Forthcoming by Asemana Books (April 17, 2026)

The Uninvited Guest

Histories of Persian Theatre in the Qajar Period

by

Duman Riyazi

ISBN: 978-1-997503-35-4

Iran’s performance traditions were vibrant and deeply rooted long before the Qajar monarchs travelled to Europe. Yet during their journeys, Naser al-Din Shah and Mozaffar al-Din Shah attended opera houses, theatres, concerts, and musical spectacles that became part of a complex cultural encounter whose full scope has remained largely unexplored.

The published royal diaries offer only brief references to these experiences. The broader record, however, lay scattered across European cities and archives.

For the first time, Duman Riyazi meticulously reconstructs and documents the Shahs’ European itineraries step by step, travelling city by city, following their routes, and uncovering forgotten documents that reconstruct what they truly witnessed. Through extensive archival research across Europe, this book brings to light a hidden dimension of Iran’s theatrical modernization, revealing a layered dialogue between traditions rather than a simple process of importing or adopting European models.

The Uninvited Guest is both a historical investigation and a rediscovery.

Duman Riyazi

Dr. Duman Riyazi is a theatre scholar, director, and translator. He completed his PhD in Theatre at the University of Florence, Italy, and pursued his postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the first Iranian scholar to complete a postdoctoral position in Theatre, and his work focuses on re-examining the modernization of Iranian performance, particularly during the Qajar period, through archival research and historical reconstruction.

In The Uninvited Guest, he undertakes an exceptional scholarly journey. Rather than relying solely on published royal diaries, he meticulously reconstructs and documents the European itineraries of Naser al-Din Shah and Mozaffar al-Din Shah step by step. Travelling city by city across Europe, he examined theatre archives, opera house records, concert programs, and municipal documents in order to reconstruct the performances witnessed by the Qajar monarchs, many of which had never been systematically documented or analyzed in Iranian theatre studies.

This research required years of cross-border archival investigation and comparative analysis. By assembling scattered materials from multiple European cultural institutions, Dr. Riyazi reveals a previously overlooked dimension of Iran’s encounter with modern stage practices. Rather than portraying modernization as a simple act of copying or importing European theatre, he demonstrates that it was the result of a layered and dynamic cultural exchange between traditions.

He specializes in Commedia dell’Arte and has translated several major theatrical works into Persian. Over the course of his career, he has worked closely with distinguished European masters of the tradition. As both a practitioner and historian, he bridges performance and scholarship, contributing to a deeper understanding of the intercultural forces that shaped modern Iranian theatre.