Salar Al-Dowleh: A Delusional Prince and Wannabe Shah PDF Download

Author: Willem M. Floor
Publisher: Mage Publishers
ISBN: 9781933823966
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Salar al-Dowleh, the madcap prince and serial rebel, was a reflection of the unsettled political times during the early 1900s when Iranian society was trying to find its way toward a more democratic society. This is also clear from Salar al-Dowleh's "career." He was first courted by the democrats, when they ditched him, he tried to court them but when his nephew was enthroned instead of him, he joined the reactionary forces. As a serial rebel Salar al-Dowleh was a failure, because he did not have a program (apart from killing and plundering) that supporters could believe in. In fact, his rebellions had no other cause than himself. Salar al-Dowleh told each audience what it wanted to hear. He passed himself off as a constitutionalist, a nationalist, an anti-Russian, a pro-Russian, an anti-British, a pro-British, an Islamist, and anything else. He was an uncaring and rapacious governor and a murderous, destructive, plundering rebel, who did not care about the harm and misery he inflicted on his country and his countrymen. After his final ouster from Iran in 1913, driven by financial need, Salar al-Dowleh again tried to play a role in Iranian politics in 1914, 1918, 1924, 1925 and 1926. He was not successful in any of these and was finally exiled by the British to Haifa (1927-1936). When his Iranian pension was stopped, he moved to Alexandria (1936-1959), where he died, a forgotten man. For those interested in Iranian history, the rebellions started by the prince are as important to study as the political debates in the Majles--they both arose from the same unresolved dynastic, political, social, and economic conflicts in Iranian society during that turbulent period.

Author: Mehrdad Kia
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031449738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This book focuses on the rise of Kurdish nationalism in northwestern Iran in the context of the emergence of the Kurdish leader, Ismail Agha Simko, who organized a movement to establish a Kurdish state between 1918 and 1922 The rise of Simko is analyzed in the historical framework of the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman empires, as well as the disappearance of Iranian governmental authority in various provinces of the country during and after the end of the First World War. The book also investigates the impact of Iranian, Turkish, and Assyrian nationalisms on Simko and his movement. Drawing upon original documents, the author provides an in-depth analysis of the political, and socio-economic causes for the rise of proto-Kurdish nationalism in northwestern Iran during and after the Great War.

Author: Nahid Massoumeh Assemi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755652665
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
The Takkiyya Mu'avin al-Mulk is a building complex in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, dedicated to the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn 'Ali at the Battle of Karbala in 680, an event of seminal significance to Shi'i Islam. Private takkiyyas built by social elites were a phenomenon of the Qajar period, with their construction motivated by a political quest for legitimacy. This book examines the intersection of art and architecture, popular piety, and the politics of legitimation. Through an examination of the building and its decorative programme, it addresses issues of patronage, Shi'i iconography and popular religious practices during the early 20th century in Iran. It further argues for the role of takkiyyas in creation of a sense of community and group identity; the formative stage of the emergent idea of nationhood at the time, amongst those who frequented them.

Author: Mangol Bayat
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815654995
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
For the past several decades, scholars have studied and written about the Iranian constitutional revolution with the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a subtext, obscuring the secularist trend that characterized its very nature. Constitutionalist leaders represented a diverse composite of beliefs, yet they all shared a similar vision of a new Iran, one that included far-reaching modernizing reforms and concepts rooted in the European Enlightenment. The second national assembly (majles), during its brief two-year term, aspired to legislate these reforms in one of the most important experiments in parliamentary governance. Mangol Bayat provides a much-needed detailed analysis of this historic episode, examining the national and international actors, and the political climate that engendered one crisis after another, ultimately leading to its fateful end. Bayat highlights the radical transformation of old institutions and the innovation of new ones, and most importantly, shows how this term provided a reasonably successful model of parliament imposing its will on the executive power that was primarily composed of old-guard, elite leaders. At the same time, Bayat challenges the traditional perception among scholars that reform attempts failed due to sectarian politics and ideological differences.

Author: Hamid Dabashi
Publisher: Mage Publishers
ISBN: 1949445550
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
An academically acclaimed and globally celebrated cultural critic, Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed books and articles on Iran, Islam, comparative literature, world cinema, and the philosophy of art, among them Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future; Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema (editor), Iran: A People Interrupted, and Iran without Borders: Towards a Critique of the Postcolonial Nation. He lives with his family in New York City.

Author: Willem Floor
Publisher: Mage Publishers
ISBN: 1949445666
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The Chinese invented papermaking, which by the 8th century had reached the Muslim world in Samarkand and Baghdad, and Spain by the 11th century. Much later at the end of the 18th century onwards, modern, industrial papermaking was developed by the Europeans. The History of Paper in Iran, 1501 to 1925 sets out for the reader the types of paper made in Iran during the Safavid and Qajar periods and the crucial role imported paper played in the country. The Iranian government attempted to introduce modern European paper production technology, first by sending students abroad to learn about this technology and then by purchasing equipment to set up a paper industry. However, during the 19th century, domestic Iranian paper production came under increasing pressure from paper imports, and the government abandoned its efforts to modernize the domestic paper industry. The authors, renowned scholar Willem Floor in collaboration with Amélie Couvrat Desvergnes a museum conservator of artworks on paper and books, identify and illustrate the watermarks and/or countermarks of the various paper producers and provide examples of the diversity of quality, composition, and nature of the different types of paper used by various strata of the Iranian society. Also provided are detailed import data, showing which country exported paper to Iran, via which routes, as well as their changing market position over time. Finally, the various end uses of paper, from books and farmans to paintings, and diverse packing and utilitarian paper are examined and, where possible, quantified data are presented. This book will reward scholars and general readers alike.

