Persian

One of the highlights of the exhibition is a beautiful eight-pointed star tile depicting a man and a woman seated on either side of a cypress tree, while a Persian inscription runs around the border

Iran’s modern history has repeatedly unfolded in ways that made this line—together with the longing for dawn—feel painfully current again and again. Perhaps never more so than in recent weeks, following the brutally violent suppression of the protests that had been ongoing since late December

Aramaic became the ubiquitous lingua franca of the Persian Empire, and thanks to well-educated, multilingual Aramaic scribes, the administration’s writing was also conducted in it

The Hebrew inscription on the front reads: “Simcha, son of Salman, simcha forever.” Since שִׂמְחָה simcha means joy, the second simcha isn’t just a repetition of the name—it conveys a wish for everlasting joy

The baths were less about washing and much more about social life. This was where Tbilisians and foreign merchants met for family gatherings, business talks, and celebrations. Future mothers-in-law could discreetly inspect potential brides without veils

The Iranian regime erected and unveiled a statue version of the bas-relief celebrating Shah Shapur’s victory over Emperor Valerian yesterday in central Tehran, on Enghelab, the Revolution Square. According to the Iranian press, the statue is a serious warning to the West

At dawn, on the verge of dream and awakening, the verses of the old Greek memoriter snake out of my memory, with galloping iambs ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ¯, like Franz Marc’s dream-colored horses. It was Anacreon who wrote them in this serpentine way

To the little one-eyed beggar, who sang Rumi poems from one end to the other of the Tehran metro