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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Opposition to philosophy in Safavid Iran : Mulla Muḥammad-Ṭāhir Qummī's Ḥikmat al-ʻārifin /
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In Opposition to Philosophy in Safavid Iran , Ata Anzali and S. M. Hadi Gerami offer a critical edition of a hitherto unpublished manuscript that is arguably the most erudite and extensive polemical work against philosophy and philosophical mysticism from the Safavid period. The introduction offers an extensive and in-depth analysis of the status of philosophy in the late Safavid period, placing Mulla Muhammad-Tahir Qummi's (d. 1689) work in the broader context of the relevant cultural and intellectual developments of his time. The content of Hikmat al-'arifin itself is divided between a refutation of many traditional philosophical arguments about the nature of God and His attributes and, more importantly for those interested in Safavid intellectual history, attacks on Mulla Sadra and his students for synthesizing fundamental elements Ibn 'Arabi's thought into the framework of traditional philosophical discourse.
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Editors' introduction -- Philosophy and philosophers: hapless victims or elite contenders? -- Muḥammad-Ṭāhir Qummī -- Ḥikmat al-ʻārifin -- The critical edition -- Bibliography (sources used in the introduction) -- Critical edition of Ḥikmat al-ʻārifin. :
1 online resource (ix, 458 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004345683 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Persian pottery in the first global age : the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries /
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Persian Pottery in the First Global Age: the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries studies the ceramic industry of Iran in the Safavid period (1501-1732) and the impact which the influx of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, heightened by the activities of the English and Dutch East Indies Companies after c. 1700, had on local production. The multidisciplinary approach of the authors (Lisa Golombek, Robert B. Mason, Patricia Proctor, Eileen Reilly) leads to a reconstruction of the narrative about Safavid pottery and revises commonly accepted notions. The book includes easily accessible reference charts to assist in dating and provenancing Safavid pottery on the basis of diagnostic motifs, potters' marks, petrofabrics, shapes, and Chinese models.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004260924 :
2213-3844 ;
Ashraf al-tawārīkh : Waqāyiʿ-i marbūṭ bih dawra-yi ḥukūmat-i Muḥammad Walī Mīrzā dar Khurāsān /
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When the Qajar ruler Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1834) acceded to the throne in Tehran in 1797, he was confronted with many challenges. On the one side, foreign powers like England, France and Russia sought to increase their influence in Persia while internally his authority was disputed in different parts of the empire. A major concern was Khurāsān, where he had various challengers. Desirous to increase his presence there, he put his 15-year old son Muḥammad Walī Mīrzā (d. 1864) in charge of Khurasān in 1803. Over the next 14 years, Walī Mīrzā did much to assert Qajar control over Khurāsān, something in which he was for the most part succesful. The present work is an account of Walī Mīrzā's rule in Khurāsān. Written by Muḥammad Taqī Nūrī, vizier and intimate of the court, it constitutes a rare and detailed source of information on people and events in Khurāsān in that period.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404953
9789648700510
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Banī Isrāʾīl /
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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 Jews.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404182
9789648700336
Geschichtsschreibung und Sinngeschichte in Iran : historische Erzählungen von mongolischer Eroberung und Herrschaft, 1933-2011 /
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Bis heute werden die Eroberungen und die Herrschaft der Mongolen von vielen Iranerinnen und Iranern als traumatisches Ereignis oder gar als "Genozid" angesehen. Diese Einschätzung spiegeln auch die im Iran der Pahlavizeit und der Islamischen Republik publizierten Monographien und Artikel zur Mongolenzeit wider, die vor allem als Lehrbücher an Schulen und Hochschulen verwendet werden. Daher besteht der wesentliche Ansatz in Anja Pistor-Hatams Analyse dieser historischen Erzählungen im Sinn, den ihre Autorinnen und Autoren den kontingenten Ereignissen dieser Epoche geben. Dabei bedienen sie sich vielfach Kohärenzfiktionen, die der Konstruktion von (nationaler) Identität und Selbstgewißheit dienen, wie der Vorstellung vom Phönix aus der Asche: niemals wird eine fremde Macht "Iran" zerstören können, da es sich selbst nach dem "Mongolensturm" in neuem Glanz wieder erhob. The thirteenth-century Mongol invasions and their aftermath are largely seen as traumatic and even regarded as genocide by many Iranians. This is seen in the many texts on the subject published during the Pahlavi era and the Islamic Republic. In her book, Anja Pistor-Hatam takes a close look at these historical narratives and the meanings their authors give to the central events of this period. She explains how Iranian authors use fictions of coherence to construct their national identity as well as reassure themselves that there could never again be a power capable of destroying Iran.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004271876 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Formation of a religious landscape : Shi'i higher learning in Safavid Iran /
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In Formation of a Religious Landscape: Shi'i Higher Learning in Safavid Iran , Maryam Moazzen offers the first systematic examination of Shi'i educational institution and practices by exploring the ways in which religious knowledge was produced, authenticated, and transmitted in the second half of Safavid rule (1588-1722). By analyzing the deeds of endowment of the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī and other mosque-madrasas built by the Safavid elite, this study sheds light on the organizing mechanisms and structures utilized by such educational foundations. Based on the large number of ijazās and other primary sources including waqfiyyas , biographical dictionaries and autobiographies, this study also reconstructs the Safavid madrasas' curriculum and describes the pedagogical methods used to transmit religious knowledge as well as issues that faced Shi'i higher learning in early modern times.
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1 online resource (xiii, 290 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004356559 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
East and west of Zagros : travel, war and politics in Persia and Iraq 1913-1921 /
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C.J. Edmonds published articles in orientalist journals and co-authored with Taufiq Wahby A Kurdish-English dictionary (Oxford, 1966). He published his memoirs of Iraq, Kurds, Turks, and Arabs : politics, travel and research in North-Eastern Iraq, 1919-1925 (London - New York, 1957), but his Persian memoirs remained unpublished. It tells how, after studying oriental languages in Cambridge, he became Consular Officer in Bushire, participated in British campaigns in Mesopotamia during First World War. As a Political Officer in Luristan Edmonds was in charge of the oil fields' security and was sent to Northern Persia after the war, a direct witness of the Jangal upheaval and the 1921 coup d'Etat.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-338) and index. :
9789047426905 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.