iran

Ourmiah = Urmia From encyclopedia.farlex.com/Ourmiah "Capital of West Azerbaijan province, northwestern Iran, 130 km/81 mi southwest of Tabriz; population (1991) 357,400. Urmia is situated on a large, fertile plain to the west of Lake Urmia. Formerly known as Reza'iyeh, Urmia dates from the second millennium BC, and is one of the reputed birthplaces of Zoroaster. The city is home to Iran's longest established Christian community." See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmia "Due to Urmia's relatively large Christian population growth by the end of the 19th century, Urmia also became the seat of the first American Christian mission in Iran in 1835. " It is near where Iraq, Turkey and Iran join. 95% of the population are Kurds or Azerbaijanis

The Shah would be the young en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Qajar who was Shah of Persia from July 16, 1909, to October 31, 1925 and the last of the Qajar dynasty. See also www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?Article=http://www.iran...

swanq: Thanks for the additional information! When we update the source record, we will expand the caption for this image.

Mohammad Khatam Who was Former Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) Commander is in the center Of Photo

بنیان گذار نیروی هوایی نوین

Interesting...these look a lot like how imams/clerics in Iran dress nowadays (e.g. M. Khatami, who is running for office in June, I believe).

The majority of individuals in this photography are Shia Muslim clerics/imams. Omar your assesment is correct as this is the typical garb worn in Iran by the religous scholars. One will note that some of the individuals are wearing black turbans and some are wearing white. The black turbans are a distinction among the scholars as who is a decendent of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through his daughter Lady Fatimah Zahra (as). Of the taller individuals in the back wearing fezes, we can make some assumptions that they are either non-clerical individuals or they are Sunni Muslims who are clerics. One last comment and hopefully someone can confirm its autheticity, is this photograph was taken at the time of a academic and scholarly debate between the 2 main sects in Islam in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan. The debates themselves were documented in a book known as Peshawar Nights. In a very old copy I have, I found a print of this very picture in that book which is why I believe this picture was taken at that time.

shakir farheen Shakir - That is fascinating! Thanks for the info. I wonder if that book is available for purchase anywhere in English? I'd love to get my hands on a copy.

Br. Omar - It is an interesting book for anyone who enjoys the freedom of intellectual debate. The book is available online for free, however if you wish to purchase it I included a link from Amazon as well below. The version I have is a very old copy so not sure if the new versions have the picture in it or not. [html] www.al-islam.org/peshawar/toc.html [PDF] www.e-resaneh.com/articlefiles/202105819.pdf [Paperback] www.amazon.com/Peshawar-Nights-Islam-Sunni-sources/dp/B00...

is it national football team of Qom city ? :-)