TEHRAN (IBNA) -- An informative history book, ‘East and West of Zagros: Travel, War and Politics in Persia and Iraq (1913-1921) by the late British political officer Cecil John Edmonds has been published in Persian.
Edited by Yann Richard, and first published in 2010, the book is from the series of Iran Studies. ‘East and West of Zagros’ has been translated into Persian by Shahla Tahmasbi. Farhang Nashr-e No in cooperation with Asim Publishing have released this work in 519 pages and 1100 copies.
“The four years of the First World War, 1914 to 1918, mark an important turning point in the history of the countries of Western Asia. They saw territories which theretofore had perhaps been visited only by an occasional foreign traveler turned into a battle ground for modern armies or brought under direct European administration.
They coincided with the development of the small, high-speed, light-oil, internal-combustion engine, that was to effect profound changes in the manner of men’s lives in every part of the world, nowhere more profound than in these Asiatic lands…”
“... in this book I have sought to depict the political and social conditions, and the manners of the customs of the people, as I saw them in parts of Persia and what is now known as Iraq, during the nine years 1913 to 1921, that straddle the four years of the War”.
Cecil John Edmonds served with the British Expeditionary Forces in Mesopotamia and Norperforce in north-western Persia, and later in the civil administration of Iraq. He studied Arabic, Turkish and Persian in Cambridge and entered the British consular service. After important posts in Persia and Iraq, he became a lecturer for Kurdish at SOAS (London) 1951-57.
Yann Richard (Docteur dès-Lettres, 1992) studied Persian in 1970 in Tehran, then in Tübingen (Germany) and Paris. He was first interested in philosophy and literature. After the revolution, he published on modern Shi’ism and the history of modern Iran. He is professor of Iranian studies at the Sorbonne nouvelle (Paris).