Iván Szántó is chair of the Department of Iranian Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. His primary research interests concentrate on the arts of Islamic Iran, especially the Safavid and Qajar periods, as well as their connections with Central and Eastern Europe. He authored and edited several books on the subject, including Safavid Art and Hungary: The Esterházy Appliqué in Context.