Gholamreza Takhti (Wrestler)



Gholamreza Takhti (August 27, 1930 – January 7, 1968 ), sometimes Gholam-Reza, Gholam Reza, or Qolam Reza, is the most famous wrestler in Iranian history.

He was most famous for his chivalrous behaviour and sportsmanship, and he continues to symbolize the essence of sports to the Iranian people.

His Character

In 1961, a terrible earthquake occurred in Boein Zahra in western Iran, killing 45,000. Takhti was deeply touched by the suffering. Already one of Iran's biggest stars, he began to walk one of the main avenues of Tehran, asking for assistance for the victims. He inspired other champions to follow in his footseps, and thousands gave to alleviate the suffering.

Another example of his character comes from a match in Moscow. After defeating the current world champion Anatoli Albul, Takhti saw the sorrow on the face of Albul's mother. Takhti went to her and said, "I'm sorry about the result, but your son is a great wrestler." She smiled and kissed him.

Suspicion Surrounding His Death

Takhti was found dead in his hotel room on January 7, 1968. The Pahlavi government of Iran officially proclaimed his death a suicide. However, most believe he was murdered because of his political activities against the regime. His death is widely blamed on Savak, the Shah's brutal intelligence agency.

He is buried at Ebn-e Babooyeh cemetery in Southern part of Tehran, near Shahr-e Ray, where he is commemorated every year by his fans, even now many years after his death..

He was survived by his wife and son, Babak Takhti, an author and translator.

The movie Takhti, begun by Ali Hatami and finished by Behrouz Afkhami, examined some of the theories about Takhti's death.

Medals

1951: Silver, World championship, Helsinki
1952: Silver, Olympic Games, Helsinki
1955: Silver, World championship, Warsaw
1956: Gold, Olympic Games, Melbourne
1958: Silver, World championship, Sofia
1958: Gold, Asian championship, Tokyo
1959: Gold, World championship, Tehran
1960: Silver, Olympic Games, Rome
1961: Gold, World championship, Yokohama
1962: Silver, World championship, Toledo, Ohio

Omid Kordestani (Senior Vice President Google)


Omid Kordestani is the Senior Vice President for Worldwide Sales and Field Operations of Google.

Early life

Omid Kordestani was born in Iran and moved to San Jose, California at the of age 14 after the death of his father.

He Graduated with an electrical engineering degree from San Jose State University and went to work for Hewlett Packard as an engineer. Several years later in order to pursue a business degree, he entered Stanford University and earned his MBA in 1991.


Career

Kordestani has more than a dozen years of high-technology consumer and enterprise experience, including key positions at Internet pioneer Netscape Communications.

He was also vice president of Business Development and Sales and grew Netscape's website revenue from an annual run-rate of $88 million to more than $200 million in 18 months.

He started his career in Netscape as director of OEM Sales, and during his four-year career at that company he was responsible for establishing major customer relationships with Citibank, AOL, Amazon, Intuit, Travelocity, Intel, @Home, eBay, and Excite. Prior to Netscape, Kordestani held positions in marketing, product management, and business development at The 3DO Company, Go Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard.

In the May 8, 2006 issue of Time Magazine, Omid was named one of Time's "100 People who shape our world".

Kordestani is one of the wealthiest residents in the Northern California. His estimated net worth is $1.9 Billion according to San Jose Magazine.

Manny Mashouf (founder and present chairman of Bebe stores)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Mashouf

Manny Mashouf is an Iranian-born American businessman.

He came to the USA in his teens and settled in San Francisco. There, he went to San Francisco State University and graduated with a political science degree in 1966.

He is the founder and present chairman of Bebe stores. By virtue of the shares he owns, the net worth is 1.5 billion dollars.

He has recently pledged 10 million dollars to his former college San Francisco State.

Persian miniature Part I

The themes of Persian miniature are mostly related to the Persian mythology and poetry. Western artists discovered the Persian miniature in the beginning of the 20th century. Persian miniatures uses pure geometry and vivid palette. The allure of Persian miniature painting lies in its absorbing complexities and in the surprising way it speaks to large questions about the nature of art and the perception of its masterpieces.

The most important function of miniature was illustration. It gave a visual image to the literary plot, making it more enjoyable, and easier to understand. Miniature developed into a marriage of artistic and poetic languages and obtained a deep and sincere accordance with poetry.

During the last ten centuries there have been many great literary works to inspire the great artists of their day. At the end of the 10th century, Ferdowsi created his immortal epic poem "Shahnama" (The Book of Kings), which at some 50 thousand couplets, relates through fact and legend, the history of the country from the creation of the world to the Arab conquests in the 7th century.

In the 12th century, the poet Nezami created his romantic "Khamsa" (five stories in verse), which was very popular, and was imitated several times by Indian poets writing in Persian. The 13th century saw the creation of great works by Saadi, the author of the famous "Bustan" and "Golestan". Golestan is a collection of moralizing and entertaining anecdotes and proverbs written in elegant rhymed prose, and at intervals, with fitting lines of verse. Bustan is a didactic poem, lyrical in tone and anecdotal in composition. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Persian literature.


Safavid era Miniature painting kept at Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan


Persian Army- Watercolor by Haydar Hatemi-2002


Painting from Hasht-Behesht palace, Isfahan, Iran, from 1669

SAVAK

SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور Sazeman-e Ettelaat va Amniyat-e Keshvar, Organization for Intelligence and National Security) was the domestic security and intelligence service of Iran from 1957–1979.

SAVAK was founded in 1957 with the assistance of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Its mission was to place opponents of the Shah's regime under surveillance and to repress dissident movements through intimidation, exile, imprisonment, assassination, and torture.
Though estimates vary widely, it was likely responsible for thousands of deaths.

Its first director was General Teymur Bakhtiar, who was assassinated by SAVAK agents and replaced by General Hassan Pakravan. Pakravan was replaced in 1965 by General Nematollah Nassiri, a close associate of the Shah, and the service was reorganized and became increasingly active in the face of rising (actual) Islamic and (feared) Communist militancy and political unrest. Former director Pakravan and Nasiri were eventually executed by the Revolutionary Guard after the Islamic Revolution.

SAVAK had virtually unlimited powers of arrest and detention. It operated its own detention centers, like Evin Prison. SAVAK had routinely subjected detainees to physical torture according to some sources. In addition to domestic security the service's tasks extended to the surveillance of Iranians (especially students on government stipends) abroad, notably in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

SAVAK agents often carried out operations against each other. Teymur Bakhtiar was assassinated by SAVAK agents in 1970, and Mansur Rafizadeh, SAVAK's United States director during the 1970s, reported that General Nassiri's phone was tapped.

Hussein Fardust, a former classmate of the Shah, was a deputy director of SAVAK until he was appointed head of the Imperial Inspectorate, also known as the Special Intelligence Bureau, to watch over high-level government officials, including SAVAK directors. Fardust later became director of SAVAMA, the post-revolution carbon copy of the original SAVAK organization.

------------------------------------------------
http://www.angelfire.com/home/iran/savak.html

The Shah's brutal secret police force, Savak, formed under the guidance of CIA (the United States Central Intelligence Agency) in 1957 and personnel trained by Mossad (Israel's secret service), to directly control all facets of political life in Iran.

Its main task was to suppress opposition to the Shah's government and keep the people's political and social knowledge as minimal as possible. Savak was notorious throughout Iran for its brutal methods.

The interrogation office was established with no limit of using horrific torture tools and techniques to break the arrested dissenters to talk in a matter of hours.

The censorship office was established to monitor journalists, literary figures and academics throughout the country. It took appropriate measures against those who fell out of the regime's line.

Universities, labor unions and peasant organizations, amongst others, were all subjected to intense surveillance by the Savak agents and paid informants. The agency was also active abroad, especially in monitoring Iranian students who publicly opposed the Shah's government.

Interrogation, torture and long term imprisonment by Savak for reading or possessing any forbidden books. The prohibited books were removed from the book-stores and libraries; even the Tozih-ol-Masael written by Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini was forbidden.

Over the years, Savak became a law unto itself, having legal authority to arrest, detain, brutally interrogate and torture suspected people indefinitely. Savak operated its own prisons in Tehran, such as Qezel-Qalaeh and Evin facilities and many suspected places throughout the country as well. Many of those activities were carried out without any institutional checks.

Iran Air Flight 655
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE. On Sunday July 3, 1988, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children. The Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters at the time of the shoot-down.

