Postgraduate Module Descriptor

ARAM210: Themes and Conflicts in Iranian History and Culture

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Pre-Islamic Iran; devolved rule, religion and the nature of kingship
The Islamic conquest; Continuity and change; perceptions and significance
Invasions and resurgence from Seljuk to Timurid (c900 AD to 1450)
Sufism and the great Persian poets
The Safavids and the nature of Iranian Shiism
Nader Shah and the 18th century interregnum
The Qajars and the Constitutional Revolution; humiliation and liberalism
Reza Shah, the army and development
Writers and intellectual movements in the twentieth century
Mohammad Reza Shah, Mossadeq and Khomeini

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	278	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	22	11 x 2 hour seminars
Guided independent study	120	Readings for class
	40	Preparation of presentations
	118	Research and writing of 2 essays

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

ELE

Other Learning Resources

Encyclopedia Iranica (http://www.iranica.com/)

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Ervand Abrahamian, Iran between Two Revolutions, Princeton 1982

Yann Richard, Iran, Cambridge, 2019

Ali Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1797, London, 2019

A J Arberry, Classical Persian Literature, London 1958 (reprinted 2004)

Michael Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind, London (Penguin) 2008

The Cambridge History of Iran (7 vols) (various authors)

Richard N Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, London, 1975

Marshall G S Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, Chicago, 1974

Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution, Yale, 2006

Ann K S Lambton, Landlord and Peasant in Persia, London, 1991

David Menashri, Post-Revolutionary Politics in Iran: Religion, Society and Power, London, 2001

Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah, London, 1999

Roy Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet, Harmondsworth (Penguin), 1987

Reza Saberi, A Thousand Years of Persian Rubaiyat, Bethesda, 2000

The Idea of Iran, various authors in volumes, Tauris, 2002-