This book consists of a series of four Government Fellowship Lectures delivered by Talinn Grigor at the K R Cama Oriental Institute in February 2012. Chapter one – Neo Achaemenid Style from Parsi Bombay to Qajar Tehran. This chapter traces the two different types of neo-Achaemenid revival architecture in Parsi India and in Qajar Iran from the 1850s to the 1930s. Chapter two – Western Art Historiography in Iranian Architecture. This chapter focuses on art historical narratives that formulated a revivalist discourse which in turn affected the creation of a hybrid style of architecture in Qajar and Pahlavi Iran. Artistic appropriation of forms and icons as a mode of identity formation has been a deep-rooted tradition in the politics of Iranian kingship; this chapter reveals a fundamental ideological change in the use of architecture as the signifier of royal legitimacy. Chapter three – Burying Ferdowsi in Reza Shah’s Iran Here the author examines the architectural history of the modern mausoleum of Ferdowsi, the renowned author of the Shahnameh. When Reza Shah’s government decided to celebrate the medieval poet’s millenary anniversary in 1934, the discovery of Ferdowsi’s grave gave rise to a new mausoleum in his hometown of Tus. Its inauguration was tied to a major academic conference in Tehran and Tus that subsequently extended to Soviet Moscow, Nazi Berlin as well as Paris, London and New York. Chapter four – Celebrating 2,500 years of Persian Empire in 1971 This chapter jumps to the end of the Pahlavi era and analyses the events of October 1971. The celebration of the 2,500th year anniversary of the legendary king, Cyrus the Great, validated the neo-Achaemenid architectural culture under the Qajars and the Pehlavis, but also gave the orientalist tendencies in politics and popular culture a new impetus

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