Word: shahs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...British Museum speak from a privileged position. They don't answer to the government and can freely pursue a cultural agenda with any country. For Iran's curators, politics underscores every exchange, and sending relics abroad requires authorization from some of Iran's most powerful bureaucrats. That makes the Shah 'Abbas show all the more significant. "Iranians feel they are misunderstood, misrepresented and sometimes rather snubbed by the West," says Michael Axworthy, director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Exeter. "There are few things the Iranians look for more than an appreciation for where...
...Iran on show is a far cry from the clichéd picture of an angry, anti-U.S. Islamic state with a Holocaust-denying President. Under Shah 'Abbas, Iran became a center of diplomacy and trade. Glorious paintings from the early 17th century depict British envoys who traded gold and silver for silk rugs; other prints capture negotiations in which Iranians mingle with Uzbeks and Indians. Like his contemporary Elizabeth I, Shah 'Abbas waged war to defend his nation's territory. But unlike England, MacGregor says, the Shah's Iran "accommodated other faiths," as seen by gospels beautifully illustrated...
...pictures of the rise and fall of the Shah of Iran...
...legacy of Shah 'Abbas stems from the architecture of his capital, Isfahan. With its mosques, minarets and brightly colored tiles, the city's vast central square remains one of the world's most dramatic public spaces. "A lot of what he did was inspired by the rivalry with the Ottomans," Axworthy says. "It was intended to create an impression of magnificence so that Isfahan was taken as seriously as Istanbul...
...There are, of course, limits to the effects of this form of diplomacy. The Shah 'Abbas exhibition isn't likely to convince visitors that Iran should have access to nuclear arms. But in chronicling the nation's former glory, it may help explain why many Iranians feel entitled to them. Curator Canby says there's also a bigger point. "I don't think of it in terms of redressing public opinion," she says. "Museum relationships are based on something other than politics...