According to the U.S. government, the Iranian aircraft was mistakenly identified as an attacking military fighter. The Iranian government, however, maintains that the Vincennes knowingly shot down a civilian aircraft.

The plane, an Airbus A300B2, registered as EP-IBU and flown by captain Mohsen Rezaian, left Bandar Abbas at 10:17 am Iran time (UTC+0330), 27 minutes after its scheduled departure time of 9:50 am. It would have been a 28-minute flight. After takeoff, it was directed by the Bandar Abbas tower to turn on its transponder and proceed over the Persian Gulf. The flight was assigned routinely to commercial air corridor Amber 59, a twenty-mile-wide lane on a direct line to Dubai airport. The short distance made for a simple flight pattern: climb to 14,000 feet (about 4300 m), cruise for a short time, and descend into Dubai.

At that same time, the Vincennes, under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III and fitted with the then-new AEGIS combat system, was nearby in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Vincennes had been rushed to the area after the April 14 mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts by Irani forces. Iran had purchased Silkworm missiles from China, and an AEGIS cruiser was the only type of vessel that could counter the threat. The Roberts had been operating in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will, the effort to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers during the Iran-Iraq War.

On the morning of July 3, the Vincennes crossed into Iranian territorial waters during clashes with Iranian gunboats. Earlier in the day, the Vincennes - along with Iranian gunboats - had similarly violated Omani waters until challenged by an Omani warship. The USS Sides (FFG-14) and USS Elmer Montgomery (FF-1082) were nearby.

The event triggered an intense controversy, with Iran condemning the shootdown as a "barbaric act". On the other hand, George H.W. Bush, at the time Vice President of the United States in the Reagan Administration, defended his country at the United Nations by declaring that the shootdown had been a wartime incident and that the crew of the Vincennes had acted appropriately to the situation at the time.

Independent sources

Newsweek reporters John Barry and Roger Charles wrote that Rogers acted recklessly and without due care. Their report accused the U.S. government of a cover-up.[b]

An analysis of the events by the International Strategic Studies Association described the deployment of an Aegis cruiser in the zone as irresponsible and felt that the expense of the ship had played a major part in the setting of a low threshold for opening fire.

The Vincennes had been nicknamed 'Robo-cruiser', both in reference to its AEGIS system, and to the supposed aggressive tendencies of its captain. The US fighter base in Bahrain had refused to provide supporting aircraft to cover the Vincennes — the commander of the base stated that his decision was based on a fear that the Vincennes would accidentally shoot down one of his aircraft.

[b]On November 6, 2003 the International Court of Justice ruled that "the actions of the United States of America against Iranian oil platforms on 19 October 1987 and 18 April 1988 cannot be justified as measures necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States of America."

However, the case relating to the Airbus downing, "the Aerial Incident of 3 July 1988, (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America)", was dropped 22 February 1996 following settlement and reparations by the United States.

Three years after the incident, Admiral William J. Crowe admitted on American television show Nightline that the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles. This contradicted earlier Navy claims.

Captain David Carlson, commander of the USS Sides, the warship stationed near to the Vincennes at the time of the incident, is reported (Fisk, 2005) to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers' aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago".

His comment referred to incidents on June 2, when Rogers had sailed the Vincennes too close to an Iranian frigate undertaking a lawful search of a bulk carrier, launched a helicopter within 2-3 miles (3.2-4.8 km) of an Iranian small craft despite rules of engagement requiring a four-mile (6.4 km) separation, and opened fire on a number of small Iranian military boats.

Of those incidents, Carlson commented, "Why do you want an Aegis cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do." At the time of Rogers' announcement to higher command that he was going to shoot down the plane, Carlson is reported (Fisk, 2005) to have been thunderstruck: "I said to folks around me, 'Why, what the hell is he doing?' I went through the drill again. F-14. He's climbing. By now this damn thing is at 7,000 feet." However, Carlson thought the Vincennes might have more information, and was unaware that Rogers had been wrongly informed that the plane was diving.

According to the BBC documentary of 2002, Carlson identified IR655 as a civilian craft based on its radar signature, its 'squawk' (IFF) code, and the fact that it was ascending at low speed - an attacking military aircraft would be descending towards the Vincennes at high speed. At first Carlson thought that the 'Iranian Tomcat' identified by the Vincennes was actually another craft that he could not identify, as it was surprising to Carlson that the Vincennes crew would mistake a Tomcat (with which one would expect the US Navy to be familiar) with a civilian aircraft. The Vincennes' warnings were on a military channel, addressed to 'Iranian Tomcat'. When Carlson concluded that the Vincennes was referring to IR655 in its warning to turn away or receive fire, he urgently warned IR655 on a civilian freqency that it was in danger, having been mistaken for a military craft and should turn away. IR655 immediately complied and changed course onto a trajectory away from the Vincennes. The Vincennes fired regardless. Carlson expressed the view that the incident was a mistake brought about by an overly aggressive approach by the captain of the Vincennes.

Craig, Morales & Oliver, in a slide presentation published in M.I.T.'s Spring 2004 Aeronautics & Astronautics, as the "USS Vincennes Incident," commented that Captain Rogers had "an undeniable and unequivocal tendency towards what I call 'picking a fight.'" On his own initiative, Rogers moved the Vincennes 50 miles northeast to join the USS Montgomery. An angry Captain McKenna ordered Rogers back to Abu Musa, but the Vincennes helicopter pilot, Lt Mark Collier, followed the Iranian speedboats as they retreated north, eventually taking some fire:

"...the Vincennes jumps back into the fray. Heading towards the majority of the speedboats, he is unable to get a clear target. Also, the speedboats are now just slowly milling about in their own territorial waters. Despite clear information to the contrary, Rogers informs command that the gunboats are gathering speed and showing hostile intent and gains approval to fire upon them at 0939. Finally, in another fateful decision, he crosses the 12-mile limit off the coast and enters illegally into Iranian waters."13

The Fogarty report concluded, "The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from takeoff at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down." The fault in the USS Vincennes lying directly in the airplane’s pathway is Captain Rogers'.



Medals awarded

The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human life but never admitted wrongdoing, accepted responsibility, nor apologised for the incident. Officially, it continues to blame Iranian hostile actions for the incident. The men of the Vincennes were all awarded combat-action ribbons. Lustig, the air-warfare co-ordinator, won the navy's Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement," noting his "ability to maintain his poise and confidence under fire" that enabled him to "quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure."

The Legion of Merit was presented to Rogers and Lustig on 3 July 1988, according to a 23 April 1990 article in The Washington Post. The citations did not mention the Iran Air flight. It should be noted that the Legion of Merit is often awarded to high-ranking officers upon successful completion of especially difficult duty assignments and/or last tours of duty before retirement.

The incident overshadowed U.S.-Iran relations for many years. Following the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 six months later, the British and American governments initially blamed the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Iran Air Flight 655.[citation needed] The cause of the crash was later determined to be a bomb associated with the Libyan intelligence service.

The Flight 655 incident has often been compared to that of Korean Air Flight 007 interception by the Soviet Air Force in 1983.


Compensation

On February 22, 1996 the United States agreed to pay Iran US$61.8 million in compensation ($300,000 per wage-earning victim, $150,000 per non-wage-earner) for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown, but not for the aircraft, which was estimated to be worth approximately US$30 million. This was an agreed settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice.

The payment of compensation was explicitly characterised by the US as being on an ex gratia basis, and the U.S. denied having any responsibility or liability for the incident.

The process of compensation itself proved a major cause for controversy, again by comparison to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The Washington Post reported on August 13, 2003 with the headline "Deal Reached with Libya on Pan Am Bombing" :

"Lawyers representing the families of the victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing struck a deal with Libyan officials last year involving a $10 million payment to each victim's family. An initial $4 million would be paid once U.N. sanctions have been formally lifted. An additional $4 million would be paid once the United States lifts its sanctions. The final $2 million would be delivered if Libya is removed from the State Department's list of states allegedly sponsoring terrorism."

Senator Jim Webb Introduces Bill Prohibiting Use of Funds for Military Operations in Iran
By: Sen. Jim Webb
Published: Mar 6, 2007 at 07:55
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/a … 2394.shtml

""Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds for military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. The purpose of this legislation is to restore a proper balance between the executive and legislative branches when it comes to the commencement of military activities."

....

