Languages, Literature, & the Arts

Pre-Islamic Iranian Languages & Pahlavi

• An Overview of the Rise of Indo-Aryan and Iranian Languages
• Article by Shahrbaraz: Is Middle Persian a dead Language? (in Persian) –آيا زبان پارسی ميانه (پهلوی) زبانی مرده است؟– (pdf)
• Gilbert Lazard: Poetics of Middle Persian

Education in Ancient Persia

• Achaemenid Education System
• Education in the Parthian and Sassanian empires
• Zoroastrianism, Women and Education

Music

• Iran: Ancient Birthplace for Musical Instruments
• A 2600-Year-Old Instrument on Display in Persepolis Museum
• Bo Lawergren: History of Music in pre-Islamic Iran
• Eckhard Neubauer: Music History of Iran in 650 to 1370 AD
• J. During: History of the Music of Azarbaijan
• M. T. Massoudieh: History of Music in Baluchistan

Dance

• Nima Kiann (2002): Persian Dance and its Forgotten History (posted in Iran Chamber of Commerce website).
•  –تاریخ رقص در ایران/ نگارش: یحیی ذکا–  (pdf)
•  –نگاهی به تاریخچه رقص در ایران/نگارش: جهانگیر نصر اشرفی–  (pdf)

Literature

• 700 Years of Persian manuscripts digitized and available on-line
• Online digitized copies of Persian Manuscripts housed at Italian National Library in Florence (includes copies of the Shahname, Asrarname, Masnavi e Ma’anavi, etc.)
• Elizabeth A. Reed (1893). Persian Literature: Ancient and Modern. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Company  (pdf)

Jami’ al-Tawarikh (“World History”)

• Rare Iranian Manuscript registered in UNESCO Memory of the World

Jalal e Din Rumi & Shams e Tabrizi

• A Study about the Persian Cultural Legacy and Background of the Sufi Mystics Shams Tabrizi and Jalal e Din Rumi (pdf) by R. Minutalab

Hafez

• Julie Scott Meisami: The Manuscripts of Hafez (originally from Encyclopedia Iranica)
• D. Meneghini Correale: Lexical Structure of Hafez’s Ghazals (originally from Encyclopedia Iranica)
• Persian poet’s 700-year-old Manuscript discovered with signature by Mughal king Shah Jahan

Rudaki

• سفری به آرامگاه رودکی-A Voyage to the Tomb of Rudaki – Report by the BBC

Saadi

• International Community Celebrates the Iranian Poet Sa’adi

Contemporary Articles

• Huffington Post: What of Persian and the Lingua Franca of the New Century?

Exhibitions

• Exhibition of Persian Manuscripts in Bulgaria

Iranian Languages

• Karamian, Gh., & Farrokh, K. (1396/2018). Characteristics of various ancient Pahlavi terms in the Lur language and the Shahname of Firdowsi. Studies in Honor of Professor Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh (ed. F. Aslani & M. Pourtaghi), Tehran: Morvarid Publications, pp.451-455.

Books & Libraries

• Book binding in Persia
• 1000 years of Persian Books

History of Education in Iran

• Mirza Hassan Roshdieh: The Founder of Modern Education in Iran (in Persian)

Terminology & Vocabulary

• Regarding the Term “Persian“
• A compendium of non-Persian Words in Persian and their Persian vocabulary Equivalents-Compiled by the Iranian Community of Belgium (pdf)

The Arts

• Rouzbeh Samani (2009). Aspects of Achaemenid Art: A look into the native and the foreign. BA3 thesis, University of Leiden. (pdf)

Dress and Attire

• The Unexpected origins of High Heel Shoes

Culinary Arts

• Farrokh, K. (2016). An Overview of the Artistic, Architectural, Engineering and Culinary exchanges between Ancient Iran and the Greco-Roman World. AGON: Rivista Internazionale di Studi Culturali, Linguistici e Letterari, No.7, pp.64-124 (download in pdf from Academia.edu; see pages 110-116).
• The Mother Cuisine: A Taste of Persia’s Ancient (and influential) Cooking
• Nidhi Subbaraman: Early humans in Iran were growing wheat 12,000 years ago
• Brief Notes on Spoons and Forks in Greco-Roman and Ancient Iranian Civilizations
• How Nations mix Ingredients in their Food based on Traditional Persian Medicine
• Iran’s Favorite Dish: the Chelo Kebab
• Notes on Iranian Cuisine
• A Short History of the Iranian Nān (Bread)
• World’s earliest known Wine
• The Mughal Emperor who Loved Melons
• Persian Connections to India’s Samosa
• An Ancient Ancestor of Pizza
• The Unknown Origins of Ice Cream in Ancient Iran

Iranian Carpets and Weaves

• Manouchehr Haghighat’s Website on Persian Rugs, Gabbehs and Kilims