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Living Shi'ism : Instances of Ritualisation Among Islamist Men in Contemporary Iran /
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This book is about Iranian Islamism on grass-roots level. It provides a vivid, near-life portrait of young activist men who uphold this movement through their zealous support of revolutionary ideals and the present regime. It is based on interviews with a group of volunteers in the Iranian home guard movement known as basij during a period of four years. By focusing on beliefs and rituals of individual persons, it gives a unique picture of the shifting motifs behind Islamist engagement in today's Iran. The book contextualises the interviewed individuals within the wider framework of Iranian society and relates their stories to a discussion on ritual, emotion, embodiment and authority. It is of interest to anyone who seeks to understand the multifaceted driving forces behind Shi'ite Islamism today.
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1 online resource. :
9789004409248
9789004153455
Wrestling with the demons of the Pahlavi Widewdad : transcription, translation, and commentary /
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The Pahlavi Widēwdād (Vidēvdād), The Law (Serving to Keep) Demons Away , a fifth-century Middle Persian commentary on the Avestan Vidēvdād , describes rules and regulations that serve to prevent pollution caused by dead matter, menstrual discharges, and other agents. It recognizes the perpetual presence of the demons, the forces of the Evil Spirit -forces that should be fought through law-abiding conduct. In spite of its formidable textual problems, the commentary provides an invaluable quarry for the rules of the Zoroastrian community through its citation of regulations for the conduct of its members. Many topics are covered, from jurisprudence to penalties, procedures for dealing with pollution, purification, and arrangements for funerals. Viewed together, they provide the reader with an exquisite interlace of a community's concerns.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004269224
Another place : identity, space, and transcultural signification in Goli Taraqqi's fiction /
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In Another Place: Identity, Space, and Transcultural Signification in Goli Taraqqi's Fiction , Goulia Ghardashkhani examines the narrative process of the struggle for identification in the short stories of one of the well-established figures of Iranian contemporary prose literature. Goli Taraqqi's narratives of displacement and emigration are approached through a theoretical lens that foregrounds the significance of space and the role of retrospective self-narration in acts of cultural representation. Ghardashkhani studies Taraqqi's autobiographical narratives with an emphasis on the unstable meanings of homeland and Farang (a culturally constructed term signifying the West) and, thereby, accounts for Taraqqi's ironical style of narration in her memories of homeland recollected in exile.
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1 online resource (vii, 246 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004356948 :
1569-7401 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Weltgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Schia und Sunna : Ḫvāndamīrs Ḥabīb as-siyar im Handschriftenzeitalter /
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In Geschichtsschreibung im Handschriftenzeitalter , Philip Bockholt addresses the question of how history was written in the premodern Islamic world, and offers new insights into one of the most important chronicles composed in Persian, Khvāndamīr's universal history Ḥabīb al-siyar . Taking into account the political events which occurred in Iran and India around 1500, he examines the manuscript tradition of the work, and gives an in-depth analysis of how the author adapted his chronicle to the Shiʿi and Sunni religio-political outlook of his Safavid and Mughal overlords. Making use of new approaches in the fields of history and philology, Philip Bockholt convincingly proves how texts were transmitted and modified for various audiences during premodern times. In Geschichtsschreibung im Handschriftenzeitalter untersucht Philip Bockholt am Beispiel von Ḫvāndamīrs Weltgeschichtschronik Ḥabīb as-siyar , wie Geschichte in der islamischen Vormoderne geschrieben wurde. Vor dem Hintergrund der politischen Umbrüche in Iran und Indien um 1500 analysiert er die intentionale Ebene von Historiografie und zeigt auf, wie ein Historiker sein Werk in verschiedenen Fassungen sowohl für die Safaviden als auch die Moguln an schiitische und sunnitische Kontexte anpasste. Mit der Erforschung der Handschriftentradition eines der am häufigsten kopierten Geschichtswerke der islamischen Welt legt Philip Bockholt die Techniken des Autors offen, die Darstellung von Ereignissen im Sinne des jeweiligen Patrons zu verändern, wodurch Einblicke in den Prozess von Geschichtsschreibung sowie zu Textüberlieferung und Leserschaft im Handschriftenzeitalter möglich werden.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004442238
