Pub Date : 2024-05-27DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10042
Caspar Hobhouse, Ali Aydin Karamustafa
This article offers a translation of the unpublished short historical chronicle of the Āyromlu tribe, a ten-folio manuscript located in the British Library. Entitled Ketābcha-ye tāyefa-ye Āyromlu (The Booklet of the Āyromlu Tribe), it was composed in 1886/1304 in the northwestern borderlands of Qajar Iran by one Mohammad b. Bahrām Khān Āyromlu. Although principally motivated by the author’s desire to obtain salaries and lands that had been taken away from his family by its rivals, the text recounts the fascinating history of the Āyromlu over the course of the Safavid, Afshar, and Qajar eras. Drawing on oral and written sources, the author offers us a picture of tribal life and politics in the Caucasian imperial borderlands between the Ottoman, Iranian, and Russian states.
本文翻译了大英图书馆收藏的一部未出版的 Āyromlu 部落简短历史编年史手稿，该手稿共十卷。该手稿名为 Ketābcha-ye tāyefa-ye Āyromlu（《Āyromlu 部落小册子》），由 Mohammad b. Bahrām Khān Āyromlu 于 1886/1304 年在伊朗卡扎尔西北边境地区创作。该书的主要动机是作者希望获得其家族被对手夺走的俸禄和土地，但同时也叙述了Āyromlu 家族在萨法维、阿夫沙尔和卡扎尔时代的精彩历史。作者利用口头和书面资料，为我们描绘了奥斯曼帝国、伊朗和俄罗斯三国之间高加索帝国边境地区的部落生活和政治。
{"title":"A People of the Frontier: An Account of the Āyromlu Tribe between the Qajar, Ottoman, and Russian Empires","authors":"Caspar Hobhouse, Ali Aydin Karamustafa","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10042","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a translation of the unpublished short historical chronicle of the Āyromlu tribe, a ten-folio manuscript located in the British Library. Entitled <jats:italic>Ketābcha-ye tāyefa-ye Āyromlu</jats:italic> (The Booklet of the Āyromlu Tribe), it was composed in 1886/1304 in the northwestern borderlands of Qajar Iran by one Mohammad b. Bahrām Khān Āyromlu. Although principally motivated by the author’s desire to obtain salaries and lands that had been taken away from his family by its rivals, the text recounts the fascinating history of the Āyromlu over the course of the Safavid, Afshar, and Qajar eras. Drawing on oral and written sources, the author offers us a picture of tribal life and politics in the Caucasian imperial borderlands between the Ottoman, Iranian, and Russian states.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-04DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10041
András Barati
One of the most characteristic and resilient elements of state documents promulgated by the chancelleries of medieval and early modern Turkic Islamic empires is the toghrā, or calligraphic signature of rulers. In the administrative history of Iran, the chessboard toghrā constitutes a short and lesser-known variant. This royal emblem appeared during the Safavid period as the result of several administrative reforms. In this paper, I outline the development of the toghrā in medieval Iran on the basis of surviving documents and fragments and then offer a detailed portrait of the birth and brief life of the chessboard toghrā. Furthermore, the conspicuous similarity between this form and the toghrās of Mughal emperors precipitates a comparison and close analysis of their different elements and characteristics. Drawing on both published and unpublished royal decrees, this article explores the possible dimension of interrelation and provides insights into their similarities and differences in use and content.
{"title":"The Chessboard Toghrās of Safavid Royal Decrees","authors":"András Barati","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10041","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most characteristic and resilient elements of state documents promulgated by the chancelleries of medieval and early modern Turkic Islamic empires is the <jats:italic>toghrā</jats:italic>, or calligraphic signature of rulers. In the administrative history of Iran, the chessboard <jats:italic>toghrā</jats:italic> constitutes a short and lesser-known variant. This royal emblem appeared during the Safavid period as the result of several administrative reforms. In this paper, I outline the development of the <jats:italic>toghrā</jats:italic> in medieval Iran on the basis of surviving documents and fragments and then offer a detailed portrait of the birth and brief life of the chessboard <jats:italic>toghrā</jats:italic>. Furthermore, the conspicuous similarity between this form and the <jats:italic>toghrā</jats:italic>s of Mughal emperors precipitates a comparison and close analysis of their different elements and characteristics. Drawing on both published and unpublished royal decrees, this article explores the possible dimension of interrelation and provides insights into their similarities and differences in use and content.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140580775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-19DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10039
Mariano Errichiello
In the early twentieth century, an esoteric interpretation of Zoroastrianism known as Ilme kṣnum became popular among the Parsis of India. Although research on the subject is scant, most scholars suggest that Ilme kṣnum draws largely upon the ideas promoted by the Theosophical Society in India. By examining primary sources in Gujarati, the present article illustrates the interpretation of the Zoroastrian cosmology proposed by Ilme kṣnum. Through a comparative analysis of its main concepts and terms, Ilme kṣnum is historicized in the context of the relations of the Parsi community with the Persianate and Western worlds. By framing Ilme kṣnum as a reconciliation between Persianate and Western forms of knowledge, the present article looks at historical entanglements as resources for the Parsi quest for religious authenticity, placing Zoroastrianism in global religious history.
