This article examines the four poems attributed to Shah Isma‘il Safavi that are included in the seventeenth-century genealogy of the Safavid dynasty, the Silsilat al-Nasab-i Safawiyya. The article includes translations and commentary on the four poems, offering insight into the religiosity and concerns both of Shah Isma‘il and the Silsilat's author, Husayn ibn Shaykh Abdal-i Zahidi.

As a leading foundational institution of modernity, Alborz High School under the leadership of Dr. Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi came to embody and promote techno-scientific (or instrumental) rationality that has been the dominant form of rationality in Iran in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The essay analyzes this form of rationality and its fostering by Alborz High School during the tenure of Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi. It is argued that while instrumental rationality is necessary for any developing country, it poses fundamental problems for the development of democratic ethos. Alternatively, Jürgen Habermas' notion of “communicative rationality” is proposed and analyzed as a way to complement and democratize Iranian approach toward rationality and modernity

The fascination for the Western world with Iranian cinema lies primarily with the fable-like developments of its stories which often plunge us into a world of exoticism and lured us with its singularity. Iranian war cinema born during the war between Iran and Iraq is not as well distributed in Europe and films with English subtitles are difficult to get hold of. Whether it is interpreted as an anthropological document which opens a dialogue between the protagonist and the spectators, the “I” and the other, Iranian war cinema by Tabrizi, Sinayi, Hatamikia and Ghobadi, among many others, can be seen as a spiritual voyage where the soul hovers between absence and presence. In the wake of war cinema in general, one can draw parallels with mythology, the Judeo-Christian tradition, literature and art. Its function is not only didactic but cathartic, and the particularity of Iranian war cinema like no other is that it participates in the mourning process of a whole nation fighting against its own ghosts and in search of its identity. This article attempts to decipher the myths hidden behind the images presented by Iranian war cinema, paradoxically interweaving the traumatic with the aesthetic.

Based on visual representations of the Iranian presidential election crisis of 2009, this article explores the idea of a relationship between the production of images related to crisis, trauma and the legitimacy of such online visual materials. While photos and cell phone video recordings taken in urban spaces bear witness to public acts and encounters, this article explores the role that visual images play in shaping political crisis. The article concludes that the production, purchase and also circulation of such visual materials should be at the center of any further research in this domain.

The success story of Alborz High School was due to a number of factors. The legacy of Dr. Jordan and other of its American founders had set unusually high standards of teaching, behavior, discipline and conduct. Dr. Mojathedi managed to maintain those standards through dedication and hard work, even though there was occasional friction between him and students and teachers. Almost all the students, some of them from the upper echelons of society, came from educated and cultured homes, had performed well at their primary schools, were well-motivated, loved their school, ran various cultural programs by themselves, and included notable writers, poets, artist and athletes. Teachers generally maintained discipline, good humor and high standards, and included stars of altogether different varieties such as Zeinolabedin Motamen, Dr. Mahmud Behzad and Mostafa Sarkhosh.

Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi occupies a prominent place in the development of modern education in Iran. Yet, though not a politician, his influence exceeded far beyond education into the social and political life of contemporary Iran. Deeply convinced of the central role of education in development, his career made important contributions to changes in the landscape of modern education in Iran at both high school and university levels. Within this context, the paper traces the outlines of Mojtahedi's life and work from his birth in 1908 in the city of Lahijan in the northern province of Gilan, up to his death in 1997 in southern France. The paper's most seminal contribution covers the events of the period between the summer of 1964, when Mojtahedi was director of Tehran Polytechnic, and his dismissal in February 1967 by the shah as the head of Aryamehr (now Sharif) University which were closely related to the unsuccessful attempt on the shah's life in April 1965.