"As this regional conference approaches, the rhetoric with respect to possible Iranian activities inside Iraq continues, and the increases to our naval and missile-defense presence in the Gulf, remain. The Administration's past failure to engage with Iran diplomatically in a meaningful way, coupled with what Iran could perceive as preparations for a military strike, create a potent brew that easily could lead to miscalculation on both sides.

"The 1988 incident with the USS Vincennes comes to mind, when an overly aggressive commanding officer, operating inside Iranian territorial waters according to a subsequent admission by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral William Crowe, shot down commercial passenger aircraft Iran Air Flight 655."

....

Persian Cat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_cat

The Persian cat is one of the oldest breeds of cat. In Britain, it is called the "Longhair" or "Persian Longhair" (tipped varieties are known as Chinchilla).

A Persian cat without an established and registered pedigree is classed as a domestic longhair cat.

The Persian cat originates from Persia (Iran), but interbreeding of Angoras with native British domestic longhairs in the 19th Century makes the true origin of the breed unclear. The Persian's European debut is credited to Pietro Della Valle, an Italian traveller.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sheik

Ice Cream (bastani)

The Persians mastered the technique of storing ice inside giant naturally-cooled refrigerators known as yakhchals. These structures kept ice brought in from the winter, or from nearby mountains, well into the summer. They worked by using tall windcatchers that kept the sub-level storage space at frigid temperatures.

In 400 BC, Persians invented a special chilled pudding-like dish, made of rosewater and vermicelli which was served to royalty during summers. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors. The treat, widely made today in Iran, is called "faludeh", and is made from starch (usually wheat), spun in a sieve-like machine which produces threads or drops of the batter, which are boiled in water. The mix is then frozen, and mixed with rosewater and lemons, before serving.



It's absolutely delicious and resembles an ice cream sandwich.

Postal Service

Iran created the first postal service. The Persian system worked on stations, where the message carrier would ride to the next post, whereupon he would swap his horse with a fresh one, for maximum performance and delivery speed

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.

-Herodotus

Windmill:
The first windmills had vertical shafts (also called 'horizontal windmill' due to the dimension of its movement) with rectangle shaped blades and appeared in Persia in the 9th century.

Wine:
The earliest evidence suggesting wine production comes from archaeological sites in Georgia and Iran, dating from 6000 to 5000 BC.

Battery:
Batteries have been found in Persia dating between 250 BC and 640 AD.

Highway:
This is what made the postal service so successful. The Royal Road went from the Capital of Lydia (Sardes) to the Capital of the Achaemenid Empire (Susa and Persepolis ). The ancient highway was built in fifth century B.C. by Persian King; Darius I. Post was delivered by horses, taking stops and shifts at intervals. Each man and horse was assigned depending on the number of days the journey would take. Now matter what the weather was, the rider would always continue, whether it was night, day, warm or cold. The roads would run through safe country, generally uninhabited so it was easy to run though without any interruptions.

Anesthesia and Caesarian:
In the East, in the 10th century work Shahnameh, the author describes a caesarean section performed on Rudaba when giving birth, in which a special wine agent was prepared by a Zoroastrian priest, and used to produce unconsciousness for the operation. This illustrates knowledge of anesthesia in ancient Persia.

(I'm assuming they used opium.)

Poker:
It closely resembles the Persian game of as nas, and may have been taught to French settlers in New Orleans by Persian sailors.

Irrigation:
The Qanats, developed in ancient Persia in about 800 BCE, are among the oldest known irrigation methods still in use today. They are now found in Asia, the middle east and north Africa. The system comprises a network of vertical wells and gently sloping tunnels driven into the sides of cliffs and steep hills to tap groundwater

Air Conditioning:
Medieval Persia had buildings that used cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season: cisterns (large open pools in a central courtyards, not underground tanks) collected rain water; wind towers had windows that could catch wind and internal vanes to direct the airflow down into the building, usually over the cistern and out through a downwind cooling tower[2]. Cistern water evaporated, cooling the air in the building.

Checks:
The modern cheque comes from the Persian چك chek, or Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. During the third century AD, banks in Persia and other territories in the Persian empire under Sassanid Empire also issued letters of credit known as Sakks and is the root of the word cheque.

Words:
The words Paradise, Star, Bazaar, Caravan, Bank, Check, Roxan, Rose, Jasmine, Parthian-Shots, (==Parting Shots), Sugar (Shakar), Paw (Paa) Cow (Gau), Name (Naam); Nan (Bread) Nah  (No), Bad, Behtar  (Better), Mushk (Musk) Pajamas, Orange, Dervish, Khaki, Sepoy (Sepahy), Istana Astana), Diwan/Divan, Pashmina (the Cashmere) Kooh-e-Noor (Mountain of Light), Pasha, Pesh Marga, Jungle, Magi, Magic, Magician, Mummy (Moumi) Sherryvalies (Shalvar), Kaftan (Caftan), Taffeta, Shawl, Shahtoosh, Sherpa, Bang, Band, Spinach, Saffron, Lemon, Woe! (Waa/Waay!), Gyn (Zan==Woman) Bakh-shish, Penta (Panj==five), Thou (Toh), Me (Man), Am (-am), Eyebrow (Abru), Lips (Lab), Pharao (=úr-zand or son of Ra/Mithra, the Sun-god of Persia and later, Egypt) Buss (Buseh), Officer (Afsar/Afsara), Mouse (Moush), Ouch (Aaakh), Aura (Ahura), Aurora, Murra, Ricksha (Rakh'sh) as well as Pope (Papa/Baba), Pedar (Father) Madar (Mother) Nana (Nanny==Mother), Baradar (Brother) Brethren, Dokhtar (Daughter), etc. (almost 300 words in the English language)

Calendar:
The Iranian calendar (Persian: گاه‌شماری هجری خورشيدى‎) also known as Persian calendar or the Jalāli Calendar is a solar calendar currently used in Iran and Afghanistan. It is observation-based, rather than rule-based, beginning each year on the vernal equinox as precisely determined by astronomical observations from Tehran (or the 52.5°E meridian) and Kabul. This makes it more accurate than Gregorian Calendar.

Pre-guitar:

1) Tar: The tar is a long-necked, waisted lute found in Iran. The word تار tar itself means "string" in Persian. This is claimed to be the root of the names of the Persian setar and the guitar as well as less widespread instruments such as the dutar and the Indian sitar.

2) Setar: an Iranian musical instrument. It is a member of the lute family. Two and a half centuries ago, a fourth string was added to the setar, which has 25 - 27 moveable frets. It originated in Persia around the time of the spread of Islam and is a direct descendant of the larger and louder Tanbur. The setar is significantly different from the Indian sitar, with which it is sometimes confused due to the similarity of their names.

Venetian Blinds:
The popular Venetian blinds were actually invented in Persia. It was the traveling Venetian traders which brought the blinds to Venice and Paris thus were most often being credited as the inventor of this type of window blinds. The Venetian blinds became so popular that they were included in historical paintings, being part of the detailed background. They dotted the windows of well known buildings and offices.

Perfume:
The Iranian doctor and chemist Avicenna introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, (the procedure most commonly used today). He first experimented with the rose. Until his discovery, liquid perfumes were mixtures of oil and crushed herbs, or petals which made a strong blend. Rose water was more delicate, and immediately became popular. Both of the raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry.


This is also a nice read: http://www.pitt.edu/AFShome/s/o/sorc/pu … ranian.htm

It was the only Top 40 Hit to ever have the words "Aurora Borealis" in the lyrics... oh wait...

Mashhad

Mashhad (also spelt Mashad, literally the place of martyrdom) is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shi'a world. It is located 850 kilometers (500 miles) east of Tehran, Iran (Persia), at the center of the province of Razavi Khorasan. Its population is 2,387,734 people (2006).


Imam Ali Reza's Shrine, Iran

The city is located at 36.20º latitude and 59.35º east longitude, in the valley of the Kashaf River near Turkmenistan, between the two mountain ranges of Binalood and Hezar-masjed.

The city benefits from the proximity of the mountains, having very cold winters, pleasant springs, mild summers, and beautiful autumns. It is only 800 miles from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Mashhad has a population of almost 3 million, consisting of people of Iranian descent, among others. There are also over 20 million pilgrims who visit the city every year.