9789004442221
Regards français sur le coup d'etat de 1921 en Perse : journaux personnels de Georges Ducrocq et Hélène Hoppenot /
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Il existe peu de documents originaux pour permettre aux historiens de comprendre comment le coup d'État de Seyyed Ziya et de Reza Khan en 1921 s'est déroulé. Les journaux de deux diplomates français, Georges Ducrocq (attaché militaire) et Hélène Hoppenot (épouse du chargé d'affaires) nous donnent des informations de première main sur l'opinion publique et sur les activités des Britanniques ainsi que sur la vie quotidienne avant, pendant et après février 1921. Ils donnent des portraits contrastés de quelques uns des principaux politiciens iraniens et de personnages européens aussi importants que Starosselsky, Dickson et de nombreux autres. Few original documents enable historians to understand how the 1921 coup of Seyyed Ziya and Reza Khan was staged. The diaries of two French diplomats, Georges Ducrocq (military attaché) and Hélène Hoppenot (wife of the French chargé d'affaires) give us first hand information on public opinion, on the British activities and on everyday life before, during and after February 1921. They give contrasting portraits of main Iranian politicians and of such important European actors as Starosselsky, Dickson, Norman and many others.
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1 online resource (vi, 698 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004283770 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Laws of Ritual Purity : Zand i Fragard i Jud-Dew-Dad (A Commentary on the Chapters of the Widewdad) /
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"Laws of Ritual Purity: Zand iFragard iJud-Dew-Dad (A Commentary on the Chapters of the Widewdad) describes the various ways in which Zoroastrian authorities in the fifth-sixth centuries CE reinterpreted the purity laws of their community. Its redactor(s), conversant with the notions and practices of purity and impurity as developed by their predecessors, attempt(s) to determine the parameters of the various categories of pollution, the minimum measures of polluted substances, and the effect of the interaction of pollution with other substances that are important to humans. It is therefore in essence a technical legal corpus designed to provide a comprehensive picture of a central aspect of Zoroastrian ritual life: the extent of one's liability contracting pollution and how atonement/purification can be achieved"--
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"A commentary on the chapters of the Widewdad." :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004433953
9789004433946
Rūmī and the hermeneutics of eroticism /
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This is the first systematic examination of the esoteric significance of the bawdy tales and explicit sexual passages present in Rūmī's (d. 1273) Mathnawī , a masterpiece of medieval Perso-Islamic mystical literature and theosophic teachings. Using the relevant features of postmodern theories as strategic conceptual tools, and drawing on the recent interpretations of medieval kabbalistic texts, it is a fascinating examination of the link between the dynamics of eroticism and esotericism operative in Rūmī's Mathnawī . In some of these bawdy tales, the phallus is used as an esoteric symbol. The book concludes that these tales are used primarily to communicate esoteric secrets, particularly when this communication is contemplated along gender lines, mediated through erotic imagery, or expressed in sexual terms.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-242) and index. :
9789047422730 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Politics, patronage, and the transmission of knowledge in 13th-15th century Tabriz /
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In 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 .
