The western Christian presence in the Russias and Qajar Persia, c.1760-1870 /
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Winner of The 2018 Saidi-Sirjani Book Award In The Western Christian Presence in the Russias and Qājār Persia, c.1760-c.1870 , Thomas O'Flynn vividly paints the life and times of missionary enterprises in early nineteenth-century Russia and Persia at a moment of immense change when Tsarist Russia embarked on an expansionist campaign reaching to the Caucasus. Simultaneously he charts the relationship between the new Persian dynasty of the Qājārs and missionary activity on the part of European and American missionaries. This book reconstructs that world from a predominantly religious perspective. It recounts the sustaining ideals as well as the everyday struggles of the western missionaries, Protestant (Scottish, Basel and American Congregationalist) and Catholic (Jesuit and Vincentian). It looks at the reactions of diverse tribal peoples, the Tatars of the North Caucasus, the Kabardians and Circassians. Persia was the ultimate goal of these missionaries, which they eventually reached in the 1820s. Altogether this study throws light on the troubled course of history in West Asia and provides the background to politico-religious conflicts in Chechnya and Persia that persist to the present day.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004313545 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and beyond (1602-1747) /
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In The Mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and Beyond (1602-1747), John M. Flannery describes the establishment and activities of the Portuguese Augustinian mission in Persia. Hopes of converting the Safavid ruler of the Shi'a Muslim state would come to naught, as would the attempts of Shah 'Abbas I to use the services of the missionaries, as representatives of the Spanish Habsburgs, to forge an anti-Ottoman alliance with the papacy and the Christian rulers of Europe. Prevented from converting Muslims, the Augustinians turned their attention to Armenian and Syriac Christians in Isfahan, later also establishing new missions among Christians in Georgia and the Mandaeans of the Basra region, all of which are described herein. The history of the Augustinian Order is generally under-represented by contrast with other Orders, and this study breaks new ground in existing scholarship.
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1 online resource (xi, 286 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004247703 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Orality and textuality in the Iranian world : patterns of interaction across the centuries /
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The volume demonstrates the cultural centrality of the oral tradition for Iranian studies. It contains contributions from scholars from various areas of Iranian and comparative studies, among which are the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition with its wide network of influences in late antique Mesopotamia, notably among the Jewish milieu; classical Persian literature in its manifold genres; medieval Persian history; oral history; folklore and more. The essays in this collection embrace both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, both verbal and visual media, as well as various language communities (Middle Persian, Persian, Tajik, Dari) and geographical spaces (Greater Iran in pre-Islamic and Islamic medieval periods; Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan of modern times). Taken as a whole, the essays reveal the unique blending of oral and literate poetics in the texts or visual artefacts each author focuses upon, conceptualizing their interrelationship and function.
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1 online resource (xx, 456 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004291973 :
1570-078X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Intangible spirits and graven images : the iconography of deities in the pre-Islamic Iranian world /
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Winner of the the Roman and Tania Ghirshman Prize 2015 by the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. This prize was established in 1973 by the donation made by Roman Ghirshman, one of the prominent French archaeologists of Pre-Islamic Iran. It is awarded annually for a publication in the field of Pre-Islamic Iranian Studies. In Intangible Spirits and Graven Images , Michael Shenkar investigates the perception of ancient Iranian deities and their representation in the Iranian cults. This ground-breaking study traces the evolution of the images of these deities, analyses the origin of their iconography, and evaluates their significance. Shenkar also explores the perception of anthropomorphism and aniconism in ancient Iranian religious imagery, with reference to the material evidence and the written sources, and reassesses the value of the Avestan and Middle Persian texts that are traditionally employed to illuminate Iranian religious imagery. In doing so, this book provides important new insights into the religion and culture of ancient Iran prior to the Islamic conquest.