The city was founded around 823 AD, and its name derives from mashhad-e-reza, "place of martyrdom". It is a reference to the death of Imam Reza, the Eighth Imam of Shi'ite Islam, who is believed by members of the Shi'ia sect to have been poisoned there upon orders of Caliph Al Ma'mun. Before his death the place was a small village by the name of Sanabad. A shrine was built there to commemorate the Imam, and gradually the town grew around it.

Among the first major buildings was a mausoleum built by Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi. Today the holy shrine and its museum hold one of the most extensive cultural and artistic treasuries of Iran, in particular manuscript books and paintings. Several important theological schools are associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.

Imam Reza A.S. shrine, center of activity in Mashhad.

The Baha'i Faith has a history of victory and religious persecutions in this city. The latest was the executions of two Baha'is in 1998.

In 1912, the sanctuary of the Imam Reza was bombed by the Russian forces, causing widespread and persisting resentment in the Shiite Muslim world.

In recent years, the event to have had the largest impact on Mashhad was the bombing of the Imam Reza shrine on June 20, 1994, killing twenty six and wounding many more. The bombing was carried out by Mr. Mehdi Nahvi, a member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MKO), an Iraqi-based opposition group which claimed responsibility. The MKO stated that the bombing was carried out to commemorate the anniversary of the group's founding on June 20, 1981.

However, after Saeed Emmami, a high ranking official in Iranian Intelligence, was arrested and charged with assassinating opposition figures, he also confessed that his group had links to the bombers. This event, and also many others in recent Iran's history, was never fully investigated and clarified.


Molla Heydar mosque, a fine example of 19th century local Iranian architecture.

Long a center of secular as well as of religious learning, Mashhad has been a center for the arts and for the sciences.

The large Ferdowsi University of Mashad, named after the great Iranian poet, is located here.

The Madrassa of Ayatollah Al-Khoei, originally built in the seventeenth century and recently replaced with modern facilities, is the city’s foremost traditional centre for religious learning.

The Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, founded in 1984, stands at the centre of town, within the shrine complex. The prestige of traditional religious education at Mashhad attracts students, known as talaban, internationally.

Mashhad is also home to one of the oldest libraries of the Middle-East called the Central Library of Astan-e Quds Razavi with a history of over six centuries. The Astan-e Quds Razavi Museum, which is part of the Astan-e Quds Razavi Complex, is home to over 70,000 rare manuscripts from various historical eras. There are some six million historical documents in the foundation’s central library.

In 1569 (977 H), `Imad al-Din Mas`ud Shirazi, a physician at the Mashhad hospital, wrote the earliest Islamic treatise on syphilis, one influenced by European medical thought.

Kashmar rug is a type of Persian rug indigenous to this region.


Relief in Tus depicting popular stories of Persian mythology, from the book of Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.

The second largest holy city in the world, Mashhad attracts more than 20 million tourists and pilgrims every year, many of whom come to pay homage to the tomb of Imam Reza (the eighth Shi'ite Imam). It has been a magnet for travellers since medieval times, when the famous world traveller Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta visited the town.

Colleges and universities

Mashad University of Medical Sciences
Islamic Azad University of Mashhad
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM)
Comprehensive University of Applied and Practical Sciences, Khorasan
Imam Reza University
Sadjad Institute of Higher Education
khayam Institute of Higher Education
samen Institute of Higher Education


Bazaar Reza (Mashhad, Iran)


Tomb of Nadir Shah Afshar, a popular tourist attraction in Mashad




Shohada Mashhad

Avicenna (physician, philosopher, and a scientist)


Ibn Sina (Also known as Avicenna, born 980, dead 1037) was a Persian (Tājīk) physician, philosopher, and a scientist.

Avicenna was born in 980 (370 AH) in Afshana near Bukhara in Persia (now part of Uzbekistan) and died in 1037 (428 AH) in Hamadan (now in Iran).

He authored some 450 books on a wide range of subjects, many of which concentrated on philosophy and medicine.

His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, which was for almost five centuries a standard medical text at many European universities.

Avicenna's medical system was based on that of Galen which he combined with Aristotelian metaphysics as well as traditional Persian and Arab lore.

Works

Scarcely any member of the Muslim circle of the sciences, including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics, and music, was left untouched by the treatises of Avicenna. This vast quantity of works - be they full-blown treatises or opuscula - vary so much in style and content (if one were to compare between the 'ahd made with his disciple Bahmanyar to uphold philosophical integrity with the Provenance and Direction, for example) that Yahya (formerly Jean) Michot justifiably accused him of "neurological bipolarity".

Avicenna wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him.

His book on animals was translated by Michael Scot. His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, and De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine, though the Metaphysics demonstrates a significant departure from the brand of Neoplatonism known as Aristotelianism in Avicenna's world; Arabic philosophers have hinted at the idea that Avicenna was attempting to "re-Aristotelianise" Muslim philosophy in its entirety, unlike his predecessors, who accepted the conflation of Platonic, Aristotelian, Neo- and Middle-Platonic works transmitted into the Muslim world.

The Logic and Metaphysics have been printed more than once, the latter, e.g., at Venice in 1493, 1495, and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, etc., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned.

The larger, Al-Shifa' (Sanatio), exists nearly complete in manuscript in the Bodleian Library and elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at Pavia (1490) as the Liber Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Ibn Sina's philosophy given by Muhammad al-Shahrastani seems to be mainly an analysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the Al-Shifa'.

A shorter form of the work is known as the An-najat (Liberatio). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monastic editors confess that they applied. There is also a حكمت مشرقيه (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya, in Latin Philosophia Orientalis), mentioned by Roger Bacon, and now lost, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.

Medicine

A Latin copy of the Canon of Medicine, dated 1484, located at the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

About 100 treatises were ascribed to Ibn Sina. Some of them are tracts of a few pages, others are works extending through several volumes.

The best-known amongst them, and that to which Ibn Sina owed his European reputation, is his 14-volume The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text in Western Europe for almost five centuries. It classifies and describes diseases, and outlines their assumed causes.

Hygiene, simple and complex medicines, and functions of parts of the body are also covered. In this, Avicenna is credited as being the first to correctly document the anatomy of the human eye, along with descriptions of eye afflictions such as cataracts. It asserts that tuberculosis was contagious, which was later disputed by Europeans, but turned out to be true. It also describes the symptoms and complications of diabetes. Both forms of facial paralysis were described in-depth. In addition, the workings of the heart as a valve are described.

Philosophy

Avicenna wrote extensively on the subjects of philosophy, logic, ethics, metaphysics and other disciplines. Most of his works were written in Arabic - which was the de facto scientific language of that time, and some were written in the Persian language. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books that he wrote in nearly pure Persian language (particularly the Danishnamah-yi 'Ala', Philosophy for Ala' ad-Dawla'). Avicenna's commentaries on Aristotle often corrected the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad.

Avicenna's philosophical tenets have become of great interest to critical Western scholarship and to those engaged in the field of Muslim philosophy, in both the West and the East. However, it is still sadly the case that the West only pays attention to a portion of his philosophy known as the Latin Avicennian School. Avicenna's philosophical contributions have been overshadowed by Orientalist scholarship (for example that of Henri Corbin), which has sought to define him as a mystic rather than an Aristotelian philosopher. The so-called حكمت مشرقيه (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya) remains a source of huge irritation to contemporary Arabic scholars, in particular Reisman, Gutas, Street, and Bertolacci.

God as the first cause of all things

For Avicenna, essence is non-contingent. For an essence to be realised within time (as an existence), the existence must be rendered necessary by the essence itself. This particular relationship of cause and effect is due to an inherent property of the essence, that it is non-contingent. For existence in general to be possible, there must exist a necessary essence, itself uncaused - a being or God to begin a process of emanation.

This view has a profound impact on the monotheistic concept of creation. Existence is not seen by Avicenna as the work of a capricious deity, but of a divine, self-causing thought process. The movement from this to existence is necessary, and not an act of will per se. The world emanates from God by virtue of his abundant intellect - an immaterial cause as found in the neoplatonic concept of emanation.

Legacy

George Sarton called Avicenna "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times." He was one of the Islamic world's leading writers in the field of medicine and followed the approach of Hippocrates and Galen. Along with Rhazes, Ibn Nafis, Al-Zahrawi and Al-Ibadi, he is considered an important compiler of Early Muslim medicine. He is remembered in Western history of medicine as a major historical figure who made fundamental contributions to medicine and the European reawakening.

