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Iranian Studies

This guide is dedicated to connecting to resources related to the past, present, and future of Iran across disciplines.

Digital Collections and Archival Materials

Islamic Manuscripts Collection (U-M): 1,103 volumes dating from the 8th to the 20th century CE and carrying roughly 1,800 titles.

Maps of Persia : The Dr Cyrus Ala'i Collection (SOAS): The Collection consists of 255 old maps and 5 facsimile maps.

Persian Language Rare Materials (Library of Congress): Digitized Persian language manuscripts, lithographic books and early imprints, as well as printed books.

The Dehkhoda Dictionary or Dehkhoda Lexicon is the largest comprehensive Persian encyclopedic dictionary ever published, comprising 200 volumes. It was first published in 1931.

Persian language lithographic printed books from Afghanistan: Part of the Persian Language Rare Materials digital collection from the Library of Congress

Ganjoor provides access to the fully searchable text of the works of more than 200 classical Persian poets. The website uses Persian as the primary language. The works of major poets come with audio files.

The Shahnamah Project provides online access to a corpus of illustrated manuscripts of the Shahnama, the Persian epic poem composed by Firdausi of Tus in A.D. 1010. 

Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran: Explore the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through a wide array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. 

Lawforms: Digitised Legal Documents from the Indo-Persian World: Pre-modern legal documents from South Asia and the Indian Ocean, mainly in Persian, the principal language of administrative and legal record-keeping in the Mughal Empire

Woman, Life, Freedom Movement of Iran (web archive): This web archive preserves material on, about, and from the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of Iran, which emerged in the wake of the 2022 police killing of Mahsa Jîna Amini." Submit additional sites for inclusion via the form.

ARSHEEF (Princeton University): ARSHEEF is a collaborative project that aims at promoting research in North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and South Asia. 

Golistan Project: Aims to create a dedicated portal that will be a virtual museum for the performing arts of Iran, from 1880 through the twentieth century.”

Music of Iran (Iran Chamber Society): Survey articles and bibliographies

Golha (Jane Lewisohn, SOAS & Iran Heritage Foundation): Project to digitally archive the Golhā radio programmes (comprised of literary commentary with the declamation of poetry, also sung with musical accompaniment and interspersed with solo musical pieces) broadcast on Iranian National Radio for 23 years from 1956 through 1979.

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