Books by Bruno De Nicola
The full book is available in Open Access in this link:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mo... more The full book is available in Open Access in this link:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781351025782/chobanids-kastamonu-bruno-de-nicola?_gl=1*18ih5y0*_ga*OTYzNzY4OTQ5LjE2OTkyODIzMjM.*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*MTcwNzIxMzkzOC42LjAuMTcwNzIxMzk0OC4wLjAuMA..
Abstract:
This book provides a novel approach to the history of medieval Anatolia by analysing political, religious and cultural developments in the region of Kastamonu during the reign of the Chobanid dynasty (c. 1211–1309).
During the 13th century, the Chobanids consolidated a local dynasty in western Anatolia – a borderland between Islam and Christianity – becoming cultural actors patronising the production of religious, scientific and administrative works in the Persian language. These works, though surviving today in manuscript form, have received little attention in modern historiography. The book therefore attends to this gap in the research, incorporating a detailed study of texts by little-known authors from the time. The book explores the relationship between Islam and the Chobanid dynasty in the context of the wider process of Islamisation in medieval Anatolia, hypothesising that Turkmen dynasties played a fundamental role in this process of Islamisation and acculturation. The Chobanids of Kastamonu, then, offers an in-depth study of a Turkmen local dynasty that achieved political autonomy, financial independence and cultural patronage in medieval Anatolia vis-à-vis the main political powers of the time.
Attentive to religious diversity, state formation and processes of transculturation in medieval Anatolia, the book is key reading for scholars of Middle Eastern history and Islamic studies.
This book investigates the development of women’s status in the Mongol Empire from its original h... more This book investigates the development of women’s status in the Mongol Empire from its original homeland in Mongolia up to the end of the Ilkhanate of Iran in 1335. Taking a thematic approach, the chapters show a coherent progression of this development and contextualise the evolution of the role of women in medieval Mongol society. The arrangement serves as a starting point from where to draw comparison with the status of Mongol women in the later period. Exploring patterns of continuity and transformation in the status of these women in different periods of the Mongol Empire as it expanded westwards into the Islamic world, the book offers a view on the transformation of a nomadic-shamanist society from its original homeland in Mongolia to its settlement in the mostly sedentary-Muslim Iran in the mid-13th century
The book investigates the development of women’s status in the Mongol Empire from its original ho... more The book investigates the development of women’s status in the Mongol Empire from its original homeland in Mongolia up to the end of the Ilkhanate of Iran in 1335. Taking a thematic approach, the chapters show a coherent progression of this development and contextualise the evolution of the role of women in medieval Mongol society. The arrangement serves as a starting point from where to draw comparison with the status of Mongol women in the later period. Exploring patterns of continuity and transformation in the status of these women in different periods of the Mongol Empire as it expanded westwards into the Islamic world, the book offers a view on the transformation of a nomadic-shamanist society from its original homeland in Mongolia to its settlement in the mostly sedentary-Muslim Iran in the mid-13th century.
The Mongols’ Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran offers a collection of a... more The Mongols’ Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran offers a collection of academic articles that investigate different aspects of Mongol rule in 13th- and 14th-century Iran. Sometimes treated only as part of the larger Mongol Empire, the volume focuses on the Ilkhanate (1258-1335) with particular reference to its relations with its immediate neighbours. It is divided into four parts, looking at the establishment, the internal and external dynamics of the realm, and its end. The different chapters, covering several topics that have received little attention before, aim to contribute to a better understanding of Mongol rule in the Middle East and its role in the broader medieval Eurasian world and its links with China.
With contributions by: Reuven Amitai, Michal Biran, Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, Bruno De Nicola, Florence Hodous, Boris James, Aptin Khanbaghi, Judith Kolbas, George Lane, Timothy May, Charles Melville, Esther Ravalde, Karin Rührdanz
Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia offers a comparative approach to understanding the sp... more Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia offers a comparative approach to understanding the spread of Islam and Muslim culture in medieval Anatolia. It aims to reassess work in the field since the 1971 classic by Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization which treats the process of transformation from a Byzantinist perspective. Since then, research has offered insights into individual aspects of Christian-Muslim relations, but no overview has appeared. Moreover, very few scholars of Islamic studies have examined the problem, meaning evidence in Arabic, Persian and Turkish has been somewhat neglected at the expense of Christian sources, and too little attention has been given to material culture.
The essays in this volume examine the interaction between Christianity and Islam in medieval Anatolia through three distinct angles, opening with a substantial introduction by the editors to explain both the research background and the historical problem, making the work accessible to scholars from other fields. The first group of essays examines the Christian experience of living under Muslim rule, comparing their experiences in several of the major Islamic states of Anatolia between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, especially the Seljuks and the Ottomans. The second set of essays examines encounters between Christianity and Islam in art and intellectual life. They highlight the ways in which some traditions were shared across confessional divides, suggesting the existence of a common artistic and hence cultural vocabulary. The final section focusses on the process of Islamisation, above all as seen from the Arabic, Persian and Turkish textual evidence with special attention to the role of Sufism.
