Relations between Iran and India are examined
According to the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), to mark the publication of the book “India in the Persianate Age,” written by Richard Maxwell Eaton, translated by Behnam Mahdavizad, and published by Nedaye Tarikh, the 932nd night of Bokhara Nights has been dedicated to Iran and India. This meeting will be held on December 20, 2025.
Mohammad Bagher Vosoughi, Maghsoudali Sadeghi Gandmani, Shahram Yousefifar, Shaghayegh Fathalizadeh, Behnam Mahdavizad, and Ali Dehbashi will give speeches at this meeting.
The Indian subcontinent, protected by vast mountains and seas, might seem like an almost complete and independent world with its own religions, philosophies, and social systems. However, this ancient land and its diverse communities experienced long and intense interactions with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and especially Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.
Richard Maxwell Eaton recounts this extraordinary story with flair and originality in his book “India in the Persianate Age,” as he traces the emergence of Persianate culture, a multifaceted transregional world connected by growing networks across much of Asia. This culture, introduced to India in the 11th century by dynasties based in eastern Afghanistan, gradually became indigenized during the Mughal era (16th, 17th, and 18th centuries). Eaton vividly explains the complex encounter between India’s Sanskrit culture—an equally rich and transregional body that continued to flourish and grow during this period—and the Iranian culture that helped shape the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and several regional states. This long-term process of cultural interaction has had a direct impact on languages, literatures, cuisines, clothing, religions, styles of governance and warfare, science, art, music, and architecture, mostly reflected in South Asia.
Those interested in attending this meeting can go to the Abbas Iqbal Ashtiani Hall, Faculty of Literature, University of Tehran, on December 20, 2025, at 5 PM.