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Revision of the author's thesis--Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013. :
1 online resource (xxii, 392 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004281493 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Zoroastrian myth of migration from Iran and settlement in the Indian diaspora : text, translation and analysis of the 16th century Qeṣṣe-ye Sanjān 'The story of Sanjan' /
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The Qesse-ye Sanjān is the sole surviving account of the emigration of Zoroastrians from Iran to India to form the Parsi ('Persian') community. Written in Persian couplets in India in 1599 by a Zoroastrian priest, it is a work many know of, but few have actually read, let alone studied in depth. This book provides a romanised transcription from the oldest manuscripts, an elegant metrical translation, detailed commentary and, most importantly, a radical new theory of how such a text should be "read", id est not as a historical chronical but as a charter of Zoroastrian identity, foundation myth and justification of the Parsi presence in India. The book fills a lacuna that has been acutely felt for a long time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-242) and indexes. :
9789047430421 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Archaeology, artifacts and antiquities of the ancient Near East : sites, cultures, and proveniences /
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Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East follows the evolution of the author's scholarly work and interests and is divided into several categories of interrelated fields. The first part deals primarily with excavations and associated artifacts, issues in ancient geography and the identification of ancient sites in northwest Iran, the author's research involving the culture and chronology of the Phrygian capital at Gordion in Anatolia, and the chronology and Iranian cultural relations of a site in the Emirate of Sharjah. Part two is wide-ranging and includes chapters on Aegean and ancient Near Eastern cultural and political interconnections, the role of fibulae in revealing cultural and chronological matters, and the gender-determined usage of parasols and their recognition in excavated contexts. There are also articles specifically concerned with "Plunder Culture" and the forgery of both objects and their alleged proveniences. \'At 1,088 pages, this volume provides a wonderful sample- chosen by Muscarella himself - of forty papers spanning the author's career and many interests...This volume is so rich that it contains something for everyone.\' D.T. Potts, NYU, Bibliotheca Orientalis lxxIII n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2016
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1 online resource (vi, 1088 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004236691 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Shoshannat Yaakov : Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman /
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Shoshannat Yaakov honors Yaakov Elman, Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, and celebrates Elman's contributions to a broad range of disciplines within Jewish and Iranian studies. The fruits of Elman's seminal project of bringing together of scholars of Iranian studies and Talmud in ways that have transformed both disciplines, are well represented in this volume, together with scholarship that ranges from Second Temple Judaism to Late Antique Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Samaritanism and Christianity.
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1 online resource (xxv, 485, 54 pages) : portrait, illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004235458 :
1571-5000 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hospitals in Iran and India, 1500-1950s /
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This volume looks at hospitals in the post-medieval Indo-Iranian world from various perspectives. During the Safavid-Mughal periods hospitals were still tied to Avicennian medicine. However, in Qajar Iran and British India hospitals became important instruments for the spread of modern Western medicine. The papers in this volume present a significant panorama on the history of medicine and medical institutions in Iran and India during the early modern and the modern periods. The portrait that emerges is not homogeneous, but instead shows ambivalent and contrasting images. Hospitals can be seen as powerful symbols of the Muslim scientific civilization and then of modern medicine, nevertheless, they remained institutions relegated to the fringes of society - regarded with suspicion and usually reserved for the poor. Contributors include: Cristiana Bastos, Willem Floor, Claudia Preckel, Omid Rezai, Fabrizio Speziale, Hasan Tadjbakhsh, Anna Vanzan This book is copublished with the Institut Français de Recherche en Iran (IFRI) as numbers 74 in the Bibliothéque Iranienne series. Le présent ouvrage propose un panorama significatif d'études portant sur l'histoire et le rôle des hôpitaux dans le monde irano-indien au cours de la première modernité et de l'époque moderne. Les contributions rassemblées dans ce volume étudient l'hôpital depuis plusieurs perspectives, examinant cet établissement tantôt comme une institution scientifique, tantôt en fonction de son utilité sociale. Ce qui émerge de ces travaux ne constitue pas un portrait homogène, mais plutôt une image ambivalente et contrastée de ces établissements. Les hôpitaux peuvent être vus comme des symboles puissants de la piété des souverains musulmans, ou de la civilisation scientifique musulmane, puis du triomphe de la science occidentale moderne. Cependant, pour une très longue période, l'hôpital demeure une institution reléguée à la marge de la société, regardée avec suspicion et en particulier réservée aux indigents. Ce livre est une coédition avec l'Institut Français de Recherche en Iran (IFRI) comme n◦ 74 dans la série Bibliothèque Iranienne
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1 online resource (254 pages) :
9789004229198 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Akhbār wulāt Khurāsān /
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The present work is not an historical text in the regular sense of the word. It is rather an inventory of as many citations and borrowings in later sources as possible from a text now lost. Written in Arabic, the Akhbār wulāt Khurāsān was started by ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad al-Sallāmi (d. 300/912) of Khwār near Bayhaq, whose account ran to the year 289/902, and then continued by his brother Abū ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Sallāmī, finishing in the year 344/955. As stated by the author of the present compilation, the work is important in that it is an early history of the governors of Khurāsān which was not written from religious or political motives. A trusted source, it saw at least three abridgements and is cited or used by many later authors, among them Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (d. 440/1048), ʿIzz al-Dīn b. al-Athīr (d. 630/1233), and ʿAbd al-Ḥayy b. Ḍaḥḥāk Gardīzī (fl. middle 5th/11th century)
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1 online resource. :
