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As background to the locations described in the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, readers can view and download a map of Iran from the United Nations Cartographic Section website in pdf format.

"Truth is sought for itself"—but "the truths...are immersed in uncertainties [and] not immune from error...Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his…

As background to the discussion of scientific knowledge in Jim al-Khalili's House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance, the diagram traces the movement of knowlege from East to West over several centuries.…

A key scene in a Persian epic poem is illustrated in a 400-year-old watercolor from the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This miniature illustrates the manuscript Mantiq al-Tayr (The Language of the Birds, also known as The Conference of…

550-330 B.C.E. Achaemenid dynasty rules the first Persian Empire. The city of Persepolis, was founded in 518 B.C.E. 1914-1918 Iran declares neutrality during World War I. 1923–1926 Reza Khan is named…

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's inventive, wry, and tragic memoir of growing up in Tehran in the 1980s—the tumultuous years when the Islamic Revolution took hold in Iran and the country fought off an invasion from neighboring Iraq. Using a…

Jalal al-Din Rúmí(1207–73), popularly known simply as Rúmí, was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Masnavi-yi Maʿnavi [Spiritual couplets],…

Composed in the twelfth century in northeastern Iran, Farid ud-Din Attar’s acclaimed Sufi poem is among the most significant works of Persian literature. A mystical, allegorical rendering of Sufi belief, The Conference of the Birds takes the…

This ninety-minute film takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores the richness of Islamic art in objects big and small, from great ornamented palaces and the play of light in monumental…