Farzin Vejdani
Biographic Data
| ID | 323701 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Farzin Vejdani |
| GIVEN NAMES | Farzin |
| FAMILY NAME | Vejdani |
| SIGNATURE | VEJDANI F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Toronto Metropolitan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5514-1546 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Sonic Crimes
This article argues that the sonic constitutes a neglected vector for understanding crime and policing in 19th-century Iranian cities. It engages theoretically with anthropologists, geographers, historians, and sound studies scholars to chart the relationship between space, time, and sound. After providing historical background on the Qajar Iranian state (1785–1925) and the sonic order it embodied, the essay explores how Shi‘i acoustic jurisprude…
Nineteenth-Century Iranian Culinary Culture
Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century Tehran
This article examines the shifting lines between ethics and law in the policing and punishment of prostitution in nineteenth-century Tehran. It begins by exploring Tehran’s urban policing and legal institutions before examining how illicit sexual acts were defined alternatively as sins or crimes, depending on the relative publicness of the act, in prescriptive and legal texts. It then turns to how this played out in practice by analyzing a first-…
Hair and Hat Ritual Shaming Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Iran
This article considers three temporary and reversible penal shaming acts in nineteenth-century Iran: the shaving or cutting of hair, irrespective of gender; the shaving or cutting of men's facial hair; and the forcible removal of headgear or the coerced wearing of silly headgear. Drawing on anthropological, historical, and sociological studies of hair, this study argues that hair and hat punishments embodied elements of ritual, sexuality, social …
Branded Bodies
Branded Bodies
Forced branding, tattooing, and bodily inscriptions were linked to a complex intersection of meanings and uses in nineteenth-century Iran. Drawing on insights from studies of bodily inscriptions in other world historical contexts, this paper discusses branding as a marker of ownership, both of human slaves and of animals; Islamic attitudes toward bodily inscription and its symbolic significance in the afterlife; and associations between branding …
Prisons in the late Ottoman Empire
In Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity, Kent Schull tackles an understudied aspect of Ottoman history: the place of prisons in the broader story of Ottoman modernity. Throug
The Iranians of AUB and Middle Class Formation in the Early Twentieth-Century Middle East
Iranian graduates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) constitute a neglected cross-section of an emerging middle class in the Middle East. Although the majority of students attending AUB were Arabs from the Ottoman Empire and later post-Ottoman Arab states, there was a notable non-Arab population including Iranians. Many felt an elective affinity with AUB because of the institution’s moral educational vision, its proximity to Baha’i leader…
Indo-Iranian Linguistic, Literary, and Religious Entanglements
It is often assumed that Indo-Iranian cultural entanglements disappeared by the early twentieth century because of the rise of imperialism and colonialism, exclusionary forms of nationalism, and the accompanying loss of certain linguistic competencies. This article calls into question the supposed disappearance of exchange between Iran and India in linguistic, literary, and religious realms. Instead, it posits that earlier sets of debates between…
Making History in Iran
Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity
While recent books have explored Arab and Turkish nationalism, the nuances of Iran have received scant book-length study - until now. Capturing the significant changes in approach that have shaped this specialization, Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity shares innovative research and charts new areas of analysis from an array of scholars in the field. Delving into a wide range of theoretical and conceptual perspectives, the essays - all …
Illicit Acts and Sacred Space
This article explores the connection between individuals, spaces, and daily crime in the shrine city of Mashhad during 1913-4. It challenges the prevailing emphasis on the city’s sacred status by highlighting the frequency and nature of illicit activities often involving urban non-elites. Using the Mashhad police newspaper Ettelā‘āt-e Yawmiya , it reconstructs conflicts between masters and apprentices, soldiers and civilians, tribes and settled p…
Iran Facing Others
Iran's long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenous Iranian identity in the face of ethnic, linguistic and communal diversity. The volume examines the fl
Iran Facing Others
Transnational Baha’i Print Culture
Persian and Arabic Baha'i publishing emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when printing was becoming increasingly widespread in Muslim societies. This article examines how Baha'is employed printing in community consolidation, scriptural canonization, and apologetic encounters. It first considers the role of Baha'i leadership in promoting and defining the parameters of print activities. It then discusses the transnation…
Appropriating the Masses
This paper traces the emergence of folklore studies and ethnography in interwar Iran. It argues that these disciplines were part of larger nationalist projects of representing and speaking for the “masses.” The first part of the paper explores how and why a number of Iranian intellectuals engaged in folklore studies after a period of prolonged political activism in the first few decades of the 20th century. The second part of the paper examines c…
Branded Bodies
Forced branding, tattooing, and bodily inscriptions were linked to a complex intersection of meanings and uses in nineteenth-century Iran. Drawing on insights from studies of bodily inscriptions in other world historical contexts, this paper discusses branding as a marker of ownership, both of human slaves and of animals; Islamic attitudes toward bodily inscription and its symbolic significance in the afterlife; and associations between branding …
The Iranians of AUB and Middle Class Formation in the Early Twentieth-Century Middle East
Iranian graduates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) constitute a neglected cross-section of an emerging middle class in the Middle East. Although the majority of students attending AUB were Arabs from the Ottoman Empire and later post-Ottoman Arab states, there was a notable non-Arab population including Iranians. Many felt an elective affinity with AUB because of the institution’s moral educational vision, its proximity to Baha’i leader…
Indo-Iranian Linguistic, Literary, and Religious Entanglements
It is often assumed that Indo-Iranian cultural entanglements disappeared by the early twentieth century because of the rise of imperialism and colonialism, exclusionary forms of nationalism, and the accompanying loss of certain linguistic competencies. This article calls into question the supposed disappearance of exchange between Iran and India in linguistic, literary, and religious realms. Instead, it posits that earlier sets of debates between…
