At least 337 Books published in Germany on Islam and history of the Middle East are available to read online or download. Most are in German but a few are in English. To check out what is available, click below:
Online Books in Halle
Category Archives: Iran
Goethe, as West embraces East
There is an interesting article on Qantara about the significance of the German poet Goethe’s famous West-Östliche Divan, first published 1819. To read an English translation, click here.
Traditional Seafaring in the Gulf
The online event “Under the Sails – Maritime Conversation on Trade and Seafaring. Perspectives from Iran and Kuwait” held on May 26, 2021 is now available to view on Youtube. This is a fascinating set of interviews with both Kuwaiti and Iranian ship captains of the past. It is well worth watching.
Iran Exhibition in London
There is a new exhibit on Iran at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through 12 September. If you cannot make it to the exhibition, there is a brief trailer. You can also learn about the exhibition here and there is a slide show of 15 objects over 5,000 years here.
One of the rather silly parts of the coverage of the event on the website is having images with a woman or two women (perhaps to encourage masks…) observing the items, as in the following.
Persian Kamancheh Music
This new recording by Misagh Joolaee is sad but enthralling at the same time. Read about it and listen on the Qantara Website.
Pierre Loti’s 1900 trip
My friend, the historian G. Rex Smith, has co-edited a translation of the travel narrative of Pierre Loti, who visited the Middle East in 1900.
Coloring Persia
In 1928 my mother, who was 6 years old at the time, received a coloring book from a neighbour. It was called “Big Circus Painting and Crayoning Book” and published in Cleveland, Ohio. On most of the pages there was a color image with the same image below it meant to be colored or crayoned in. The image above seems rather distant from the idea of a circus, but other non-circus images are of the military, a grizzly bear and Scotland.
Marvels and Wonders: Al-Qazwini and Beyond
There is a fascinating talk on Youtube by Travis Zadeh on marvels and wonders in Islamic texts, especially the many versions of al-Qazwini.