Iran After the Mongols: (The Idea of Iran)

Following the devastating Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258, the domination of the Abbasids declined leading to successor polities, chiefly among them the Ilkhanate in Greater Iran, Iraq and the Caucasus. Iranian cultural identities were reinstated within the lands that make up today's Iran, including the area of greater Khorasan. The Persian language gained unprecedented currency over Arabic and new buildings and manuscripts were produced for princely patrons with aspirations to don the Iranian crown of kingship. This new volume in “The Idea of Iran” series follows the complexities surrounding the cultural reinvention of Iran after the Mongol invasions, but the book is unique capturing not only the effects of Mongol rule but also the period following the collapse of Mongol-based Ilkhanid rule. By the mid-1330s the Ilkhanate in Iran was succeeded by alternative models of authority and local Iranian dynasties. This led to the proliferation of diverse and competing cultural, religious and political practices but so far scholarship has neglected to produce an analysis of this multifaceted history in any depth. Iran After the Mongols offers new and cutting-edge perspectives on what happened. Analysing the fourteenth century in its own right, Sussan Babaie and her fellow contributors capture the cultural complexity of an era that produced some of the most luminous masterpieces in Persian literature and the most significant new building work in Tabriz, Yazd, Herat and Shiraz. Featuring contributions by leading scholars, this is a wide-ranging treatment of an under-researched period and the volume will be essential reading for scholars of Iranian Studies and Middle Eastern History.

Table of Contents:
The Idea of Iran George Lane, SOAS Concepts of Government and State Formation in Mongol Iran Charles Melville, University of Cambridge Beyond History: Rashid al-Din and Iranian Kingship Stefan Kamola, Eastern Connecticut State University A Glimpse into the Unique Manuscript, the Safineh from Tabriz Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Leiden University Images of Iranian Kingship on Secular Ilkhanid Tiles Tomoko Masuya, University of Tokyo Applying a Diachronic Perspective in Reconstructing Precedents for the Illustrations in the Great Mongol Shahnama Olga M. Davidson, Boston University The Mausoleum of Uljaytu and the Citadel of Sul'aniyya Marco G. Brambilla, MGBDomus The Maragha School and its Impact on Post-Mongol Science in the Islamic world Tofigh Heidarzadeh, University of California, Riverside The Iranian Interlude: from Mongol Decline to Tamerlane's Invasion Shivan Mahendrarajah, University of St. Andrews Sufism in late Mongol and early Timurid Persia from 'Ala' al-Dawla Simnani (d. 736/1326) to Shah Qasim Anvar (d. 837/1434) Leonard Lewisohn, University of Exeter Architecture in the Interregnum: the Mozaffarid, Jalayerid and Kartid Contributions Bernard O'Kane, American University in Cairo Persian Narrative Poetry in the Eighth/Fourteenth - early Ninth/Fifteenth Centuries and the Legacy of Ferdowsi's Shah-nameh' Julia Rubanovich, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

About the Author :
Sussan Babaie is Andrew W. Mellon Reader in the Arts of Iran and Islam at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. She has previously taught and resesarched at Smith College, the University of Michigan and as the Allianz Visiting Professor at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich.Her exhibitions include the guest-curated Strolling in Isfahan at the Sackler Museum of Harvard University and she is the co-editor of Persian Kingship and Architecture (I.B.Tauris, 2015) and the award-winning monograph, Isfahan and its Palaces: Statecraft, Shiism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran.