This course has finished
Prior to Islam, Persia was one of the Great Civilisations of the world. Islamic Rule continued this process producing great works of scholarship, art, and science and today modern Iran still holds an important role of the global Muslim world and beyond.
This introductory course looks at the following areas: Brief of Persia before and arrival of Islam; Sunni period with brief overlook on Umayyad, Abbasid and Sultanate periods; Shiaism and the Safavids (Rise and Fall); Brief look at the Modern and Contemporary period inc. colonial occupation and Pahlavi dynasty to Islamic revolution of today; Culture of Iranian Muslims – School of thoughts/ groups/politcal/ social/schooling; Contribution to Islamic Iran to both world and Islamic Civilasation; What the future holds and the lessons that may be learned.
Professor Edmund Herzig
Professor Edmund Herzig holds the Soudavar Chair in Persian Studies at the University of Oxford. He received his BA in Russian and Persian from the University of Cambridge and his DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. His thesis was entitled ‘The Armenian Merchants of New Julfa, Isfahan: A Study in Pre-Modern Asian Trade’. Dr Herzig’s principal research interests are the contemporary history of Iran (currently focusing on the political and international history of the Islamic Republic, and on the relationship between history and national identity in modern Iran); Safavid history; the history of Armenia and the Armenians with special interest in the Armenians of Iran. His selected publications are The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity, with M. Kurkchiyan (2005); ‘Regionalism, Iran and Central Asia’ in International Affairs (2004); ‘Venice and the Julfa Armenian Merchants’ in B. L. Zekiyan and A. Ferrari eds Gli Armeni e Venezia. Dagli Sceriman a Mechitar: il momento culminante di una consuetudine millenaria (2004); The New Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (1999); ‘The Rise of the Julfa Merchants in the Late Sixteenth Century’ in C. Melville ed. Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society (1996).
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