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004262577 :
1569-7401 ;
Metaphor and imagery in Persian poetry /
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This volume is a collection of essays on classical Persian literature, focusing on Persian rhetorical devices, especially imagery and metaphors. The various contributions discuss the origin and the development of debate poetry, the transmission of Persian and Arabic tales to the works of Europeans medieval authors such as Boccaccio and Chaucer, but also the development of Aristotelian poetics and epistemology in Persian philosophical tradition. Furthermore, the baroque style of the Shiʿite author Ḥusayn Vāʾiẓ Kāshifī, the use of wine metaphors by mystics such as Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Ḥāfiẓ's original use of candle metaphors, the translation of Khayyām's metaphors into English, and the importance of a single metaphor in the epic Barzū-nāma are discussed. Contributors include: F. Abdullaeva, G.R. van den Berg, J. Landau, F.D. Lewis, N. Pourjavady, Ch. van Ruymbeke, A. Sedighi and S. Sharma
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1 online resource (viii, 281 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004217645 :
1569-7401 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ästhetik, Politik und schiitische Repräsentation im zeitgenossischen Iran /
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In Ästhetik, Politik und schiitische Repräsentation im zeitgenössischen Iran zeigt Christian Funke die Verflechtungen von Politik, Protest und schiitischer Materialität in der Islamischen Republik auf. Das Buch legt anschaulich und vielschichtig dar, wie die Proteste von 2009 und die ›Grüne Bewegung‹ mit umfassenderen Diskursen über Demokratie, Identität, Geschichte und Gegenwart sowie Religion und Politik verknüpft waren. Funkes Argument fußt auf Interviews und intensiver Feldforschung und umfasst ein breites Themenfeld von Farben über Banknoten bis hin zu städtischer Raumordnung. Funke bietet einen neuen Ansatz zur Theorie und Methodologie von Religionsästhetik und wirft ein neues Licht auf die › Grüne Bewegung‹ , indem er die islamischen Ressourcen freilegt, mittels derer sich ihr Protest artikulierte. In Aesthetics, Politics, and Shiʿi Representation in Contemporary Iran Christian Funke explores the entangled relationship between politics, protest and Shiʿi materiality in the Islamic Republic. He shows how the post-election protests of 2009 and the 'Green Movement' were part of larger discourses on democracy, identity, the present and the past, and religion and politics. Funke's argument is based on extensive fieldwork and interviews. He covers a broad array of topics, ranging from the interpretation of colours to the use of banknotes to the emergence of an urban spatial order. Funke offers a novel approach to the methodology and theory of material religion and by revealing the Islamic undercurrents in the 'Green Movement', his book provides a new and more appropriate picture of protest and religion in Iran.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004347342 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The messiah of Shiraz : studies in early and middle Babism /
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The 19th century saw an enormous shift in the authority structure of Iranian and Iraqi Twelver Shiʿism, with the victory of a theological school (Usulism) that stressed the power of the clergy. This is well known. What is less well known is that there was a parallel development of authority in the Shaykhi school and its offshoot, the Babi sect. Here, especially in later forms of Babism, the Shiʿite claim to charismatic authority reached its limits in hyperbolic attestations of divinity. The present text is in two parts: a study of how Shaykhism bifurcated into a form close to orthodoxy next to the highly unorthodox Babi movement. Part two examines how Babism changed after the death in 1850 of its founder, the Bāb.
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Based on author's 1979 thesis. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [705]-732) and index. :
9789047443070 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Illuminationist texts and textual studies : essays in memory of Hossein Ziai /
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The late Professor Hossein Ziai's interests focused on the Illuminationist ( Ishrāqī ) tradition. Dedicated to his memory, this volume deals with the post-Avicennan philosophical tradition in Iran, and in particular the Illuminationist school and later philosophers, such as those associated with the School of Isfahan, who were fundamentally influenced by it. The focus of various chapters is on translations, editions, and close expositions of rationalist works in areas such as epistemology, logic and metaphysics rather than mysticism more generally, and also on specific texts rather than themes or studies of individual philosophers. The purpose of the volume is to introduce new texts into the modern canon of Islamic and Iranian philosophy. Various texts in this volume have not been previously translated nor have they been the subject of significant Western scholarship.
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1 online resource (xx, 334 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004358393 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Persianate World : Rethinking a Shared Sphere /
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The Persianate World: Rethinking a Shared Sphere is among the first books to explore the pre-modern and early modern historical ties among such diverse regions as Anatolia, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Western Xinjiang, the Indian subcontinent, and southeast Asia, as well as the circumstances that reoriented these regions and helped break up the Persianate ecumene in modern times. Essays explore the modalities of Persianate culture, the defining features of the Persianate cosmopolis, religious practice and networks, the diffusion of literature across space, subaltern social groups, and the impact of technological advances on language. Taken together, the essays reflect the current scholarship in Persianate studies, and offer pathways for future research.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004387287 :
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.
