Collection

Pahlavi Archives

The Foundation’s main library contains approximately 4,500 volumes on Iran’s past and present. In addition, the Women’s Center has a library on women that has been expanding rapidly. The foundation has also periodical and newspaper collections in both Persian and English; a set of articles on Iran dating back to 1968 published by the New York Times; a comprehensive archive of classical Persian music, containing tapes of classical dastgâhs and 400 gushehs and books of notes; and slides on Iranian art and culture selected from the collections of the Textile Museum, the Agha Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and MIT, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.

In late 1991 and early 1992 the library received a collection of articles on the Iran-Iraq war that had appeared in major US news publications. The collection, donated by a research organization in Washington, D.C., is a valuable tool for research on Iran-Iraq war.

The library and the archives have enabled the Foundation to serve as an information center for the Iranian community abroad, particularly in the metropolitan Washington area. FIS furnishes information on various issues to individuals and provides support to other Iranian organizations on matters ranging from publicity to organization, information, administration, and procedure. Similarly, FIS has served the US and other communities across the world as a resource center, providing information on Iran to public and private organizations, news media, and academic institutions. The Women’s Center library allows the Foundation to furnish information about the condition of women not only in Iran but also in most Muslim and some non-Muslim countries.

An important part of the library, currently being uploaded to the FIS website as developed, is the Pahlavi Archives, an expanding collection of primary source material on the Pahlavi dynasty, including oral history interviews, Court calendar, films, slides, photographs, newspaper clippings, and published articles and books. Over the years the Pahlavi Archives has received a number of historical and family albums of the Pahlavi monarchs. An addition, invaluable to scholars of Iranian history is the daily chronicle of the Pahlavi monarchs’ official activities beginning at the dynasty’s inception in 1925 and ending in 1976. The chronicle, in Persian, was prepared during the 1970s under the supervision of then deputy court minister for cultural affairs the late Shojaeddin Shafa and printed in 1978, but collected and destroyed soon after the advent of the Islamic Republic.

Related Oral Histories

Related Oral Histories:

May 1991 . PersianAalam, Abdol-Madjid
Afkhami
September 1982 and June 1990 . PersianAfkhami, Gholam Reza
September 11, 1982 . PersianAfkhami, Mahnaz
Afshar-Qasemlu
September 11 and 12, 1988 . PersianAfshar-Qasemlu, Amir Aslan
May 1983 . PersianAlavi-Kiya, General Hasan
Alimard
March 27 and July 6, 1991, December 3, 1994 . PersianAlimard, Amin
Amini
January, 1983; and September 2, 1986 . PersianAmini, Ali
February 27, March 1, 2, 4, 6, 1991 . PersianAnsari, Abdolreza
Assar
December 2, 1982 . PersianAssar, Nasir
June 6, 1982 . PersianAtabai, Abol-Fath
November 30, 1983 . PersianAv, Fereydun
June 1990 . PersianAzimi, General Reza
Baheri
December 1983, and February 3, 1984 . PersianBaheri, Mohammad
Bakhtiyar
December 1985 . PersianBakhtiyar, Aqa Khan
December 21, 1983, and January 23, 1984 . PersianBani-Ahmad, Ahmad
February 23, March 24 and May 3, 1988 . EnglishBolster, Archie*
September 12, 1984 . PersianBrasseur, Leon
Diba
August 7 and 13, 1984 . EnglishDiba, Leyla
Dowlatshahi
May, 1984 . PersianDowlatshahi, Mehrangiz
Etemad
November, 1982 . PersianEtemad, Akbar
Frye
April 25, 1989 . EnglishFrye, Richard N.
Ghaffari
November 25 and July 4, 1984 . PersianGhaffari, Farrokh
October 2, 1983 . PersianGolestan, Shahrokh
Gorgin
April 20, 1985 . PersianGorgin, Iraj
Gudarzi
July, 1983 . PersianGudarzi, Manuchehr
Hashemi-Nejad
March 23, 1982; April 12 and 19, and May 3 and 17, 1989 . PersianHashemi-Nejad, General Mohsen
July 10 and 24, 1985 . EnglishHelms, Richard*
Homayun
September 11, 1982 . PersianHomayun, Daryush
April, 1984 . PersianIzadi, Ali
September 5 and 15; October 28, and December 10, 1989 . PersianJafrudi, Kazem
Jahanshahi
August 31, 1989 . PersianJahanshahi, Gholam-Hossein
November 30, 1984 . EnglishLenczowski, George
May 29, 1985 . EnglishMacArthur, Douglas II*
Majidi
April 22 and October 12, 1982 . PersianMajidi, Abdol-Majid
July 15 and 17, 1990 . PersianMesbahzadeh, Mostafa
March 29, 1985 . EnglishMeyer, Armin*
Moayyed-Sabeti
September 8, 1988 . PersianMoayyed-Sabeti, Parvin
Mohtadi
July 9, 1991 . PersianMohtadi, General Ali Akbar
Mosaddeqi
November 30, 1987 . PersianMosaddeqi, Taqi
May 13 and 31, and July 26, 1988 . EnglishNaas, Charles*
Nasr
October 1982 and January 1983 . PersianNasr, Seyyed Hossein
February 13, 1985 . PersianNevisi, Colonel Yazdan
Niyazmand
September 17, 1988 . PersianNiyazmand, Reza
September 22 and October 6, 1983 . PersianOvanesiyan, Arbi
Pahlavi
Part I: May 6 and November 12, 1982; Part II: Augusts 1989 and 1990 . PersianPahlavi, Princess Ashraf
May 25 and 30, 1984 . PersianPahlbod, Mehrdad
January 30 and March 7, 1985 . EnglishParsons, Sir Anthony
Pur-Shoja
December 12, 1990 and January 10, 1991 . PersianPur-Shoja, Amir
Qadar
April 30 and May 4, 1986 . PersianQadar, General Mansur
Qoreishi
April 15, 1983 and July 8, 1988 . PersianQoreishi, Ahmad
Radji
April 9 and 10, 1986 . EnglishRaji, Parviz
December 18 and 21, 1986 . PersianRahnema, Majid
December 9, 20 and 22, 1983 . PersianRambod, Holaku
January 20, 1986 . PersianRamsbotham, Sir Peter
Reid
April 14, 1988 . EnglishReid, Elizabeth
Saffari
October 13, 1983 . PersianSaffari, Bijan
Samii
September 18, 1982 . PersianSamii, Abdol-Hosein
Shahmirzadi
August 6, 1991 . PersianShahmirzadi, Hasan
Tufaniyan
March 28 and April 7, 1989 . PersianTufaniyan, General Hasan
Valiyan
April 26 and May 21, 1983 . PersianValiyan, Abdol-Azim
Varahram
August 9, 1989 . PersianVarahram, General Karim
April 11, 1986 . EnglishWright, Sir Denis
Yar-Afshar
July 18 and 25, 1988; and January 16, 1989 . PersianYar-Afshar, Parviz
November 5, 1988, and January 12, 1989 . EnglishYatsevitch, Colonel Gratian*
November 24, 1983 . PersianShahrokh (Yeganegi), Farangis
Yeganeh
December, 1982, and April, 1983 . PersianYeganeh, Naser
Ziya'i
May 12 and 13, 1988 . PersianZiya’i, Taher
Zolfaqari
May 11, September 9 and 23, and October 5 and 28, 1989 . PersianZolfaqari, Naser