Illicit Acts and Sacred Space
This article explores the connection between individuals, spaces, and daily crime in the shrine city of Mashhad during 1913-4. It challenges the prevailing emphasis on the city’s sacred status by highlighting the frequency and nature of illicit activities often involving urban non-elites. Using the Mashhad police newspaper Ettelā‘āt-e Yawmiya , it reconstructs conflicts between masters and apprentices, soldiers and civilians, tribes and settled p…
Transnational Baha’i Print Culture
Persian and Arabic Baha'i publishing emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when printing was becoming increasingly widespread in Muslim societies. This article examines how Baha'is employed printing in community consolidation, scriptural canonization, and apologetic encounters. It first considers the role of Baha'i leadership in promoting and defining the parameters of print activities. It then discusses the transnation…
Appropriating the Masses
This paper traces the emergence of folklore studies and ethnography in interwar Iran. It argues that these disciplines were part of larger nationalist projects of representing and speaking for the “masses.” The first part of the paper explores how and why a number of Iranian intellectuals engaged in folklore studies after a period of prolonged political activism in the first few decades of the 20th century. The second part of the paper examines c…
Iran Facing Others
Iran's long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenous Iranian identity in the face of ethnic, linguistic and communal diversity. The volume examines the fl
Iran Facing Others
Transnational Baha’i Print Culture
Persian and Arabic Baha'i publishing emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when printing was becoming increasingly widespread in Muslim societies. This article examines how Baha'is employed printing in community consolidation, scriptural canonization, and apologetic encounters. It first considers the role of Baha'i leadership in promoting and defining the parameters of print activities. It then discusses the transnation…
Appropriating the Masses
This paper traces the emergence of folklore studies and ethnography in interwar Iran. It argues that these disciplines were part of larger nationalist projects of representing and speaking for the “masses.” The first part of the paper explores how and why a number of Iranian intellectuals engaged in folklore studies after a period of prolonged political activism in the first few decades of the 20th century. The second part of the paper examines c…
Making History in Iran
Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity
While recent books have explored Arab and Turkish nationalism, the nuances of Iran have received scant book-length study - until now. Capturing the significant changes in approach that have shaped this specialization, Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity shares innovative research and charts new areas of analysis from an array of scholars in the field. Delving into a wide range of theoretical and conceptual perspectives, the essays - all …
Illicit Acts and Sacred Space
This article explores the connection between individuals, spaces, and daily crime in the shrine city of Mashhad during 1913-4. It challenges the prevailing emphasis on the city’s sacred status by highlighting the frequency and nature of illicit activities often involving urban non-elites. Using the Mashhad police newspaper Ettelā‘āt-e Yawmiya , it reconstructs conflicts between masters and apprentices, soldiers and civilians, tribes and settled p…
The Iranians of AUB and Middle Class Formation in the Early Twentieth-Century Middle East
Iranian graduates of the American University of Beirut (AUB) constitute a neglected cross-section of an emerging middle class in the Middle East. Although the majority of students attending AUB were Arabs from the Ottoman Empire and later post-Ottoman Arab states, there was a notable non-Arab population including Iranians. Many felt an elective affinity with AUB because of the institution’s moral educational vision, its proximity to Baha’i leader…
Indo-Iranian Linguistic, Literary, and Religious Entanglements
It is often assumed that Indo-Iranian cultural entanglements disappeared by the early twentieth century because of the rise of imperialism and colonialism, exclusionary forms of nationalism, and the accompanying loss of certain linguistic competencies. This article calls into question the supposed disappearance of exchange between Iran and India in linguistic, literary, and religious realms. Instead, it posits that earlier sets of debates between…
Prisons in the late Ottoman Empire
In Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity, Kent Schull tackles an understudied aspect of Ottoman history: the place of prisons in the broader story of Ottoman modernity. Throug
Hair and Hat Ritual Shaming Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Iran
This article considers three temporary and reversible penal shaming acts in nineteenth-century Iran: the shaving or cutting of hair, irrespective of gender; the shaving or cutting of men's facial hair; and the forcible removal of headgear or the coerced wearing of silly headgear. Drawing on anthropological, historical, and sociological studies of hair, this study argues that hair and hat punishments embodied elements of ritual, sexuality, social …
Branded Bodies
Branded Bodies
Forced branding, tattooing, and bodily inscriptions were linked to a complex intersection of meanings and uses in nineteenth-century Iran. Drawing on insights from studies of bodily inscriptions in other world historical contexts, this paper discusses branding as a marker of ownership, both of human slaves and of animals; Islamic attitudes toward bodily inscription and its symbolic significance in the afterlife; and associations between branding …
Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century Tehran
This article examines the shifting lines between ethics and law in the policing and punishment of prostitution in nineteenth-century Tehran. It begins by exploring Tehran’s urban policing and legal institutions before examining how illicit sexual acts were defined alternatively as sins or crimes, depending on the relative publicness of the act, in prescriptive and legal texts. It then turns to how this played out in practice by analyzing a first-…
Sonic Crimes
This article argues that the sonic constitutes a neglected vector for understanding crime and policing in 19th-century Iranian cities. It engages theoretically with anthropologists, geographers, historians, and sound studies scholars to chart the relationship between space, time, and sound. After providing historical background on the Qajar Iranian state (1785–1925) and the sonic order it embodied, the essay explores how Shi‘i acoustic jurisprude…
Nineteenth-Century Iranian Culinary Culture
Islamic Studies and History (14 works) · Political science (12 works) · History (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · History (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Art (5 works) · Criminology (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)