Excerpt below are from: Arthur, Kate. “‘You will say they are Persian but let them be changed’: Robert and Teresa Sherley’s Embassy to the court of James.” In MacLean, G. ed. Britain and Muslim World: Historical Perspectives. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars…
So far, this has been the most challenging part of this project. It’s detective work, following leads and threads, often in endnotes and footnotes. There are only two articles, both written by Bernadette Andrea, that somewhat feature Sampsonia (Sanpsonia) aka…
[updated 08/05/2014 with additional sources] Although Sampsonia (also spelled Sanpsonia), a Circassian woman who married Robert Sherley and went to Europe with him is not the first Persian in Europe, she is the first woman whose name is mentioned in…
[Show slideshow] Born in 1844 to a Circassian woman in the harem of Sultan of Zanzibar and Oman, Sayyida Salme got involved in palace politics and succession wars at the age of 15. Later, while she was living in Zanzibar…
My friend and adviser, historian Dr Mansour Bonakdarian, recommended this book to me early in our conversation about this project a few months ago: Zerubavel, Eviatar. Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of…
I’tisam al-Din’s Shigarfnamah includes a long passage about the Portuguese and the manner in which they arrived in the East and eventually colonized Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Here’s a passage from Pieris, P. E. (Paulus Edward). Ceylon and the Portuguese,…
It is argued that the earthquake that hit Lisbon on November 1, 1755 drastically frustrated Portugal’s colonial fortunes. I’tisam al-Din refers to this earthquake as divine justice for all the menace the Portuguese brought to India and Bengal. [Note the…
I’m currently culling material from different sources for the performance script focusing on Mirza I’tisam al-Din. My aim is to have a full draft for this persona by the end of this week. From translator’s introduction in: Mirza Sheikh I’tesamuddin.…
A series of lectures at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology looks at some famous historical voyages and travelers. This one by Paul Cobb is about Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan who traveled vast distances across Asia and Africa in the…
اولین سفیر ایران در آمریکا حسینقلی خان صدر السلطنه بود که درسال ۱۲۶۷ شمسی توسط ناصر الدین شاه به واشنگتن فرستاده شد. او فرزند میرزا آفا خان نوری، وزیر اعظم دوم ناصرالدین شاه بود. علی حاتمی، نویسنده و کارگردان پرکار…