This book presents a collection of articles that put forward original research and significant in... more This book presents a collection of articles that put forward original research and significant insight regarding several key issues related to knowledge and language in Middle Eastern societies. The aspects studied include: the role of knowledge and language in affirming and negating political agendas and self-identities within areas of conflict and tension; ideas regarding the usefulness and interaction of religious and secular knowledge; and the attributes that render knowledge and language, especially that which is believed to be of divine origin, outstanding and worthy of admiration. The selection of studies has been purposefully diverse to include a variety of languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew and Persian, within multiple traditions, including Hellenism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, while focussing on a range of periods, from the classical to the mediaeval to the modern, and examining a range of issues, such as methods of analysing and interpreting Persian, Turkish and Arabic literature, literary and other attributes of the Bible and the Qur’an, diglossic languages, the Turkish modernisation project, Turkish-Kurdish tensions, Andalusian music, Azerbaijani politics, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Edited Journal Issues by Bruno De Nicola
Medieval Worlds 14 (2021), Dec 1, 2021
For the winter edition, volume 14 of Medieval Worlds has moved to Anatolia and its ... more For the winter edition, volume 14 of Medieval Worlds has moved to Anatolia and its surroundings. Starting from northern Greece, Thessalonike, it visits urban centres of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries such as Ani and Ahlat in the east and Kastamonu in the north. It meets urban power brokers, explores city markets and their regulations and is enthralled by the role fortresses play in the historical tales of Anatolia. All of this is presented in the themed section Urban Agencies: Reframing Anatolian and Caucasian Cities (13th-14th Centuries), in which guest editors Bruno De Nicola and Matthew Kinloch have collected a series of compelling articles exploring the role of cities as political and economic hubs and their negotiations of power and autonomy in imperial and sub-imperial contexts.
Papers by Bruno De Nicola
Microstructures and Mobility in the Byzantine World, edited by Claudia Rapp & Yannis Stouraitis, 2024
Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 2023
This article focuses on MS Leiden Or. 95, which contains a version of the Ḥall mushkilāt al-Ishār... more This article focuses on MS Leiden Or. 95, which contains a version of the Ḥall mushkilāt al-Ishārāt by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1273), copied apparently in 1272 CE. This article explores the paratextual evidence present in the manuscript in order to reconstruct the history of the book and investigate aspects of cultural life in Mongol and post-Mongol Baghdad. It is an attempt, based on manuscript evidence, to contribute to the broader discussion on the impact that the Mongol invasions had on the cultural life of the Middle East in general and the city of Baghdad in particular. The analysis of the colophon, ownership marks, reading certificates, and annotations in this codex offer a particular case study of aspects of production, distribution, and consumption of knowledge in Ilkhanid Baghdad.
The Mongol World, 2022
The medieval Mongols, like their contemporary Chinese, Islamic or Christian counterparts, were or... more The medieval Mongols, like their contemporary Chinese, Islamic or Christian counterparts, were organized through a patriarchal and patrilineal social system. This means that men were the depositaries of political, economic and social power, while inheritance (both economic and political) was based on descent through the male line. However, in comparison with their sedentary counterparts, nomadic Mongol women were more outspoken in politics, had larger degrees of economic autonomy and were able to freely decide their religious affliation. Public prominence and freedom to dispose of wealth can also be observed among women of the Jurchen and the Qara Khitai, who shared a common nomadic background with the Mongols. 1 This higher status enjoyed by nomadic women is present even in the mythology shared by medieval nomadic Eurasian societies. A woman named Alan Qo'a plays a pivotal role in the myth that describes the primordial origin of the Mongols, serving as a link between myth and history. 2 Consequently, the high position given to women among Inner Asian nomadic societies before the rise of Chinggis Khan helps to explain the prominent role that they occupied in the Mongol Empire. Nonetheless, as the empire grew and other societies were incorporated into the Mongol domain, some of these social practices were transformed, reinforced or abandoned in a process of acculturation that took place between conquerors and conquered people. Original historical sources are also clearly masculine, with an overwhelming majority of them being commissioned, written and read by men. Nevertheless, these sources were not exclusively about men. Indeed, women appear constantly in the historical narratives. The presence of women in the public scene is also widely documented by travel accounts written by foreigners visiting the Mongol Empire, and biographies of prominent female individuals were included in chronicles and biographical dictionaries from China to the Islamic world. 3 The abundance of references to women in the sources seems to have captured, in writing, the prominent role that these women played at different stages in the expansion of the Mongol Empire across the large territory it occupied. Yet the peculiarity of this
Iranian Studies, 2022
The arrival of the Mongols in Iran in the thirteenth century made a deep impact on the political,... more The arrival of the Mongols in Iran in the thirteenth century made a deep impact on the political, economic, and religious life of the region. With the establishment of the Ilkhanate (1250-1335), the cultural life of Iran was also transformed. The territories under Mongol control saw the appearance of new architectural styles, a renaissance of Persian literature, and a burst in the production of Islamic manuscripts. Regarding this literary production, scholars have concentrated their efforts on studying important works composed in Mongol Iran either for their scientific, literary, or artistic value. However, most of this research focuses on individual manuscripts or specific works belonging to a concrete literary genre; these do not provide a holistic picture of the production, distribution, and consumption of the huge number of manuscripts surviving from the period. In an attempt to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon, this study looks at six different manuscripts, jointly referred to as the "Kāmūsī corpus," that share the rare characteristic of having all been copied by the same hand in fourteenth-century Iran. This article investigates the individuals involved in the production of these manuscripts, identifies the different works included in this corpus, and connects the production of these texts and the dissemination of knowledge in Ilkhanid Iran.
