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.

AcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroductionPART ONE: OVERVIEWSIranian Culture and South Asia, 1500-1900Beyond Translation: Interactions between English and Persian PoetryTurk, Persian, and Arab: Changing Relationships between Tribes and State in Iran and along its FrontiersPART TWO: THE SAFAVID, QAJAR, AND PAHLAVI PERIODSThe Early Safavids and Their Cultural Interactions with Surrounding StatesSuspicion, Fear, and Admiration: Pre-Nineteenth-Century Iranian Views of the English and the RussiansThe 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 NationalismForeign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity in Early-Twentieth-Century IranPART THREE: CULTURE IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC IN RELATION TO THE WORLDInternational Connections of the Iranian Women's MovementThe Presentation of the "Self" and the "Other" in Postrevolutionary Iranian School TextbooksCinematic Exchange Relations: Iran and the WestPART FOUR: POLITICAL-CULTURAL RELATIONS WITH THE MUSLIM WORLDThe 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 AnxietiesThe Iranian Revolution and Changes in Islamism in Pakistan, India, and AfghanistanPART FIVE: THE POLITICS OF IRAN'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSIran's Foreign Policy: A Revolution in TransitionThe ContributorsIndex