IRAN

Overview

Iran (pronounced ee-RAHN), formerly known as Persia, is situated at the crossroads of

Central Asia, South Asia, and the Arab states of the Middle East. This strategic position—and its
access to the Persian Gulf in the south—have made Iran an important country throughout its
history.
Much of Iran is cut off from the outside world by a beautiful but often lonely landscape.
High, rugged mountains create a barrier with Iran's neighbors in the west, and the eastern region
is covered by a barren, salty desert.
In Iran's north, a narrow, fertile strip borders the Caspian Sea, and in the south, lowlands
rim the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Most people in Iran live along the edges of a high
plateau that runs through the middle of the country.

Profile

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Iran

FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Islamic republic

CAPITAL: Tehran

POPULATION: 80,840,713

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Farsi

MONEY: Rial

AREA: 636,372 square miles (1,648,105 square kilometers)

MAJOR MOUNTAIN RANGES: Elburz, Zagros

MAJOR RIVERS: Karun, Karkeh, Zayandeh

Flag

The current Iranian flag was adopted in 1980 and has three equal horizontal bands of
green, white, and red. Green is the color of Islam and represents growth, white symbolizes
honesty and peace, and red stands for bravery and martyrdom. Centered in the middle white band
is the stylized representation of the word “Allah” and the phrase ​La ilaha illa Allah (“None is
worthy of worship but Allah”) in the shape of a tulip. Along the inner edges of the green and red
bands are 22 copies of the phrase ​Allahu Akbar​(“God is great”).

Clothing

Iran is a country with a dress code and respecting Islamic rules including “​Hijab​” or the
Islamic dress-code is a necessity in Iran. However such rules are not observed strictly, especially
for tourists and foreigners. ​Perhaps the most visible mark of Iran's Islamic leanings is the
conservative dress expected of its citizens. Although normal, Western style clothing is acceptable
in private homes, when in public women are required to cover everything but their face, hands
and feet.

The most common uniform consists of a head scarf (roo-sari, ‫ )روﺳﺮی‬to conceal the head
and neck, a formless, knee-length coat known as a roo-poosh (‫ )روﭘﻮش‬and a long dress or pair of
pants. In and around holy sites, you will be expected to dress even more modestly in a chādor, a
full-length swathe of black cloth designed to cloak everything but your face from view.

The dress code can be daunting during your preparation, but roo-saris, roo-pooshes and
chādors can be bought cheaply in Iran. Watch or ask friendly Iranian women for guidance and
marvel at how young women are pushing the boundaries of modesty with colourful head scarves
that cover only a fraction of their hair and figure-hugging roo-pooshes that reveal every curve of
their bodies.

Men have a slightly easier time of things. Short-sleeved shirts and t-shirts are acceptable
for daily wear. Shorts and three-quarter length pants are only acceptable on the beach.

Iran Literature

Persian literature

Body of writings in New ​Persian (also called Modern Persian), the form of the ​Persian
language written since the 9th century with a slightly extended form of the Arabic alphabet and
with many Arabic loanwords. The literary form of New Persian is known as Farsī in ​Iran​, where
it is the country’s official language, and as ​Darī in ​Afghanistan (where it and ​Pashto are official
languages); it is written with a Cyrillic alphabet by Tajiks in ​Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. For
centuries New Persian has also been a prestigious cultural language in western ​Central Asia​, on
the Indian subcontinent, and in Turkey.

Persian Poetry

Classical Persian poetry is always rhymed. The principal verse forms are the Qasideh,
Masnavi, Qazal and Ruba'i. The qasida or ode is a long poem in monorhyme, usually of a
panegyric, didactic or religious nature; the masnavi, written in rhyming couplets, is employed for
heroic, romantic, or narrative verse; the ghazal (ode or lyric) is a comparatively short poem,
usually amorous or mystical and varying from four to sixteen couplets, all on one rhyme. A
convention of the ghazal is the introduction, in the last couplet, of the poet's pen name
(takhallus). The ruba'i is a quatrain with a particular metre, and a collection of quatrains is called
"Ruba'iyyat" (the plural of ruba'i). Finally, a collection of a poet's ghazals and other verse,
arranged alphabetically according to the rhymes, is known as a divan.

A word may not be out of place here on the peculiar difficulties of interpreting Persian poetry to
the western reader. To the pitfalls common to all translations from verse must be added, in the
case of Persian poetry, such special difficulties as the very free use of Sufi imagery, the frequent
literary, Koranic and other references and allusions, and the general employment of monorhyme,
a form highly effective in Persian but unsuited to most other languages. But most important of all
is the fact that the poetry of Persia depends to a greater degree than that of most other nations on
beauty of language for its effects. This is why much of the great volume of "qasidas in praise of
princes" can still be read with pleasure in the original, though It is largely unsuited to translation.
In short, the greatest charm of Persian poetry lies, as Sir E. Denison Ross remarked, in its
language and its music, and consequently the reader of a translation "has perforce to forego the
essence of the matter".

In the following brief sketch of the vast field of Persian literature we cannot hope to do more
than mention a few of the most eminent authors, and to devote a paragraph or two each to the
most famous of all.

Omar Khayyam (1048-1131)

Omar Khayyam was one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval
period. He was acknowledged as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before
modern times. This is reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a
geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. His
significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, has not
received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings.

Khayyam’s poetic work has eclipsed his fame as a mathematician. He has written about a
thousand four-line verses or quatrains. In the English-speaking world, he was introduced through
the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam which are rather free-wheeling English translations by Edward
FitzGerald (1809-1883). Khayyam’s personal beliefs are discernible from his poetic oeuvre. In
his own writings, Khayyam rejects strict religious structure and a literalist conception of the
afterlife.

Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883)

British translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (by far the most famous translation
ever made from Persian verse into English)

Summary of Rubaiyat

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a poem of high divine and spiritual meaning. The beauty and
simplicity of this poem is so immaculate that people of all faiths and those who have no faith at
all can seek divine solace in it.

Omar has used popular metaphors in his passionate praise of wine and love. They are mere
symbols of Sufism where wine is the joy of spirit and the love is immense devotion to God.

Omar has presented the nectar of divine ecstasy as a delightful alternative that leads to human
enlightenment and eradicates human woe permanently. He has pictured the ordinary joys of life
for the worldly men are able to compare the mundane pleasures with the superior joys of spiritual
life. The literal meaning of the translated verses is completely absurd but the vast inner meanings
are like a golden treasure house.

But the spiritual power inherent in this poem is a characteristic of the Persian poems which have
an outer as well as inner meaning. While the west has interpreted Omar’s poems as highly erotic,
the East has accepted him as a religious poet. Plumbing into the depths of the poem gives
interpretations that make it appear like a shrine which is untouched.

Omar has distinctly suggested that wine symbolizes intoxication of spiritual joy and love. Some
translators have interpreted the verses saying that the whole poem is an evocation of agnosticism
and has a philosophy which seeks happiness through friendships and the avoidance of pain. It
suggests brevity of life and the absence of an afterlife.