9789004405806
9786002030177
Politics, poetry, and sufism in medieval Iran : new perspectives on Jami's Salaman va Absal /
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In Politics, Poetry, and Sufism in Medieval Iran Chad Lingwood offers new insights into the political significance of poetry and Sufism at the court of Sulṭān Ya'qūb (d. 896/1490), leader of the Āq Qoyūnlū. The basis of the study is Salāmān va Absāl , a Persian allegorical romance 'Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492), the great Timurid belletrist and Naqshbandi Sufi, dedicated to Ya'qūb. Lingwood demonstrates that Salāmān va Absāl , which modern critics have dismissed as 'crude' and 'grotesque,' is a sophisticated work of political and mystical advice for a Muslim ruler. In the process, he challenges received wisdom concerning Jāmī, the Āq Qoyūnlū, and Perso-Islamic advice literature. Significantly, the study illustrates the extent to which Jāmī's compositions integrated the Timurid and Āq Qoyūnlū realms.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004255890
The Sistani cycle of epics and Iran's national history : on the margins of historiography /
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This work examines the entire corpus of the Sistani Cycle of Epics , both parts included in Ferdowsi's Shāhnāmeh and those appearing in separate manuscripts. It argues that the so-called "epic literature" of Iran constitutes a kind of historiography, encapsulating reflections of watershed events of Iran's antiquity. By examining the symbiotic relationship of the texts' content and form, the underpinning discourse of the various stories is revealed to have been shaped by polemics of political legitimacy and religious conflict. This discourse, however, is not abstract. The stories narrate, within their generic constraint, some of the affairs of the Sistani kingdom and its relationship to the Parthian throne, mainly from the first century BCE to the end of the second century CE.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004282964 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rawḍat al-munajjimīn /
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In the first centuries of Islam, Arabic gradually replaced Middle Persian to become the language of the new religion and the administration of Iran. Works in Middle Persian were translated into Arabic and Persian authors also started writing directly in Arabic. From the fifth/eleventh century onward, there arose a need for works in New Persian, either translated from Arabic or composed in New Persian straightaway. The work published in this volume is a product of that period. Not much is known about the life of its author, Shahmardān b. Abi ʼl-Khayr. A resident of Gurgān and Astarābād, he was a scholar who also worked as a secretary and financial officer. In astronomy, he was a student of Abu ʼl-Ḥasan Nasawī (fl. 2nd quart. 5th/11th cent.). Shahmardān's work is an accessible, popularized compilation of the works of others, among them Abū Maʿshar (d. 272/886), Kushyār b. Labbān (fl. late 4th/10th cent.), and Bīrūnī (d. 440/1048)
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1 online resource. :
9789004403673
9789646781795
Asnād-i pādiriyān-i Karmilī : Bāz mānda az ʿaṣr-i Shāh ʿAbbās-i Ṣafawī /
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During the reign of the Safavid Shāh ʿAbbās I (reg. 996-1038/1588-1629), Isfahan was the center of power, diplomacy and trade of Iran. Every year scores of diplomatic envoys and traders would make their way to the capital in pursuit of some political or commercial gain. The present collection of Persian letters and documents, whose originals are kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples, gives a fine view of the major issues in international relations that ʿAbbās I had to deal with during most of his reign. The collection consists for the greater part of translations of documents from various European courts and religious bodies and authorities, prepared by the interpreters of the Carmelite mission in Isfahan. Among the subjects: the silk trade, Anglo-Spanish relations, the threat of the Ottomans, the importance of Russia in an alternative trade route to Europe, foreign access to Persia's ports, and the interests of the Catholic church.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404120
9789646781955
Minhāj al-ʿulā : Risalaʾī dar bāb-i ḥukūmat-i qānūn /
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In the beginning, Qajar rulership (1210-1344/1796-1925) pretty much reflected the traditional, top-down leadership common among the Turkic tribes from which this dynasty had come forth. It was only under Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh Qājār (r. 1264-1313/1848-96) that serious attempts at reforms were made, initially under Chancellor Mīrzā Taqī Khān, in office between 1264/1848 and 1268/1851. However, Amīr Kabīr's energetic initiatives met with internal resistence, leading to his downfall and subsequent murder in a bathhouse in Fin Garden, Kashan, in 1268/1852. In the years following, Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh introduced various administrative initiatives, but ineffectiveness and internal resistence remained important impediments to genuine reforms. Well-structured and lucid, the present work by Abū Ṭālib Bihbihānī is one of several memoranda on reform that were sent to the shah in the course of his reign. Focussing on the separation of powers as codified in European constitutional law, many of its suggestions were implemented in Iran's first constitution of 1906-07.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405592
9789648700909
Studies on Iran and the Caucasus. In honour of Garnik Asatrian /
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This unique collection of essays by leading international scholars gives a profound introduction into the great diversity and richness of facets forming the study of one of earth's most exciting areas, the Iranian and Caucasian lands. Each of the 37 contributions sheds light on a very special topic, the range of which comprises historical, cultural, ethnographical, religious, political and last but not least literary and linguistic issues, beginning from the late antiquity up to current times. Especially during the last decennia these two regions gained greater interest worldwide due to several developments in politics and culture. This fact grants the book, intended as a festschrift for Prof. Garnik Asatrian, a special relevance. Contributors: Victoria Arakelova; Marco Bais; Uwe Bläsing; Vahe S. Boyajian; Claudia A. Ciancaglini; Johnny Cheung; Viacheslav A. Chirikba; Matteo Compareti; Caspar ten Dam; Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst; Kaveh Farrokh; Aldo Ferrari; Ela Filippone; Khachik Gevorgian; Jost Gippert; Nagihan Haliloğlu; Elif Kanca; Pascal Kluge; Anna Krasnowolska; Vladimir Livshits; Hirotake Maeda; Irina Morozova; Irène Natchkebia; Peter Nicolaus; Antonio Panaino; Mikhail Pelevin; Adriano V. Rossi; James R. Russell; Dan Shapira; Wolfgang Schulze; Martin Schwarz; Roman Smbatian; Donald Stilo; Çakır Ceyhan Suvari; Giusto Traina; Garry Trompf; Matthias Weinreich; Eberhardt Werner and Boghos Zekiyan
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1 online resource (710 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references.
