• Profile half-length photograph of a man facing to the left wearing a dark jacket and tie, holding a cigarette in his hand, with a white handkerchief in his jacket breast pocket. The man has a prominent straight nose, slicked back hair and his tie forms a slight arch from the knot. In the background, on the left side of the image, there is another half-length frontal portrait of a man. He has white hair, also wears a jacket and tie, is looking to the right, and is smiling.
Mawlawi complex, tomb of Rumi, Konya, Turkey, photo John Renard

Rumi – A Life in Pictures

In this interview, John Renard, author of Rumi: A Life in Pictures (out now from the Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art series), discusses his new book, which studies illustrated 16th-century Ottoman manuscripts of a major hagiography of Rumi and his…

Opium in Afghanistan, a glimpse from the past

By Sara Peterson In recent years, the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan has become a news item, with reports from the United Nations and the United States Government documenting record highs (no pun intended) in opium production. Now we…

1751 Map of Asia

Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700-1900

Read the blog post to find out more about writing the newly published book Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700-1900 by Kevin L. Schwartz. Remembering Iran, Forgetting the Persianate There was a time – roughly from 1000 to 1850 – when…

Ohannes Topalian

A story of Armenian migration to North America

By David Gutman In April 1906, a man appeared at the United States consulate in Sivas, a city located deep in the Anatolian interior in what is today central Turkey. In fluent English, the man identified himself as Ohannes Topalian,…