This site is a product of COVID lock-down times, when as a grandmother, I decided to leave my Iranian-American grand-children some information about their roots, just in case…

With the encouragement and assistance of my then fourteen-year-old grandson, Ryan, who from a young age was captivated by my tales of the old country, and was eager to understand its cultural and historical connectivity to the rest of the world, we embarked on our eighteen-plus month journey.

We started by recording random notes from my memory, verifying them against credible history books and the internet sites, then transferring the information into a slide deck to eliminate the dryness of text, and finally into this website for ease of use.
During this effort, it became obvious that:

  • Time/dates are sometimes lost in conversion between calendars.
  • Names of places are ambiguous within translations.
  • There is a time-lapse regarding the availability of information, between an event as it is happening and when the actual truth behind it surfaces. The CIA AJAX project about the coup against Iran’s Prime minister Mossadegh, is a prime example.
  • An “absolute objective” point of view does not exist when it comes to recording, giving credit or placing blame on an event or article.
  1. This subjectivity is most prevalent in the study of History and political events, where I have witnessed how the depiction of Iran’s past changed in US academic history books, since the Iran Hostage Crisis and within Iran itself, since the 1979 revolution where academic books for boys and girls are now different. And I wonder how current events will be seen in the future.
  2. Even in science, we have witnessed the elimination of scientists’ names who had actually achieved significant discoveries or inventions, to be replaced by their lab managers in scientific publications.
  3. There can always be an unconscious bias.
  4. Memories can by foggy!

Therefore, my dear reader, use this collection as a reference point and do your own research if/when you find something in it that interests you.

Sources used:

  • My Memory Brain Cells
  • History Book: Tarikh Iran written by Hassan Pirniya and Abbas Eghbal Ashtiyani
  • The internet:

SOUND:
https://soundcloud.com/mostafa-darabi/ey-iran-ostad-banan?in=pangonas/sets/proud-iranism

IMAGES:
https://goirantours.com/map-of-iran/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-38071-8
https://mapuniversal.com/provinces-of-iran/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Persia1808.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution#/media/File:Tehran_Ashura_Demonstration,_11_December_1978_(06).jpghttps://irandoostan.com/iranian-miniature-an-inspiring-art-by-persian-artists/
https://www.facebook.com/IranInPhoto/photos/a.845602678870799/845604705537263/?type=3
http://rezamasoudi.blogspot.com/2006/04/friends.html

INFO:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47032829
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181023-irans-fascinating-way-to-tell-fortunes
https://www.britannica.com/place/Iran/People
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Achaemenian-dynasty
https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Iran/Persian-dynasties
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sufism
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sasanian-dynasty
https://www.britannica.com/place/Iran/The-Timurids-and-Turkmen
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sufism
https://www.britannica.com/art/Persian-literature/Modern-Iran
https://www.britannica.com/art/Persian-literature/Modern-Iran
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdowsi
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sadi
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/brief-history-irans-modern-literature
https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/ashkanian/arsacids_origin.htm
http://www.caroun.com/literature/iran/00-poetscontents/10-contemporaryp.html
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/01/world/us-iran-conflict-timeline-trnd/
https://www.famousscientists.org/famous-muslim-arab-persian-scientists-and-their-inventions/
https://www.famousscientists.org/avicenna/
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/persian-empire
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war
https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/8-facts-about-omar-khayyam-the-man-who-gave-base-to-gregorian-calendar-1402379-2018-12-04
https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/cinema-iv
https://www.kojaro.com/2017/9/25/128079/یخچال-ایران-بیابان/
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/hafez
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/movies/rasoulof-iran-filmmakers-protest.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/opinion/sunday/iran-hijab-women-scarves.html
https://www.olympiandatabase.com/index.php?id=28507&L=1
http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e60
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/20/secret-deals-have-made-allies-of-us-iran/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-iran-an-underground-art-scene-becomes-mainstream-1518102415
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203547904574280320827284610

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1455/gallery/
Description: Objects found in archaeological excavations
Date: 08/01/2013
Author: Babak Sedighi
Copyright: © ICCHTO
Permanent URL: whc.unesco.org/en/documents
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1455/