This article examines how post-Soviet Azerbaijani literature redefined creative and narrative forms, challenging Soviet literary norms through experimentation and new modes of characterization. Following independence in 1991, Azerbaijani literature moved from the transitional, trauma-marked works of the 1990s to the pluralism and experimentation of the 2000s and, after 2020, toward a discourse of triumph. Writers such as Aziza Jafarzadeh, Huseyn Ibrahimov, Elchin Afandiyev, Anar, and Afag Masud employ non-linear structures, allegory, symbolism, and introspection to transform inherited Soviet forms into vehicles of cultural resistance. Drawing on postcolonial theory (Bakhtin, Bhabha, Spivak, and Annus) and close textual readings, this article situates Azerbaijani literature within broader Eurasian and postcolonial frameworks, demonstrating how creative characterization fosters new expressions of identity, memory, and cultural reimagining.

This article critiques certain factions of the Iranian diaspora opposition for embracing retrotopia–a romanticized, imagined past that reflects present despair and future anxiety. Instead of supporting Iran’s civil society, some rely on foreign powers, promote archaic nationalism and monarchist nostalgia, or advance ethnic exceptionalism, thereby distorting the emancipatory ideals of the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (WLF) movement. Their rhetoric often glorifies war, employs exclusionary and patriarchal discourses, and undermines pluralism, gender equality, and indigenous democratic change. These factions are identifiable as an “opposition against the movement,” obstructing rather than advancing emancipatory change. The Israeli-American war on Iran (June 2025) further exposed their alignment with external aggression, as well as their strategic confusion, ethical bankruptcy, and detachment from Iran’s grassroots post–Islamist vision of pluralism, inclusivity, and peaceful coexistence.

This article examines diasporic Iranian responses to protests sparked by the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini in September 2022. While Amini’s death galvanized widespread dissent inside Iran, it also spurred diasporic Iranian solidarity, often expressed through the call to “be the voice” of Iranian protestors. I analyze two key practices of diasporic narration: first, framing the Woman, Life, Freedom protests as a “revolution” in social media discourse; and second, the circulation of nostalgic video montages idealizing pre-1979 Iran as a lost era of political freedom. Together, these practices reveal how diasporic narratives may dilute protest demands by fitting them into revisionist frameworks. The conclusion reflects on both the potential and limits of diaspora narration in shaping political memory and understanding.

This article analyzes the diasporic dimensions of the 2022 Jina Revolutionary Momentum and its transnational resonance in Berlin, where more than 80,000 protestors gathered in solidarity with events in Iran. It argues that the momentum is best understood not as a continuation of previous movements but as a revolutionary rupture that generates new horizons of possibility through the politics of care, contrasting fear as the regime’s dominant affective frame. Drawing on affect theory, the article explores how the revolutionary imaginary transformed both the Iranian diaspora and indirectly Berlin itself into sites of revolutionary performance. By situating the Iranian diasporic activism in the city’s longer history as a node for exiled revolutionary activity, the analysis highlights how diasporic activism influenced the national imaginary, fostered transnational solidarities, and reshaped the meaning of Kharej (abroad) from one of exclusion to one of affection within a broader revolutionary geography.

Despite the long-standing proximity between Ottoman and Iranian reformists, the Young Turk policy toward Iran was notably reserved. The numerous tensions between Istanbul and Tehran during the constitutional period are often attributed to Young Turk pragmatism. Conversely, this study emphasizes the cultural factors in Irano-Ottoman relations and their influence on the Ottoman perception of Iran following the Ottoman Revolution of 1908. Drawing on the reports written by Hüseyin Hasib Efendi, Ottoman ambassador in Iran from 1909 to 1913, it argues that the multilayered nature of Ottoman modernity and the anxieties of the late Ottoman bureaucratic elite were crucial in shaping the Porte’s policy toward Iran. The article introduces the concept of entangled Orientalism to describe the process of Ottoman discursive adaptation to the West-dominated international order. Additionally, it aims to reassess the role of the Russian menace in the Ottoman understanding of regional politics.

This article investigates the artistic milieu of the Qajar dynasty through a critical analysis of the distinctive and sophisticated style of Mahmud Khan Malek al-Shuʿarā (1813–93), contextualizing his work alongside that of his contemporaries, with particular emphasis on Kamal al-Mulk (1859–1940), the most renowned painter of the period. Through close analysis of selected paintings, this study reveals the layered complexity of Mahmud Khan’s visual language and underscores the broader interplay between Qajar art and European artistic traditions. Although this inquiry does not seek to provide a reading of modern Iranian art, it contends that Mahmud Khan’s oeuvre warrants serious critical attention—especially within non–Persian language scholarship—as a pivotal yet overlooked juncture in Iranian art history and a missed opportunity for articulating a meaningful continuum between Iran’s classical aesthetic heritage and its modern visual expression.