Medieval Worlds, 2021
This thematic section in Medieval Worlds came about by chance. We (Matthew Kinloch and Bruno De N... more This thematic section in Medieval Worlds came about by chance. We (Matthew Kinloch and Bruno De Nicola) arrived in Vienna within a few months of each other to carry out research, in the Division of Byzantine Research at the Institute for Medieval Research and the Institute of Iranian Studies, respectively. Finding ourselves working in the same building of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, we bumped into each other and conversations over coffee turned into discussions over lunch, which led (as most things do in academia) to the organisation of a workshop. Since our individual research, on Byzantine and Islamic history and literature, respectively, concentrated on the same period and on overlapping geographical spheres our conversations started to revolve around the various difficulties in framing our research outside of restrictive narratives dominated by specific state projects. Although our research specialisation and the disciplinary fields in which we operate present different pr...
Medieval Worlds, Dec 1, 2021
The final publication is available at Medieval Worlds via http://dx.doi.org/10.1553/medievalworld... more The final publication is available at Medieval Worlds via http://dx.doi.org/10.1553/medievalworlds_no14_2021s155.
After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), in which the armies of the Great Seljuqs defeated the Byzantine Empire, different waves of Turkmen people settled across Anatolia. By the 12th century, many of these groups had organised under the command of local warlords and established military control over different areas of Asia Minor under the tutelage of the Seljuqs of Rum. However, the mechanisms by which the new rulers articulated their control, especially over the urban settlements located in the regions they conquered, are poorly understood. This is even more dramatic in the case of northwestern Anatolia, a region that, during the 13th century, was a borderland between an expanding Turco-Islamic world and a defensive Christian Byzantium. The lack of narrative sources dealing with this particular part of Asia Minor has aggravated this lacuna, often excluding the city of Kastamonu from the studies of urban settlement in 13th-century Anatolia. This article attempts to change this situation by looking at surviving architectural evidence and non-narrative-literary sources that offer a particular view of the agents and agencies at work in the interaction between Turkmen rulers and urban elites in 13th-century Kastamonu.
Orientalistica, 2021
Russian translation of my “The Fusṭāṭ al-ʿadāla: a unique Manuscript on the Religious Landscape o... more Russian translation of my “The Fusṭāṭ al-ʿadāla: a unique Manuscript on the Religious Landscape of Medieval Anatolia.” In Peacock, A.C.S. and S. N. Yildiz (eds), Literature and Intellectual Life in Islamic Anatolia in the 14th-15th Centuries: Historical, Social and Political Perspectives (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2016), pp. 49-72.
Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti (eds.). Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals., 2020
Iran Namag: special issue dedicated to Professor Shirin Bayani, 2020
The writing of history is a dynamic process in which events, institutions, and personalities of t... more The writing of history is a dynamic process in which events, institutions, and personalities of the human past are interpreted and reinterpreted by different generations of historians. They systematically look back at a given historical moment to confirm, nuance, or debunk interpretations made by their predecessors. That is the usual cycle of historiography, which incorporates contemporary methodologies and paradigms to the discipline and then uses them to revise our interpretation of the past. The historiography of the Ilkhanate (r. 1260-1335)-that is, the dynasty of Mongol origin that ruled Iran-has also undergone different stages marked by the various approaches used by scholars interested in this 1 It is a privilege to contribute to this volume in honor of Professor Shirin Bayani, whose work have deeply influenced my research in the field of Persian studies. 2 Acknowledgements: This paper was produced in the framework of the START project
Cultural Encounters in Anatolia in the Medieval Period: The Ilkhanids in Anatolia, 2019
Ever since the decisive victory over the Seljuqs of Rūm in 1243, the Mongols and their Persian of... more Ever since the decisive victory over the Seljuqs of Rūm in 1243, the Mongols and their Persian officials had different approaches to the role that Anatolia should play in the Ilkhanate. The impact of Mongol rule and its reception among the Anatolian subjects was not homogeneous across the Peninsula. Eastern regions of Anatolia were geographically closer to the area where the Mongol court dwelt in North-Western Iran, which arguably gave them less room for political maneuver. On the contrary, in the western parts of Anatolia, different local dynasties emerged in the second half of the 13th century, in a complex political scenario that combined Mongol overlordship, the proximity to a decadent but prestigious Byzantium and the presence of Turkmen tribes to their political agenda. One of these dynasties was the Çobanoğlu of Kastamonu that ruled over North-Western Anatolia during the last few decades of the 13th century. This article aims to offer an overview of the relationship between center and periphery in the Ilkhanate by looking at the rule of the Çobanoğulları in Kastamonu and their political, religious and cultural development vis-à-vis the Mongols of Iran. The aim is to contrast opposing views on Mongol rule documented not only in the general narratives of the period but also to examine those works locally composed for the rulers of Kastamonu. By contracting local and more general sources, we aim to contribute to a better understanding of the complex political relationship between local dynasties in peripheral areas of the Ilkhanate and the central court of the Mongols of Iran.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2019
Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2018
In thirteenth-century Anatolia, different confessions of Christian and Muslim followers coexisted... more In thirteenth-century Anatolia, different confessions of Christian and Muslim followers coexisted within a variety of people of diverse cultural backgrounds, including Greek, Turkmen and Persian. Politically, this multicultural and multireligious environment was accompanied by the raise of several semi-nomadic Turkmen warlords that controlled different regions of the peninsula under the nominal rule of the Seljuq Dynasty of Rum. In this historical context, Anatolia witnessed a burst of literary activity in manuscript form favoured by the economic patronage of the ruling classes. In one of the surviving manuscripts of the period held at the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul, there is a unique munshaʼat (compilation of letters) written in Persian by a medical doctor of possible Iranian origin appointed in the second half of the thirteenth century to the regions of Kastamonu in north Western Anatolia. By looking at this rare compilation of letters, this paper reconstructs the little-known networks that existed among the members of a Persianised elite in Mongol dominated Anatolia arguing that these letters can offer a novel insight into the cultural life of the region.
Islamisation: Comparative Perspectives from History, Edited by Andrew Peacock, 2017
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Books by Bruno De Nicola
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781351025782/chobanids-kastamonu-bruno-de-nicola?_gl=1*18ih5y0*_ga*OTYzNzY4OTQ5LjE2OTkyODIzMjM.*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*MTcwNzIxMzkzOC42LjAuMTcwNzIxMzk0OC4wLjAuMA..
Abstract:
This book provides a novel approach to the history of medieval Anatolia by analysing political, religious and cultural developments in the region of Kastamonu during the reign of the Chobanid dynasty (c. 1211–1309).
During the 13th century, the Chobanids consolidated a local dynasty in western Anatolia – a borderland between Islam and Christianity – becoming cultural actors patronising the production of religious, scientific and administrative works in the Persian language. These works, though surviving today in manuscript form, have received little attention in modern historiography. The book therefore attends to this gap in the research, incorporating a detailed study of texts by little-known authors from the time. The book explores the relationship between Islam and the Chobanid dynasty in the context of the wider process of Islamisation in medieval Anatolia, hypothesising that Turkmen dynasties played a fundamental role in this process of Islamisation and acculturation. The Chobanids of Kastamonu, then, offers an in-depth study of a Turkmen local dynasty that achieved political autonomy, financial independence and cultural patronage in medieval Anatolia vis-à-vis the main political powers of the time.
Attentive to religious diversity, state formation and processes of transculturation in medieval Anatolia, the book is key reading for scholars of Middle Eastern history and Islamic studies.
With contributions by: Reuven Amitai, Michal Biran, Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, Bruno De Nicola, Florence Hodous, Boris James, Aptin Khanbaghi, Judith Kolbas, George Lane, Timothy May, Charles Melville, Esther Ravalde, Karin Rührdanz
The essays in this volume examine the interaction between Christianity and Islam in medieval Anatolia through three distinct angles, opening with a substantial introduction by the editors to explain both the research background and the historical problem, making the work accessible to scholars from other fields. The first group of essays examines the Christian experience of living under Muslim rule, comparing their experiences in several of the major Islamic states of Anatolia between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, especially the Seljuks and the Ottomans. The second set of essays examines encounters between Christianity and Islam in art and intellectual life. They highlight the ways in which some traditions were shared across confessional divides, suggesting the existence of a common artistic and hence cultural vocabulary. The final section focusses on the process of Islamisation, above all as seen from the Arabic, Persian and Turkish textual evidence with special attention to the role of Sufism.
Edited Journal Issues by Bruno De Nicola
Papers by Bruno De Nicola
After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), in which the armies of the Great Seljuqs defeated the Byzantine Empire, different waves of Turkmen people settled across Anatolia. By the 12th century, many of these groups had organised under the command of local warlords and established military control over different areas of Asia Minor under the tutelage of the Seljuqs of Rum. However, the mechanisms by which the new rulers articulated their control, especially over the urban settlements located in the regions they conquered, are poorly understood. This is even more dramatic in the case of northwestern Anatolia, a region that, during the 13th century, was a borderland between an expanding Turco-Islamic world and a defensive Christian Byzantium. The lack of narrative sources dealing with this particular part of Asia Minor has aggravated this lacuna, often excluding the city of Kastamonu from the studies of urban settlement in 13th-century Anatolia. This article attempts to change this situation by looking at surviving architectural evidence and non-narrative-literary sources that offer a particular view of the agents and agencies at work in the interaction between Turkmen rulers and urban elites in 13th-century Kastamonu.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781351025782/chobanids-kastamonu-bruno-de-nicola?_gl=1*18ih5y0*_ga*OTYzNzY4OTQ5LjE2OTkyODIzMjM.*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*MTcwNzIxMzkzOC42LjAuMTcwNzIxMzk0OC4wLjAuMA..