Theater state and the formation of early modern public sphere in Iran : studies on Safavid Muharram rituals, 1590-1641 CE /
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During the Safavid period, the Shi'i Muharram commemorative rites which had been publically practiced since the 7th century, became a manifestation of state power. Already during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I (1587-1629) the Muharram rituals had transformed into an extraordinary rich repertoire of ceremonies and ceremonial spaces that can be defined as 'theater state'. Under Shah Safi I (1629-1642) these ceremonies ultimately led to carnivalesque celebrations of misrule and transgression. This first systematic study of a wide range of Persian and European archival and primary sources, analyzes how the Muharram rites changed from being an originally devotional practice to an ambiguous ritualization that in combination with other public arenas, such as the bazaar, coffeehouses or travel lodges, created distinct spaces of communication whereby the widening gap between state and society gave way to the formation of the early Iranian public sphere. Ultimately, the Muharram public spaces allowed for a shift in individual and collective identities, opening the way to multifaceted living fields of interaction, as well as being sites of contestation where innovative expressions of politics were made. In particular, the construction of the new Isfahan in 1590 is linked with the widespread proliferation of the Muharram mortuary rites by discussing rituals performed in major urban spaces.
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1 online resource (404 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004207561 :
1569-7401 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Iran in the early Islamic period : politics, culture, administration and public life between the Arab and the Seljuk conquests, 633-1055 /
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This book presents a translation of Bertold Spuler's groundbreaking work on the transformation of Iran from a Persian Zoroastrian Empire to a province of the Arab Muslim Empire to a land divided by a number of Persian and Turkish kingdoms.
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Editor's preface and acknowledgements -- Selective post-1952 bibliography -- Author's preface and acknowledgements -- General maps -- 1. Chronological overview of political history -- 2. The religious situation -- 3. The ethnic situation -- 4. Intellectual and cultural life -- 5. The administration of Persia -- 6. The legal situation -- 7. The social and economic situation -- Specialised maps -- Bibliography: Primary sources ; Secondary sources -- Indices. :
1 online resource (xxviii, 617 pages) : maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [526]-579)and indexes. :
9789004282094 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Mongol Empire between myth and reality : studies in anthropological history /
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In The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality , Denise Aigle presents the Mongol empire as a moment of contact between political ideologies, religions, cultures and languages, and, in terms of reciprocal representations, between the Far East, the Muslim East, and the Latin West. The first part is devoted to "The memoria of the Mongols in historical and literary sources" in which she examines how the Mongol rulers were perceived by the peoples with whom they were in contact. In "Shamanism and Islam" she studies the perception of shamanism by Muslim authors and their attempts to integrate Genghis Khan and his successors into an Islamic framework. The last sections deal with geopolitical questions involving the Ilkhans, the Mamluks, and the Latin West. Genghis Khan's successors claimed the protection of "Eternal Heaven" to justify their conquests even after their Islamization.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004280649 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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.
Memories of an impossible future : Mehdi Akhavan Sales and the poetics of time /
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In Memories of an Impossible Future: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time Marie Huber traces the quest for a modern language of poetry through different figurations of temporality in the works of one of Iran's foremost poets. Akhavān is placed in dialogue with European thinkers and emerges as an original voice in world literature. Chapters examine aspects of rhythm and metaphor, messianism and historicity, and functions of time in Akhavān's lyric and epic poems. Through a range of close readings Huber seeks to understand Akhavān's texts as crystallisations of a historical moment, both rooted in the Persian tradition and pointing beyond it. Her analyses combine attention to philological detail with meditations on the philosophical significance of Akhavān's poetics.
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1 online resource (185 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004323797 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From the Kur to the Aras : A Military History of Russia's Move into the South Caucasus and the First Russo-Iranian War, 1801-1813 /
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In From the Kur to the Aras George A. Bournoutian presents the first military history of the Russian advance into the South Caucasus in 1801 and the ensuing First Russo-Iran War (1804-1813) that was a crucial step in the Russian Empire's eventual expansion into the Caucasus region. Using both Iranian and Russian primary sources, the work vividly describes the strategies, military capabilities and personalities that clashed for ten years, ending with the Treaty of Golestan. Numerous and illustrative maps, as well as informative appendices, add to a balanced view of a struggle between and ancient and an emerging empire.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004445161
9789004445154