In Iran, he is considered a national icon, and is often regarded as one of the greatest Persians to have ever lived. Many portraits and statues remain in Iran today. An impressive monument to the life and works of the man who is known as the 'doctor of doctors' still stands outside the Bukhara museum and his portrait hangs in the Hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris. There is also a crater on the moon named Avicenna.


Avicenna's tomb in Hamedan, Iran

Terrorism in Iran Part I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Iran

Terrorism in Iran is not a serious threat to the state, but the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Kazakhstan, and Yemen have accused the Ahmadinejad administration of sponsoring terrorism either in their, or against their, respective countries. United States President George W. Bush has called Iran the "world's primary state sponsor of terror."

Iran simultaneously accuses the United States of engaging in terrorism. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian Parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, said on 28 January 2007 that the U.S. policy of having troops arrest or kill Iranian militants in Iraq is "against all recognized international treaties to order the death of nationals of another country in a foreign land."

Attacks

The 1988 shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655

On July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian Airbus A300B2 on a scheduled commercial flight in Iranian airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in 290 civilian fatalities from six nations, including 66 children. On February 22, 1996 the United States agreed to pay Iran $61.8 million in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown. The United States has not compensated Iran for the airplane itself to date. The aircraft was worth more than $30 million.


1990s
Two members of Mujahedin-e-Khalq, an organization the Iranian and U.S. governments regard as terrorist, assassinated Asadollah Lajevardi, a prosecutor and director of Evin Prison, along with his brother and a bystander on 23 August 1998.


Mashhad bombing

On June 20, 1994 explosion of a bomb in a prayer hall of Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad[7] THE bomb that killed at least 25 people on June 20th in Mashhad exploded at Ashura.[8]Although government blamed Mujahedin-e-Khalq in TV show to avoid sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni, The Pakistani daily "News" of March 27,1995, reported "Pakistani investigators have identified a 24-year-old religious fanatic Abdul Shakoor residing in Lyari in Karachi, as an important Pakistani associate of Ramzi Yousef. Abdul Shakoor had intimate contacts with Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and was responsible for the June 20,1994, massive bomb explosion at the shrine Imam Ali Reza in Mashhad."


2000s

MEK members fired five rockets at the general command of the Internal Security Forces in Tehran, killing and injuring several, on 7 January 2001.[10] MEK members fired mortar shells at several government buildings, including the Supreme Court, in Tehran on 21 January 2001.


2007 Zahedan bombing

A car filled with explosives stopped in front of a bus full of Revolutionary Guards in Ahmabad district, Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan Province at 6:30 a.m. on 14 February, 2007. The car, parked in the middle of the road, forced the bus to stop. The car's driver and passengers then got out of the car and used motorbikes to leave the scene while they shot at the bus. A few seconds later the bombs exploded, killing 18 Guards. Guards commander Qasem Rezaei said, "This blind terrorist operation led to the martyrdom of 18 citizens of Zahedan." Rezaei attributed the attack to "insurgents and elements of insecurity." Majid Razavi, an Interior Ministry official, said Iranian police arrested a suspect within an hour of the bombing.

Jundallah, an organization affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack on 15 February and said it is retaliation for the executions of those responsible for the Ahvaz Bombings. The Iranian government has arrested five suspects, two of whom were carrying camcorders and grenades when they were arrested, while the police killed the main "agent" of the attack.

Hossein Ali Shahriari, Zahedan's representative in parliament, rhetorically asked, "Why does our diplomatic apparatus not seriously confront the Pakistani government for harboring bandits and regime's enemies? Why do security, military and police officials not take more serious action?"

State-sponsored terrorism

The Council on Foreign Relations** says Iran actively supports Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the PKK.

The Saleh administration in Yemen has accused the Iranian government of fueling the Sa'dah conflict by financing and directing the Believing Youth, a militant Shi'ite Zeidi organization that is trying to overthrow the mostly Sunni government.

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**Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an influential and independent, nonpartisan foreign policy membership organization founded in 1921 and based at 58 East 68th Street (corner Park Avenue) in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. It publishes the respected bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs. It has an extensive website, featuring links to its "think tank", The David Rockefeller Studies Program, other programs and projects, publications, history, biographies of notable directors and other board members, corporate members, and press releases.
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Hezbollah

On 3 February 2007 Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah admitted for the first time that the Government of Iran assists Hezbollah with "money, weapons, and training, motivated by a religious fraternity and ethnic solidarity. And the help is funneled through Syria, and everybody knows it."

Photo essay: New York's Persian parade, Sunday March 25, 2007 (80 photos)
By: Ali Afshar
http://www.iranian.com/Diaspora/2007/Ma … ade/1.html

Peugeot pars








http://www.farhangsara.com/cars/peugeot-persia.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_Pars

Peugeot Pars (also known as Peugeot Persia) is an Iran Khodro product.

After 10 years of manufacturing Peugeot 405 in Iran Khodro company, Peugeot Persia was designed as a facelift on peugeot 405 in french design studios; the result was manufactured with complete options that had been used for french peugeot 405 models before ,but were new for Iranian customers, such as rear electric windows.

Peugeot Persia was soon renamed to Peugeot Pars because of local copyright problems. Peugeot Pars had been made in 2 models Pars and Pars ELX, The ELX model uses a new Peugeot 16 valve engine and some new added facilities.

Pre-Islamic Architecture of Persia (Iran)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_architecture

By evidence, the history of architecture and urban planning in Iran (Persia) dates back some 10 thousand years ago. Persians were among the first to use mathematics, geometry, and astronomy in architecture.

Teppe Sialk, an important ziggurat near Kashan, built 7000 years ago, represents one such prehistoric site in Persia whose inhabitants were the initiators of a simple and rudimentary housing technique.

Persian (Iranian) architecture left a profound influence on the architecture of old civilizations. Professor Arthur Pope wrote: "Architecture in Iran has at least 6,000 years of continuous history, examples of which can be seen from Syria to north India and Chinese borders, and from Caucasus to Zanzibar."

Each of the periods of Elamites, Achaemenids, Parthians, and Sassanids were creators of great architecture that over the ages has spread wide and far to other cultures being adopted.

Although Iran has suffered its share of destruction, including Alexander The Great's decision to burn Persepolis, there are sufficient remains to form a picture of its classical architecture.



The roundness of the city of Baghdad in the Abbasid era for example, points to its Persian precedents such as Firouzabad in Fars.1 The two designers who were hired by al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht, a former Persian Zoroastrian who also determined that the date of the foundation of the city would be astrologically auspicious, and Mashallah, a former Jew from Khorasan.2

The ruins of Persepolis, Ctesiphon, Jiroft, Sialk, Pasargadae, Firouzabad, Arg-é Bam, and thousands of other ruins documented in only what is today Iran may give us merely a distant glimpse of what contribution Persians made to the art of building.


It was not uncommon for ancient Iranian builders to make models such as this Adobe Ceramic maquette of a tower (dated 13th century BCE) in their work. Excavated at Chogha Zanbil, Iran.

Googoosh (Singer, Actress)



Googoosh (also spelled as Gogosh and Googosh and Gougoush), [born as Faegheh Atashin (Persian: فائقه آتشین ) on February 7, 1951 in Tehran, Iran], is an Iranian actress and singer. The foremost popular singer of pop music, she is considered an idol, an icon and as well as a pride emblem of Iran.

Known for her impeccable pulchritude and depth of her songs, Googoosh attained the status of a celebrity larger-than-life and by the 70s was the most popular singer in Iran.

Along with singing, Googoosh has also acted in several films of the 1960s and 1970s; however, her work as an actress has always been eclipsed by her popularity as a singer.

She stayed in Iran from 1979 to 2000, enduring isolation due to the Iranian Revolution, Iran-Iraq War, and repression. Her silence contributed to her enduring popularity during this time.

Beside Iran, she still has a wide following in many Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. She now lives in California, USA and continues her career, albeit in a limited manner. In a contrast to her earlier music, her recent albums deal with more mature subjects.

1960s & 1970s

At the age of 20, Googoosh took part in various international music festivals and won the first prize and golden record for her French numbers, "Retour de la vie" and "J'entends crier Je t'aime", at the Cannes Festival in 1971.

Her recording of twelve songs in Italian and Spanish for the Sanremo Music Festival in 1973 became an overnight success. She also won first prize at the Carthage Music Festival in 1972 and was honored with the first medal of arts of Tunisia in the same year. Her Spanish song titled "Desde hace tiempo" was an immediate hit in South America in 1973.