Abstract:
This book provides a novel approach to the history of medieval Anatolia by analysing political, religious and cultural developments in the region of Kastamonu during the reign of the Chobanid dynasty (c. 1211–1309).
During the 13th century, the Chobanids consolidated a local dynasty in western Anatolia – a borderland between Islam and Christianity – becoming cultural actors patronising the production of religious, scientific and administrative works in the Persian language. These works, though surviving today in manuscript form, have received little attention in modern historiography. The book therefore attends to this gap in the research, incorporating a detailed study of texts by little-known authors from the time. The book explores the relationship between Islam and the Chobanid dynasty in the context of the wider process of Islamisation in medieval Anatolia, hypothesising that Turkmen dynasties played a fundamental role in this process of Islamisation and acculturation. The Chobanids of Kastamonu, then, offers an in-depth study of a Turkmen local dynasty that achieved political autonomy, financial independence and cultural patronage in medieval Anatolia vis-à-vis the main political powers of the time.
Attentive to religious diversity, state formation and processes of transculturation in medieval Anatolia, the book is key reading for scholars of Middle Eastern history and Islamic studies.
With contributions by: Reuven Amitai, Michal Biran, Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, Bruno De Nicola, Florence Hodous, Boris James, Aptin Khanbaghi, Judith Kolbas, George Lane, Timothy May, Charles Melville, Esther Ravalde, Karin Rührdanz
The essays in this volume examine the interaction between Christianity and Islam in medieval Anatolia through three distinct angles, opening with a substantial introduction by the editors to explain both the research background and the historical problem, making the work accessible to scholars from other fields. The first group of essays examines the Christian experience of living under Muslim rule, comparing their experiences in several of the major Islamic states of Anatolia between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, especially the Seljuks and the Ottomans. The second set of essays examines encounters between Christianity and Islam in art and intellectual life. They highlight the ways in which some traditions were shared across confessional divides, suggesting the existence of a common artistic and hence cultural vocabulary. The final section focusses on the process of Islamisation, above all as seen from the Arabic, Persian and Turkish textual evidence with special attention to the role of Sufism.
After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), in which the armies of the Great Seljuqs defeated the Byzantine Empire, different waves of Turkmen people settled across Anatolia. By the 12th century, many of these groups had organised under the command of local warlords and established military control over different areas of Asia Minor under the tutelage of the Seljuqs of Rum. However, the mechanisms by which the new rulers articulated their control, especially over the urban settlements located in the regions they conquered, are poorly understood. This is even more dramatic in the case of northwestern Anatolia, a region that, during the 13th century, was a borderland between an expanding Turco-Islamic world and a defensive Christian Byzantium. The lack of narrative sources dealing with this particular part of Asia Minor has aggravated this lacuna, often excluding the city of Kastamonu from the studies of urban settlement in 13th-century Anatolia. This article attempts to change this situation by looking at surviving architectural evidence and non-narrative-literary sources that offer a particular view of the agents and agencies at work in the interaction between Turkmen rulers and urban elites in 13th-century Kastamonu.
by their father. Chinggis Khan’s second son, Chaghatai (d. c. 1241), became the ruler of the lands
of present-day Central Asia, conforming the origin of what became to be known as the Chaghataid
Khanate. After the death of its founder, this political entity experienced a long succession crisis that
lasted for a decade until a woman, Orghına Khatun, took control of the khanate in the name of her
son. Although a ruling woman is not an exceptional case in the Mongol empire, she was the first and
only woman that ruled over the Chaghataid Khanate, and that did so peacefully and without major
upheavals for nine years. Additionally, she did not adopt a passive role but was involved in the running
of the khanate, playing her cards in the always-unstable political arena of the Mongol empire. This
article looks at the ascension to the throne, the reign and the legacy of this Mongol woman in Mongol
Central Asia by contextualising her rule within the history of the region in general and in that of the
Mongol empire in particular.
TAULES DE DEBAT
Barcelona Dimecres 24 de abril de 2024, 17:00 h
The institution of female regency represents better that any other the high status given by the Mongols to their khatuns. Women had been ruling tribes, clans, regions and even empires among the Mongols by the time they invaded Iran in 1250s. In fact, just before the invasion of Iran, two women had been placed in the throne of the Empire for eight years. From Hülegü’s invasion of Iran and the Middle East (1256-60) onwards, the Mongols ruled and settled down in the region, beginning a process of acculturation with the native population that affected the status of Mongol women in Iran until the fall of the Ilkhanate in 1335 and beyond.
