First published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This study surveys a distinctive type of the “Islamic” book which has been largely neglected in previous scholarship: the genre of illustrated lithographed books produced in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Iran. In addition to introducing the history of printing in Iran and surveying the investigated sources, the study supplies basic data on genres of illustrated books, artists active in lithographic illustration, and aspects germane to this particular field of art. The documentation includes bibliographical references for 116 illustrated books in a total of 351 particular editions and 150 plates with several hundred single illustrations. Lithographic illustration in Iran constitutes the legitimate successor to manuscript illustration, both in content and style. Contrasting with the latter’s refinement, lithographed illustrations were produced in large numbers and served as a powerful medium of popular iconography.

Humanism has mostly considered the question “What does it mean to be human?” from a Western perspective. Dabashi asks it anew from a non-European perspective, in a groundbreaking study of 1,400 years of Persian literary humanism. He presents the unfolding of this vast tradition as the creative and subversive subconscious of Islamic civilization.

Alexander the Great (356-333 BC) was to capture the imagination of his contemporaries and future generations. His image abounds in various cultures and literatures - Eastern and Western - and spread around the globe through oral and literary media at an astonishing rate during late antiquity and the early Islamic period. The first Iskandarnama, or 'The Book of Alexander', now held in a private collection in Tehran, is the oldest prose version of the Alexander romance in the Persian tradition. Thought to have been written at some point between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries by an unknown author, the lively narrative recasts Alexander as Iskandar, a Muslim champion - a king and prophet, albeit flawed but heroic, and remarkably appropriated to Islam, though the historic Alexander lived and died some 1,000 years before the birth of the faith. This new English translation of the under-studied text is the first to be presented unabridged and sheds fresh light onto the shape and structure of this vital document.In so doing it invites a reconsideration of the transformation of a Western historical figure - and one-time mortal enemy of Persia - into a legendary hero adopted by Iranian historiographic myth-making. Evangelos Venetis, the translator, also offers a textual analysis, providing much-needed context and explanations on both content and subsequent reception. This landmark publication will be invaluable to students and scholars of classical Persian literature, ancient and medieval history and Middle East studies, as well as to anyone studying the Alexander tradition.

"Within the pantheon of world literature, the Persian poet Hafiz (born in around 1320 in the city of Shiraz) occupies an exalted position, and his poems have long been translated and studied in the West. However, the degree of the English language's "interaction" with the work of Hafiz has often been underestimated. Parvin Loloi's contribution has been to collect and analyse the entire body of translations of Hafiz in English and to identify the specific problems which his writing presents to translators, together with varying strategies adopted by translators to surmount these difficulties. Her book includes a comprehensive first-line index of English translations of individual poems of Hafiz: a rich resource for students of comparative literature or translation studies, which demonstrates widespread and long-established interest in one of the major poets of Persia. It points to cultural encounters which the debate on Orientalism has largely ignored and highlights a significant influence on English poets of the 19th century, including Byron and Tennyson."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Now in paperback, this is a history of an incomparable culture whose influence can still be seen, millennia later, in modern-day Iran and the wider Middle East. During the first and second millennia BCE a swathe of nomadic peoples migrated outward from Central Asia into the Eurasian periphery. One group of these people would find themselves encamped in an unpromising, arid region just south of the Caspian Sea. From these modest and uncertain beginnings, they would go on to form one of the most powerful empires in history: the Persian Empire. In this book, Geoffrey and Brenda Parker tell the captivating story of this ancient civilization and its enduring legacy to the world. The authors examine the unique features of Persian life and trace their influence throughout the centuries. They examine the environmental difficulties the early Persians encountered and how, in overcoming them, they were able to develop a unique culture that would culminate in the massive, first empire, the Achaemenid Empire. Extending their influence into the maritime west, they fought the Greeks for mastery of the eastern Mediterranean—one of the most significant geopolitical contests of the ancient world. And the authors paint vivid portraits of Persian cities and their spectacular achievements: intricate and far-reaching roadways, an astonishing irrigation system that created desert paradises, and, above all, an extraordinary reflection of the diverse peoples that inhabited them.