Concise Encyclopedia of Economics in Iran

Ash Navabi, a friend who was born in Iran and is a dual citizen of Iran and Canada, sent me a present a few weeks ago. It’s pictured above. It’s the Iranian version of my Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

Here’s the story he told me. This summer he visited Mashhad, Iran. It’s Iran’s second-most populous city, with a population of about 3 million. He came across a tiny bookstore.

Let’s have Ash tell it:

I asked the staff there if they had an economics section, and to my surprise, they did. Out of the approximately 30 books in the section, I noticed 2 by one [here he spells out my name in Farsi]–“David Henderson!”

In short, this is a copy of your Concise Encyclopedia, translated in Persian. The front page says this is actually the second printing of the book, from 2018, with 500 copies. I bought it for the cover price of 155,000 Tomans, roughly $5.

I told Ash that since 2008 I’ve sold rights to translate into various languages but, unless my memory is bad, I had not sold rights to translate into Persian. [My records on sale of rights, and this is uncharacteristic of me, are not good.] If I’m remembering correctly, this is a bootleg copy. But I’m not upset. Iran’s economy needs all the good economic thinking it can get.