This paper examines the criticism of Munīr Lāhorī (1610–44) regarding the early modern literary style of tāza-gū'ī (speaking anew) through his unedited commentaries on the qasidas of ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (1556–90). Munīr is critical of the Iranian poet's overly complex style, ungrounded in the literary tradition as he perceived it, and of developments in Mughal courts that began to favor Iranian literati over their Indian counterparts. His philological criticism of ʿUrfī's qasidas and the promulgation of tāza-gū'ī elucidates the methodologies of Safavid-Mughal literary criticism and illustrates how the prominence of Iranian figures in South Asian courts influenced the discourse on early modern Persian literary developments.

This article explores the interplay between the individual and the collective in The Blind Owl and illustrates how a distinctive historical perspective emerges from its complex allegorical form. A close reading of the novel reveals how the text superimposes biographical and cultural pasts through the juxtaposition of sexual fetishism and nostalgia, presenting both as symptoms of a fraught relationship with one’s infantile and cultural histories. The article reads The Blind Owl as a satirical critique of a figure whose conflicting desires to commemorate and forget the past drive a series of fetishistic behaviors, culminating in failure. Ultimately, the novel offers a cynical reflection on the nationalist nostalgia cultivated by traditionalist intelligentsia within the peripheral modernity of early twentieth-century Iran.

In this article, we examine how domestic heating technologies functioned as instruments of spatial reconfiguration and imperial power in twentieth-century Iran. The replacement of the traditional floor-based korsi with portable oil heaters like the Aladdin catalyzed a shift in how domestic space was materially organized. Whereas the heating ecology centered around the korsi unfolded on the ground and resisted Western objects such as sofas, refrigerators, and stoves that needed elevated or upright usage above the floor, the Aladdin enacted a subtle but powerful form of imperialism by reorienting bodies and their spatial modes of habituation toward upright “civilized” living. We argue that this technological shift and spatial elevation enabled the inflow of Western goods into Iranian homes, helping to affix Iran as a semiperipheral state within the global capitalist economic system. Rather than treating materiality as neutral or derivative, this study foregrounds its role as a mediator of social transformation, in which heating technology becomes a vector of governance and spatial elevation a proxy for progress. By centering the home as a site of techno-political encounter, we reveal how imperial rationalities were naturalized through mundane objects within the space of domesticity.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Shiʿi theocratic state in Iran has occasionally prioritized state interests over traditional shariʿa rulings. This dynamic is best understood through the lens of the principle of maslahat (variously translated as “public good” or “the interests of the state), which has played a central role in guiding strategic state decisions. By invoking maslahat, the state has justified the modification or suspension of certain shariʿa prescriptions in pursuit of broader political and social objectives. These objectives, primarily safeguarding the Shiʿi theocratic order (hefz-e nezām) and protecting the religion from defamation (vahn-e din), were key tenets articulated by Ayatollah Khomeini and remain foundational to the state's governance. This pragmatic utilization of maslahat has enabled the Shiʿi theocratic state to adapt its legal framework to meet contemporary challenges while ostensibly adhering to shariʿa principles. Notable examples of this adaptability include reforms such as the equalization of blood money for religious minorities and the imposition of moratoriums on stoning executions. However, the inherently subjective nature of maslahat raises concerns about potential arbitrariness and misuse, prompting debates among Shiʿi jurists regarding its legitimacy and scope. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of maslahat within Iran's legal system, exploring its mechanisms, applications, and implications, and highlighting its complex role in both advancing and potentially challenging the principles of Islamic law.

This article centers on tsarist Russian officials’ understandings of and approaches to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–11). Although these officials relied on fragmental information and reflected internal discoordination in their dealings with Iran over the course of the revolution, a diachronic shift marked the policies they formulated in response. Although many of them attempted to navigate the Constitutional Revolution’s complexity in its early phases, they tended toward the use of force as unrest continued, culminating in the Russian invasion of northern Iran in December 1911. Uncritically confident in their exercise of power, Russian officials proceeded without considering alternative courses of action or the potential costs of military engagement in the revolution’s final stages. This heavy-handedness reflected continuity with the tsarist government’s crackdowns on socialists in the Caucasus after the Russian Revolution of 1905, and presaged its repressive, self-defeating responses to uprisings across the Russian Empire from 1912 to 1917.

