The eleventh volume in this ground-breaking series pays special attention to politically engaged poetry, written during a turbulent period which saw the Constitutional Revolution in Iran as well as the rise to power of Reza Shah and his attempts to implement reform. Throughout this time, poets began to turn their attention towards the country's ordinary people, rather than concentrate on its elites. This volume also examines the prose fiction of the period, which saw the rise of the novel and short story. Additionally, Persian satire began to grow in importance, especially with the increased popularity of poets and novelists such as Iraj Mirza and Sadeq Hedayat. This wide-ranging volume is an invaluable companion for anyone who wants to understand how the Persian literary scene changed at the beginning of the twentieth century, reflecting the social and political contexts in which this literature was created

Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab is Associate Professor at Leiden University. His publications include Layli and Majnun: Love, Madness and Mystic Longing in Nizami's Epic Romance (2003), Mirror of Dew: The Poetry of Alam-Taj Zhale Qa'em-Maqami (2014), Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (2008), One Word--Yak kaleme: A 19th-Century Persian Treatise Introducing Western Codified Law (2008) and Conflict and Development in Iranian Film (2013). He has translated several volumes of modern Persian poetry, including the poetry of Sohrab Sepehri, Forugh Farrokhzad, Mohammad-Reza Shafi'i Kadkani, and (together with J.T.P. de Bruijn) Ahmad Shamlu, Nader Naderpur, and Hushang Ebtehaj. He is the founding general editor of the Iranian Studies Series at Leiden University Press and the Modern Persian Poetry Series. Ehsan Yarshater is the Director of the Center for Iranian Studies and Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies, Columbia University and the Founding Editor of the Encyclopaedia Iranica