Silk carpet, 16th-century, Iran, 241 x 178 cm, Met Museum, New York. Source
Great beasts and flowering plants make up the design of this rich Iranian rug, believed to have been created in the city of Kashan. Unlike other textiles, the central area of the composition is neither symmetrical nor does it feature any repeated patterns. The individual motifs used instead mean that the eye is constantly drawn to new areas of the design.
ba namak is seeking contributions for a new zine dedicated to radical queer, trans*, and/or gender non-conforming Iranians in the diaspora. Much of what’s available to us is centered around our assumed salvation in diaspora (à la Reza Farahan), away from our supposedly oppressive homes/families/culture, with little room for articulation of a specifically queer sense of Iranian being in the world. We are always either violently closeted or gloriously liberal, with no possibility for a queerer materialization for those of us who perhaps didn’t struggle with the concept of the “closet,” didn’t understand ourselves as either gay or straight, or aren’t interested in fulfilling orientalist fantasies of who Iranian queers should be. ba namak is interested in collecting material about being an Iranian queer in diaspora. We will take submissions from anyone who is Iranian, though we are invested in centering the lives and experiences of marginalized Iranian queers - poor and working class folks, refugees, bi- or multi-racial Iranians, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, etc. We are unequivocally against and bored with: nationalism, Baha'i bashing, Islamophobia, Persian chauvinism, or other forms of ethnic, racial, religious, or national identity built through anti-blackness, anti-Arabness, or any other position that upholds white supremacy.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
diasporic aesthetics
refusals to calls for resiliency
navigating queerness and being bi- or multi-racial
We are seeking critical essays, artwork, personal narratives, and poetry. Please send submissions as attachments (.doc, .docx, .jpg, .png) with a short bio to Tahereh Aghdasifar at [email protected] by July 29th, 2016. For more information, visit banamak.tumblr.com.
Chihil Kilid (Forty Keys) Divination Bowl with Inscriptions, Zodiac Signs, and Four Plaquettes, copper alloy (brass), Safavid dynasty, western Iran, 1679.
A brass divination bowl with a raised semi-spherical center. There are tiny inscriptions engraved on the entire surface, both interior and exterior of the bowl. On the interior, the inscriptions in naskhi script appear in round, overlapping medallions. On the exterior, inscriptions also appear in round medallions; however, within a border below the rim, the inscriptions alternate with depictions of the zodiac signs. There is an inscription on the bottom stating the date of the piece 1090 AH/1679 CE and a blessing to the owner (his name is not given). The piece arrived with four inscribed brass plaquettes (two are thought to be pieces of Chinese mirrors, and other two are inscribed in Arabic). - brooklynmuseum.
Lorestan bronze, fibula showing a woman giving birth between 2 antelopes, ornamented with flowers, Iranian iron age (1500 to 700 BCE) at the Louvre museum, Paris, France, March 2010.
The name “canonical bronze of Lorestan” refers to a set of objects testifying of the original culture of a nomadic civilization who lived at the beginning of the iron age on the territory of the actual Iranian province of Lorestan (North West of the Zagros mountains). Its pastoral and nomadic way of life explain the lack of architectural remnants left, the few artefacts found being almost funeral objects found after graves were looted or excavated by archaeologists. These objects were made in one time almost in bronze using the lost-wax casting. It consist in axes, horse bytes, maces, fibulas, or swords whom style and ornaments are typical, testifying of the originality of such civilization and great savoir-faire of its craftsmen.
