Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires
Subtitle: The Idea of Iran
Series: The Idea of Iran Ser; The Idea of Iran Ser
Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited
Published: 2021
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 506
ISBN-13: 9780755633791
Subjects: History; Politics and government; Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700; Ṣafavid Dynasty (Iran)
Description: In this book, leading scholars of Iranian history, culture and politics examine the meaning of the idea of Iran in the Safavid period by examining contemporary experiences of both insiders and outsiders, asking how modern scholarship defines the distinctive features of the age. While sometimes viewed as a period of decline from the high points of classical Persian literature and the visual arts of preceding centuries, the chapters of this book demonstrate that the Safavid era was nevertheless a period of great literary and artistic activity in the realms of both secular and theological endeavour. With the establishment of comparable polities across western, southern and central Asia at broadly the same time, the book explores some of the literary and political interactions with Iran's Ottoman, Mughal and Uzbek neighbours. As the volume and frequency of European merchants and diplomats visiting Safavid Persia increased, especially in the seventeenth century, and as more Iranians recorded their own travel experiences to surrounding Muslim lands, the Safavid period is the first in which we can document and explore the contours of Iran's place in an expanding world, and gain insights into how Iranians saw themselves and others saw them.
Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
Table of contents: title: Cover; title: Half-title; title: Title; title: Copyright; title: Contents; title: List of Illustrations; title: Acknowledgements; title: Contributors; title: Introduction; title: 1. The Body Politic and the Rise of the Safavids; title: 2. The Qazvin Period and the Idea of the Safavids; title: 3. Man of the Pen, Pillar of the State: Hatem Beg Ordubadi and the Safavid Empire; title: 4. The Idea of Iran in the Safavid Period: Dynastic Pre-eminence and Urban Pride; title: 5. Safavid Town Planning; title: 6. From Absolute Prince to Despot: The Political Representations of Safavid Iran in Seventeenth-Century France; title: 7. The Idea of Baqer al-Majlesi as 'The Idea of Iran: The Safavid Era'; title: 8. Practising Philosophy, Imagining Iran in the Safavid Period; title: 9. Popular Religiosity and Vernacular Turkic: A Qezelbash Catechism from Safavid Iran; title: 10. 'O Muhibbi! You've Lit Your Lamp with Khosrow's Burning Passion': Persian Poetry as Perceived by Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Authors; title: 11. Commercial Relations between Safavid Persia and Western Europe; title: 12. 'The World is an Oyster and Iran, the Pearl': Representations of Iran in Safavid Persian Travel Literature; title: 13. Local and Transregional Places in the Works of Safavid Men of Letters; title: 14. Shi'i Rulers, Safavid Alliance and the Religio-Political Landscape of the Deccan; title: 15. Safavids and Ozbeks; title: 16. The Evolution of the Safavid Policy towards Eastern Georgia; title: 17. Flora in Safavid Paintings from Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama and Later Works; title: 18. The Making of New Art: From the Khazana to its Audience at the Court of Shah Soleyman; title: Index