Zīr-i Sāyah-i Alburz: Zindagī nāmah: Persiska (Farsi) 2012

Born in 1925, Shahroukh Firouz comes from a long line of great Iranian men including his father Norsat Doleh Firouz and grandfather Abdol Hossein Mirza Faman Farma. Under the Shade of Alborz is his memoir. It begins with an insightful view of the simple pleasures of a powerful family, and moves on to Reza Shah’s rise to power and the trials and tribulations that the family had to traverse for survival. After his father was killed in prison, his grandfather took him under his wings, but he too died soon thereafter. Raised in a traditional Persian family and yet educated in the United States, Shahroukh Firouz returned to Iran in 1952 to play an active role in shaping a rapidly changing country during the second half of the twentieth century. He supported the government of his close relative Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh. After the fall of Dr. Mossadegh, Firouz worked industriously as a leader of the U. S. Marshal Plan’s Point 4 program, which was one of the most successful projects in the reconstruction and development of infrastructure and industry in Iran. Firouz continued to be active in government, industry and culture, and became one of the architects behind the Ali Amini ascendency to prime minister, which he clearly later regretted. From 1974 to 1978 he was Iran’s ambassador to Nigeria, where he initiated development programs, creating intercultural educational platforms, and the opening of trade between Iran and West Africa. Shahroukh Firouz’s proud role in transforming Iran, and his first person point of view of the country’s changing political and cultural standing are told in exquisite detail. Under the Shade of Alborz is in Persian and contains 200 personal photographs and documents. Shahroukh Firouz is also the author of Sofal: A History of Iranian Ceramics. He lives in Washington DC.