Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Morteza Hajizadeh
Guest: Dr. Sheiba Kian Kaufman
Episode: Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama (Oxford UP, 2025)
Date: January 7, 2026

Overview

This episode features Dr. Sheiba Kian Kaufman discussing her book “Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama.” She examines how early English drama engaged with Persian cultural paradigms—especially hospitality and adab (refinement/ethics)—to challenge and expand orientalist readings, and reveals their influence on cosmopolitanism, religious toleration, and concepts of monarchy. The conversation spans intellectual history, literary analysis, and personal reflection, highlighting Kaufman’s unique approach that blends rigorous scholarship with lived experience.

Main Themes and Discussion Points

1. Inception and Motivation of the Book (02:33)

• Genesis: The book began as a master's project at Oxford focusing on 18th-century travel writers’ perceptions of Persian religion, evolving during PhD work at UC Irvine to incorporate theories of hospitality.
• Cultural Resonance: Hospitality, deeply woven into Persian identity and globally significant across cultures, became a core lens.
• Influence of Derrida’s Hospitality & Ethics: Kaufman used Derrida’s ideas to analyze how hospitality shapes encounters with “the stranger” both practically and ethically.

Notable Quote:

“Hospitality is about welcoming someone at your door. There's risks, there's rewards, there's tradition, there's staging—theater is a natural place to exercise that.”
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 07:19)

2. Challenging Orientalism and Defining Persian Paradigms (08:45)

• Beyond Representation: The book moves past classic Orientalist approaches (e.g., Said) and employs the idea of “paradigms”—frameworks of analogical intercultural thinking—to analyze hospitality and toleration.
• Religion & Global Thought: Focus includes Zoroastrianism and Islam; explores how concepts like hospitality transmit across cultural and historical lines.
• Authenticity: Early travel writings sometimes genuinely captured Persian virtues, not just misinterpretations or exoticizations.

Notable Quote:

"There are elements of authenticity here... observers have not misrepresented, not exaggerated, not attempted necessarily to dominate, but actually to capture elements of the culture that were authentic."
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 12:12)

3. The Concept of Adab and Its Literary Influence (14:22)

• Definition Challenges: Adab is central, encapsulating refinement, ethics, manners—“a way of being”—but not easily translated to English.
• Transmission of Virtues: Analysis covers how historical and dramatic texts praised figures like Cyrus the Great for these deeply ingrained Persian virtues, seen as both ethical and practical.

Notable Quote:

"What I love about Adab is that it's not just theory. You really live it."
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 15:48)

4. Persian Figures and Tropes in Early Modern Plays (18:18)

• Unfamiliar Canon: Kaufman introduces little-known plays centering on Persian monarchs and themes, expanding the English literary canon.
• Edgar as “Persian Tom” in King Lear: Explores the moment Edgar is mistaken for looking “Persian,” reflecting early modern anxieties and offering a unique moment of care rather than hostility, differing from more familiar “turning Turk” tropes.

Notable Quote:

"At the heart of it is a... moment of care... a relationship between these two figures."
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 20:54)

5. Hospitable Temporality and Political Flexibility (23:48)

• Cluster of Elizabethan Plays: Examines how plays like Interlude of Godly Queen Hester perform biblical scenes using Persian figures as vehicles for political debate and cosmopolitan ideals.
• Hospitable Temporality: Defines this as moments when hospitality temporarily overrides rigid laws in favor of compassion and pragmatic governance.

Notable Quote:

"There's a sort of a pause or the time is out of that moment of the laws that bind the people."
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 28:57)

6. Persian Tolerance, Intercultural Marriage, and “Liberty of Conscience” (30:26)

• Travels of the Three English Brothers: A rare example of a positive intercultural marriage in English drama; reflects fantasy or propaganda around Persian tolerance.
• Contrast with Shakespearean Conversions/Tragedies: Unlike Othello or Merchant of Venice, here “liberty of conscience” is granted, signifying a radical shift in the portrayal of the Persian court.

