The Idea of Iran

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation’s The Idea of Iran is a long-running project exploring Iran’s history, culture, and identity. In partnership with SOAS and Bloomsbury (previously IB Tauris), it includes symposia, lectures, and publications covering Iran from ancient times to today. Featuring leading scholars, the series provides a comprehensive view of Iran’s cultural evolution and enduring identity.

Idea of Iran Publication Series to-date, 2005-2022

Charting over 1,000 years of history, the Idea of Iran series offers a significant new appraisal of one of the most fascinating of the great civilizations of the world. Comprising an annual symposium and six substantial volumes to-date, the series explores the empires and cross-cultural traditions that have shaped the culture of Iran and the Persianate World.

Birth of the Persian Empire onerror=

Birth of the Persian Empire

Of the great ancient civilisations, that of Persia is the least known and the most enigmatic, ...

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The Age of the Parthians onerror=

The Age of the Parthians

The Parthian civilization was a dominant feature of the ancient near East for some five centur...

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The Sasanian Era onerror=

The Sasanian Era

Seizing power from the previous dynasty - the Parthians - the Sasanians ruled Iran and most of...

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The Rise of Islam onerror=

The Rise of Islam

This volume addresses the astonishing impact made by Islam during and after the Arab conquest ...

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Early Islamic Iran onerror=

Early Islamic Iran

How did Iran remain distinctively Iranian in the centuries which followed the Arab Conquest? H...

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The Age of the Seljuqs onerror=

The Age of the Seljuqs

From their ancestral heartland by the shores of the Aral Sea, the medieval Oghuz Turks marched...

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The Coming of the Mongols onerror=

The Coming of the Mongols

The Mongol invasions in the first half of the thirteenth century led to profound and shatterin...

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Iran After the Mongols onerror=

Iran After the Mongols

Following the devastating Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258, the domination of the Abbasids d...

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The Timurid Century onerror=

The Timurid Century

The century after the conquests of Timur witnessed the division of eastern and western Iran be...

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Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires onerror=

Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the establishment of the new Safavid regime in Ira...

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The Contest for Rule in Eighteenth-Century Iran onerror=

The Contest for Rule in Eighteenth-Century Iran

This volume explores the troubled eighteenth century in Iran, between the collapse of the Safa...

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IDEA OF IRAN LECTURE SERIES AND SYMPOSIA to-date, 2004–2020

SMF’s Idea Of Iran symposia compliment our Idea Of Iran publications with a unique opportunity for groundbreaking scholarly lectures and academic discussion

The Idea of Iran: From Eurasian Steppe to Persian Empire onerror=

The Idea of Iran: From Eurasian Steppe to Persi...

Lecture Series, April-June 2004

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The Idea of Iran: From Khorasan to the Eurphrates onerror=

The Idea of Iran: From Khorasan to the Eurphrates

Lecture Series, March-May 2005

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