Yale University Library News

Gleaning the Qajar Past: the Ghani Collection in Sterling Memorial Library

October 27, 2016

Join us for a book talk on Tuesday, November 1 at 4:00 pm in the Sterling Memorial Library's International Room.  Abbas Amanat, Professor of History & International Studies and Director of the Yale Program in Iranian Studies will present research done with his co-author, Fereydun Vahman, in their newly published book, "From Tehran to Akka: Babis & Baha’is in the Official Records of Qajar Iran" (Ashkaar Publishers, 2016).

This research is based largely upon documents held in the Ghassem Ghani Collection at Yale (MS 235, Manuscripts and Archives). This important collection of rare documents provides exciting documents on the history of Iran and the neighboring lands in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Among other topics, it throws a new light on the less-explored story of the Babi movement in exile in the Ottoman Empire and at home between 1854 and 1872. The Collection also contains material by such celebrated statesmen as Amir Kabir and Mohammad Mosaddeq and related to activists such as Jamal al-Din Afghani.

All are welcome!