The Heavenly Rose-Garden is a fascinating portrait of the Caucasus at the dawn of the modern era. Written in Persian and completed in 1845, it offered the first look at the region by a native son, ‘Abbas Qoli Aqa Bakikhanov. It remains the only dedicated history of Shirvan and Daghestan to this day and also contains a great deal of interesting information about the Caucasus in general during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bakikhanov demonstrates that despite differences in language, religion, and ethnicity, all the peoples of the Caucasus traveled a similar historical road and, to some extent, shared an identity distinct from the Ottoman Turks and Persians of adjacent, larger states.
Translated for the first time into English by two eminent historians, The Heavenly Rose-Garden is a mine of information for scholars studying the region and an engrossing read for anyone else.

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.

By any Measure, Nader Shah--founder of the Afsharid Dynasty--ranks as a towering figure in Iranian history. Rising from the humblest of origins, he became a military commander of genius, restored an embattled Persia to imperial greatness, and proceeded to wield the power of the throne with a ruthlessness that approached derangement. Yet much about the man and his tumultuous times remains obscure. This book peers into the shadows by drawing on unusual source materials-—unpublished letters and reports written by the staff of the Dutch East India Company, who watched in dismay as the tyrant sacrificed the nation’s economic health (and Dutch hopes for trade) to feed his war machine.

Merchants and bankers managed much of nineteenth-century Iran’s economy and finances. The ulama—clerical leaders—who considered themselves responsible for the spiritual welfare of their flock also played an important economic role, in particular, through management of religious endowments. Numerically, however, the most important group was that of the traders and craftsmen, who were organized into guilds and who formed thirty to fifty percent of the urban population. Finally, there were the unskilled, mostly seasonal, laborers.

In the nineteenth century, Iranian reformers wanted to create an independent, modern state that could stand on its own feet. However, constrained by foreign influence, ignorance, and inexperience, their efforts at industrialization were an expensive failure. When a modernizing regime took over the country in 1925, it began the most interesting example of a state-directed effort at economic organization in the Middle East. Iran was able to lift itself up by its bootstraps by financing its own very capital intensive industrialization program without borrowing from abroad. But the people of Iran paid for their nation’s modernization through heavy taxation, bad living conditions and dictatorial rule. And although unionization of labor failed, and bad working conditions, low wages and lack of labor laws remained, the much reviled Reza Shah had ironically been able to realize the dreams of the nineteenth and early-twentieth-century reformers.

A small, sleepy port in the Persian Gulf, Bandar-e Lengeh has had a varied and checkered history since its launch onto the historical scene around 1750. In those days the tribal people of the region felt at home on both sides of the Gulf and often went to wherever they thought would offer them a better life. When the Qavasem Arabs moved to Lengeh and developed it, they turned it from a sleepy fishing town into a pirate’s nest. They, together with their kith and kin in Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah, became the scourge of the Gulf until 1819 when the British burnt all three ports to the ground. After this, convinced that piracy was not worth the cost, the people of Lengeh became peaceful, and very successful as traders and pearl fishers. Lengeh became the distribution center for the entire Arabian Coast and rivaled Bahrain as the pearl clearing center of the Gulf. This success attracted people from all over the Gulf to come and live in Lengeh, making it a symbol of the Gulf migratory culture (havaleh). Lengeh’s success and prosperity did not end because of competition, but because in 1903 the Iranian government enacted a new customs regime for all their ports—but Lengeh was an “Arabian” port located in Iran. As a result, Lengeh lost its competitive position to Dubai, which opened its doors to many of Lengeh’s merchants. Thereafter, Lengeh declined and by 1930 it was once again a minor port and fishing town.

The Persian Gulf: The Rise and Fall of Bandar-e Lengeh, The Distribution Center for the Arabian Coast, 1750–1930 is the third volume of the Persian Gulf series by Willem Floor. This book is a rich compendium of Iranian, Dutch, and British reports and primary sources. It is also full of enthralling research into the work of travelers in the region. While it is essential reading for all scholars of the history of the Gulf, it is also informative and satisfying for those readers interested in the history of the region in general.