Love Life

She was rumored to have numerous affairs with various Iranian celebrities and the members of royal family before the revolution, namely, Prince Gholam Reza Pahlavi, Prince Shahram Pahlavinia, Prince Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi, singer Dariush, actor Saeed Kangarani, actor Behrouz Vosooghi, and more recently she was rumored to be emotionally involved with singer Mehrdad Assemani. Although she is now a grandmother and Mehrdad is a married man 20 years her junior, neither have denied the allegation of love and relationship. According to the widespread rumors her second husband Behrooz Vossoghi divorced her the day after the night she stayed in the palace of Prince Shahram Pahlavinia.





As reported in The New York Times, her concert in New York City in August 2000 was attended by the former Empress Farah of Iran, her daughter Princess Farahnaz, and her granddaughter Princess Iman, who later had a meeting with the singer. Googoosh's first album released after her return was Zartosht (Zoroaster); she has had two more record-breaking albums since then, including QQBangBang and Last News, and her new album, recorded with a philharmonic orchestra, titled Manifest, was released in September 2005.

She has more than 250 Persian and 55 international songs, including two in Azerbaijani such as "Ayrilig", in her widely popular repertoire. Over the years many artists have covered Googoosh's songs.

In the early 1990s Googoosh met director Massoud Kimiae, who is now her husband. On their first date Kimaie took her to a private recording studio in Tehran, and after years of silence she put on her headphones and started to sing for the first time in years. Finally, in 2000, Googoosh left Iran and started a concert tour that spanned the globe. Amazingly, even after so many years that she had been away from the scene, her concerts were all sold out. It showed her extreme and enduring popularity among Iranians and non-Iranians. Currently Googoosh resides in California.

Iran: Mexican Museum Shows The Domestic Side Of Persian Culture
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/20 … DAD5C.html

An eagle devouring a hare from the 6th century B.C.

MEXICO CITY, March 27, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Mexico's National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City is hosting a rare display of Persian artifacts, providing a panorama of Persian arts and handicrafts from 6,000 B.C. to the early 20th century. This is reportedly the first such exhibition in Latin America.


"Persia: Fragments Of Paradise" was arranged in collaboration with the Iranian Embassy in Mexico and comprises items from Tehran's national museum. It seems quite topical, coinciding with the March 23 screening in Mexico of the already polemical film "300," which many Iranians complain paints a negative picture of ancient Persians.

Domestic Persia

Most items in the exhibition are household items -- bowls, pottery, gold, and silverware. They reveal both the long history of sedentary living on the Iranian plateau and a love of home and domestic activities: eating, drinking, and serving -- the essential components of social life in the Middle East.

Notable items include a finger-sized "Venus Of Sarab" from the western Kermanshah Province -- a terracotta figurine with bulbous thighs and breasts dating from around 6,000 B.C.

The World Of Ancient Persepolis

The Mexico exhibition also has video displays to provide background information. A large screen shows a computer-generated reconstruction of buildings and ceremonies at Persepolis, revealing what stones and photographs might not: the feel of the place in its hey-day.

Persepolis was a gigantic complex begun in the late 6th century B.C, built over generations, and burned down in 331 B.C. by Alexander the Great. An announcer on the video reads out, in ancient Persian with Spanish subtitles, the lines on a silver plaque found at Persepolis, reporting the inauguration of the palace under Darius I. It is likely the first time many museum-goers have heard the sounds of the ancient Persian language.


The ruins of Persepolis (Fars file photo)

"Persia: Fragments Of Paradise" was due to end on March 25, but was extended until April 22.




Rhyton in the form of a mountain goat, first millennium B.C., Ziwiye, Kurdish region (photo by Mauricio Marat/INAH)

Chemical weapons used against Iran in Iran-Iraq War Part I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_iraq_war

Iranian soldier with gas mask in the battlefield.


According to Iraq's report to the UN, the know-how and material for developing chemical weapons were obtained from firms in such countries as: the United States, West Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the People's Republic of China.

In December 2002, Iraq's 1,200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Eastern and Western corporations and countries, as well as individuals, that exported a total of 17,602 tons of chemical precursors to Iraq in the past two decades.

By far, the largest suppliers of precursors for chemical weapons production were in Singapore (4,515 tons), the Netherlands (4,261 tons), Egypt (2,400 tons), India (2,343 tons), and Federal Republic of Germany (1,027 tons).

One Indian company, Exomet Plastics (now part of EPC Industrie) sent 2,292 tons of precursor chemicals to Iraq. The Kim Al-Khaleej firm, located in Singapore and affiliated to United Arab Emirates, supplied more than 4,500 tons of VX, sarin, and mustard gas precursors and production equipment to Iraq.

According to Iraq's declarations, it had procured 340 pieces of equipment used for the production of chemical weapons. More than half came from Germany, the remainder mostly from France, Spain, and Austria. In addition, Iraq declared that it imported more than 200,000 munitions made for delivering chemicals, 75,000 came from Italy, 57,500 from Spain, 45,000 from China, and 28,500 from Egypt.

According to the Washington Post, the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq used to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post’s source said that this data was essential to Iraq’s war effort.

In May 2003, an extended list of international companies involvements in Iraq was provided by The Independent (UK). Official Howard Teicher and Radley Gayle, stated that 31 Bell helicopters that were given to Iraq by U.S. later were used to spray chemical weapons.

Iraq's chemical weapons program was mainly assisted by German companies such as Karl Kobe, which built a chemical weapons facility disguised as a pesticide plant.

Iraq’s foreign contractors, including Karl Kolb with Massar for reinforcement, built five large research laboratories, an administrative building, eight large underground bunkers for the storage of chemical munitions, and the first production buildings.

150 tons of mustard were produced in 1983. About 60 tons of Tabun were produced in 1984. Pilot-scale production of Sarin began in 1984. Germany also supplied reactors, heat exchangers, condensors and vessels. France, Austria, Canada, and Spain provided similar equipment.

The Al Haddad trading company of Tennessee delivered 60 tons of DMMP, a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in so-called Gulf War Syndrome.

The Al Haddad trading company appears to have been an Iraqi front company. The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. Recent stories in The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. Al-Haddad was charged with conspiring to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon. In 1984, U.S. Customs at New York's Kennedy Airport stop an order addressed to the Iraqi State Enterprise for Pesticide Production for 74 drums of potassium fluoride, a chemical used in the production of Sarin. The order was places by Al-Haddad Enterprises Incorporates, owned by an individual named Sahib al-Haddad.

The U.S. firm Alcolac International supplied one mustard-gas precursor, thiodiglycol, to both Iraq and Iran in violation of U.S. export laws for which it was forced to pay a fine in 1989. Overall between 300-400 tons were sent to Iraq.

Weapons of mass destruction in Iran-Iraq War


Chemical weapons which used by Saddam killed and injured numerous Iranian and Iraqis

With more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war, Iran is one of countries of the world most severely afflicted by weapons of mass destruction.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, released a list of U.S. companies and their exports to Iraq.

The official estimate does not include the civilian population contaminated in bordering towns or the children and relatives of veterans, many of whom have developed blood, lung and skin complications, according to the Organization for Veterans of Iran. According to a 2002 article in the Star-Ledger:

"Nerve gas agents killed about 20,000 Iranian soldiers immediately, according to official reports. Of the 90,000 survivors, some 5,000 seek medical treatment regularly and about 1,000 are still hospitalized with severe, chronic conditions. Many others were hit by mustard gas..."

Iraq also used chemical weapons on Iranian civilians, killing many in villages and hospitals. Many civilians suffered severe burns and health problems, and still suffer from them. Furthermore, 308 Iraqi missiles were launched at population centers inside Iranian cities between 1980 and 1988 resulting in 12,931 casualties.

On 21 March 1986, the United Nations Security Council made a declaration stating that "members are profoundly concerned by the unanimous conclusion of the specialists that chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops and the members of the Council strongly condemn this continued use of chemical weapons in clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 which prohibits the use in war of chemical weapons." The United States was the only member who voted against the issuance of this statement.

According to retired Colonel Walter Lang, senior defense intelligence officer for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency at the time, "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern" to Reagan and his aides, because they "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose." He claimed that the Defense Intelligence Agency "would have never accepted the use of chemical weapons against civilians, but the use against military objectives was seen as inevitable in the Iraqi struggle for survival", however, despite this allegation, Reagan’s administration did not stop aiding Iraq after receiving reports affirming the use of poison gas on Kurdish civilians.

