Persia in Crisis

Rudi Matthee finished his BA in 1975 in the Netherlands in Arabic and Persian language and literature, and subsequently spent a year in Iran as an exchange student, studying and traveling to various places in the country. He has authored three books and co-edited as many; all on the subject of Iranian history. His latest book, Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan, was just published. Rudi speaks fluent Persian and Arabic and reads in both languages>>>

Bombay "Blind Owl"

The aim of this translation is to provide an accurate and updated translation based on the definitive Bombay edition. My method began with a translation very close to the original Persian to preserve each sentence and its meaning. Next, repetitive proofreading and editing were undertaken to improve the flow and bring the text closer to the center. The result is the retention of untranslatable Persian words (with footnotes), the use of atypical English words and phrases to convey the Persian, and the use of the dash as it appears in the Bombay edition>>>

بهار در پایتخت

شکوفه های گیلاس
چون بیشتر امریکائیان
از آن ور آب آمده اند

صورتی، رنگ رهائی
از قرمز و آبی
بر این، توافق همگانی
>>>

من رای دادم

رای دادم
و چه دانی تو رای‌دادن چیست؟
به شكافِ صندوق فروبرم قلم را
و همانجا نویسم راست
اسم و رسم و شماره >>>

Lessons From Another War

Nine years after the start of the Iraq war, the scene has shifted to Iran, and Mr. McNulty has a more detached view of events, as co-director of the National Security Journalism Initiative at Northwestern University. Now he cautions journalists against falling again for a kind of siren song: “the narrative of war.” “The narrative of war, or anticipating war, is a much stronger narrative than the doubters have,” he said. “It is an easier story to write than the question of, well, is it really necessary?”>>>

Military Action?

My opposition to military action against Iran was embedded in the experience of Iraq. To this day I simply will not support a unilateral military campaign. An attack tomorrow would simply be the best recruiting agent for a major war with the West, and the objectives would also be highly unclear. So, with this in mind, can I be opposed to any military action with Iran? To answer this I need to address my overriding key principle; that politicians have the highest moral responsibility above all else to prevent the deaths of innocent people>>>

The bad, the worse and the ugly

To say that the “Shahs of Sunset” is “bad” would be a redundancy, given that it’s a so-called “reality show.” These days, even the most trusting television viewer knows there’s nothing “real” about reality TV. As Time magazine put it six years ago, “Quotes are manufactured, crushes and feuds constructed out of whole cloth, episodes planned in multi-act ‘storyboards’ before taping, scenes stitched together out of footage shot days apart.”>>>

داستان سیاوش: آیا جنگ و خونریزی اجتناب ناپذیر بود؟

سیاوش، شاهزاده‌ی ایرانی، در جنگی که بین ایران و توران در می‌گیرد، فرمانده‌ی سپاه ایران است. پس از سه روز جنگ، سپاه توران وادار به عقب‌نشینی می‌شود. افراسیاب، شاه توران، پیشنهاد صلح می‌کند. سیاوش از او می‌خواهد برای تضمین صلح، صد نفر گروگان نزد او بفرستند و شهرهای ایران را که قبلاً تصرف کرده باز پس دهد>>>

یادواره‌ی رنگین کمان و رگبار بهار

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Let's Get Even

It is high time for a regional security architecture in Western Asia. Both the U.S. and the EU should actively be engaged in assisting such a process, which would require nothing less than a paradigm shift. In order to lay a first foundation stone and at the same time send out de-escalating signals to Tel Aviv and Tehran, active political support from the West will be crucial to make the first UN Middle East WMD-Free Zone Conference a success>>>

The Unacknowledged Anachronism of Iran

Abbas Milani is one of the best Iranian historians. He conducts a lot of “primary source” research and has a reasonable approach to facts. I have not seen him to intentionally misrepresent facts. But he is wrong about a critical analysis of Iranian history under the Shah. He is not really wrong about the simple facts but rather misses the larger context. Mr Milani places the primary blame for Iran's Islamic revolution on the Shah.>>>

دین بهائی در امریکا (۳ - آخر)

امریکای 1912 شاهد اوج گرفتن مبارزات حق طلبانه قشرهای گوناگون از جمله زنان و سیاهپوستان بود. زنان از پیشروترین مبارزان اجتماعی و از پیشروان فعالیت اجتماعی در امریکا بودند. بسیاری از زنان فعال و روشنفکر خواهان دیدار عبدالبهاء بودند و برخی زنان خبرنگار با عبدالبهاء درباره اعتقاداتش به برابری زنان به گفتگو نشسته و در این باره مقاله نوشتند>>>

Veiled Romance

"Veiled Romance", features a strong female protagonist who risks all for love, unfolds against the turbulent backdrop of Tehran during the first months of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution, and is inspired by my personal experiences and observations being in Iran during that time period. Simon Ebrahimi was born and raised in Jewbareh, the Jewish ghetto of Esfahan, Iran. He studied management and finance in England before returning to Iran, where he was a partner with an international accounting firm>>>