A man who does not recognise his own face, an aristocrat who keeps his amputated limbs in jars on the shelf, an infant that commits suicide, a cat that is secretly writing a novel, a rooster that rebels against fate -- those are some of the characters that make Bahram Sadeqi's stories intriguing, incomparable and inimitable. Sadeqi is an original story-teller who depicts familiar facts and mundane realities in such a way that shocks us to the core and makes us call everything into question. With a subtle irony reminiscent of Poe, Kafka and Marquez, he engages us in an intricate quest to explore the meaning of life, death and the cosmos. Considering the slight body of work Sadeqi left behind after his untimely death, one cannot help but be struck by the impact his work has had on Persian literature nevertheless. Sadeqi consistently transgressed established literary ideologies with an easy confidence, pioneering an entirely new style of literature and presenting his own unique perspective on the human condition. His presence in contemporary Persian prose fiction was like that of a lone meteorite: appearing in a blinding flash, instantly yet fleetingly illuminating its surroundings, then abruptly fading into the darkness, leaving only a completely original, overwhelming and fantastic trail, the remainder of something singularly magnificent that we cannot hope to ever see repeated. Ever since he first published his stories in literary journals as a young writer, Sadeqi's works have been widely reprinted, finding vast audiences among each new generation of Iranians. This collection contains some of Sadeqi's best short stories, as well as Malakut, his magnum opus, a novella that took everyone by surprise in the 1960s, still fascinating readers and critics alike.

The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation offers a detailed overview of the field of Persian literature in translation, discusses the development of the field, gives critical expression to research on Persian literature in translation, and brings together cutting-edge theoretical and practical research. The book is divided into the following three parts: (I) Translation of Classical Persian Literature, (II) Translation of Modern Persian Literature, and (III) Persian Literary Translation in Practice. The chapters of the book are authored by internationally renowned scholars in the field, and the volume is an essential reference for scholars and their advanced students as well as for those researching in related areas and for independent translators of Persian literature.

“Oh, Allah, You are my only trust in every calamity. You are my only hope in every hardship. You are the only promise in anxiety and distress, in which hearts become weak and (human) action becomes slight, whereby one is deserted and forsaken by his own friends, and the enemies take malicious pleasure and rejoice at his misfortunes. Oh, Allah, I submit myself to You. My complaint is to You alone against my enemies, and to You alone is my desire and request. Who else other than You can relieve me from grief? You alone are the custodian of every blessing and the master of every excellence and the last resort for every desire.” —the prayer of the Imam-Husayn (AS) on the Day of Ashura

Around 1720 in Fez A mad b. al-Mub rak al-Lama , a religious scholar, wrote down the words and teachings of the Sufi master Abd al- Az z al-Dabb gh. Al-Dabb gh shunned religious studies but, having reached illumination and met with the Prophet Mu ammad, he was able to explain any obscurities in the Qur n, ad ths and sayings of earlier Sufis. The resulting book, known as the Ibr z, describes how al-Dabb gh attained illumination and access to the Prophet, as well as his teachings about the Council of the godly that regulates the world, relations between master and disciple, the darkness in men s bodies, Adam s creation, Barzakh, Paradise and Hell, and much more besides.This encyclopaedia of Sufism with its many teaching stories and illustrations provides a window onto social life and religious ideasin Fez a generation or so before powerful outside forces began to play a role in the radical transformation of Morocco.