There is great resentment in Iran that the international community helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal and armed forces, and also that the world did nothing to punish Saddam's Baathist regime for its use of chemical weapons against Iran throughout the war — particularly since the US and other western powers later felt obliged to oppose the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and eventually invade Iraq itself to remove Saddam Hussein.

The Defense Intelligence Agency also accused Iran of using chemical weapons. These allegations however, have been disputed. Joost Hiltermann, who was the principal researcher for Human Rights Watch between 1992-1994, conducted a two year study, including a field investigation in Iraq, capturing Iraqi government documents in the process.

According to Hiltermann, the literature on the Iran-Iraq war reflects a number of allegations of chemical weapons use by Iran, but these are "marred by a lack of specificity as to time and place, and the failure to provide any sort of evidence".

Gary Sick and Lawrence Potter call the allegations against Iran "mere assertions" and state: "no persuasive evidence of the claim that Iran was the primary culprit [of using chemical weapons] was ever presented". Policy consultant and author Joseph Tragert also states: "Iran did not retaliate with Chemical weapons, probably because it did not possess any at the time".

At his trial in December 2006, Saddam Hussein said he would take responsibility "with honour" for any attacks on Iran using conventional or chemical weapons during the 1980-1988 war but he took issue with charges he ordered attacks on Iraqis.

Wow.... this is an amazing thread...... So much beautiful architecture and woman and well.... Everything!!!

Monica, we soooo have to go there with you some day.

Great movie!



"Children of Heaven"


Simple but beautiful film about a young boy who loses his sister's shoes and what he does to try and replace them. 

Directed by Majid Majidi, it's subtitled but you forget after the first 10 minutes.   A marvelous look at modern Iran, rich and poor.    A very nice story and film about children, real children.   Not Hollywood's version of children.

Samira Makhmalbaf (Film Director, Actress)

Samira Makhmalbaf, celebrated Persian filmmaker

Samira Makhmalbaf (born February 15, 1980, Tehran) is an Iranian (Persian) filmmaker, the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the famous film director and writer.

Samira Makhmalbaf belongs to New wave movement of Iranian cinema and is considered as one of the best directors of contemporary world cinema.

Biography

At the age of seven, she acted in Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film The Cyclist.

She left high school when she was 14, to learn cinema in the Makhmalbaf Film House for 5 years.

At the age of 17, after directing two video productions, she went on to direct the movie The Apple. One year later, the 18 year old director went on to become the youngest director in the world participating in the official section of the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

The Apple has been invited to more than 100 international film festivals in a period of two years, while going to the screen in more than 30 countries.

In 1999, Samira made her second feature film, entitled The Blackboard and for the second time participated in the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival as the youngest director in the world, in 2000, this time winning the jury prize.

Samira also directed a movie while living in Kabul called At Five in the Afternoon.

Samira Makhmalbaf was the winner or nominee of numerous awards.

She was nominated twice for Golden Palm of Cannes Film Festival for Panj é asr (2003) and Takhté siah (2001).

She won Prix du Jury of Cannes, for both films in 2003 and 2001 respectively.

Samira Makhmalbaf also won UNESCO Award of Venice Film Festival in 2002 for 11.09.01 - September 11 and Sutherland Trophy of London Film Festival for The Apple in 1998.


Directing

The Apple (S Makhmalbaf) (Language: Persian)
The Blackboard (Language: Kurdish)
God, Construction and Destruction as part of 11'9''01 September 11 (Language: Persian)
At Five in the Afternoon (Language: Persian)

International Awards

“Sutherland Trophy”, London Film Festival 1998, UK.
“International Critics prize”, Locarno Film Festival 1998, Switzerland.
“Jury’s Special prize”, Thessalonica Film Festival 1998, Greece.
“Jury’s Special prize”, Sao Paulo Film Festival 1998, Brazil.
“Jury’s Special prize”, Independent cinema Festival 1999, Argentina.
“Critic’s prize”, Independent cinema Festival 1999, Argentina.
“Audience’s prize”, Independent cinema Festival 1999, Argentina.
“Jury Special award”, Official Competition section of Cannes Film Festival 2000, France.
“Federico Fellini Medal”, UNESCO, Paris, 2000.
“Francois Truffaut prize”, Giffoni Film Festival in Italy 2000.
“Giffoni’s Mayor Prize “, Giffoni Film Festival, Italy, 2000.
“Special cultural Prize”, UNESCO, Paris, 2000.
“The grand Jury prize”, American Film Institute, USA, 2000
“Jury Special award”, Official Competition section of Cannes Film Festival 2003, France.
"Grand prize from Society of churches of world", Cannes 2003, France.
Golden Peacock, competition (first prize) for Best film at the 34th International Film Festival of India 2003, India.
The “Youths’ Cinema” Award in Singapore’s 17th International Silver Screen Film Festival 2004

Trivia
The indie rock band Pain(t) by Numbers wrote a song providing a brief biography of Samira.

Shahla Sherkat (prominent feminist author, journalist and one of the pioneers of Iranian women's movement.)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahla_Sherkat

Shahla Sherkat (Born 1956 Isfahan, Iran) is a prominent Persian feminist author, journalist and one of the pioneers of Iranian women's movement.

Shahla Sherkat is founder and publisher of Zanan (Women) magazine, which focuses on the concerns of Iranian women and continually tests the political waters with its edgy coverage of everything from reform politics to domestic abuse to sex. Zanan has been the most important Iranian women's journal after Iranian revolution.

Sherkat has had to appear in court on several occasions when Zanan's content was considered to be pushing boundaries too far.

In 2001 she was sentenced to four months in prison for attending a conference in Berlin at which the future of politics in Iran was discussed following the success of reformist candidates in a parliamentary election.

Sherkat holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Tehran University and a certificate in journalism from Keyhan Institute, also in Tehran. Since 2002, she has been working towards her master’s degree in women’s studies from Allameh Tabatabai University.


Honours and Awards

2005 Louis Lyons Award, The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University
2005 The Courage in Journalism Award, The International Women's Media Foundation

Caviar

http://www.farsinet.com/caviar/faq.html

What is Caviar?

Simply put, caviar is any single salted fish roe or egg. In the United States, as long as the species of the fish precedes the word "caviar", it is considered caviar.

TRUE caviar comes from the icy waters of the Caspian Sea where the environment is most conducive to producing the finest sturgeon. Ninety percent of the caviar produced in the world comes from the Caspian Sea.

Sturgeons have an unerring survival instinct. These bottom-dwellers with their sensitive barbels and pouted snouts have existed for millennia. Even to this day, relatives of the sturgeon live in the black depths of the ocean, in subterranean watercourses, even in hot springs. Sturgeons are scaleless except for five rows of large, pointed, platelike scales running along the top and sides of the body. Their exoskeleton is part bone and part cartilage, placing them midway between sharks and bony fish.

They can live for 100 years, and reach maturity between 12 and 20 years of age. Sturgeons are anadromous, living as adults in marine waters but returning to freshwater rivers and streams to breed.

There are almost 20 different types of sturgeon, two of them belong to the genus Huso, the others are of the genus Acipenser. Six of them live in the Caspian Sea, only three sturgeon species produce this exquisite caviar: Beluga, Asetra, and Sevruga yielding over 90% of the world's total production.







Where is the World Capital of Caviar

BANDAR-E ANZALI (Port of Anzali on Caspian Sea), Gilan Province, North Iran
Situation and access: Region of Gilan. Large port on the Caspian Sea.
Altitude - 20 meters. 380 Km N-W of Tehran via Qazvin and Rasht, on a very good road or 430 Km via Chalus on a good twisting road.

How much does the Iranian Caviar cost?

Price of Iranian Caviar in US and Europe
1.0 oz Jar:   Sevruga = $45.00, Asetra = $47.00, Imperial = $75.00
17.6 oz Tin: Sevruga = $792.00, Asetra = $827.00, Imperial = $1320.00
35.2 oz Tin: Sevruga = $1584.00, Asetra = $1654.00, Imperial = $2640.00

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caviar

Contemporary black caviar is roe from sturgeon fished from the Caspian Sea, by Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia. The highest prices paid are for the Beluga, Ossetra, and Sevruga varieties. (The large-grained Beluga caviar is from the Beluga sturgeon, which is a fish and is unrelated to the Beluga whale, a mammal.)

