Among the most elusive recordings in the realm of non-English language 78 rpm discs for Westerners are those of Iranian and/or Persian origin. But there are two websites with particularly amazing information and sounds. Pooyan Nassehpoor’s Iranian Library of Recorded Sounds includes a trove of nearly a dozen jewel-like performances of Persian music of the the first half of the twentieth century.

And Amir Mansour’s breathtaking Persian Discography gives an authoritative history of the early history of the recording of Persian music as well as the history of recordings of regional ethnic minorities and key later recordings.