This paper examines the funding model of the Shahyad Aryamehr Monument (c. 1971) and the architectural strategies employed by the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to project the narrative that the monument, a symbol of Iranian modernity and an international brand, was fully funded by voluntary donations from merchants and industrialists. This claim was positioned as a testament to the shah’s path to modernization through the White Revolution, a Cold War-era policy presenting Iran’s modernity as an alternative to capitalism and communism. Drawing on archival documents, print media, oral histories, and visual records, this paper contextualizes the Shahyad Monument within the broader philanthropic landscape of Iran’s 2500th Anniversary of the Founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great (Imperial Celebration), particularly projects such as Persepolis Forest. The analysis reveals significant doubts about the voluntary nature of the donations, in contrast to the monarchy’s narrative. Despite this, the celebration deployed various tactics to amplify the funding model’s symbolic power, including print proclamations, visual campaigns presenting Shahyad as a symbol of industrial progress, commemorative plaques, and the choreographed prominence of donors during the inauguration ceremony. These strategies underscored the shah’s leadership and sought to reinforce the image of widespread public support for his modernization agenda.

1911 to 1935 was a chaotic, yet foundational, period in the transformation of the police force in Tehran and Iran more broadly. The nationalization of modern Iranian policing can be traced back to this time period. This article explores the role of nationalism and anti-imperialism on policing, how the structure and process of policing underwent transformation, including how police were recruited, trained, and deployed. Localized and decentralized policing was slowly abandoned in favor of an integrated national force, with policing through mediation being replaced with the exercise of power in a top-down and center to periphery manner. Education of police officers also underwent transformation, as new strategies were pursued to create a modern nationalist Iranian police force.

This paper provides a sociolinguistic and grammatical synopsis of Bavadi Bakhtiari, spoken in Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari Province, Iran. The results presented here are based on the collection of linguistic and cultural data through field research, including ethnographic research, recording of oral texts, elicitation of a language data questionnaire, and follow-up interviews with speakers of the language. In addition to providing a linguistic snapshot of the Bavadi variety of Bakhtiari in its social context, this study offers a novel contribution to the documentation of Iran’s linguistic heritage through the presentation and analysis of culturally important oral texts of various genres. While one text belongs to the controlled and formulaic genre of the folktale, two other texts are based on free conversation among groups of speakers.

This article examines the challenges of subject formation within state-building efforts by analyzing Keyhān-e Bachcheh-hā (Children’s Universe), a widely circulated Iranian children’s magazine during the post-revolutionary period. Through analyzing the magazine’s content from 1979 to 1989, when the Islamic Republic was consolidating its power and building institutions, this study reveals how the publication served as a key informal education platform, attempting to create politically conscious yet ideologically compliant young citizens. While the magazine aimed to cultivate revolutionary consciousness through anti-imperialist rhetoric and Islamic values, it simultaneously imposed rigid behavioral and ideological boundaries to produce what I term “docile revolutionary children.” The research demonstrates how political themes permeated every aspect of the magazine—from stories and poems to puzzles and contests—transforming it from an entertainment platform into a vehicle for political socialization. Through examination of revolutionary and wartime discourses, gender representation, and the promotion of social humility, this study argues that Keyhān-e Bachcheh-hā embodied a fundamental tension in the state’s vision of ideal citizenship: the simultaneous demand for revolutionary agency and absolute submission to clerical authority. This research contributes to our understanding of how post-revolutionary states employ cultural institutions to shape young citizens and the inherent contradictions in such efforts at political socialization.

The Mongol conquest of Iran (1220–1231) coincided with the “literarization of history” across the Islamic world. In Iran, this phenomenon was characterized by the production of verse histories, modeled on Firdaūsī’s Shāh-nāmah. Ḥakīm Zajjājī’s Humāyūn-nāmah is one of the lesser-known examples of this genre, with modern scholars disputing both the date of its composition and the historical value of its contents. The present article analyzes the personalities and events described in the Humāyūn-nāmah, situating it in the broader community of letters cultivated by the Īlkhānid vizier Shams al-Dīn Juvaynī between 1249–1284. This article shows that the Humāyūn-nāmah was not only a piece of art, but a valuable eye-witness account of early Mongol rule in Iran (1220–1258).

Abdol-Hossain Taymourtash, Reza Shah’s first minister of court, was universally recognized as the most powerful man in Iran after the shah himself. He was the lieutenant, ran the government for him. He played a key role at the shah’s side in selecting cabinet ministers and the deputies to be elected to parliament. He helped shape and realize Reza Shah’s vision for the revival and modernization of Iran. Yet in 1933, royal favor was suddenly withdrawn, and Taymourtash was arrested and imprisoned where, in all probability Reza Shah had him put to death. This article focuses on the always fraught relationship between a powerful autocrat and his loyal and efficacious lieutenant, and on the dilemma of those who wish to serve their countries and end up doing so at the cost of serving as the agents of a dictatorship.