The rare, golden Sterlet caviar once was the favorite of czars, shahs, and emperors, but now that species is nearly extinct. Current, dwindling fishing yields, consequent to overfishing and pollution, have resulted in the creation of less costly, yet popular, caviar-quality roe alternatives from the whitefish and the North Atlantic salmon.

Recently, the amount of allowed wild fish harvesting has been decreased, consequently increasing caviar prices. In September 2005, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service banned the import of Caspian Sea Beluga caviar, to protect the endangered Beluga sturgeon; a month later, the ban included Beluga caviar from the entire Black Sea basin. In January 2006, CITES, the convention for trade in endangered species, announced they were "unable to approve the [caviar] export quotas" for 2006 from wild fish stocks.
In January 2007, this ban was partly lifted, allowing the sale of 96 tons of caviar, 15 per cent below the official 2005 level.

In Scandinavia, a significantly cheaper version of caviar, made from smoked cod roe, is sold in tubes as a sandwich filling. Caviars from the burbot, the vendace, and the common whitefish are available in Finland, in their natural form, as an alternative to sturgeon caviar. Some gourmets regard burbot caviar as a delicacy outranking Beluga caviar in taste and flavour, at a fraction of the price. Mostly it will cost around £799.99 per 100g of pure caviar.

Azarakhsh (lightning)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azarakhsh

The Azarakhsh (lightning) is Iran's first domestically manufactured combat fighter jet.
There are reports that Iran may export this fighter jet to other Middle Eastern countries, particularly Syria which has shown interest in purchasing a number of these jets over the Russian MiGs and as well as the Russian Su series.

In April 1997 Iranian Brigadier General Arasteh, a deputy head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces declared that Iran had successfully designed, constructed, and tested its first fighter aircraft. By late 1997 Iran had begun mass producing the aircraft, and by mid-2000, four aircraft were said to be undergoing operational tests, with production proceeding at a rate of around ten aircraft per year.

A great deal of the aircraft is believed to be derived from the reverse engineered components of US fighter planes. Notable among these might be the F-14 Tomcat, the F-5 Freedom Fighter, and the F-4 Phantom II. Numerous enhancements and upgrades were also built into the design from an early stage.

Iran has yet to release any additional information about the aircraft and its capabilities are unknown. It is believed to be essentially a modified F-5, and claimed to be larger by about 10%-15%. The Azarakhsh is also said to use an upgraded version of N-019 Topaz (N-019ME) radar.

On the 17th of May 2000, Iran's acting commander of the Air Force said that Azarakhsh had reached mass-production stage.

Crew: 2 pilots
Length: 17.70 m (58 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 9.20 m (30 ft 2 in)
Wing area: 21.9 m² (236 ft²)
Empty weight: 8000 kg (17,600 lb)
Maximum takeoff weight: 18000 kg (39,600 lb)
powerplant: (2×J85)
Maximum speed: Mach 1.5 - Mach 1.7
Range: 1200 km (750 miles)
Radar: N019-ME (improved in Iran)

Panha 2091






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panha_2091

The Panha 2091 is an Iranian overhaul and upgrade of the American AH-1J Sea Cobra light-attack helicopters purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The overhaul and upgrade program is known as project number 2091 of the Iranian Helicopter Support and Renewal Company, known as Panha.

Reported upgrades include:

new cockpit armoured panels
new, Iranian-designed canopy
New avionics
nose-mounted camera
new cockpit design

Shahab-3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab-3


The Shahab-3 (meaning "Meteor-3") is a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) developed by Iran and based on the Nodong-1.

An early variant could fly 1,300 km; a later one may reach nearly 2,100 km. It was tested from 1998 to 2003 and added to the military arsenal on July 7, 2003, with an official unveiling by Ayatollah Khamenei on July 20.

The forerunners to this missile include the Shahab-1 and Shahab-2. The then-Iranian Defense Minister Admiral Shamkhani has denied that Iran plans to develop a Shahab-4.

Shahab-3B

The Shahab-3B differs from the basic production variant. It has improvements to its guidance system and warhead, a few small changes on the missile body, and a new re-entry vehicle whose terminal guidance system and rocket-nozzle steering method are completely different from the Shahab-3A's spin-stabilized re-entry vehicle.

The new re-entry vehicle uses a triconic aeroshell geometry (or 'baby bottle' design) which improves the overall lift to drag ratio for the re-entry vehicle. This allows greater range maneuverability which can result in better precision. The triconic design also reduces the overall size of the warhead from an estimated one metric tonne to 700 kg.

The rocket-nozzle control system allows the missile to change its trajectory several times during re-entry and even terminal phase, effectively preventing pre-calculated intercept points of radar systems - which is a method nearly all ABM systems use these days.

As a high-speed ballistic missile and pre-mission fuelling capability, the Shahab-3 has an extremely short launch/impact time ratio. This means that the INS/gyroscope guidance would also remain relatively accurate until impact (important, given the fact that the gyrosopes tend to become inaccurate the longer the flight lasts). With that guidance system, the Shahab-3B could achieve an accuracy of around 30-50m CEP or even less.

The Iranians have already proved of developing even more precise systems - their Fateh-110 missiles have an electro-optical terminal guidance system. Shahab-3B is not known of having anything similar, but should be fully dependent on INS and, probably, GPS.

These improvements would increase the Shahab-3B's survivability against ABM systems such as Israel's Arrow-2 as well as being used for precision attacks against high value targets such as command, control and communications centres.


Shahab-3C & D

Little is known about Shahab-3C and Shahab-3D. From what can be gathered, the missiles have an improved precision, navigation system, and a longer range. The missiles were indigenously developed, and are being mass produced.

Persian cuisine in the West




One of the main reasons that Persian cuisine is not widely recognized is that it is often confused with Middle Eastern cuisine, a much broader and more general term, and this confusion is further perpetuated by restaurants and markets providing authentic Persian cuisine that label themselves as such.

Many Persian markets and restaurants are labelled as Middle Eastern, International, or Mediterranean in order to broaden their appeal to the Western consumer. In reality, Persian cuisine is one of the oldest and richest cuisines in the world, and is typically vastly different from what is found in the greater Middle East.

It should be mentioned that Persian cuisine has lots of similarity to Greek cuisines in its Kebabs and to Indian cuisine in its stews. Although not widely recognized, Persian cuisine is gaining popularity in multicultural cities, especially in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto, which have a significant Persian population.

Another reason for the relative obscurity of Persian cuisine is the lack of professional restaurant management. Many Persian restaurants (at least in smaller towns or those with smaller Persian populations) are started by immigrants who have little or no experience in the food and restaurant business. This lack of experience often means the proprietors focus most of their energies on preparing and providing good quality food but very little on marketing, ambience and service. Many such businesses die in obscurity despite the high quality and authenticity of the food.

Ajam

Ajam (عجم) in Arabic literally means "one who is illiterate in a language", "silent" or "mute", and can refer to non-Arabs in general, or specifically Persians. In the former sense it is a neutral term meaning "stranger" or "foreign." In the latter sense it can be considered a racist, derogatory term by Arabs towards Persians; it has also been used as a part of a propaganda against Iranians by some Arab countries encouraging conflict with Iran.

Similar slurs were used against other peoples, as in the word abd, This term, literally "slave" in Arabic, is used as a slur against Blacks and persons of mixed African descent. Usage is consistent with the Arab institution of black slavery that lasted from approximately 900 to 1962.

"Ajam" as referring to "Persians"

According to Encyclopedia Iranica, the word "ajam" was "applied especially to Persians" by the Arabs and means "to mumble, and speak indistinctly," which is the opposite of the meaning "chaste," "correct", and "Arabic language."

In general, ajam was a pejorative term used by Arabs conscious of their social and political superiority, in early Islam. However, the distinction between Arab and Ajam is discernible in pre-Islamic poetry.

In the Persian Gulf region today, people usually refer to Persian as Ajami as they refer to Persian carpet (Ajami carpet or Sajjad al Ajami), Persian cat (Ajami cat), and Persian emperors (Ajami kings).

The Persian community in Bahrain calls itself Ajami.


Other usages

in the Persian language Ajam has only one meaning and it refer just to Iranian

Among Kurds, the term Ajam (Ecem in Kurdish, Pron: عجم) is used to refer to Persians and Azeris.

In Iraq Ajam is primarily used to refer to those of Iranian origin.

That Persian cuisine post just made me really hungry

Thank Allah for canned gormeh sabzi!