This paper will focus, therefore, on the different perceptions of queenship held by Mongols and Persians before the establishment of the Ilkhanate in Iran in 1258. It will explore how the Mongols changed some of their traditional conceptions of female status, such as the institution of regency, as part of the process of acculturation that occurred between a Mongol ruling minority and a Persian-Muslim majority during the Ilkhanate.
This paper is a section of a bigger project that seeks to analyse the status of Mongol women throughout the Mongol Empire. The main objective is to “incorporate” the history of these women into the general history of the Mongols by looking at the role played by them in different aspects of medieval Mongol society, such as marital strategies, politics, economy, warfare and religion. This will reinforce, contradict and/or add new insights into all these areas of Mongol historiography.
My presentation will deal with pre-imperial Mongolia up to the establishment of Chinggis Khan as Great Khan in 1206 A.D. This is a fundamental moment of Mongol history at which to assess the female role in medieval Mongol society. This was a time of continuity and transformation that merged together the traditional (and mythical) nomadic conception of the past and the reforms carried out in the course of Chinggis Khan’s ascension to the Great Khanate. By exploring the prominence of women in this formative period, I will examine the status role assigned to (or acquired by) women in pre-imperial Mongolia. I will focus on how sources such as the Secret History of the Mongols or the Jami‘ al-tawarikh depict these women and if there is a variation or continuity in the way sources treat historical female figures such as Hö’elun or Börte during the life of Chinggis Khan. Finally, I will complement my conclusions by presenting an analysis of the role of these women within the pre-imperial Mongol genealogical and marital strategy.
Mongol women should not be taken as anecdotic agents or placed at the margins of history; rather they are a constitutive element of pre and post Chinggiskhanid Mongolia. Understanding the role played by these women will allow a more comprehensive approach to the social history of the medieval Mongols and their interactions with the societies that later came under their domain.
Course details: https://summeruniversity.ceu.edu/2025-islam
Financial aid is available, in limited numbers.
Abstract This paper discusses the methodology necessary for the emerging field of Alevi Studies in its engagement with premodern manuscript sources, aiming to classify the literary corpus of Alevism and Bektashism and focusing on the various ways these texts engage with oral tradition. We can identify three categories of texts based on their relationship to orality: the first includes works produced by a single author that can be performed orally, the second encompasses texts compiled from oral accounts, and the third consists of poetry created either orally or in written form but later collected in cönks and mecmuas (miscellanea). All of these corpuses, resulting from different modes of production, require us to consider oral and written traditions in tandem. They necessitate the development of new methodologies that allow us to examine all variants of a given poem or story collectively.
Registration: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Mp1kZxOWTiGR00B51x894A#/registration
Abstract This lecture focuses on a mathematical multiple-text manuscript (MS Mashhad, Āstān-i Quds Library 5232) produced in the Ilkhanid period around the Maragha Observatory. The presentation follows the copy’s life trajectory from Ilkhanid Maragha to Mamluk Egypt, Safavid Isfahan, and eventually the shrine of ʿAlī ibn Mūsá al-Riḍā (d. 202/818) in Mashhad. Having passed through the libraries of prominent scholars of different periods such as Gregorius Barhebraeus (d. 685/1286) and Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī (d. 1030/1621), the manuscript represents the persistence of a similar tradition of mathematical scholarship in Islamdom.
For this symposium we will bring together international experts on and/or custodians of important collections of pre-modern written artifacts across Eurasia, including less-known collections located in Central, South Asia and Eastern Iran or in European institutions holding objects from those regions. The workshop aims to explore the rich and diverse manuscript collections from these regions in comparative perspective. Although these regions have been historically interconnected through trade, cultural exchanges, and shared intellectual traditions, they have often been studied separately due to, mainly, a colonial perspective that secluded each of these regions into a separate political, cultural and religious landscape. However, in pre-modern times, these areas where highly interconnected and borders between these regions where more permeable. The manuscripts from these areas offer a unique window into the cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity of the regions, as well as the cross-cultural influences that have shaped them over time.
Submission Guidelines
We welcome scholars from diverse fields, including history, linguistics, literature, and cultural studies, to submit abstracts for papers aligned with the workshop’s themes. Submissions should present novel research findings. Abstracts should not exceed 250 words, and a concise bio (maximum 200 words) stating your current academic affiliation is also required. Please combine both documents into a single PDF file, titled with your last name, and send it in English to both translapt@uni-muenster.de and nomansland@oeaw.ac.at by 15 November 2024. Notifications regarding acceptance will be dispatched by 15 December 2024.
Registration:
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HgfW2n7fRAiBjrxkEIKv5w#/registration
Abstract Art historians have long lumped together Timurid manuscript illustrations from the late 15th century as either belonging to “the school of Bihzad” or simply “the Herat school” of painting. However, whether this site or style was localized in a single workshop remains to be seen. The talk will unpack what is meant by “Bihzadian” and the “Herat school” in the late-Timurid period, and its reverberations and reiterations in the arts associated with the subsequent Abū’l-Khairid (commonly known as Shaybanid Uzbek) dynasty administering the centers formerly held by the Timurids in Transoxiana. Manuscript makers continued late-Timurid practices for decades after the broader Timurid collapse in 1507.
