Misc

Anonymous54

Minimal Transparent Dress fir Heaven

The Naked Heaven

Sky is the tree
Its tiny leaves are the stars
And they are falling
In acrobatic dancing
In abundance
Like a windy day in atom
With excess leaves up in air flying
And when these wintry bright leaf flakes
Descend on earth
They cover the naked trees
As their heavenly leaf dress in light
To keep her ready in full attire
For the anticipated wedding ceremony
At the expense of
Keeping the heaven tree bare & naked
Stripped of most if not all its star leaves

--AH Danesh

Thanks for sharing

I enjoy Dr Milani's Analyses and find that what he says make generally a lot of sense.

ramintork

This should be a bible for all Iranians:

Lost Wisdom by Abbas Milani:

Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity

the thousand-year-old conflict in Iran between the search for modernity and the forces of religious obscurantism. The essays trace the roots of Shiite Islamic fundamentalism and offer illuminating accounts of the work of Iranian intellectuals - both men and women - and their artistic movements as they struggle to find a new path toward a genuine modernity in Iran that is congruent with Iran's rich cultural heritage. The book challenges the hitherto accepted theory that modernity and its related concepts of democracy and freedom are Western in essence. It also demonstrates that Iran and the West have more that brings them together than separates them in their search for such modern ideals as rationalism, the rule of law, and democracy.

From the Publisher
"Milani shows that long before the European Renaissance generated the radical ideas that eventually reshaped Europe and the United States, Persian statesmen, artists, and intellectuals had formulated ideas that strikingly anticipate those of modernity.… Lost Wisdom is not only a powerful work of historical analysis; it is also a moving and eloquent account of a series of remarkable individuals, depicted with rare sensitivity and precision."—Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University

//www.amazon.com/Lost-Wisdom-Rethinking-Moder...

Please educate yourself as Iranians, if you're truly a patriot.

" If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free... It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be."--Thomas Jefferson

Don't let the xenophobic, racist mullahs tell you that democracy is a Western invention.

Ari, thank you

...

FYI/Abbas Milani HISTORY FORUM

An Interesting conversation with Historian Abbas Milani conducted by Firouzeh Khatibi on the Methodology in Historic Research in Iranian Studies and particularly Historical Biographies with An Introduction to his latest Biographical work on the Shah of Iran. ( Soon to be Published)

See Blog:

Abbas Milani HISTORY FORUM

Also Milani interviewed by Bebin TV at the Fundrasing for the Cyrus the Great Film by Cyrus Kar:

An Idea for Research

Persia, as a country with 7000 years of history and civilisation has been ignored during last 100 years mainly by the people who do not have or understand the history themselves...

If I was you I would do a research about how we as Persians havent had SLAVERY for at least 3000 years whilst the rest of the world got ride of it just 60 years ago....

Perspolice and Esfahan have been the first Multinational and Cosmopolitan cities in the world since 3000 years ago whilst this issue is relatively new to westerners...

We managed to resolve the issue of Race and Class to great extent and the rest of world still have a big challenge in these regards....

I think there is quite a lot to be learnt from Persian Civilisation and this need to be documented by true Persians not Vatan Frooshan...

Tanha dar Pasargad

A lot of digging?

I have a lot of respect for Dr Milani but I think this would be a long road to take.

It somehow reminds me of the main character of Shawshank redemption Andy who dug a tunnel with a small rock hammer.

Mulla mentality is based on Mob rule and ignorance.

Through academic research he is not likely to convince the Naneh Soghrahs and Mashti Gholams of this world. So he is mainly preaching to the converted.

When one Mulla can convince the masses that the 11th Imam actually had a son and turn him to a Messiah, or another Mulla has a dream that Imam Ali is buried in Afghanistan and the city is renamed Mazareh-Sharif, are we likely to see their followers going through published references next week and say hey there was a 12th century scholar who spoke about secularism so it is not a foreign import, perhaps secularism is a good thing?

We have several groups to deal with:-

- The ignorant

- The opportunist

- The blindly zealous follower

It will take a lot of chipping (and perhaps that is what has to be done?) to dig a tunnel in these people's head and get through progressive ideas.

In the absence of a Rostam and Rakhsh to decapitate the dragon of ignorance with one bite to the head, I guess we all have to throw little rocks to the monster and hope it dies!

H.T, the word is "modern"

I cann't pick this word from his speech - Min 0.34

"All of these things are ideas quintessentially ???? that they are essentially components of renaissance"

Please help me to understand him fully.

Touchdown!

Thank you Mehrdad,

Mr Millani is making a great point.
The Greeks established the first democratic governments so they say though for sure the first democratic religion is founded and established in Iran. That is a religion without the clergy and administered entirely by people for people.
It will be awhile before its genius would be discovered and understood.

Who?

I wish he would be clear on who he is talking about. We have been under Islamic culture for the 1400 years ago. There has been some free thinking and prograssive scolers in our history but very few and far in between like Razi and sina. Everything else has been Islamic culture that is anti democracy and anti feedom all together. Dr.Milani has done great work in documenting recent history and he is a very well educated professor, and well respected.