Nedda Mehdizadeh on early modern Persian and English connections

Nedda Mehdizadeh tells us about the networks existing between Safavid Persia and Tudor and Stuart England, and how English fantasies of ancient Persia as a fallen Empire affected their ability to interact with the contemporary country they actually encountered. We hear about Biblical depictions of Persia in the Book of Daniel and Roman and Greek obsessions with Hyrcanian tigers, and about the journey through Russia and across the Caspian Sea that members of the English Muscovy Company undertook to get to Persia. In both their real and imagined encounters with Persia, the English were thinking and worrying about their own place in the history of Empire.

Nedda also tells us about the place of social justice in her teaching and research, including a new book on Anti-Racist Shakespeare she is co-writing with a previous Bit Lit contributor, Ambereen Dadabhoy. We are very excited about this book!