Iran and the Surrounding World : Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics

These essays examine Iran’s place in the world--its relations and cultural interactions with its immediate neighbors and with empires and superpowers from the beginning of the Safavid period in 1501 to the present day. The book provides important historical background on recent political and social developments in Iran and on its contemporary foreign relations. The topics explored include Iranian influence abroad on political organization, religion, literature, art, and diplomacy, as well as Iran's absorption of foreign influences in these areas. A special focus is the prevailing political culture of Iran throughout its early modern and contemporary periods. The authors combine approaches from history, political science, anthropology, international relations, and culturalstudies. Some essays address Iran’s interactions with various Arab and Turkic ethnicities in the region stretching from India to Egypt. Others examine its relations with the West during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, women's issues, culture inside Iran during the Islamic Republic, and the Shi`ite theocracy of Iran as compared with other Muslim states. Contents Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction / Nikki R. Keddie Part I: Overviews 1. Iranian Culture and South Asia, 1500-1900 / Juan R. I. Cole 2. Beyond Translation: Interactions between English and Persian Poetry / Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak 3. Turk, Persian, and Arab: Changing Relationships between Tribes and State in Iran and along Its Frontiers / Thomas J. Barfield Part II: The Safavid, Qajar, and Pahlavi Periods 4. The Early Safavids and Their Cultural Interactions with Surrounding States / Abolala Soudavar 5. Suspicion, Fear, and Admiration: Pre-Nineteenth-Century Iranian Views of the English and the Russians / Rudi Matthee 6. The Quest for the Secret of Strength in Iranian Nineteenth-Century Travel Literature: Rethinking Tradition in the "Safarnameh" / Monica M. Ringer 7. Cultures of Iranianness: The Evolving Polemic of Iranian Nationalism / Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet 8. Foreign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity in Early-Twentieth-Century Iran / Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi Part III: Culture in the Islamic Republic in Relation to the World 9. International Connections of the Iranian Women's Movement / Nayereh Tohidi 10. The Presentation of the "Self" and the "Other" in Postrevolutionary Iranian School Textbooks / Golnar Mehran 11. Cinematic Exchange Relations: Iran and the West / Hamid Naficy Part IV: Political-Cultural Relations with the Muslim World 12. The Failed Pan-Islamic Program of the Islamic Republic: Views of the Liberal Reformers of the Religious "Semi-Opposition" / Wilfried Buchta 13. Revolutionary Iran and Egypt: Exporting Inspirations and Anxieties / Asef Bayat and Bahman Baktiari 14. The Iranian Revolution and Changes in Islamism in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan / Vali Nasr Part V: The Politics of Iran's International Relations 15. Iran's Foreign Policy: A Revolution in Transition / Gary Sick The Contributors Index These essays examine Iran's place in the world--its relations and cultural interactions with its immediate neighbors and with empires and superpowers from the beginning of the Safavid period in 1501 to the present day. The book provides important historical background on recent political and social developments in Iran and on its contemporary foreign relations. The topics explored include Iranian influence abroad on political organization, religion, literature, art, and diplomacy, as well as Iran's absorption of foreign influences in these areas. A special focus is the prevailing political culture of Iran throughout its early modern and contemporary periods. The authors combine approaches from history, political science, anthropology, international relations, and culturalstudies. Some essays address Iran's interactions with various Arab and Turkic ethnicities in the region stretching from India to Egypt. Others examine its relations with the West during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, women's issues, culture inside Iran during the Islamic Republic, and the Shiìte theocracy of Iran as compared with other Muslim states This book deals with Iran's relations with the surrounding world since 1500, concentrating on the cultural and cultural-political spheres, with emphasis on the period since the rise of the Islamic Republic in 1979.