The economic history of Iran is a subject that has barely begun to receive the attention it deserves. Articles and parts of books on particular aspects of the subject appeared as early as the nineteenth century, but it is only since World War II that there have been extensive and serious studies in English, and these are still few and far between. Prof. Lambton's book Landlord and Peasant in Persia deserves to be singled out as a major pioneering study, and recently there has appeared Professor Charles Issawi's edited volume, The Economic History of Iran 1800-1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971). This book brings together an outstanding collection of articles, excerpts, and sources, many of them translated from Persian, French, German, Russian, and Italian, that provide a basis for an understanding of the economic history of Iran in the nineteenth century.

Bahār provides an unusual example of a writer belonging to different periods of Persian literature. He began writing early and lived long enough to pass through several admittedly rapid stages in modern Persian history. Thus he is known as one of the poets of the Constitutional period, whose poems were chanted and recited by the overthrowers of the old autocracy, even more by those who counteracted the Lesser Autocracy of Muḥammad ˓Alī Shāh, as well as the poet, journalist, scholar and teacher of the restored constitution, the reign of Riā Shāh and just after.

A close look at the Dīvān reveals a third period, less important from the literary point of view, but which preceded the others and gave Bahār a stamp he was never wholly to lose, even though he was acutely sensitive to the rapid changes Persian society and culture were to undergo during his life.

The entire Persian-speaking world, including Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, has had a very long and colorful tradition in oral literature. Since memorization has long been an integral part of Persian culture, rhyming as an aid to memorization has been especially prevalent in Persian literature. Because of this, and because of the oral tradition in general, Persian speakers have long been especially conscious of rhyming patterns. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate what morphological and syntactic devices are used to form rhyming patterns (as well as alliteration and assonance patterns) in Persian, and to investigate the effect that these rhyming patterns have on Persian grammar. In addition, the paper will attempt to determine what semantic categories are especially amenable to echo-word formation.

The least significant, and probably the least deliberate of syntactic devices for echo-word formation in Persian, is the use of various suffixes and prefixes.

It has long been accepted, almost as a Cold War truism, that the first direct confrontation between Soviet Russia and the United States took place over Iran in February, 1946. According to the traditional picture of Cold War origins, Russia's refusal to evacuate her forces--together with her simultaneous efforts to establish a puppet regime in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan--tipped the West off as to her global intentions. America and Great Britain promptly registered protests within and outside the United Nations, and, in the first effort at containment, prevented direct Soviet penetration of the entire Middle East. After Iran, the West was forewarned. As a leading textbook notes, in pointing to Russia's reluctance to withdraw, “Soviet power was prepared to move into any position that the Western states were not willing to defend.”

Most memoirs of American policy-makers stress that the United States had responded, and responded of necessity, to Russian incentive.