Iran Without Borders

A history of the cosmopolitan forces that made contemporary Iran

Reading Dabashi is like going for an extended coffee with a very smart friend.

In a grand sweep of Iran's intellectual history since the eighteenth century, Dabashi discovers a cosmopolitan worldliness rooted in national freedom struggles. Written for a non-specialist readership, Iran Without Borders presents fascinating accounts of travelers, poets, artists, newspapers, the Babi movement, Mosaddegh and exiled Iranian students.

A highly valuable book that transcends identity politics, showing how the Iranian cultural landscape-and this includes ordinary lives-has been remarkably cosmopolitan. Rich in detail and powerful in argument, Iran Without Borders is a major contribution to the debate about the idea of the 'nation' in Iran and beyond.

A much-needed and healthy antidote to the existing literature on Iranian culture, which has stressed ideas of 'cultural authenticity' and the presumed binary between modernity and tradition. Iran Without Borders offers a refreshingly different perspective that highlights cosmopolitanism, transnational fertilization, open-mindedness, and overcoming cultural barriers.

The grand clash of civilizations and ideologies will increasingly take place in the West, with such writers and intellectuals as Dabashi.

A leading light in Iranian studies.

Iran Without Borders is as much an intensely academic work as it is a paean to the alternate ways in which the 'real' Iran has been depicted since the 19th century. Drawing on a detailed understanding of not only history, but also the evolution of Iranian poetry, film, and the alternative press, Dabashi systematically takes down one binary after another: Islamic versus secular, 'tradition versus modernity', 'Persian versus Arab', and 'Iran versus the West'. The result of his methodology is a real awakening for the reader...

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of, among other works, Iran: A People Interrupted .