Coffee and Coffeehouse in Iran and Sixty Other Essays

For several decades, it has become common for authors and writers to collect their articles and writings published in magazines into an independent book. This accepted method has many benefits, including preventing the dispersion of writings and presenting them as a cohesive work to interested readers. About fifteen years ago, the author published their first collection of articles, which had appeared since 1971, as a single volume titled “Seven Climates of the Book” through Amir Kabir publishing. Several years later, a second collection titled “Seven Cities of the Book” was published by the same publisher. Now, after some years, the author found it necessary to gather a new set of articles and notes written in recent years. Many of these essays were written for the Encyclopaedia Iranica and accepted by the late, meticulous scholar Dr. Ehsan Yarshater, being published in various volumes of that encyclopedia. The remaining content includes articles and short essays published in several periodicals and commemorative books, all of which were previously scattered and often difficult to obtain. This collection is organized into six sections, and despite the book’s title indicating sixty essays, it actually contains 87 articles and notes across these sections: Section one: Coffee and coffeehouses in Iran, which inspired the title of the book, includes four articles. The first two, about coffee and coffeehouses, were first published in Iranica, but their Persian text and detailed notes appear here for the first time. The third article on tobacco in Persian literature appeared in Nameh-ye Parsi magazine with revisions and additions. The fourth article on the hookah and its notes was written recently and is published here for the first time. Section two: Literary research contains several detailed articles, some published in Nameh-ye Farhangestan thanks to professor Ahmad Samiei-Gilani, others in the magazine Koot-e Nashr Iran-Shahr Emrooz and other journals. Section three: Historical research mainly focuses on the Qajar era and its figures. Notably, there is an article introducing a new translation of Haji Baba of Isfahan by Mohammad Hassan Khan Etemad al-Saltaneh. Section four: From different parts of Iran includes geographical articles and studies related to various regions, economic conditions during the Qajar era, European travelers in Iran, introductions of several towns and villages, and a report on Armenian villages in Chaharmahal Bakhtiari. Section five: Prominent figures of Iran contains several articles written after the death of the late Professor Iraj Afshar, including lectures. It also covers teachers and scholars such as Habib Yaghmaei, Dr. Manouchehr Sotoudeh, Dr. Bastani Parizi, Professor Ahmad Eghtedari, the deceased friend Kazem Bargnesisi, and others, published in various journals and commemorative issues. Section six: Various contains a mix of short and long articles, some related to lectures. Among these, a detailed article on elementary school written for Iranica is included. Most of these articles appeared in the Report Heritage and Iran-Shahr Emrooz periodicals, with others in the Book Month journal published by the House of Book. It should be added that the articles in this volume only include writings published in journals, memoranda, and commemorative books, and do not encompass any other entries or titles.