Notes:
Parallel public events and performances are in green
Deadlines and important dates are in red
* = Instructor out of town
Please refresh frequently to get updates! 

1.  Aug. 26   Introduction
Reading: Nikki Keddie, "Introduction," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 3-11
maps of Iran from the University of Texas collection
Muslim countries ca. 1500 (University of Pennsylvania)
ethnic and linguistic atlas of Iran (Princeton University)
article "Safavids" from Encyclopaedia of the Orient (with a handy dynastic list) 

2.  Aug. 28   Iran and Persianate Culture
Reading: Juan R. I. Cole, "Iranian culture and South Asia, 1500-1900," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 15-35
Questions: linguistic, cultural, and religious links between Iran and India

3.  Sept. 2   Understanding Persian poetry
Reading: Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, "Beyond Translation: Interactions between English and Persian Poetry," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 36-60
Questions: is there such a thing as "literal" translation?
see websites on Persian Literature on Links page
Comparative translations of Rumi (use Internet Explorer) 
Ali Zomorodi's web site on the traditional classical music of Persia (Iran)
The Shayda Institute for Iranian Classical Music
Radio Darvish
Rumi poem from Mohammad Reza Lotfi's "Mystery of Love" album. Translation of several of these poems available here (UNC onyen and password needed).

4.  Sept. 4  Nomadic Tribes and the Iranian State
Reading: Thomas J. Barfield, "Turk, Persian, and Arab: Changing Relationships between Tribes and State in Iran and along Its Frontiers," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 61-88
Film: "Shahsavan Nomads of Iran"
Website: Qashqai.net
Questions: nomads and urban dwellers in history

5.  Sept. 9  Twelver Shi`ism in Modern Iran
Reading: Mottahedeh, pp. 78-98, 141-144, 198-214
Film: "O Deer Savior" (on the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad)
Questions: devotional attitudes toward the Imams; philosophical and legal aspects of Shi`ism; the growth of the authority of Shi`i jurisconsults

6.  Sept. 11   Twelver Shi`ism, cont'd (continue discussion from Sept. 9) 
Examine one of the children's books on 12er Shi`ism at the Kids Korner of the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islam Literary Project (note: Ahlul Bayt or "people of the house" refers to the family of the Prophet Muhammad, specifically Fatima, Ali, Hasan, and Husayn)
Reference websites:
Muhammad's designation of `Ali at the pond of Khumm (Ghadir Khumm)
Najaf and Kerbela (two sites in Iraq that are much in the news these days)
The Life and Times of Shaykh Murtada Ansari (a Qajar jurisconsult) 
Keeping the Shi'ites Straight, by Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (Religion News, volume 6, No. 2, Summer 2003).

September 12-14, 2003. "Institutions, Ideologies, and Agency: Family Change in the Arab Middle East and Diaspora." Conference hosted by the the University Center for International Studies and the Carolina Population Center, UNC-CH, and supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. Coordinated by Kathryn Yount, professor of sociology and international health, Emory University.

September 13, 2003, Toy Lounge, 4th floor, Dey Hall, UNC-CH.
9:00-11:00 a.m. Panel Session 1 has the following presentations relating to Iran and Afghanistan:

• Mohammed Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, professor of sociology, University of Tehran, and Meimanat Hossein-Chavoshi, graduate student in sociology, Australia National University, "Changes in Family, Fertility Behavior and Attitudes in Iran." (note: these speakers may be unable to attend because of visa problems)
• Akbar Aghajanian, professor of sociology, Fayetteville State University, Abbas Tashakkori, and Vaida Thompson, "Changing Roles and Goals of Female Adolescents in Iran: Educational and Labor Force Aspirations and Achievements."
• Homa Hoodfar, professor of anthropology, Concordia University, "Families on the Move: The Changing Structure of Afghan Refugee Families."

