---

Iran´s long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenous Iranian identity in the face of ethnic, linguistic and communal diversity. The volume examines the fluid boundaries of pre-modern identity in history and literature as well as the shaping of Iranian national identity in the 20th century.

---

PART I: LEGACY OF CULTURAL EXCLUSION Iran and Aniran: The Shaping of a Legend; D.Davis Redrawing the Boundaries of ´ Ajam in Early Modern Persian Literary History; S.Sharma PART II: THE INTERNAL FRONTIERS Iranian History in Transition: Recasting the Symbolic Identity of Babak Khorramdin; T.Atabaki Across the Black Sands and the Red: Travel and the Frontiers of Nineteenth-Century Central Asia; A.Khazeni PART III: EMPIRES AND ENCOUNTERS Facing a Rude and Barbarous Neighbor: Iranian Perceptions of Russia and the Russians from the Safavids to the Qajars; R.Matthee British Imperialism, Regionalism, and Nationalism in Iran, 1889-1919; H.L.Stebbins Shifting Loyalties in Imperial Borderlands: Safavid Renegades and Ottoman Rebels; F.Zarinebaf PART IV: SELF-FASHIONING AND OTHERING The Academic Debate on Iran and Iranian Identity: Challenging Nationalist and Orientalist Narratives; A.Matin-Asgari Some Thoughts on Inter-Societal Linkages between Iran and Iraq; H.Chehabi PART V: DOMESTIC AND GLOBALIZED ANXIETIES Dolgoruki´s ´Memoirs´: From Fiction to Master Narrative; M.Yazdani Zoroastrians of Iran and Parsis of India: A Dilemma of Identity; M.Ringer

---

ABBAS AMANAT Professor of History and International and Area Studies at Yale University, USA.
FARZIN VEJDANIGraduate student at Yale University, USA.

---