The discussion will distinguish discernible idioms attributed to Bihzad, or to those in his circle and copyists working in this mode, that continue to appear in illustrations adorning Turco-Persianate manuscripts made between 1490–1523. When present, colophons are not helpful in determining the manuscripts’ full provenance including textual and visual components completed at different times and in different places. The manuscripts demonstrate how artisans and styles that are often classified as late-Timurid also operated in early Abū’l-Khairid contexts and workshops through the 1520s. The discussion will delve into the very origins of Abū’l-Khairid arts of the book and their earliest illustrated manuscripts posited to be produced harnessing talent in Herat and Samarqand; not Bukhara, which they are often indiscriminately associated. Case studies will nuance the onset of Abū’l-Khairid artistic production in a particularly tumultuous era.
Event includes:
1. 27th May 2024: Roundtable: "Manuscripts and International Collaboration" (al-Beruni Institute, Tashkent)
2. 28th May 2024: Inaugural Lecture: Prof. Devin DeWeese: "The Mongol Conquests and the Transmission of Knowledge in Central Asia: Manuscript Culture and Intersections of the Oral and the Written, 13th—15th Centuries" (State University of Samarkand)
3. 29th - 30th May: International Conference: "Central Asian Manuscripts in the Mongol and Timurid Empires, 13th To 15th Centuries" (Bukhari Research Centre, Samarkand)
Registration:
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gpXv6mdsSxm9yOeIrhxJMQ
Abstract Persian inshāʾ, flourishing in Khurasan during the 6th/12th century, spread rapidly to Anatolia where the chanceries of new Turkish states exclusively used Persian. The oldest manuscripts copied in Anatolia date back to the Mongol period. Since the 1950s, collections of official and private correspondence have been edited, following Osman Turan’s work on decrees contained in the manuscripts of Paris and Leiden.
This presentation will introduce a new source, Mar‘ashī 11136, preserved in Iran, which has largely gone under the radar. this manuscript is the oldest example of Anatolian inshāʾ. The earliest part of this manuscript was evidently written in the 1240s by a secretary of the Saljuq state. It starts as a writing manual before transforming into a haphazard collection of letters, ending abruptly without a colophon. In the early 14th century, after the disappearance of the Saljuq sultans, a scribe from Aqsaray added a new section to the codex. The complex history of this manuscript allows us to trace the decline of the Rum Sultanate, shedding unprecedented light on the transitional period from the independent Sultanate to Mongol suzerainty after 1243. As for the texts included in this manuscript, they offer a triple interest for the study of diplomatic norms, the political history of the regions concerned, and the social history of “Persography.”
Online Zoom lecture
Registration
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u5YUjftjQf2B0DXsgwu2og
Abstract:
Ayasofya 2049 is a multiple compilation of 246 folios copied in the fourteenth century and contains sixteen Arabic and Persian works dealing mainly with futuwwa and related topics. The first work in the compilation is the Awṣāf al-ashrāf, on Sufi ethics by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274). It is followed by a series of futuwwa texts and handbooks bearing the generic name, Kitāb al-futuwwa. Some are composed by well-known authors such as al-Sulamī (d. 1021) and al-Suhrawardī (d. 1234), others by more obscure individuals, such as Akhī Aḥmad al-Muḥibb b. Shaykh Muḥammad b. Mikāʾīl al-Ardabīlī and Aḥmad b. Ilyās al-Naqqāsh al-Khartbirdī, as well as several unattributed Kitāb al-futuwwa. In addition to the series of works entitled, Kitāb al-futuwwa, is a short Arabic treatise of six folios, Kitāb al-Maʿrifa wa’l-maḥabba wa’l-futuwwa.
Of particular interest to this talk is the final work of the manuscript, the al-Hadiyya al-saʿdiyya fī maʿānī al-wajdiyya (ff. 241a-245b) composed in Persian, by a certain Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī who, I argue, was most likely the son of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī by the same name, a military commander. The work describes a samāʿ session in held in Erzincan that the Ilkhanid ṣāḥib-dīwān Saʿd al-Dīn [Savājī] (1298-1311) attended. The author Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī claims to have composed the work specifically as a gift for the ṣāḥib-dīwān. This talk first attempts to situate Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s work, embedded in a composite manuscript of futuwwa works, in the context of Erzincan under Ilkhanid rule. Constituting an important node along main trade routes headed for Tabriz, Erzincan was an economically vibrant city known for its textile production, Armenian futuwwa, and Muslim akhis. This talk also explores how the samāʿ functioned as a site of sociability during the Mongol period as a way of integrating local elite within imperial power structures through personal ties established with Ilkhanid officials.
