TEHRAN – The Persian translation of the book “Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires” written by Charles Melville has been released in the bookstores across Iran.

Khosro Khajeh Nouri and Neda Honarmandi have translated the book and Amir Kabir Publishing House has brought it out in 727 pages, ISNA reported.

The 10th volume in the series “The Idea of Iran,” the original book was published in 2021 by I.B. Tauris, which is recognized as a world leader in Middle East Studies and a major presence in Politics & International Relations publishing.

The series include 11 volumes, 10 of which have already been released in Persian and the last one will be published soon.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the establishment of the new Safavid regime in Iran. Along with reuniting the Persian lands under one rule, the Safavids initiated the radical transformation of the religious landscape by introducing Imami Shi'ism as the official state faith, and in this as in other ways, laying the foundations of Iran's modern identity.

In this book, leading scholars of Iranian history, culture, and politics examine the meaning of the idea of Iran in the Safavid period by examining contemporary experiences of both insiders and outsiders, asking how modern scholarship defines the distinctive features of the age.

While sometimes viewed as a period of decline from the high points of classical Persian literature and the visual arts of preceding centuries, the chapters of this book demonstrate that the Safavid era was nevertheless a period of great literary and artistic activity in the realms of both secular and theological endeavor.

With the establishment of comparable polities across western, southern, and central Asia at broadly the same time, the book explores some of the literary and political interactions with Iran's Ottoman, Mughal, and Uzbek neighbors. 

As the volume and frequency of European merchants and diplomats visiting Safavid Persia increased, especially in the seventeenth century, and as more Iranians recorded their own travel experiences to surrounding Muslim lands, the Safavid period is the first in which we can document and explore the contours of Iran's place in an expanding world, and gain insights into how Iranians saw themselves and others saw them.

Charles Melville is Professor Emeritus of Persian History at the University of Cambridge, the UK, President of the British Institute of Persian Studies, and Director of the Shahnama Project at Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

He is also President of the Islamic Manuscripts Association and Vice Chair of the Academic Council of the Iran Heritage Foundation. He has traveled widely in Iran and Central Asia. His main research interests are in the history and historiography of Iran in the Mongol to Safavid periods and Persian manuscript culture.

He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on the history of Iran, including “Every Inch a King,” “The Mongols' Middle East,” and “Persian Historiography”.

SS/SAB