Introducing the Zal and the Phoenix Project This webinar will introduce the Zal and the Phoenix project, an upcoming ambitious multi-media theatrical production combining storytelling, music and animation to recount Ferdowsi’s much-loved tale from the...
A hundred years of Persian performing arts Jane Lewisohn (SOAS). This talk will show how the performing arts offer insights into the hopes, aspirations, aesthetics and even prejudices prevalent in Iran at this time and how they are valuable not just from an...
BIPS: A Vision for the Future Professor Charles Melville, BIPS president, in discussion with Dr Judith Thomalsky, Director of the German Archaeological Institute in Tehran. After a year of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the British Institute of Persian...
The research carried out since the beginning of the 2000s in Sindh and Las Bela in Balochistan (Pakistan) have shown that shell middens do exist also along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea, a territory still nowadays very rich in fish resources. According...
This evening, dedicated to the late Professor David Stronach, will focus on BIPS’s contribution to Iranian archaeology. First, there will be a short film about Professor Stronach’s major excavations in Iran during the 1960s and 1970s after which a panel comprising...
2021 Ann Lambton Memorial Lecture Political Thought in Medieval and Early-Modern Iran: Islamic or Persianate? With Professor Saïd Amir Arjomand The event is jointly organised by BIPS and IMeEIS, Durham University. After defining what can be meant...
Kings and Heroes, Lovers and Poets: the Shahnameh’s continuous appeal With Charles Melville & Ina Sarikhani Sandmann The Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, is arguably Iran’s most famous work of literature and one of the world’s greatest epic poems. It...
Iran as Empire: Nader Shah and the emergence of a new Iranian empire With Mohammad Amir Hakimi Parsa Nader Shah ruled Iran from 1736-1747. A military genius, he campaigned almost non-stop in the Caucasus, Ottoman Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan and the...
An Introduction to Maqam: Music of Iran and the Arab Mashriq Dates: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9th - 23rd March, 2021, 5-7pm Course Fee: £100 The musical heritage spread from North Africa to Central Asia, generally referred to as “maqām”, unites the region, regardless of...
BIPS Trustee Prof Ali Massoud Ansari, who is Professor of Modern History (University of St Andrews), founding director of the Institute for Iranian Studies and on Exchange Fellowship with the Foreign Office, will be speaking on: ‘Maj Gen Sir John Malcolm and Persia...