{"title":"Beyond the Theosophical Paradigm: Ilme kṣnum and the Entangled History of Modern Parsis","authors":"Mariano Errichiello","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10039","url":null,"abstract":"In the early twentieth century, an esoteric interpretation of Zoroastrianism known as <jats:italic>Ilme kṣnum</jats:italic> became popular among the Parsis of India. Although research on the subject is scant, most scholars suggest that <jats:italic>Ilme kṣnum</jats:italic> draws largely upon the ideas promoted by the Theosophical Society in India. By examining primary sources in Gujarati, the present article illustrates the interpretation of the Zoroastrian cosmology proposed by <jats:italic>Ilme kṣnum</jats:italic>. Through a comparative analysis of its main concepts and terms, <jats:italic>Ilme kṣnum</jats:italic> is historicized in the context of the relations of the Parsi community with the Persianate and Western worlds. By framing <jats:italic>Ilme kṣnum</jats:italic> as a reconciliation between Persianate and Western forms of knowledge, the present article looks at historical entanglements as resources for the Parsi quest for religious authenticity, placing Zoroastrianism in global religious history.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140172945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-14DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10037
Narges Nematollahi
There is a consensus that the Greek epic does not present itself as “veiled expressions (ainos),” but in the Greek literary tradition, several episodes of Homer’s works have received allegorical readings by literary critics and philosophers. These readings are categorized according to the motivations of their authors into two groups: defensive or apologetic and appropriative or exegetical. Against this background, this paper examines the Shāh-nāma and its broader literary tradition, arguing that, first, the Shāh-nāma, too, does not present itself as a multi-layered text in need of interpretation. Second, we can identify the same two categories within the admittedly fewer allegorical readings offered for the Shāh-nāma; Ferdowsi’s prologues to some tragic stories of the Shāh-nāma resemble Homeric defensive allegoreses, whereas the allegorical readings by some Sufi poets and thinkers represent the appropriative group. Similarities and differences between the Greek and the Iranian traditions in each group will be also discussed.
{"title":"The Allegorical Readings of the Shāh-nāma in Comparison with the Allegoreses of Homer’s Epics","authors":"Narges Nematollahi","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10037","url":null,"abstract":"There is a consensus that the Greek epic does not present itself as “veiled expressions (<jats:italic>ainos</jats:italic>),” but in the Greek literary tradition, several episodes of Homer’s works have received allegorical readings by literary critics and philosophers. These readings are categorized according to the motivations of their authors into two groups: defensive or apologetic and appropriative or exegetical. Against this background, this paper examines the <jats:italic>Shāh-nāma</jats:italic> and its broader literary tradition, arguing that, first, the <jats:italic>Shāh-nāma</jats:italic>, too, does not present itself as a multi-layered text in need of interpretation. Second, we can identify the same two categories within the admittedly fewer allegorical readings offered for the <jats:italic>Shāh-nāma</jats:italic>; Ferdowsi’s prologues to some tragic stories of the <jats:italic>Shāh-nāma</jats:italic> resemble Homeric defensive allegoreses, whereas the allegorical readings by some Sufi poets and thinkers represent the appropriative group. Similarities and differences between the Greek and the Iranian traditions in each group will be also discussed.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-14DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10040
Ali Gheissari
This article introduces a miscellany notebook in Arabic and Persian, entitled Favāka al-basātin (Fruits of the Gardens), compiled around 1914 in Tehran by Hājj Mirzā Mohammad Tehrāni (d. 1914–21), a learned sugar merchant and bookseller. The notebook covers a broad range of topics on faith, philosophy, and ethics. It frequently draws on the Qurʾan and the Hadith, as well as Stoic proverbs, mostly from the Meditationes (Meditations) of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–80), which was well received in nineteenth-century Persian advice literature. The text also includes passages from the Thousand and One Nights and sections on modern sciences, such as electricity, gas laws, and liquid dynamics, and a theory of colors explaining the rainbow. The article’s introductory section provides brief biographical background of the compiler of this notebook, the second section presents an overview of its contents, and the final section explores the question of authorial subjectivity and the author-text relationship by putting in perspective the volume’s gradual compilation, its eclectic range of topics, and its fluid structure. Through its diverse reading and writing strategies, this notebook represents an informative and heuristic venue that opens new analytical angles on Iran’s cosmopolitan, multifaceted, and heterogenous intellectual milieu in the late Qajar period.
