These essays examine Iran's place in the world--its relations and cultural interactions with its immediate neighbors and with empires and superpowers from the beginning of the Safavid period in 1501 to the present day. The book provides important historical background on recent political and social developments in Iran and on its contemporary foreign relations. The topics explored include Iranian influence abroad on political organization, religion, literature, art, and diplomacy, as well as Iran's absorption of foreign influences in these areas. A special focus is the prevailing political culture of Iran throughout its early modern and contemporary periods. The authors combine approaches from history, political science, anthropology, international relations, and culturalstudies. Some essays address Iran's interactions with various Arab and Turkic ethnicities in the region stretching from India to Egypt. Others examine its relations with the West during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, women's issues, culture inside Iran during the Islamic Republic, and the Shi`ite theocracy of Iran as compared with other Muslim states.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction PART ONE: OVERVIEWS Iranian Culture and South Asia, 1500-1900 Beyond Translation: Interactions between English and Persian Poetry Turk, Persian, and Arab: Changing Relationships between Tribes and State in Iran and along its Frontiers PART TWO: THE SAFAVID, QAJAR, AND PAHLAVI PERIODS The Early Safavids and Their Cultural Interactions with Surrounding States Suspicion, Fear, and Admiration: Pre-Nineteenth-Century Iranian Views of the English and the Russians The Quest for the Secret of Strength in Iranian Nineteenth-Century Travel Literature: Rethinking Tradition in the "Safarnameh" Cultures of Iranianness: The Evolving Polemic of Iranian Nationalism Foreign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity in Early-Twentieth-Century Iran PART THREE: CULTURE IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC IN RELATION TO THE WORLD International Connections of the Iranian Women's Movement The Presentation of the "Self" and the "Other" in Postrevolutionary Iranian School Textbooks Cinematic Exchange Relations: Iran and the West PART FOUR: POLITICAL-CULTURAL RELATIONS WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD The Failed Pan-Islamic Program of the Islamic Republic: Views of the Liberal Reformers of the Religious "Semi-Opposition" Revolutionary Iran and Egypt: Exporting Inspirations and Anxieties The Iranian Revolution and Changes in Islamism in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan PART FIVE: THE POLITICS OF IRAN'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Iran's Foreign Policy: A Revolution in Transition The Contributors Index