This is still a pretty small section, but it's exciting to have one at all!
“That melodious linguist”: Birds in Medieval Christian and Islamic Cosmography. Published in the Newbery Library Center for Renaissance Studies 2011 Conference Proceedings: Constructing the Medieval and Early Modern across Disciplines.
Here is a selection of my papers from the last several years for a variety of classes. Some of them date back to my undergraduate years, and I keep this page updated with new projects as they get finished. The earlier papers are, of course, simpler and rougher around the edges, and I don’t always agree with what I said back then (a process I expect will continue for the remainder of my life). None of these have been published anywhere except on my site, and then more as a record of my interests and development than as anything I would want to be quoted on.
Sekandar Immortal: The Search for Wisdom and the Triumph Over Death. My first study on the Shāhnāmah of Firdawsī, but hopefully not my last! In this essay, I concentrate on the problem of kingship and the fundamental paradox it poses: that as a king, you are bound to protect your kingdom, but as a human, you are bound to fail at the task. Much of Firdawsī’s critique seems directed at kings that forget their human fallability, and in doing so fail as kings; the only way out is to die nobly, aware that you are incapable of perfect kingship but unwilling to shirk your responsibilities because of this knowledge. I look at the reigns of Jamshīd, Khusraw, Kāvūs, and finally Iskandar, who is the focal point of the essay. If you are interested in exploring how the Shāhnāmah can reveal these very nuanced facets of human pride and helplessness, read on.
The Dragon and the Storm: The Saracen anti-knight in Orlando furioso and Gerusalemme liberata. Another literary analysis, this time of two epic poems in Italian, Orlando Furioso and Gerusalemme Liberata. I was interested in exploring how Ariosto and Tasso respectively employ the archetype of the ‘bestial’ in unexpected ways that in fact may undermine the very image they are founded upon. These are wonderful poems, and if you like Italian literature you might like this essay.
That Melodious Linguist: Eloquence and Piety in Christian and Islamic Songbirds. This was written for my Animals in the Middle Ages class. It basically compares birds, their physical composition, spiritual aspects, and their voices in Islamic and Christian science and literature. Specific works of literature discussed include the Rasaʾil of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, The Owl and the Nightingale, Hugh of Fouilloy’s Aviarium, the tales of St. Francis, and ʿAttar’s Conference of the Birds. Those of you interested in the burgeoning and fascinating field of animal studies should find it a fun read.
The Haft Paykar: Love, Color, and the Universe. My 2nd-year Master’s thesis for NELC, reflecting my interest in medieval romance literature. Starting with the neoplatonist conception of love as articulated by Ibn Sīnā and the development of love verse in the Arabic tradition, I look at the stories of the Black and White Domes in the Haft Paykar by Niẓāmī and unpack the kind of love represented by these colors—a love that is located beyond the realm of the articulate and knowable, in ecstasy upon union, and mourning upon separation, versus a love of grace, acceptance, and terminal happiness.
Sacred Nostalgia: A gloss, translation, and commentary on a selection of poems by ʿUmar Ibn al-Fāriḍ. This is a kind of informal walking tour of some of ʿUmar ibn al-Fāriḍ’s verse, interweaving personal narrative, recent scholarship, close reading and interpretation, and final translations. Poems translated are Nar Layla (The Fire of Layla), That Layla of the Banu ʿĀmir, and This is the ʿAqīq.
“I shall love you against my will”: The allure of the past and poetic subreading in Petrarch. This is a paper I wrote for a class on Italian Humanism. I based it off an observation by Thomas Greene in his book The Light in Troy in which he argues that Petrarch had a particular way of situating himself vis-à-vis that set him apart from his contemporaries. By looking back into the work of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, I explore this world view and the underlying tensions it held for Petrarch.
Perspectives Behind Translating “House of Flesh” by Yūsuf Idrīs. This is an introduction to the work of Yousef Idris, one of the great short story writers in the Arabic language. I discuss some of the particular characteristics of his writing and how I addressed them in my translation of his story House of Flesh (Bayt min laḥm).
The Burden of Prophecy: A reading of Sūrat Hūd. This is a critical essay of the 11th sūrah of the Qurʾān, sūrat Hūd. I wanted to consider the tone of the Qurʾān towards those who were given the task of spreading revelation to their peoples. The importance of this task cannot be emphasized enough, yet at the same time there is a personal sacrifice that comes in its carrying out. I think that the Qurʾān is sensitive to this, and the stories of grief and sacrifice endured by the prophets in Sūrat Hūd may offer hope and inspiration for the listener while reminding him of the urgency of his charge.
Two Lonely Men: The Morality of Vittorio de Sica and Abbas Kiarostami. This is a paper about cinema in two countries that are easily identified with a particular movement that ends up dominating their outside perception—the neo-realism of post-war Italy and the “New Cinema” of 1990s Iran. There are many things in common between the two movements, both in the circumstances of their genesis and their moral and artistic aesthetic. I take two films, Umberto D by Vittorio de Sica and Taste of Cherry by Abbas Kiarostami, framed by the theorizations of André Bazin, Cesare Zavattini, and others, to understand them as statements of a similar moral perspective.
The ‘Social Man’ in Weblogestan: A Reading of Mohammad Ali Abtahi. My first Master’s thesis. I discuss the rise of blogging in Iran as a new kind of public space that both government officials and disgruntled youth and expats participate in. I then do a detailed reading of former Vice President’s Mohammad Ali Abtahi’s WebNeveshteha.
