BOOKS
Rituals and Performative Entertainments in Ancient Iran (in Persian)
Faravahar Publications (2023)
A historical study of ritual practices, plays, and performative forms in pre-Islamic Iran. Written within the field of cultural and performance history, the book stands independently from the author’s artistic projects, while reflecting a broader trajectory of his research interests.
Iranians and Muslims: A Cultural Dialogue in the Shadow of Performing Arts (in Persian)
Farzan Rooz Publications (2024)
A study within cultural and performance history that examines the encounter between Iranian traditions and Islamic cultural contexts. The book traces the formation and transformation of performative forms within broader social and religious developments, reflecting part of the author’s historical research trajectory.
Fire and Fireworks in Iran: Rituals, Symbols, and Cultural Functions of Fire (in Persian)
Mehrandish Publications (2025)
A historical and cultural study of fire festivals, fireworks practices, and their social circulation in Iran. The book examines fireworks as a collective, ritual, and performative phenomenon, approaching it as a cultural enactment rather than solely as a symbolic or natural element.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Islam, Animism, and Animation of Objects
In Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, Vol. I, Routledge, 2024.
With Salma Mohseni Ardehali
This research chapter examines divergent trajectories of puppetry in the Islamic world: while shadow theatre became dominant in many regions, Iran sustained a tradition of physical, volumetric puppet performance. The text explores this difference through the relationship between theology, concepts of animating objects, and the Shi‘i intellectual context, proposing a theoretical link to Mulla Sadra’s notion of motion inherent in the substance of things.
Selected Articles
Mirrors Across the Stage: Historical Cultural Exchanges between Iran and India and Their Role in the Formation of the Shah Salim Puppet Play
In Concept / Film and Theatre Pedagogy 31, no. 2 (2025): 47–66.
https://doi.org/10.37130/x2yd0j84
A research article on the role of historical Iran–India exchanges in shaping the puppet performance Shah Salim-bazi, examining cultural transmission routes, structural parallels with Indian Kathputli, and the formation of the form as a hybrid theatrical tradition.