India, March 3 -- There are worlds concealed in the remote corners of public libraries. Few citizens venture that far. The books lie untouched, like artifacts raised from a wreck, awaiting rediscovery. One such world rests inside the library of the Ghalib Academy in central Delhi. Metal shelves hold thousands of volumes in Urdu and Farsi, with a scattering in English-bearing titles as unexpected as Soviet Cinema Today. Among them sits an extraordinary book: Persia: The Immortal Kingdom (photo shows library staffer Taslima holding the same). The book opens with a portrait of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, captioned, "His Imperial Majesty, Shahanshah of Iran." Published in 1971, the hardbound volume was commissioned by the Shah to mark the lavis...