “being here now,” with a little help from a mind-altering substance. […]

Feminism

Iran’s Streets ‘Transformed’ As More Women Shun The Mandatory Hijab

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Fereshteh Ghazi and Farangis Najibullah ( RFE / RL ) – Iranian journalist Zeinab Rahimi has refused to wear the mandatory hijab for over two years, despite the risk of arrest and imprisonment. She is among a growing number of women and girls who have stopped covering their head in public, in direct defiance of […]

Iran

“The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:18

Juan Cole

Stanza 18 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the last in the series that emphasizes the impermanence of royal glory and it transitions to a subsequent set of meditations on the transitory character of life itself XVIII. I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as […]

Iran

“They say the Lion and the Lizard keep the Courts:” Edward FitzGerald’s the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:17

Juan Cole

Quatrain 17 of the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám continues the theme that kingly glory quickly fades. XVII. They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep: And Bahrám, that great Hunter — the Wild Ass Stamps o’er his Head, and he […]

Donald Trump

Do UN “Snapback” Sanctions really Matter to the Iranian Economy and its Nuclear Program?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The E3 — France, Britain and Germany — successfully led a bid at the UN Security Council Friday to reimpose UNSC economic sanctions on Iran, which had been in place 2007-2015 but were lifted because of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. That deal is now dead as a door nail. […]