"Select bibliography of Prof. Garnik S. Asatrian": pages 693-700. :
9789004302068 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Alexander histories and Iranian reflections : remnants of propaganda and resistance /
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Alexander the Great's military campaign to conquer the Achaemenid empire included a propaganda campaign to convince the Iranians his kingship was compatible with their religious and cultural norms. This campaign proved so successful that the overt display of Alexander's Iranian and Zoroastrian preferences alienated some of his Greek and Macedonian allies. Parivash Jamzadeh shows how this original propaganda material displayed multiple layers of Iranian influences. Additionally she demonstrates that the studied sources do not always offer an accurate account of the contemporary Iranian customs, and occasionally included historical inaccuracies. One of the most interesting finds in this study is the confusion of historical sources that arose between the opponents Darius III and Alexander. Jamzadeh argues that the Iranian propaganda regarding Alexander the Great has contributed to this confusion.
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1 online resource (viii, 193 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004217522 :
2210-3554 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Sāmāniyān u Buwayhiyān u Ghaznawiyān /
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Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī's (d. 718/1319) Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh has been described by many as the first world history ever. Composed in Persian for the Mongol Il-khans Ghāzān (r. 1295-1304) and Öljeitü (Uljāytu, r. 1304-16), its aim was to set out the history and condition of the Mongol people, conquerors of the world (part one), followed by a description of the other peoples and nations of the world and their histories (part two). Given its unprecedented scope, Rashīd, vizier to both rulers, mobilized a whole team of specialists, informants, and collaborators to assist him in his task. Making use of written and oral sources, the part on the Mongols is a key source on the emergence and organisation of the Mongol empire, while the second part constitutes the first attempt ever at writing a history of the world. The section published here describes the history of the Samanids, the Buyids and the Ghaznavids.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404199
9789648700398
Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East : Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period /
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The volume comprises a collection of 20 of the 43 papers presented at the Third International Round Table on Safavid Persia, held at the University of Edinburgh in August, 1998 and edited by the Round Table's organiser. The Third Round Table, the largest of the series to date, continued the emphasis of its predecessors on understanding and appreciating the legacy of the Safavid period by means of exchanges between both established and 'newer' scholars drawn from a variety of fields to facilitate an exchange of ideas, information, and methodologies across a broad range of academic disciplines between scholars from diverse disciplines and research backgrounds with a common interest in the history and culture of this period of Iran's history.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047401711
9789004127746
The genesis of the Bábí-Baháʼí faiths in Shíráz and Fárs /
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The Bábí and Baháʾí Faiths represent two of the most important religious movements of modern times. This book relates the story of the evolution of the Bábí-Baháʾí community, beginning with the birth of its founder, Siyyid ʾAlí-Muhammad, known as the Báb, in 1819 and then traced over the next century and a half in the city of his birth, Shíráz. Its author, Mírzá Habíbuʾlláh Afnán, was himself born in the house of the Báb, reared by the widow of the Báb, who shared with him many stories of the Báb's life, then spent nearly a year with Baháʾuʾlláh in the ʾAkka-Haifa area, and some ten years in close proximity to Baháʾuʾlláh's son ʾAbduʾl-Bahá. He served for the next half century as the hereditary custodian of the house of the Báb, and as such was uniquely qualified to tell the story of the Bábí-Baháʾí Faiths in the city of Shíráz in remarkable and moving detail.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [381]-384) and indexes. :
9789047442349 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.