This week, my article on Three British Ladies in Bakhtiariland is published in the journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. The article explores the history of the Bakhtiari – through the eyes of three British women who visited the area across a span of 40 years. The first of the women, Isabella Bird, …
Three very different British women travelled in Bakhtiari territory between 1890 and 1927. Although their accounts span only four decades, they encapsulate the meteoric rise – and fall – of the Bakhtiari, all of whose important leaders were immediate relatives of the ‘Great Khan’, Hosaynqolī Khan. Here below is the full bibliography for my article …
Dr Elisabeth Macbean Ross (author of the renowned ‘A Lady Doctor in Bakhtiariland’) was the physician for the “Bibis or great ladies, wives, sisters and mothers of the leading [Bakhtiari] Khans” for around four years from 1910. She usually visited each of the many “Gha[l]ehs or castles” for several weeks, and there “enjoyed the almost …
The Bakhtiari are one of the largest of all the Iranian nomadic tribes. I walked the migration (kuch) with the Faridgi family. Kuch traditionally takes place twice a year, when families walk their livestock over the Zagros Mountains, from the winter to the summer pastures. My pictures of this were exhibited at the Brunei Gallery, …
I’ve been taking my own advice and enjoying myself looking at the Islamic sales in London. As well as the star tile from Khargird at Christies that I focused on last week, it was also great to see a 1920-21 album of photos of Bakhtiari men at Bonhams. This album includes a photo of Samsan …
I’m a multimedia artist and theatre/movement maker, now also curator for Theatre Deli Social Model .. and more Festival in Sheffield and London. For my art, I overlay digital drawing, X-rays and collage on my photography; create installations using recycled packaging; and weave with salvaged fabric. And Im producing performance and video including all of …
My Iran-related publications, teaching, conferences and lectures include: Tutor for ISEA Programme at Leighton House: Collecting and Display of Islamic Art. Lecturing on the 1910 Munich exhibition; the 1931 Burlington House exhibition; and Poland as a portal for ‘oriental’ trading in the seventeenth century. Oct-Dec 2014. Air pollution in Iran, British Medical Journal 2014; 348: …
Major Herbert Sawyer was an Indian Army officer who, in 1890, carried out a geographical-military reconnaissance in West Persia, including a mapping of the Bakhtiari territories. Even though a detailed version of his map was publicly available in 1894 (click here and scroll down); copies in the India Office collection (now in the British Library) …