Eleanor Sims Heinrich Friedrich von Diez’s “Little Collection of Paintings Illustrating Firdausi’s Shahnama” The Prussian Royal Library, the Königliche Bibliothek, in Berlin was greatly enriched in 1817 with the bequest made by the former Prussian ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Heinrich Friedrich von Diez: virtually his entire Orientalist library, nearly 17,000 books, manuscripts, albums, unpublished dissertations and an extensive coin-collection. Largely overlooked, until planning for the Firdausi Millennial was well under way in Berlin, was that Diez had also bequeathed to the Prussian Library a small “collection of Eastern paintings, …
Further Donation from the Collection of Sir Roger Stevens
The Trust has recently received another generous donation to add to its collection of books on Iran, owned previously by Sir Roger Stevens (1906-1980), former British ambassador to Iran. Sir Roger went to Iran in 1954 as Britain’s first ambassador after a two year break —the result of nationalization of the oil industry— and played a key role in rebuilding diplomatic relations. Although he served there for only four years, his enthusiasm for the people, art and history of Iran never left him. His main work was The Land of …
Trust Update
A busy season at the Ancient India and Iran Trust included a Himalaya Study Afternoon on 29 November celebrating Christophe Roustan-Delatour’s work on the Penelope Betjeman (Chetwode) Collection of photographs of Himachal Pradesh. The seminar looked at related collections in presentations by Anna Maria Motrescu-Mayes of the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge; John Falconer of the British Library and Christophe Roustan-Delatour from the Museums of Cannes. Richard Blurton (British Museum) and Ursula Sims Williams (British Library and AIIT) chaired. The capacity audience for Christophe’s public lecture the same evening …
The Bailey Memorial Lecture 2013
The Bailey Memorial Lecture 2013. Professor Maria Macuch will speak on ‘Kinship Ties and Fictive Alliances in Sasanian Law’ at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA on Friday 13 December at 5.30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Please note the venue. Maria Macuch is Professor of Iranian Studies and head of the Institut fuer Iranistik (Institute of Iranian Studies) of the Freie Universitaet Berlin. She was President of the Societas Iranologica Europaea from 2003-2007 and a member of the SIE-Board since 1999. She is editor …
‘Wise Men from the East: Zoroastrian Traditions in Persia and Beyond’ (British Museum)
Exhibition: ‘Wise men from the east: Zoroastrian traditions in Persia and beyond’ British Museum, 24 October 2013 – 27 April 2014 ‘This small exhibition will explain Zoroastrianism, an ancient but living religion named after the Prophet Zarathustra, through objects and coins from Persia (Iran) and beyond.’ The display will feature a variety of ancient and modern objects and coins, and will highlight the importance of Zoroastrian traditions in other religions. It will touch on the concept and imagery of the Three Kings of the Christian tradition, who are described in …