The True Dream is a Persian satirical drama set in Isfahan in the lead up to Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911. This book has the Persian and English translation on facing pages. The introduction presents brief biographies of the authors - who wrote anonymously, but were all executed. One of the authors was the father of Mohammad-Ali Jamâlzâdeh, a pioneer of modern Persian fiction, and The True Dream was one of the first dramas, in European style, to be written in Persian. The book shows that today's struggle for a modern society began more than a century ago, and then and now pivots on the role of the Islamic clerics (the ulama).

Introduction Translation of The True Dream Appendix: The True Dream in Malekzâde's History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab is Associate Professor at Leiden University. He has authored a wide range of books, articles and translations in the field of Persian Studies and Islamic Spirituality and Mysticism (Sufism).

Sen McGlinn is a student of religion and a translator, with a particular focus on religion and politics in Iran in the modern period. He writes on Bahai Theology and related topics.