Thanks a lot for the links! I’ll follow these up. Regarding information on the church and migration of persian christians, you may want to check out the links below: My understanding is that these could be christians from any part of the then persian empire (which included iraq and syria) as opposed to only those living within the territory of present day Iran.

regards
Mahesh

http://sor.cua.edu/ChMon/Knanaya/KtmValiyapally.html

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/issues/hebrew_new_testament_book_found_.htm

Thank you for your comment. The church in Kottayam is fascinating; I was only able to find information on Syrian Christians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kottayam#Temples.2C_Churches.2C_Mosques.

Though I’m not sure where to find Iranian art in Geneva, I know that the Iran Heritage Foundation, based in England, is quite active and puts on a lot of programs in Europe. You can see their site here: http://www.iranheritage.org/.

Another good source might be the Iranian embassy in Switzerland: http://www.iranembassy.ch/ They may be able to direct you to summer courses or private instructors of Persian and will probably know about Iranian art in Switzerland. I hope that’s helpful; thanks again for your interest!

-Sepideh

I read your article on the persian exhibits on the parsarts page with fascination. I’m Indian and work with a thinktank on trade in geneva, switzerland.

I got a chance to familiarise myself with persian art during my overland trip from europe to iran a few years ago and it was a great experience. Persian art and architecture has also influenced Indian art as well (obviously the Taj is a well-known example) but I was suprised to find out that even in kerala ( in the south of India) where I’m from there’s a church in in town of kottayam established by early christian settlers from the persian empire which has a persian cross and the inscriptions are in pahlavi ( from the sassanian period).

Could you please tell me how I can find out about upcoming iranian art exhibitions here in Europe? I’m also interested in learning the beautiful persian language and am on the lookout for summer courses if any in europe.

thanks and keep up the good work!
Mahesh