Women, Life, Freedom
Iranian women have always been present in national uprisings, but this time they are leading them.
Iran
The Fall of Isfahan
In March 1722 rebellious Afghan forces laid siege to the Safavid capital. Was the great Iranian empire on the brink of collapse?
The Central Problem
Surveying the world of Late Antiquity from its Persian centre.
The First Tanker War
If tensions between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf lead to war, it will not be the first time.
Return of the Ayatollah: Iran’s Islamic Revolution
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became a lightning rod for the mass protests which overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979, but the causes of the Iranian Revolution lay elsewhere.
Iran and the ‘Old Enemy’
Relations between Iran and Britain have often been strained. Yet the relationship is an old one, marked by mutual admiration.
Iran, Britain and Operation Boot
Why the British government can’t reveal more about an ‘open secret’.
Iran: Cold War Crucible
During the Second World War, Britain, the US and the Soviet Union worked together in oil-rich Iran. But cooperation was to degenerate into suspicion and hostility.
Arab Conquests and Sasanian Iran
Iran, despite its conquest by the armies of Islam, retained its own Persian language and much of its culture. Khodadad Rezakhani examines the process by which a Zoroastrian empire became part of the Islamic world.
Persepolis: the Monument of Xerxes
The monumental city of Persepolis was the pride of the Persian empire until its destruction by fire. Richard Stoneman revisits its builders, Darius and Xerxes, and their role in its construction.