Author: Willem Floor
Publisher: Mage Publishers
ISBN: 1949445674
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
This comprehensive and richly detailed study by renowned scholar Willem Floor is the culmination of what is known about domestic glass and ceramic production—location, quality, craftsmen—in Iran from 1500 until the end of the Qajar period in 1925. Because of increasing imports, the Qajar government tried to improve domestic glass and ceramic techniques through transfer of technology, (once through direct foreign investment). The reasons for these failed attempts are discussed as well as the development of the import of glass and ceramic products. Over time, there was not only a change in the places of origin of glass and ceramic imports, but also in their volume and composition, which, during the Qajar period, included a large variety of cheap articles for mass consumption. There is an appendix for each chapter giving a market assessment for glass and ceramic production in Iran, written in French by Belgian consultants in 1891. The Belgian assessments offer a detailed chemical analysis of glass and ceramics made in Iran, as well as an inventory of the types of glassware and ceramics made by domestic craftsmen. It concludes with proposals for the establishment of a modern glass and ceramic factory in Iran. This superb body of research will not only be of great interest to Iranian scholars inside and outside the country, but also to everyone interested in the story of glass and ceramics throughout the world.

Author: Willem Floor
Publisher: Mage Publishers
ISBN: 1949445690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Only 100 years ago the main means of transportation in Iran was by quadruped. Transportation & Technology in Iran, 1800-1940, by renowned Iranian studies scholar Willem Floor is an in-depth, illustrated, four-part study of the subject. Until the 1920s Iran had no more than 700 kilometers of roads suitable for motor vehicles, which situation greatly impeded Iran's economic development. Caravans traveled 40 km/day, though travelers in a hurry could cover 150 km/day when using the courier system (chapar), which is the subject of part 1. Wheeled transportation, (in part 2 of the books) was rare and limited to only a few parts of country due to the lack of roads. This situation underwent change when carriages became popular in urban areas and on the few modern roads after 1890. Motorized transportation grew in importance after 1921 and really took off in the 1930s, with the construction of a new road network. As a result, newer, more powerful trucks reduced the cost of transportation significantly, thus lowering the cost of retail goods. The increase of motorized transport also meant that car dealers, import rules, mechanics, garages, supply of spare parts, and gasoline distribution as well as traffic regulations had to be created ex nihilo; All these processes are detailed in the book. Like cars, bicycles and motorcycles also were increasingly used as of the 1920s, thus increasing choice in people's mobility. More road traffic also implied that travelers needed places to spend the night and eat. The change from caravanserais to guest-houses and hotels is discussed in part 3. These changes in transportation methods did not come alone, for other modern tools of change such as the sewing machine and the typewriter also made their appearance and had a major impact on people's availability and use of time. Finally, the piano made its entry onto the Iranian musical scene, and although not perfectly in tune with the traditional Iranian musical system, it is now as much part of music making in Iran as the tar and santur (part 4 of the book). All these changes and new technologies did not happen overnight or without problems, and slow adoption initially was limited to the upper-class. However, with falling prices and changing needs and policies these new technologies eventually reached a larger public and the idea that they once were 'exotic' and 'out of reach' is now inconceivable to Iranians. The studies in this book provide a new vantage point and understanding of the transfer of modern technology for scholars of the social-economic and cultural history of the Middle East.

Author: Willem M. Floor
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781933823188
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The history of the Persian Gulf during the eighteenth century is still little known. This gap is now being filled by the historian and renowned scholar Willem Floor, first with publication of The Persian Gulf: A Political and Economic History of Five Port Cities, 1500-1730, and now with The Persian Gulf: The Rise of the Gulf Arabs, The Politics of Trade on the Persian Littoral, 1747-1792. This study tells the fascinating story of the shift in trade from the lower to the upper Gulf, while there was also a partial shift of trade from the northern Persian coast to the southern Arab coast. It tells of the departure of first the Dutch then the British trading companies, and the rise of the local rulers who began to dominate political developments, whether it was the Imam of Oman in Masqat, the Qavasem in the Strait of Hormuz, the Ka'b in the Shatt al-Arab, Sheikh Naser in Bushire and Bahrain, Mir Mohanna in Dashtestan and at the head of the Gulf, and the 'Otobis at Kuwait, Bahrain and Zubara. And finally it tells of how, because of a lack of interest by the Persian and Ottoman governments in the region, the Bombay fleet of the East India Company increasingly used their naval power to protect commercial interests in the Gulf, which paved the way for a similar role played by the British Royal Navy in the nineteenth century.

Author: Willem M. Floor
Publisher: Mage Publishers
ISBN: 9781933823942
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Essays on the plague and cholera in Iran. As well as quarantine, influenza, medical infrastructure, geophagy, and early steps toward veterinary medicine in Iran.