Th e Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Iran ians before Iran: Identity and the Safavid Diaspora in Mughal India on May 21\, 2026.
What did it mean to be “Iranian” before the rise of the mo dern nation of Iran? Critics of Iranian nationalism have long shown how the political and social purchase of the term “Iran” and the demonym “Iranian” has varied drastically throughout history. Far from possessing a fixed and timeless meaning\, the idea of Iran (and being “Iranian”) fluctuated withi n various political\, literary\, and social imaginaries over the last mille nnium\, most often being invoked in elite historical chronicles and literar y epics in the Shāhnāma tradition rather than at the level of personal iden tity. As such\, to even talk of “Iranians”\, “Iran” and the “Iranian diaspo ra” in premodern contexts requires considerable qualification.
In thi s presentation\, Dr. Shaahin Pishbin will argue that the great migration of hundreds of Persian-speaking poets and intellectuals from Safavid territor ies to Mughal India over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to a n ew and consequential chapter in the history of Iranian identity. Drawing on lexicons\, life writing\, occult literature and poems of exile and homesic kness\, he will show how the Safavid diaspora produced an innovative and co nsequential discourse about “Iran” and what it meant to be Iranian.
T his talk will be presented in English. It is free and open to the public\; registration is required.
This event is co-sponsored by the Centre fo r India and South Asia Research.
Date & Time:
T
hursday\, May 21\, 2026 | 6:30pm – 8:00pm PT
Location:
C680 HSBC Hall\, UBC Robson Square\, 800 Robson St\, Vancouver\, BC
V6Z 3B7
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Shaahin Pishbin
is the Laming Junior Research Fellow in Living Modern Languages at The Quee
n’s College\, University of Oxford. He received his Ph.D from the Departmen
t of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago and works at the i
ntersection of Persian literature\, Persianate studies\, and Islamicate cul
tural and intellectual history. His current projects explore the concepts o
f wonder and astonishment in early modern Persian literature and the idea o
f Iran in Persianate thought.
Hasan Siddiqui is a historian of South As
ia specializing in early-modern intellectual history. His research interest
s include the history of encyclopedias\, the history of political thought\,
and the history of the book. He holds a PhD in History from the University
of Chicago.
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