{"title":"Fruits of the Gardens: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Textual Pleasures in Late Qajar Iran","authors":"Ali Gheissari","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10040","url":null,"abstract":"This article introduces a miscellany notebook in Arabic and Persian, entitled <jats:italic>Favāka al-basātin</jats:italic> (Fruits of the Gardens), compiled around 1914 in Tehran by Hājj Mirzā Mohammad Tehrāni (d. 1914–21), a learned sugar merchant and bookseller. The notebook covers a broad range of topics on faith, philosophy, and ethics. It frequently draws on the Qurʾan and the Hadith, as well as Stoic proverbs, mostly from the <jats:italic>Meditationes</jats:italic> (Meditations) of Marcus Aurelius (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic>. 161–80), which was well received in nineteenth-century Persian advice literature. The text also includes passages from the <jats:italic>Thousand and One Nights</jats:italic> and sections on modern sciences, such as electricity, gas laws, and liquid dynamics, and a theory of colors explaining the rainbow. The article’s introductory section provides brief biographical background of the compiler of this notebook, the second section presents an overview of its contents, and the final section explores the question of authorial subjectivity and the author-text relationship by putting in perspective the volume’s gradual compilation, its eclectic range of topics, and its fluid structure. Through its diverse reading and writing strategies, this notebook represents an informative and heuristic venue that opens new analytical angles on Iran’s cosmopolitan, multifaceted, and heterogenous intellectual milieu in the late Qajar period.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-14DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10038
Alexander V. Akopyan
The aim of the work is to identify explanations for the lengthy circulation of Safavid coins bearing the central inscription, “ʿAli is the friend of God (ʿAli vali Allāh),” from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Studying the coins from the period and the hoards in which they were found, alongside historical narratives, ethnographic information, and religious texts, sheds light on their meaning and reception in their Shiʿi environment. The special attitude towards these coins accounts for the widespread imitation of these coins, which came to dominate Iranian markets during this period, as predicted by Gresham’s law of “bad money.”
该作品旨在找出十七世纪至十九世纪带有中心铭文 "ʿAli is the friend of God (ʿAli vali Allāh) "的萨法维硬币长期流通的原因。通过研究这一时期的钱币和发现这些钱币的囤积地，以及历史叙事、人种学信息和宗教文本，可以了解这些钱币在什叶派环境中的意义和接受情况。正如格雷沙姆的 "劣币 "定律所预言的那样，对这些钱币的特殊态度说明了对这些钱币的广泛仿制在这一时期占据了伊朗市场的主导地位。
{"title":"Ugly Yet Popular: the Remarkably Long Life of the Safavid Coins of Hoveyza","authors":"Alexander V. Akopyan","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10038","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of the work is to identify explanations for the lengthy circulation of Safavid coins bearing the central inscription, “ʿAli is the friend of God (<jats:italic>ʿAli vali Allāh</jats:italic>),” from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Studying the coins from the period and the hoards in which they were found, alongside historical narratives, ethnographic information, and religious texts, sheds light on their meaning and reception in their Shiʿi environment. The special attitude towards these coins accounts for the widespread imitation of these coins, which came to dominate Iranian markets during this period, as predicted by Gresham’s law of “bad money.”","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-05DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10036
S. Arjomand
{"title":"The Second Decade of Persianate Studies","authors":"S. Arjomand","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"80 13","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138600310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-15DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10035
Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
This paper focuses on the earliest surviving specimens of Persian debate poetry (monāzara), a genre which deals with controversial topics such as the Persians’ supremacy over the Arabs or the superiority of Islam over Zoroastrianism. Focusing on one panegyric by the poet Asadi Tusi (1010–70), this paper contextualizes such debates in a cultural milieu of eleventh-century Persia. It shows how poets, as an indispensable part of the court hierarchy, participated in constructing a new identity for Persians by formulating a Persian standpoint on controversies of the day.
{"title":"Fashioning Persian Identity: Asadi’s Staged Dispute between a Zoroastrian and a Muslim","authors":"Asghar Seyed-Gohrab","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10035","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on the earliest surviving specimens of Persian debate poetry (<jats:italic>monāzara</jats:italic>), a genre which deals with controversial topics such as the Persians’ supremacy over the Arabs or the superiority of Islam over Zoroastrianism. Focusing on one panegyric by the poet Asadi Tusi (1010–70), this paper contextualizes such debates in a cultural <jats:italic>milieu</jats:italic> of eleventh-century Persia. It shows how poets, as an indispensable part of the court hierarchy, participated in constructing a new identity for Persians by formulating a Persian standpoint on controversies of the day.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-04DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10034
Ayako Ninomiya
Sacred sites are loci with a special relationship with a particular religion and are indicators of religious indigenization. The Howz-e Shamsi (“Reservoir of Shams”) is one such structure considered sacred during the Delhi Sultanate period. Built around 1230 by Shams al-Din Eltotmesh b. Elam Khān (r. 1211–36), the reservoir served as an important element of urban infrastructure. The process of its sacralization can be traced in various Persian sources, mostly discourses (malfuzāt) of famous Cheshti Sufi masters. Although some works consulted in this study, such as Favāʾed al-sālekin (Benefits of the Seekers) and Meftāh al-tālebin (The Key of the Seekers), are considered fabricated and have been ignored in prior research, these texts are based on the rich local oral tradition of Delhi and can help us understand the cultural ethos of the time. This article presents a micro-history of an urban structure, showing how local narratives of sacredness were shared and how new contexts were provided for architecture to create the sacred Islamic geographies of the Indian Subcontinent.