8.  Sept. 18    Class canceled -- Hurricane Isabel

9.  Sept. 23    Hajji Baba 1
Reading: Morier, chapters 1-27
Notes on Hajji Baba

10.  Sept. 25  Hajji Baba 2
Reading: Morier, chapters 28-54

11.  Sept. 30  Hajji Baba 3
Reading: Morier, chapters 54-80
First draft of midterm paper due in class

12.  Oct. 2  Nationalism & Science
Reading: F. Kashani-Sabet, "Cultures of Iranianness: The Evolving Polemic of Iranian Nationalism," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 162-81;
J. Rostam-Kolayi, "Foreign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity in Early-Twentieth-Century Iran," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 182-202

13.  Oct. 7    Iranian film: an overview
Reading: Hamid Naficy, "Cinematic Exchange Relations: Iran and the West:" in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 254-280
Guest: film maker Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri
First draft of midterm paper returned to you

October 8. Iranian Film Festival: “‘The Day I Became a Woman’: Portrayals of Gender and Society inIranian Cinema.” All events are at the Carolina Student Union Theater, UNC 

• 6: 30  Opening Address: Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri, Documentarian. Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri is an Iranian filmmaker with a Masters in Cinema Studies from New York University. She has created award-winning documentaries about Iran and Iranians in America, including Journal from Tehran (1986), Far from Iran (1990), and A Place Called Home (1998). Her most recent documentary, Women Like Us (2001) has been widely received and has been shown on PBS and at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C. 
• 7: 30  Women Like Us  Directed by Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri, 2001. Five women are interviewed--a journalist, a piano teacher, a rice farmer, a nurse, and a religious student--about their lives. The documentary implicitly rebukes both the Western stereotype of Iranian women as being utterly oppressed and conservative Muslim teachings about the subservience of women. In Farsi with English subtitles. 61 minutes. 
• 9:00  The Afghan Alphabet  Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001. In this documentary shot in the border villages between Iran and Afghanistan, Makhmalbaf tracks the children who do not attend school with his digital camera and questions why they are not being educated. Finding poverty, ignorance, prejudice, male chauvinism and superstition prevalent, the film seeks to address some of the problems that have come to imprison Afghani girls in a subtle and pervasive way. In Farsi with English subtitles. 46 minutes.

 

October 9. Iranian Film Festival: “‘The Day I Became a Woman’: Portrayals of Gender and Society in Iranian Cinema.” Carolina Student Union Theater, UNC 

• 6: 00  WORLD VISIONS OF CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN CINEMA  Panel with Dr. Negar Mottahedeh, Arnal Dayaratna, Abigail Salerno, and Shilyh Warren of Duke University. Dr. Mottahedeh and four graduate students from Duke University’s Comparative Literature department will address various topics current in Iranian film. All presentations will include film clips. 
• 8: 00  The Apple  Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf, 1997. Directed by the 18-year-old daughter of Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, The Apple was an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The film reenacts a real-life event in which the characters play themselves. The story unravels in a poor area of Tehran, where some people inform the local welfare authorities that one of their neighbors is keeping his twin 11-year-old girls locked up in his house. In Farsi with English subtitles. Running time: 86 minutes.

 

• 7: 00  'Candidate'  Directed by Mohammad Shirvani, 1999. An old woman wishes to marry away her son, who has just returned from military service. She goes out to meet young girls in the city, and insists on obtaining their photographs. In Farsi with English subtitles. Running time: 15 minutes.

7: 15  Ten  Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, 2002. one woman as she drives through the streets of Tehran over a period of several days. Her journey is comprised of ten conversations with various female passengers -- including her sister, a hitchhiking prostitute and a jilted bride -- as well as her imperious young son. As Kiarostami's "dashboard cam" eavesdrops on these lively, yet heart-wrenching road trips, a complex portrait of contemporary Iran comes sharply into focus. In Farsi with English subtitles. Running time: 94 minutes. 
9: 00  Kandahar  Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001.  A young female journalist named Nafas must return to Afghanistan and race against time in an attempt to rescue her sister. The sister has written to Nafas vowing that she will commit suicide by the next solar eclipse. Nafas must disguise herself as an Afghan wife and travel to Kandahar to save her sister. In Farsi with English subtitles. Running time: 85 minutes. 

• 6: 30 Closing Address: Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University. Dr. Dabashi is the chair of the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures department at Columbia University, where he is also the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and the director of Graduate Studies at the Center for Comparative Literature and Society. Dr. Dabashi is an internationally renowned critic of Iranian cinema, and is the author of Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future (2001) among several other publications. 
• 7: 30 The Joy of Madness  Directed by Hana Makhmalbaf, 2003. This documentary, made by Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s 14-year old daughter, was shot in Afghanistan and follows a mad man, a Mulla, and two women. Join us for its US premier! In Farsi with English Subtitles. 73 minutes
• 9: 00 The Day I Became a Woman  Directed by Marzieh Meshkini, 2000. Stages of women's lives in Iran are examined through three separate stories of a small girl, a young lady, and an old woman. The struggle is to become a woman where freedom is not clearly defined.  Each episode stands on its own and in the end, all tie together. In Farsi with English subtitles. 78 minutes. 

