Description
Book SynopsisIn Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th – 15th Century Tabriz, an international group of specialists from different disciplines investigate the role of Tabriz as one of the foremost centres of learning, cultural productivity, and politics in post-Mongol Iran and the Middle East. While standard accounts of Islamicate history have long presented the 13th to 15th centuries as the bottom of the decline paradigm of old, the present volume demonstrates the vibrancy and originality of the intellectual and cultural production of this period by focusing on Tabriz among other capitals of the region. The volume particularly explores the transmission of knowledge and institutional and cultural patronage in the post-Mongol period. Contributors include Reuven Amitai, Nourane Ben Azzouna, Sheila Blair, Devin DeWeese, Joachim Gierlichs, Birgitt Hoffmann, Domenico Ingenito, Robert Morrison, Ertuğrul Ökten, Judith Pfeiffer, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, F. Jamil Ragep, and Patrick Wing.
Trade Review"The volume does not attempt to cover all aspects of intellectual activity in Tabriz in this period, a task which would be impossible to accomplish in a single volume. However, it fulfils expectations by contributing to a better understanding of the political, economic and intellectual life of Tabriz from the arrival of the Chinggissid rulers to Iran in the mid thirteenth century until the region became a disputed zone after the consolidation of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the sixteenth century." Bruno de Nicola in Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques, 29, 2014.
Table of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction Judith Pfeiffer (University of Oxford, UK) From Baghdad to Marāgha, Tabriz, and beyond: Tabriz and the multi-cephalous cultural, religious, and intellectual landscape of the 13th to 15th century Nile-to-Oxus region Part I: Intellectuals, bureaucrats and politics Reuven Amitai (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) Hülegü and His Wise Men: Topos or Reality? Devin DeWeese (Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA) ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla Simnānī’s Religious Encounters at the Mongol Court near Tabriz Domenico Ingenito (UCLA, CA, USA) “Tabrizis in Shiraz are worth less than a dog:” Saʿdī and Humām, a lyrical encounter Judith Pfeiffer (University of Oxford, UK) Confessional Ambiguity vs. Confessional Polarization: Politics and the Negotiation of Religious Boundaries in the Ilkhanate Part II: The Transmission of Knowledge Birgitt Hoffmann (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany) In pursuit of memoria and salvation: Rashīd al-Dīn and his Rabʿ-i Rashīdī Nourane Ben Azzouna (University of Vienna, Austria) Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl-Allāh al-Hamadhānī’s Manuscript Production Project in Tabriz Reconsidered Robert Morrison (Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA) What Was the Purpose of Astronomy in Ījī’s Kitāb al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām? F. Jamil Ragep (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) New Light on Shams: The Islamic Side of Σὰμψ Πουχάρης Part III: Tabriz and Interregional Networks Johannes Preiser-Kapeller (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria) Civitas Thauris. The significance of Tabriz in the spatial frameworks of Christian merchants and ecclesiastics in the 13th and 14th century Patrick Wing (University of Redlands, USA) “Rich in Goods and Abounding in Wealth:” The Ilkhanid and Post-Ilkhanid Ruling Elite and the Politics of Commercial Life at Tabriz, 1250-1400 Sheila Blair (Boston College, MA, and Virginia Commonwealth University, VA, USA) Tabriz: International Entrepôt under the Mongols Joachim Gierlichs (Qatar National Library, Doha, Qatar) Tabrizi Wood Carvings in Timurid Iran Ertuğrul Ökten (29 Mayis Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey) Imperial Aqquyunlu Construction of Religious Establishments in the Late Fifteenth Century Tabriz
