This product is most effective when used in conjunction with the corresponding audio support. - You can purchase the book and audio support as a pack (ISBN: 9781444102307) - The audio support is also sold separately (ISBN: 9781444102406) (copy and paste the ISBN number into the search bar to find these products) Are you looking for a complete course in Modern Persian (Farsi) which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) will guarantee success! Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online. The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work. By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features: NOT GOT MUCH TIME? One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started. AUTHOR INSIGHTS Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience. GRAMMAR TIPS Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding. USEFUL VOCABULARY Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking. DIALOGUES Read and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast. PRONUNCIATION Don't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you go. TEST YOURSELF Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress. EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGE Extra online articles to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of Iran. TRY THIS Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.

Do you want to be able to listen to, speak, read and write Modern Persian (Farsi) confidently? Do you want the convenience of being able to learn at home or on the move? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Teach Yourself Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) – Touch & Listen will guarantee success! Touch & Listen ebooks are a groundbreaking new approach to language learning that include recordings of pronunciation and conversations within the pages of the books themselves – right where you need them. In the past you used to have to juggle separate books and CDs/MP3s to master listening, speaking, reading and writing. Not anymore. Thanks to the latest enhanced ebook technology, you can learn and practise all four language skills plus grammar and vocabulary from a single ebook that you can read and listen to on your tablet device or smartphone. First, touch the on-screen play buttons and listen to native speakers conversing on scores of current topics. Then rewind. Or pause. Whatever you need to do to make sure you’ve fully understood what you have just listened to. When you are ready, complete the activities with the convenient notes feature. You are in control. It’s that simple. STRUCTURE The course is structured in thematic units based on real-life situations and with an emphasis on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work. NOT MUCH TIME? Get started with a 1-minute introduction to the key principles of the language. GRAMMAR Follow easy-to-manage steps to give you a clear understanding of the language. VOCABULARY Use clearly marked lists to make it easy to find and review the most useful vocabulary. DIALOGUES Touch & Listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast. PRONUNCIATION Don't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you travel. INSIGHTS Look out for lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author’s many years of teaching experience. FEATURES Make full use of the wealth of convenient ebook features, including highlighting, making notes and a built-in dictionary. PROGRESS Rise to Level B1 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions. TEST YOURSELF Use the unit tests to keep track of your progress. Teach Yourself Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) Enjoy the familiarity of a book with the convenience of Touch & Listen technology at home or on the move, and let Teach Yourself and its highly experienced authors guide you every step of the way.

The grammar in this book is comprehensive, and contains all that is necessary for the student to become thoroughly familiar with the language.

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.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Finalist for the PEN/USA Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and the Audie Award in Biography/Memoir This Random House Reader’s Circle edition includes a reading group guide and a conversation between Firoozeh Dumas and Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner! “Remarkable . . . told with wry humor shorn of sentimentality . . . In the end, what sticks with the reader is an exuberant immigrant embrace of America.”—San Francisco Chronicle In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country beyond her father’s glowing memories of his graduate school years here. More family soon followed, and the clan has been here ever since. Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot. In a series of deftly drawn scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies?—a complete mystery), American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?—an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American culture (Firoozeh’s parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don’t get the jokes even when she translates them into Farsi). Above all, this is an unforgettable story of identity, discovery, and the power of family love. It is a book that will leave us all laughing—without an accent. Praise for Funny in Farsi “Heartfelt and hilarious—in any language.”—Glamour “A joyful success.”—Newsday “What’s charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in the weakest, most tenuous moments for the culture. It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Often hilarious, always interesting . . . Like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this book describes with humor the intersection and overlapping of two cultures.”—The Providence Journal “A humorous and introspective chronicle of a life filled with love—of family, country, and heritage.”—Jimmy Carter “Delightfully refreshing.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “[Funny in Farsi] brings us closer to discovering what it means to be an American.”—San Jose Mercury News

The author examines from different perspectives (theological and philosophical as well as socio-political and historical) the significance of the concept of the individual in the ways of thinking of Iranians. This book establishes that the mystical dimension of Islamic thought, the divine nature of Islamic law and, the mode of relationship between ruler and the ruled, in combination, counteracted growth of concern for the individual self in Iranian thought.