Sunday, December 28, 2025

Trading Shahnameh for De Kooning: New Memoir Recounts Historic 1994 ‘Exchange’

By Nazanine Nouri A new memoir by the late British art dealer Oliver Hoare tells the story of how, 30 years ago, he engineered a clandestine swap between a priceless 16th-century manuscript of the Shahnameh,...
Shapour Bakhtiar

BOOK REVIEW: The Lasting Legacy of Shapour Bakhtiar, Iran’s Late Prime Minister

By Ahmad Rafat   “The Lasting Legacy of Shapour Bakhtiar,” by Dr. Ebrahim Biparva, is a collection of articles written by various people about Shapour Bakhtiar (1914-1991), Iran’s last Prime Minister under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.  Dr....

Iran Revokes Publication Permit for Turkish Author Elif Shafak’s Novel

By Azadeh Karimi Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has revoked the publication permit for a novel by the award-wining Turkish-British author Elif Shafak, who was shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, according to...

How I Got Interested in Iran: Interview with Laura Secor, Iran Watcher, Author

Covering foreign affairs as a journalist is a tough business. And those who have done it well over the decades know the difference between their toilsome approach and the parachuted-in journalism practiced nowadays, in...

Iran Will Dominate U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda, Says Author and Wall Street Journal Journalist...

By Peyman Pejman
As a foreign affairs and national security writer for The Wall Street Journal, Jay Solomon arrived in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Until that point, and by his own admission, he had spent little time in the region. The pro-Iran Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah had kidnapped

Life At the Italian Embassy in Tehran: Ambassador’s Daughter Writes Graphic Novel

By Ahmad Rafat Chiara Mezzalama has a special relationship with Iran: She moved there two years after the 1979 Revolution when her father, Francesco Mezzalama, became the Italian ambassador to Tehran. They lived in the...

“The Temporary Bride”: A Story of Love and Food in Modern Iran

By Julie Ershadi
Iranian heritage is rich in romantic tales involving legendary couples: Khosrow and Shirin, Leili and Majnun, Tahmineh and Rostam. A new memoir set in Iran and published by Twelve Books has almost as much drama and desire as its illustrious precedents.

Inside the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ Revolt: Journalist Harounoff Releases Book on Iran

By Kayhan Life Staff Jonathan Harounoff – a British-Iranian analyst and journalist who currently serves as Israel’s international spokesperson to the United Nations – has just released his first book: “Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt.” The...

Sotheby’s Hosts Launch of Calligraphy Book by Rose Issa and Venetia Porter

Sotheby's London recently hosted the launch of a lavishly illustrated art book on calligraphy co-authored by curator Rose Issa and by Venetia Porter, the British Museum's curator of Islamic and contemporary Middle Eastern art. "Signs...

How Cholera Transformed Iran: Interview with Author Amir Afkhami

      Few diseases have killed so many and so randomly throughout history as has cholera. While mostly –though not entirely -- dealt with throughout the world these days, the study of how and why it...