Tag Archive for 'Iran'

Persia is Iran, Iran is Persia, Iran is not Iraq, and Persia is not Bosnia

Published by davinci on September 13, 2009 in personal and social issues. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This post was inspired by the post from two days ago on the flags of the world.

I’ve always considered Reza Shah Pahlavi’s 1935 decree requesting that the country formerly known as Persia be referred to as “Iran” by foreign governments with which it had diplomatic relations to be a mistake. Naturally, once governments began to refer to the country as Iran, their citizens followed suit. This change at once led to a severing in the Western consciousness of Iran from the Persian culture of classical antiquity, and also created a situation in which the name of the country can easily become confounded with that of its neighbour and recurrent rival, Iraq, a name which entered the mainstream vocabulary of Western languages only in 1932 with the founding of the Kingdom of Iraq in that year.

Actually, in Arabic and Persian, the names Iraq and Iran sound quite different, and they are not very similar to each other when written in the Perso-Arabic script… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

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162 Flags of the World

Published by davinci on September 11, 2009 in a life in books and personal. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

I’ve actually been writing these posts a few days ahead of time, but limiting my posting to once a day to space them out. It’s a coincidence that this particular post appears on 9/11, but given the world-changing nature of the event, it’s interesting to look at the flags of the world from 1977 and compare them to the flags of today — and also to think about what the flags of the world might look like in 2041, another thirty-two years from now.

Since the post mentions Iraq and Iran, and today is September 11, I want to point out that no connection has ever been found between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Iraq, despite the apparent belief of many people to the contrary. I also want to point out that Iran and Iraq are in fact two entirely separate and distinct countries, with different histories, languages, cultures, and religious and ethnic compositions — again, contrary to the apparent belief of many people.

This isn’t a book, but a sheet of stickers with flags of the world’s nations, circa 1977, which I’ve had since I was a child. I recently threw it out along with some outdated books… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

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  3. Persia is Iran, Iran is Persia, Iran is not Iraq, and Persia is not Bosnia
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IISSQI08

Published by davinci on September 25, 2008 in academic meetings. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Quite appropriately, given the theme of science transcending boundaries, I’m actually writing this from Kish (کیش) island, Iran, in the Persian Gulf, where I am attending the International Iran Summer School on Quantum Information 2008 (IISSQI08). The summer school is a follow-up to the International Iran Conference on Quantum Information (IICQI07) which took place last year, also on Kish island. The reason that both events have been held here is that scientists from some countries have problems getting visas to enter mainland Iran, and conversely, citizens of Iran have problems visiting certain countries. Kish island is a “free zone” and hence the most logistically convenient place for both sides to meet.

Barry Sanders, iCORE Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Calgary and one of the organizers, … » [Expand post] [Permalink]

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