The Father of Modern Poetry and the Qasida. A reading of two poets, Esma’il Kho’i and Abdolqasem Lahuti, through the linguistic innovations of Nima Yushij.
Marmulak: Art cinema, Iranian cinema, national cinema. Due to circumstances peculiar to the political and social climate of Iran in the 1980s, a particular kind of cinematic aesthetic developed that achieved great renown on the world stage through its success in international film festivals. An underlying tension envelops these films and their just celebration, for part of the reason for their success was that they worked in a style that was both acceptable for the Islamic Republic’s criteria for distribution and palatable to the high-art sensibilities of film festivals, thus offering a pre-selected picture for “national” or “Iranian” cinema on one hand and “art” cinema on the other. Much of the cinema on the margins of this particular aesthetic has been, to a certain extent, silenced to international audiences for its failure to appeal to the tastes of their respective audiences, even if it sees greater popularity at home. This paper is an attempt to look at a comedy, one of many ‘alternatives’ to the art-film approach that should be read seriously for its own way of finding relevance for a contemporary Iranian audience.
Islam in the Middle Periods. A brief analysis of Islam as a trans-political entity in the Middle Ages.
Islam and the Modern Age. A badly titled work discussing the changes the Islamic world underwent in the 16th century, including the politicization of Islam.
Kings, Conquerors, and Gods: The autobiographies of Timur, Isma‘il, and Babur: This is a paper I wrote in 2006 for a class on Middle Period Islamic history. One of the things I really like about this time period is how directly involved political rulers were with the literary arts. They had a good reason for this interest, of course, for it was through the court poetry and literature that their legitimacy was established and their legacy confirmed. In this paper, I compare the Tuzukat and Mulfuzat of Timur with the Baburnameh, Babur’s autobiography, and the poetry of Shah Ismaʿil, who wrote under the pen-name Khataʾi, to see how Babur and Ismaʿil appropriated different aspects of Timur’s work to create a literary “persona” that reflected both the personal character of the ruler and the kind of role he imagined for himself as head of a new empire.
Nationalist Readings of the Buyid Dynasty. Discusses four different histories about the Buyid Dynasty, arguably the first “Iranian” dynasty after “Iran’s” subjugation by the Muslims. Questions whether it is accurate to say that such a concept of “Iran” existed at the time.
Le Regine Lussuriose. This is my BA thesis for the Italian department at the University of Colorado in Boulder. It is written in Italian, so I don’t expect too many people to look at this—but the main gist of it is that I looked at the changing interpretation of a particular story within the Divine Comedy from commentaries written in the 14th and 16th centuries. I found the circle of the Lovers, the second Circle of Hell, to be extremely interesting; the way Dante falls unconscious from grief at the plight of the damned is in stark contrast with his rather vindictive attitude towards other evil-doers down the road. It seems quite likely that he, like many compassionate souls who are forced to address the issue of divine justice, cannot help but be moved by the story of the lovers Paolo and Francesca, despite the fact that they obviously deserve to be punished. Furthermore, within the seven examples of the lust-battered ghosts, we have three men and four women. All four women are queens, Semiramis, Cleopatra, Dido, and Helen, but the three men—Achilles, Paris, and Tristan—are only warriors, princes, and knights. It seems that the women who fell into the vice of excessive love were also guilty of driving their kingdoms into the ground, whereas the princes lose no one but themselves.
Like Dante, the commentators had to come to grips with the placement of these seven figures (as well as Francesca and Paolo) in Hell, and they went about doing it in different ways. Is it bad for a queen to lust because of her political responsibilities? or is she more of a moral icon, a woman whose chastity reflects the upright standing of all those who follow her? I felt that the emphasis upon the social and political role these regine lussuriose, “lascivious queens,” shifted over time, probably due to social and political changes in Italian society itself.
Christ or Aristotle: Where did this book come from? This is a short paper written in the final year of my undergrad at the University of Colorado. The paper was for the “keystone” class of the history sequence, and oddly enough, while it was completely outside the realm of what I had been expecting, I found it totally fascinating. It was called “Human-Animal Relations in Western History” or something like that, and it was taught by Virginia Anderson, who had just finished a book on the subject, Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America. One of my pet interests is anthropomorphism in literature, so it was a very fun class for me. It’s a little naive to look back on now, but hey, I was 21, and had never read a bestiary before.
A critical examination of a bestiary, with special attention to the order of the catalogue and the kind of details that were recorded, can return a vivid image of the medieval European cosmology, shedding light on how Europeans distinguished themselves from animals, whether they believed animals were a positive or negative aspect of their world, and similar issues.
Foucault and the Inquisition of Languedoc. A comparative study of two works written on the French Inqusition in the Languedoc region of southern France in the 13th century, and Foucault’s influence (or lack thereof) on their analysis.
The Rhine and Barbarians Beyond. The first longish paper I wrote, centering around the Rhine as both a border and a crossroads between traditionally Franco-Roman and Teutonic culture–specifically, the example of a missionary who crosses into Germany to re-convert the believers who believed God, Mercury, and Thor were all part of the same pantheon.
Behind the Times: The life of Julian the Apostate. This is a fun little paper about Julian the Apostate. It’s nothing special, but Julian is a really interesting figure and I enjoyed learning about him.
Ibn Battuta: An Overview. This was an undergraduate assignment in which I was asked to respond to Ross Dunn’s The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. Looking over it now, I actually think it’s a fun little read, and it’s not a bad thing to look over if I want to remind myself of the greater picture of what was going on when he was alive. I’m putting it up in case anyone interested in a very brief summary of the book and Ibn Battuta’s life is hunting around.