Court Cultures in the Muslim World: Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries(SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East)

Courts and the complex phenomenon of the courtly society have received intensified interest in academic research over recent decades, however, the field of Islamic court culture has so far been overlooked. This book provides a comparative perspective on the history of courtly culture in Muslim societies from the earliest times to the nineteenth century, and presents an extensive collection of images of courtly life and architecture within the Muslim realm.

The thematic methodology employed by the contributors underlines their interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to issues of politics and patronage from across the Islamic world stretching from Cordoba to India. Themes range from the religious legitimacy of Muslim rulers, terminologies for court culture in Oriental languages, Muslim concepts of space for royal representation, accessibility of rulers, the role of royal patronage for Muslim scholars and artists to the growing influence of European courts as role models from the eighteenth century onwards. Discussing specific terminologies for courts in Oriental languages and explaining them to the non specialist, chapters describe the specific features of Muslim courts and point towards future research areas. As such, it fills this important gap in the existing literature in the areas of Islamic history, religion, and Islam in particular.

Introduction Part 1: Politics: The Prophet and the Early Caliphates 1. Did the Prophet Keep Court? 2. The Representation of the Early Islamic Empire and its Religion on Coin Imagery 3. Great Estates and Elite Lifestyles in the Fertile Crescent from Byzantium and Sasanian to Islam 4. Court and Courtiers: A Preliminary Investigation of Abbasid Terminology Muslim Court Cultures of the Middle Ages 5. Redressing Injustice: "Ma'ālim" Jurisdictions at the Umayyad Court of Cordoba (Eighth-Eleventh Centuries CE) 6. Social Elites at the Fatimid Court 7. Courts, Capitals and Kingship: Delhi and its Sultans in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries CE 8. Between Dihlīz and Dār al-‘Adl. Forms of Outdoor and Indoor Royal Representation at the Mamluk Court in Egypt 9. The Mongol Court in Baghdad: The Brothers Juwaynī between Local Court and Central Court Muslim Court Cultures of Early Modernity 10. Monolithic or Dynamic? The Safavid Court and the Subaltern in the Late Seventeenth Century 11. Court Culture and Cosmology in the Mughal Empire : Humāyūn and the Foundation of the dīn-i ilāhī 12. Taming the Tribal Native: Court Culture and Politics in Eighteenth Century Shiraz 13. Global and Local Patterns of Communication at the Court of the Egyptian Khedives (1840–1880) Part 2: Patronage. Networks of Patronage 14. The Administration of Welfare under the Mamluks 15. Favouritism at the Ottoman Court in the Eighteenth Century Sciences 16. Enacting the Rule of Islam: On Courtly Patronage of Religious Scholars in Medieval and Early Modern Times 17. Ayyubid Princes and their Scholarly Clients from the Ancient Sciences Literature 18. Royal Dishes: On the Historical and Literary Anthropology of the Near and Middle East 19. “The Guidance of Kingdoms”: Function of a Mirror for Princes at Court and its Representation of a Court Art and Architecture 20. Art and Architecture of the Artuqid Courts 21. Court Patronage and Public Space: Abū ’l-asan anī al-Mulk and the Art of Persianizing the Other in Qajar Iran 22. Theatres of Power and Piety: Architecture and Court Culture in Awadh, India