Travels in Iran and the Caucasus is a stimulating and informative account of an Ottoman administrator’s missions to the region in the mid-seventeenth century. Evliya Chelebi’s travelogue is not simply a diplomatic report, but rather a fascinating exploration of the religious, ethnic, artistic, and even culinary peculiarities of the region. In addition, it offers a fresh perspective on relations between the Ottomans and the Safavids during a period of relative calm in an otherwise stormy relationship. For the first time, the Iranian and Caucus sections of Chelebi’s Siyahat-nameh have been translated from the original Turkish manuscript into English in their most complete form. As such, this book is a unique resource not only for scholars of Safavid Iran but also for those interested in the seventeenth century Middle East in general.

Forugh Farrokhzad was born in Tehran in 1935 and died in a car crash at the age of 32. During her short, tumultuous life she was married and divorced; had a son, who was taken away from her; had love affairs; made an award-winning documentary film; adopted a child from a leper colony; and published several collections of poetry. In her writing as well as her lifestyle, she challenged female stereotypes and shocked the establishment, but her talent was unmistakable. Fiercely honest, insightful, and often wonderfully lyrical, her work has earned her a secure place in the thousand-year tradition of illustrious Iranian poets.

Forugh’s Another Birth is widely regarded as the pinnacle of her poetic work. This revised and updated edition of Another Birth and Other Poems, includes an introduction, letters, interviews, a timeline of Forugh’s life and creative work, two essays analyzing her finest poems, and the Persian text of the poems on facing pages. Forugh Farrokhzad’s poetry is as poignant today as it was half a century ago, when it scandalized Iranian society. This book brings into perspective the full evolution of Forugh’s work, from introspective reflections on womanhood, love, and religion to broader visions of modern society as a whole.

Bandar Abbas, once a small fishing village, became the gateway port for Iran after Shah Abbas defeated the Portuguese in 1622. However, with the fall of the Safavids and the withdrawal of the British East India Company in 1759 the port went into decline; by 1793 Bandar Abbas was under the direct control of Oman. In 1869 Iran had to resort to force of arms to take it back from Oman.

Yet, this important port is hardly mentioned in the histories of Iran. For the first time in Bandar Abbas: The Natural Trade Gateway of Southeast Iran, Willem Floor, using primary sources, analyses the port’s morphology, population, water supply, health, education, and living conditions during the Qajar period. Furthermore, he discusses in detail how Bandar Abbas came under Omani control; how the Qajars assumed direct control; as well as the town’s vicissitudes under a parliamentary governed Iran, and the new centralizing Pahlavi state.

Heydar Radjavi was born and raised in Tabriz and did not leave that city until he was admitted to the University of Teheran in 1953. He was in love with modern Persian literature and dreamed of being a writer until he switched to mathematics at the end of high school (but that is another story). He was sent to the University of Minnesota, where he got his doctorate in 1962. He then taught in Iranian, American, and Canadian universities until he moved permanently to Canada in 1972. He now resides in Waterloo, Ontario, with his wife Ursula.  He has published books and articles in mathematical journals, and has been known to most of his friends and acquaintances as a mathematician. This collection constitutes his first publication outside mathematics in 55 years.

New, 25th Anniversary Edition!

Expanded, Updated & Redesigned

Completely redesigned for today’s generation of cooks and food enthusiasts, the 25th Anniversary Edition of Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies by Najmieh Batmanglij (Mage; $54.95 640 pages); provides a treasure trove of recipes, along with an immersive cultural experience for those seeking to understand this ancient and timeless cuisine. This edition is a more user-friendly edition of the award-winning and critically acclaimed cookbook series which began in 1986. Food of Life provides 330 classical and regional Iranian recipes as well as an introduction to Persian art, history and culture. The book’s hundreds of full color photographs are intertwined with descriptions of ancient and modern Persian ceremonies, poetry, folktales, travelogue excerpts and anecdotes. The 2011 Edition of Food of Life is a labor of love. The book began in exile after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 as a love letter to Batmanglij’s children. Today, as accomplished adults in their own fields, her two sons, Zal and Rostam, encouraged her to redesign the book for their generation. {more}