圣地是与特定宗教有特殊关系的地点，是宗教本土化的标志。在德里苏丹国时期，豪兹-e沙姆斯(“沙姆斯水库”)就是这样一个被认为是神圣的建筑。该水库由Shams al-Din Eltotmesh b. Elam Khān (r. 1211-36)于1230年左右建造，是城市基础设施的重要组成部分。其神圣化的过程可以追溯到各种波斯来源，主要是著名的切什蒂苏菲大师的演讲(malfuzāt)。虽然本研究中参考的一些著作，如《寻道者的利益》al-sālekin和《寻道者的钥匙》Meftāh al-tālebin，被认为是捏造的，在之前的研究中被忽略了，但这些文本是基于德里丰富的当地口头传统，可以帮助我们理解当时的文化精神。这篇文章展示了一个城市结构的微观历史，展示了神圣的地方叙事是如何被分享的，以及如何为建筑提供新的背景，以创造印度次大陆神圣的伊斯兰地理。
{"title":"The Howz-e Shamsi and the Making of an Islamic Sacred Site in the Urban Space of Delhi","authors":"Ayako Ninomiya","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10034","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sacred sites are loci with a special relationship with a particular religion and are indicators of religious indigenization. The Howz-e Shamsi (“Reservoir of Shams”) is one such structure considered sacred during the Delhi Sultanate period. Built around 1230 by Shams al-Din Eltotmesh b. Elam Khān (<em>r.</em> 1211–36), the reservoir served as an important element of urban infrastructure. The process of its sacralization can be traced in various Persian sources, mostly discourses (<em>malfuzāt</em>) of famous Cheshti Sufi masters. Although some works consulted in this study, such as <em>Favāʾed al-sālekin</em> (Benefits of the Seekers) and <em>Meftāh al-tālebin</em> (The Key of the Seekers), are considered fabricated and have been ignored in prior research, these texts are based on the rich local oral tradition of Delhi and can help us understand the cultural ethos of the time. This article presents a micro-history of an urban structure, showing how local narratives of sacredness were shared and how new contexts were provided for architecture to create the sacred Islamic geographies of the Indian Subcontinent.</p>","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":"121 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-08DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10033
Meia Walravens
This article studies a literary puzzle, a maktub-e movashshah or acrostic letter, that is among the Persian monshaʾāt (stylized literary letters) of the Herat-based historian and secretary Moʿin al-Din Mohammad Zamji Esfezāri (fl. 1468–94/873–99). Created in praise of the Bahmani vizier Mahmud Gāvān (d. 1481/886), Esfezāri’s composition fits within a corpus of letters that testifies to the existence of epistolary contacts between Gāvān and the élites of the court of Soltān-Hosayn Bāyqarā (r. 1469–1506/873–911). Esfezāri’s letter is especially valuable because it elucidates Timurid intellectuals’ interests in such relations in the second half of the fifteenth/ninth century. An analysis of its message shows that Timurid literati could pursue long-distance patronage in the Deccan, without necessarily migrating to the region. The letter’s acrostic form, moreover, is an interesting case of how authors of Persian texts could strike a balance between local expectations and transregional aspirations in the Persian cosmopolis.
本文研究了一个文学谜题，一个maktub-e movashhah或顶体字母，这是赫拉特历史学家兼秘书Moʿ在al-Din Mohammad Zamji Esfezāri（fl.1468–94/873–99）中的波斯monshaāt（风格化的文学字母）。Esfezāri的作品是为了赞美巴赫曼尼维齐尔·马赫穆德·加维恩（公元1481/886年）而创作的，它符合一系列信件，证明加维恩与索尔特-霍萨因·Bāyqarā法院的精英之间存在书信往来（1469–1506/873–911年）。Esfezāri的信尤其有价值，因为它阐明了帖木儿知识分子在十五世纪下半叶/九世纪对这种关系的兴趣。对其信息的分析表明，帖木儿王朝的文人可以在德干地区寻求长途庇护，而不必迁移到该地区。此外，这封信的顶体形式是一个有趣的例子，说明了波斯文本的作者如何在波斯大都市的地方期望和跨地区期望之间取得平衡。
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