Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran: Art, Literature and Culture from Early Islam to Qajar Persia

I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation Iran's rich cultural heritage has been shaped over many centuries by its rich and eventful history. This impressive book, which assembles contributions by some of the world's most eminent historians, art historians and other scholars of the Iranian world, explores the history of the country through the prism of Persian literature, art and culture. The result is a seminal work which illuminates important, yet largely neglected, aspects of Medieval and Early Modern Iran and the Middle East. Its scope, from the era of Ferdowsi, Iran's national epic poet and the author of the Shahnameh to the period of the Mongols, Timurids, Safavids, Zands and Qajars, examines the interaction between mythology, history, historiography, poetry, painting and craftwork in the long narrative of the Persianate experience. As such, Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran is essential reading and a reference point for students and scholars of Iranian history, Persian literature and the arts of the Islamic World.

Table of Contents:
1. Charles Melville and Persian Pembroke. Miguel Kuczynski STUDIES ON HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY Iran and the Ancient World 2. On the Epithets of Two Sasanian Kings in the Mujmal al-Tawarikh wa-l-Qisas. Touraj Daryaee 3. The Changing Face of an Iranian Sacred Place: The Takht-i Sulayman. Josef Wiesehöfer 4. Legitimating Greece. Lynette Mitchell History and Historiography in the Early Islamic East 5. Between Persian Legend and Samanid Orthodoxy: Accounts about Gayumarth in Bal‘ami’s Tarikhnama. Maria Subtelny 6. Recent Contributions to the History of the Early Ghaznavids and Seljuqs. Edmund Bosworth 7. Idris ‘Imad al-Din and Medieval Ismaili Historiography. Farhad Daftary 8. The Kimiya-yi sa‘adat (The Alchemy of Happiness) of al-Ghazali: A Misunderstood Work? Carole Hillenbrand 9. ‘Help Me If You Can!’ An Analysis of a Letter Sent by the Last Seljuq Sultan of Kirman David Durand-Guédy 10. Imad al-Din al-Isfahani’s Nusrat al-fatra, Seljuq Politics and Ayyubid Origins. A.C.S. Peacock 11. The Rise and Fall of a Tyrant in Seljuq Anatolia: Sa‘d al-Din Köpek’s Reign of Terror, 1237-8. Sara Nur Y?ld?z Mongol Iran and its neighbours 12. ‘It is as if their aim were the extermination of the species’: The Mongol Devastation in Western Asia in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century. Peter Jackson 13. Juvayni’s Historical Consciousness. Beatrice Forbes Manz 14. Persian and Non-Persian Historical Writing in the Mongol Empire. David Morgan 15. Ruling from Tents: Some Remarks on Women’s Ordos in Ilkhanid Iran. Bruno de Nicola 16. Mamluks, Franks and Mongols: A Necessary but Impossible Triangle. Reuven Amitai 17. Protecting Private Property vs. Negotiating Political Authority: Nur al-Din b. Jaja and his Endowments in Thirteenth-Century Anatolia. Judith Pfeiffer Nomads, Rulers and Historians after the Mongols 18. The Mongol Puppet Lords and the Qarawnas. Michele Bernardini 19. Remarks on Steppe Nomads and Merchants. Thomas T. Allsen 20. Loyalty, Betrayal and Retribution: Biktash Khan, Ya‘qub Khan and Shah ‘Abbas I’s Strategy in Establishing Control over Kirman, Yazd and Fars. Rudi Matthee 21. Reading Safavid and Mughal Chronicles: Kingly Virtues and Early Modern Persianate Historiography. Sholeh A. Quinn British views of Qajar Iran 22. Sir John Malcolm and the Idea of Iran. Ali M. Ansari 23. Edward Granville Browne amongst the Qalandars. Jan Just Witkam STUDIES ON PERSIAN LITERATURE Literary Culture in the Persianate world 24. From Zulaykha to Zuleika Dobson: The Femme Fatale and her Ordeals in Persian Literature and Beyond. Firuza Abdullaeva 25. A Pictorial Aetiology of Ferdowsi as a Transcendent Poet. Olga Davidson 26. The Armenian Poet Frik and his Verses on Arghun Khan and Bugha. Theo van Lint 27. An Epic for Shah ‘Abbas. Gabrielle van den Berg The Theory and Practice of Persian verse 28. A Note on Form and Substance in Classical Persian Poetry. Homa Katouzian 29. Stringing Replica Pearls: Translations of Persian Verse into Verse. Barbara Brend PERSIAN AND ISLAMIC ART Aspects of Religion 30. The Prophet Muhammad’s Footprint. Christiane Gruber 31. Non-Islamic Faiths in the Edinburgh Biruni Manuscript. Robert Hillenbrand 32. A Tale of Two Minbars: Woodwork in Egypt and Syria on the Eve of the Ayyubids. Bernard O’Kane The Arts of the Book 33. Illuminating Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnameh. Sheila Canby 34. Rethinking Persian Painting: The Silsila of Sultan Muhammad. Layla S. Diba 35. Composite Figures in the Hadiqat al-haqiqa wa Shari‘at al-tariqa of Sana’i. Francis Richard 36. A Medieval Representation of Kay Khusraw’s jam-i giti namay. Marianna Shreve Simpson 37. The ?uraqqa‘ Album of the Zand period (PNS 383) in the National Library of Russia. Olga Vasilyeva and Olga Yastrebova 38. Interrogating Marks in a Persian Painting from Fifteenth-Century Herat: A Note. Barbara Bre

About the Author :
Robert Hillenbrand is Professor Emeritus of Islamic Art at the University of Edinburgh. A.C.S. Peacock is Assistant Director of the British Institute at Ankara. Firuza Abdullaeva is Director of the Shahnameh Project at Cambridgehttp://www.islamicmanuscript.org/inst.aspx?id=241 University.

Review :
To come