Notable Quote:

"That's what I thought was very interesting, right, to look at. Where do you have these marriages not ending in tragedy?"
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 32:53)

7. Hidden Hospitality vs. Staged Hospitality (35:36)

• Patterns in Shakespeare: Hospitality between English and “Others” often goes unstaged (Othello, Caliban); Persian plays dramatize amicable relations.
• Importance for Social Imaginary: Imagination fills the gaps left by playwrights, modeling possible worlds of coexistence.

Notable Quote:

"There isn't just one globe. It is not just everything is horrible and hostile or everything is wonderful and hospitable; there's multiple globalities here."
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 39:35)

8. Political Symbolism and Persian Imagery under English Monarchy (41:12)

• Jacobean and Caroline Dramas: Persia is used to debate monarchy, reform, and legitimacy; the “mock king” tradition showcases flexibility in governance and virtue.
• Ritual and Ceremony: Persian settings align with debates over religious and civic ceremony in England; academic study of Persian/Arabic expands.

9. Cyrus the Great as an English Model (46:28)

• Cyrus Obsession: By the late 17th century, Cyrus appears in poetry, drama, philosophy, and romance as an emblem of virtue, tolerance, and liberal monarchy.
• Rethinking Monarchy: His legacy is used to promote ideas of toleration, liberality, and the limits of mere "tolerance," emphasizing active hospitality.

10. Personal Reflection: Persian-American Scholarship (51:49)

• Memory and Lived Experience: Kaufman discusses how diasporic memory, family stories, and personal identity inform and enrich scholarship.
• Metaphor of Sugar and Milk: The Parsis’ migration story becomes an analogy for enriching societies through welcoming difference—a lived ethics of hospitality.

Notable Quote:

"Few have gone to Shakespeare via Iran, and that meant a lot to me."
(Sheiba Kian Kaufman, 52:16)

11. Next Project: Queen Sheba (55:50)

• Shift to Female Monarchs: Her new research will focus on Queen Sheba as a global figure of wisdom and intercultural belonging, continuing the thread of hospitality and global exchange.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “Hospitality is about welcoming someone at your door. There's risks, there's rewards, there's tradition, there's staging—theater is a natural place to exercise that.” (07:19)
• “There are elements of authenticity here...observers have not misrepresented, not exaggerated...actually to capture elements of the culture that were authentic.” (12:12)
• "What I love about Adab is that it’s not just theory. You really live it." (15:48)
• "There isn't just one globe...there's multiple globalities here." (39:35)
• "Few have gone to Shakespeare via Iran, and that meant a lot to me." (52:16)

Important Timestamps

• Book’s Inception & Influence of Hospitality – 02:33–07:47
• Challenging Orientalism & Persian Paradigm – 08:45–13:26
• Adab, Virtue, and Lived Experience – 14:22–16:58
• Persian Identity in English Drama (Edgar as Persian Tom) – 18:18–22:08
• Lesser-Known Persian Plays & Hospitable Temporality – 23:48–29:54
• Intercultural Marriage & Liberty of Conscience – 30:26–35:36
• Hidden vs. Staged Hospitality in Drama – 35:36–40:02
• Persian Imagery and Political Legitimacy – 41:12–45:21
• Cyrus the Great’s Victorian Revival & Tolerance – 46:28–51:23
• Personal Reflection on Scholarship and Memory – 51:49–55:42
• Upcoming Work on Queen Sheba – 55:50–57:18

Summary Takeaway

Dr. Sheiba Kian Kaufman’s work opens up new pathways for engaging with early modern English drama, challenging orientalist interpretations by foregrounding authentic Persian concepts like hospitality and adab. Through methodical literary analysis and personal narrative, the episode explores how Persian paradigms not only shaped dramatic representations but also contributed to evolving ideas of identity, belonging, and cosmopolitan hospitality—realities still resonant today.