Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with persia

What did Hitler think of Iran?

tumbleweedjack — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:38:31 -0800

My mom seems to be under the opinion that Hitler and Nazi Germany were 'fans' of Persia/Iran, and that one of the reasons the Shah at the time changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran (meaning "Land of the Aryans"), was to appease Hitler. I can't find any evidence to support this claim. Can someone clear this up for me?

Axis of evil, here I come!

number9dream — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:33:35 -0800

I'm going to Iran in a couple of weeks and I need some help with my planning. I'm going for an academic conference/summer school in Tehran for 12 days. After that I have a further 10 days to explore on my own. I am going to go to Esfahan and Shiraz at least after leaving Tehran. I would like to go to Masuleh in the north if I have time, but that's in the opposition direction as Esfahan and Shiraz, so I'll see how it goes when I'm there.

Relevant personal data: I am a white male, Canadian citizen, late twenties, traveling alone. I don't speak Farsi but I am learning a few phrases of introduction, how to ask directions, find the bathroom, ask for a glass of water, etc. I am not religious at all.

I like seeing historical stuff like ancient ruins, old mosques and other architecture, etc. I like museums, but I have limited patience for them. I really enjoy wandering the streets of cities, just seeing what life is like there, people-watching, and just generally trying to immerse myself in the culture.

I have a few specific questions:

1) How much money should I bring (per day)? I'd like to keep costs relatively low, but since it's very difficult to get more cash when in Iran, I don't want to underbudget and then get in trouble. I'll be staying in budget hotels but I don't want anything really grotty, and I won't be eating in fancy restaurants.

2) What sort of dress is appropriate? Obviously I am going to attract some attention anyway, but I'd rather not stick out too much based on my attire.

3) Any recommendations for places to go/things to see in or around Tehran, Esfahan, or Shiraz? Or some other places that you think I should go instead?

4) Any cultural or legal quirks I should be aware of? I know the basics, eg be respectful of Islamic values, don't photograph prisons/police/military sites, don't hit on Iranian women.

5) Anything else?

Thanks!

Who put the Rang in the ... oh, never mind.

mykescipark — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:19:37 -0800

Persian music aficionados, tell me what you know about Golhaye Rangarang. Earlier in the year, I stopped by L.A.'s finest Iranian record store and picked up a couple volumes of a series called Golhaye Rangarang (or Ranga Rang, depending on who you ask). I'd like to do more serious investigation into the series, but I can't seem to find out a damn thing about it.

The rumors I've heard is that they were part of an Iranian national radio series which aimed to preserve the very finest in Persian classical music and poetry, and enlisted pretty much all the legendary composers, writers, and performers in the country's community to do so. I seem to also recall something about them being the only remaining artifact of this particular endeavor, but this is all feeling very abstract in my head and I just can't recall details.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a single Web site about it. Can anyone fill me in? No such thing as too much information.

(And yes, I could always go back and ask the fine folks at the store, but as nice as they are, they have often fielded my previous scholarly inquiries with bemusement. UCLA Ethnomusicology this ain't.)

Cost and method of translating a technical book into Farsi?

thewalrus — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:08:31 -0800

How much would it cost to translate a large, highly technical computer book into Farsi (Persian)? What method would be best to accomplish this? The book in question would be about 400 to 600 pages and consist of highly technical UNIX / computer networking material. About the same level of complexity as the current edition of an intermediate to advanced level O'Reilly TCP/IP, BIND or Linux book. Some of the books we are looking at translating are more technical and involve optical and/or RF theory, or other more specialized vertical industry knowledge which is much less common than intermediate level x86 Linux/BSD skill.

The technical concepts within the book would not be translated into Farsi - for example, we're not going to translate line by line the output of a 'dmesg' command on FreeBSD 6.3 into a foreign language. Unix concepts which have their own names in English and unix CLI stuff will remain in English. This would be similar to the way I have seen Japanese Linux/BSD software developers work, with the code, CVS and system operating in English while the documentation is in Kanji.

However all of the 'this is how you do this' part of the book would need to be translated. The descriptive sections talking about how, why and where a computer or networked set of computers are doing a particular thing, the whole narrative of the book. The skill of the English to Farsi translator would need to be of a fairly high level, to deal with abstract concepts and explanations of highly complex systems.

At first glance it seems like such a service performed within the boundaries of North America would be relatively expensive. Many of the native Farsi speakers who have the knowledge to translate such a book into Farsi are already employed full-time at another job, work for some 3-letter intelligence agency, or so on. I'm aware that Iran has an extremely young population compared to the rest of the world and a large number of unemployed (or underemployed) university students.

Can anyone estimate how much it would cost to hire a masters English student from a major school in Iran? Would doing something like this possibly be helpful towards their course credit or CV? Can anyone estimate the monthly salary for a relatively skilled English-speaking unix/routing/telecom geek inside Iran?

Has Toynbee ever said this?

falameufilho — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:27:11 -0800

On the back cover of my copy of Gates of Fire it says something like (quoting on the top of my head here) "Toynbee said that 'what ifs' are generally irrelevant in history, except for one - what if the Persians had conquered Greece? Then what we regard as western civilization would not exist". Has Toynbee ever said such a thing? Where?

What Jewish group am I thinking of?

tabulem — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 09:24:28 -0800

What is the name of the Jewish group with origins somewhere in Persia or the vicinity who were forced to convert to Islam but continued practicing Judaism in secret? To avoid intermarrying with actual Muslims, they insisted on marrying only within their own community. So they could maintain the appearance of being Muslims, whilst preserving their Jewish lineage. With the formation of Israel, many emigrated to Israel and the United States. Remarkably, many still refuse to intermarry even with other Jews, the habit of marrying only within their own community having become so ingrained. As a result, they typically suffer from genetic disorders at a higher rate than Jews in general.

These are the facts as far as I remember them... I'd like to find the name of this group and any more information about them.

Persian versus Iranian

apple — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:33:09 -0800

Why do Iranian people consider themselves as "Persians?" All my friends who's parents are from Iran consider themselves Persians as opposed to Iranians. Why is this? Didn't the Persian empire die several centuries ago?

Resources for teaching myself to play the santur

allterrainbrain — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 00:48:24 -0800

What are good resources for teaching myself to play the santur? I'm an American composer with no training in Persian music -- just a deep love for it and a gradually improving (self-taught) structural understanding of it. My "more inside" lists some ideas I've had so far, but I would love to hear any suggestions of CDs, websites, books, etc., on Persian music and/or the santur. I'm writing this question because I finally got my hands on a cheap santur and am waiting (probably a while) for it to arrive in the mail! I've been transcribing excerpts from my favorite solo santur recordings and I plan to learn a lot from transcribing, playing back by ear, and doing many kinds of improvs myself.

But what are the websites and books I should be reading? Are there instructional CDs or DVDs for the santur? What are your favorite audio CDs featuring santur? If I can't find santur-specific instructional materials, would it be useful to adapt/study materials on American hammered dulcimer just for the physical technique? (If so, what are your favorites?)

Finally, I would welcome suggestions of santur teachers (I have very limited resorces, so I could not afford steady lessons, but I would love to do at least a little bit of training in person). Ideally these would be in my home city of NYC, but they could also be in any other city, because I do travel some. If you can give me an idea of their rates, I'd love to hear it, but I understand if you'd rather not.

Thanks for any thoughts!