15.  Oct. 14  Savushun and modern Iranian society, part 2
Notes on Savushun
Film review due in class.

16.  Oct. 16  Savushun and modern Iranian society, part 3 
Final draft of midterm paper due in class.

17.  Oct. 21  Savushun and modern Iranian society, part 4 
the ordeal of Siyavush
Nine short writeups on Savushun

fall break

*18.  Oct. 28  Film: "Flame of Persia"    (1972,  60 min)    65-V7724
        "This film depicts the history of Iran, from its beginnings in 500 BC, through centuries of change, into modern times.  Throughout its long history, Iran has preserved the spirit of the Persian people" (official description). This is the now-classic documentary of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi’s ostentatious celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire in 1971. The DeMille-like pageant portrays the Shah’s claim to legitimacy via his own personalized version of history which conveniently omits all non-Persian dynasties: an excellent basis for understanding the roots of the Iranian Revolution. Notice the U.S. representative at this festivity, then-V.P. Spiro Agnew. Narrated by Orson Welles. Directed by Shahrokh Golestan.  Produced by National Film Board of Iran.
Reading: Mottahedeh, pp. 7-78, 98-133
Notes on Mottahedeh

19.  Oct. 30 
Reading: Mottahedeh, pp. 134-141, 144-197, 215-248
Iranian.com links on the revolution of 1978-79
another timeline
BBC chronology
yet another chronology
 

20.  Nov. 4 
Reading: Mottahedeh, pp. 249-336
Constitution of Iran

21.  Nov. 6 
Reading: Mottahedeh, pp. 337-390
A theocratic state diagram
A secular state diagram

22.  Nov. 11  Architecture of the Safavids
Reading: Grove Encyclopedia of Art, online articles on "Safavids. I. Introduction; II. Family Members"; "Islamic art, §II, 7(ii): Architecture, c 1500–c 1900: Iran"
Film: "Geometry, Symmetry and Order"
Welcome to Isfahan!
The city of Bam
Agha Khan Visual Archives (select "Middle East", then Iran)
Islamic Art and Architecture bibliography and links from the Sloane Art Library at UNC
Questions: the role of geometry in art; monumental architecture as a cultural statement

23.  Nov. 13  The Art of Calligraphy
Reading: Ernst, "The Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy"
Web Site on "The Art of Arabic Calligraphy"
Your Name in Arabic Script
Questions: spiritual aspects of Islamic calligraphy; the relation between aesthetic experience and content in Islamic calligraphy

24.  Nov. 18  Visit to Ackland Art Museum
Reading: Abolala Soudavar, "The Early Safavids and Their Cultural Interactions with Surrounding States," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 89-120
Questions: relation between political prestige and art
Final essay topics should be determined by this date, with preliminary bibliographies

25.  Nov. 20  The Revolution, 1 (Guest: Prof. Charles Kurzman)
Reading: The "Unthinkable" Revolution in Iran, 1977-1979, by Charles Kurzman, chapters 1-3
(note: the entire text can be downloaded here as MS Word file; UNC onyen and password required)

*26.  Nov. 25  The Revolution, 2
Film: Divorce Iranian Style
Reading: The "Unthinkable" Revolution in Iran, 1977-1979, by Charles Kurzman, chapters 4-5
Web site: Overview of Iranian family law from the Islamic family law web site (Prof. Abdullahi an-Na`im, Emory University)
First drafts of final essay due in class

Thanksgiving

27.  Dec. 2  The Revolution, 3
Reading: The "Unthinkable" Revolution in Iran, 1977-1979, by Charles Kurzman, chapters 6-8

Dec. 3. Peer-edited papers returned to authors in editing meetings by this date

28.  Dec. 4  Conclusions
Reading: "Wilfried Buchta, "The Failed Pan-Islamic Program of the Islamic Republic: Views of the Liberal Reformers of the Religious 'Semi-Opposition,'" in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 281-304
Gary Sick, "Iran's Foreign Policy: A Revolution in Transition," in Keddie and Matthee, pp. 355-374
 
Required final journal entry: What have you learned about religion and culture in this class? Explain, using two examples that have most affected your thinking.
 

Research papers due in Howell 101 by Tuesday, Dec. 9, 4:00 P.M.