Volume 14 - Number 5 October – November 2018 £4 THIS ISSUE: IRAN ● Sanctions are back ● The struggle for the rule of law in Iran ● Iran’s environment amidst economic uncertainty ● In cannabis veritas ● Recreating the Citadel ● ‘For everything there is a season…’● Postcard from Iran ● The Ferdowsi Library ● A new chapter ● PLUS Reviews and events in London Volume 14 - Number 5 October – November 2018 £4 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: IIRANRAN ● SSanctionsanctions areare bbackack ● TThehe sstruggletruggle fforor tthehe rruleule ooff llawaw iinn IIranran ● IIran’sran’s eenvironmentnvironment aamidstmidst eeconomicconomic uncertaintyuncertainty ● IInn ccannabisannabis vveritaseritas ● RRecreatingecreating tthehe CCitadelitadel ● ‘‘ForFor eeverythingverything ttherehere iiss a season…’season…’● PPostcardostcard ffromrom IranIran ● TThehe FFerdowsierdowsi LLibraryibrary ● A nnewew cchapterhapter ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eeventsvents inin LLondonondon Ali Nassir, Untitled, 2013, gouache on cardboard, 80 x 63 About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) cm. Courtesy of the artist Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Volume 14 – Number 5 individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. October–November 2018 With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Editorial Board has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Dr Orkideh Behrouzan SOAS it takes primary responsibility. 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ISSN 1743-7598 Contents 4 18 EDITORIAL Th e Ferdowsi Library Mohammad Emami 5 INSIGHT 19 LMEI Board of Trustees Sanctions are back – with a A new chapter Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair) vengeance Sarah Stewart Director, SOAS Hassan Hakimian Dr Orkideh Behrouzan, SOAS 20 Professor Stephen Hopgood, SOAS 7 REVIEWS Dr Lina Khatib, Chatham House IRAN BOOKS Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Dr Hanan Morsy Th e struggle for the rule of law Bountiful Empire: A History of African Development Bank in Iran Ottoman Cuisine Professor Scott Redford, SOAS Hadi Enayat Nevsâl Hughes Mr James Watt CVO 9 21 Iran’s environment amidst BOOKS IN BRIEF economic uncertainty LMEI Advisory Council Shirin Hakim 25 IN MEMORIAM Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) 11 Leonard Lewisohn Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem In cannabis veritas Ehsan Yarshater H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Maziyar Ghiabi Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani 26 Arab International Women’s Forum Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa 13 EVENTS IN LONDON President, University College of Bahrain Recreating the Citadel Professor Tony Allan King’s College and SOAS Vali Mahlouji Dr Alanoud Alsharekh Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS Mr Farad Azima 15 NetScientifi c Plc ‘For everything there is a Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. season…’ Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna Narguess Farzad British Egyptian Society HE Mr Rami Mortada Ambassador, Embassy of Lebanon 16 Postcard from Iran Th omas Helm October – November 2018 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL DDearear RReadereader One of the entrances to the Tehran Bazaar, May 2016. Photograph by George Collie Narguess Farzad, SOAS ran has rarely been absent from the Protection of the environment, Oxford; and the establishment of a newly- headlines in the past forty years but considered a ‘public duty’ under article endowed Institute of Zoroastrian Studies at Iits recent prominence in the media is 50 of the Iranian constitution, cannot be SOAS. beginning to break previous records. It is addressed in isolation from the country’s For those who love poetry, and as appropriate, therefore, that this issue of Th e economic strategies. In her article, Shirin preparations are made to celebrate the 200th Middle East in London be devoted to Iran Hakim weighs the options that policy- anniversary of the publication of Johann and the challenges it faces, while not losing makers face. Wolfgang von Goethe’s West-Östlicher sight of what is going on in other spheres An issue of immense importance in Divan, I introduce one of the forthcoming such as arts and culture. today’s Iran is the problem of drug abuse publications aimed at looking anew at the Th e US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear and its frightening impact on society. While lyrical conversation between the renowned deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of recounting the history of the consumption 19th-century German poet and the 14th- Action) and the re-imposition of extensive of narcotics in Iran, Maziyar Ghiabi looks at century Hafi z of Shiraz. sanctions against Iran has assumed centre current attitudes to the use of cannabis and It is always a joy to see one’s homeland stage in Donald Trump’s strategy to increase the ongoing debates around changing the and its idiosyncrasies through the curious the country’s political isolation and bring legal status of this drug in Iran. and fresh eyes of the young who visit the about economic destabilisation. In Insight, Away from the hardships caused by country for the fi rst time. Th omas Helm’s Hassan Hakimian evaluates the return of sanctions, competing conceptions of ‘Postcard from Iran’ captures nuisances that the sanctions regime and assesses its chance legality, environmental sustainability and hardened travellers may take for granted. of ‘success’ in this round. He warns that the intoxication, Vali Mahlouji, Mohammad And fi nally, to paraphrase TS Eliot, Trump doctrine of pushing one’s foes to the Emami and Sarah Stewart introduce us to August and September were ‘the cruellest brink – hoping they will blink fi rst – has three pertinent initiatives strengthening months’. Late this summer we mourned the entered uncharted territory in Iran. Iranian studies: a curatorial and educational loss of several highly esteemed scholars and Th e concept of legality as seen in the platform that investigates the hidden, friends of Persian studies. Alan Williams’ ‘In eyes of the law is explored in Hadi Enayat’s banned or destroyed artistic and cultural Memoriam’ piece bids a poignant farewell article on the obstacles to the reform of material that plays a signifi cant role in Iran’s to two of the most respected amongst them: Iran’s judicial system and the curtailment of social history; a thriving library of Persian Leonard Lewisohn and Ehsan Yarshater. the independence of the Bar Association. and Iranian studies at Wadham College, 4 The Middle East in London October – November 2018 IINSIGHTNSIGHT The ‘success’ of the latest bout of US sanctions on Iran hinges on third party responses and domestic conditions in Iran. Hassan Hakimian explains SSanctionsanctions aarere bbackack – withwith a vvengeanceengeance President Donald J Trump signs an executive order entitled ‘Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran’ on 6 August 2018. Offi cial White House Photo by Shealah Craighead ‘ he Iran sanctions have offi cially Although the announcement did not nuclear table in the last round contrasts been cast’ tweeted President take many by surprise, the irony was not with the US swimming against the tide of TTrump three months aft er lost on one key observer, Wendy Sherman international opinion.