Ms. orient. T 186, fol. 252r
© Forschungsbibliothek Gotha der Universität Erfurt
Exactly 100 years ago, the American scholar Arthur Upham Pope (1881–1969) delivered a Nowruz lecture in Tehran on the occasion of his first visit to Iran. Entitled, “The Past and Future of Persian Art”, this lecture marks a turning point in the history of Persian art.
The aesthetic criteria that Pope underlined in this lecture and his writings around 1925 for assessing the importance of cultural remains from modern Iran influenced the way many people worldwide came to understand the art, architecture and material culture of the Persian world at that time. This 2025 Nowruz lecture revisits the significance of this lecture by reconsidering the impact of those criteria on our thinking today.
The lecture will be delivered by Dr. Yuka Kadoi (University of Vienna) as part of the series Cultures of Islam: Latest research by the Munich Middle Eastern-Mediterranean-Central Asian Center (4MZ).
You can find more information on the 4MZ website.