Registration: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t4b0-0otQBiO7isUUrVhfw
Abstract:
Among the manuscripts copied in the celebrated atelier of the Timurid prince Bāysunghur (1397–1433) in Herat, two were of Persian historical works, which were completed during the years 834 and 835 AH (1431–1432): the Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy (History of the World Conqueror) and the Tārīkh-i Vaṣṣāf (History by Vaṣṣāf). The latter was miscataloged as the Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy in 1976 and due to the inaccessibility of the work to scholars, the manuscript has remained misidentified until now. Yet, this copy is the earliest complete manuscript of the work, containing parts one to four, including the earliest extant copy of part three. It is, therefore, of utmost significance for establishing a critical edition of the text. After introducing the previously misidentified manuscript, this presentation will address the aesthetic features of the book and discuss its four added illustrations in connection with two further manuscripts that contain illustrations from the same late source. It will also discuss the obscure identity of the scribe and his other works under Bāysunghur.
In Person:
Department of Art History, University of Vienna, Seminar Room 1, Garnisongasse13, 1090 Vienna.
Online:
Please register at https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_17rkdW40Tvi9AWD-GkAtnQ#/registration
Abstract:
How did medieval chroniclers writing in Persian narrate their past and present history and – the main focus of this paper – how were the historical events depicted in the manuscripts in which their work was written? The research presented here concerns the illustration of Persian chronicles in manuscripts produced between the thirteenth and the early nineteenth century, but the history they cover goes back to the earliest memories of the Iranian past, the Biblical prophets and rise of Islam, reflecting the formative role of religion in shaping political history. Over this long span of time, artists (and sometimes the historians themselves) chose some events to be illustrated and others not. These choices, explored here, must tell us something about the Iranians’ own view of the significant moments in their history and how it was perceived.
Registration: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jtYw9_Y_TXCkopYHFvdnCw
Abstract
Scholars have been aware of the complex manuscript and textual tradition of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa’s Uyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ since August Müller discussed it in the introduction to his edition of the work. I revised Müller’s conclusions in one of the essays accompanying Brill's new edition and translation, demonstrating that the ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ had circulated in three different versions (Emilie Savage-Smith et al (ed.), A Literary History of Medicine, Brill, 2020, vol. 1). In this paper, I will discuss how the scribes approached the copy of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's work, how they dealt with the textual problems derived from the coexistence of the different versions, and how these collation practices are reflected in the codicological, textual and paratextual features that we find in the extant manuscripts.
Registration: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XAS1BHvUREGiLUL5ytOdhg
What does it mean to organize history with respect to the odd and the strange? How are the latter terms conceptualized within a historiographical framework, and what might reading the past with an eye for peculiarity mean for us today? I explore such questions and more in this talk, which focuses on an anonymous and fragmentary Persian manuscript presumably called the Tārīkh-i Hirāt, likely authored ca. 495/1102 and copied in the 8th/14th century. The fifth chapter of this chronicle, entitled "On Rare Happenings in Herat," offers a historical progression of events taking place in and around Herat between 150/767 and 495/1102. In lieu of centering dynastic fortunes and concerns about governance, the chapter gives us a progression of themes including the activities of rebel prophets, fires breaking out in the marketplace, the birth of quintuplet girls, the one time a judge was beaten up, famine, drought, and much more. This form of chronicling does more than show us how past peoples theorized the "peculiar;" it suggests alternative imaginations for history which are not beholden to the lives of elite royal and military cliques. Such historiographical commitments throw light on our own practices as narrators of historywhich often privilege the imaginaries of governance-and offer us a chance to reconsider them. REGISTRATION https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XAS1BHvUREGiLUL5ytOdhg This is the seventh lecture in this year's Webinar series organised by the NoMansLand research project (FWF Y 1232) dedicated to the study of Islamic manuscripts in pre-modern Iran and Central Asia. Convenor: Project team "Nomads' Manuscripts Landscape"
Tuesday 14th March 2023, 5 pm CET.
Registration: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6G1txBG3TpyUyIjs8TaPwA
Arabic translations of Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest spawned numerous commentaries, summaries, and introductions. Throughout history none of the derivative works became as prominent as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s 13th century recession (Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī ). The yet unedited text is witnessed in at least 170 manuscripts as well as translations into Persian and Sanskrit, and had major impact on the study of astronomy in the Arabic speaking world.
The text relies primarily on the Arabic translation credited to Isḥāq b. Ḥunayn (d. c. 911) with corrections by Thābit b. Qurra (d. 901), but includes material from other Almagest versions and earlier commentaries, some of which are considered lost today. With these sources at hand al-Ṭūsī rephrased, corrected, and updated the Almagest. The diligent recension was originally written while al-Ṭūsī still resided at the Ismāʿīlī citadel of Alamut, but extensively studied and copied under Mongol patronage. Over the centuries, a rich literary tradition developed around the Taḥrīr, with renowned astronomers such as Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī (d. 1328/29) and ʿAbd al-ʿAlī al-Birjandī (d. c. 1527) writing super-commentaries that further facilitated the dissemination of the work.
This talk addresses the temporal and geographical distribution of extant manuscripts and takes a closer look at the surviving witnesses from the Mongol period. We attempt to trace the influence al-Ṭūsī’s colleagues and students had on the dissemination and study of the text, focusing in particular on marginal annotations and manuscript notes.
Tuesday 7th February 2023, 5 pm CET.
Registration:
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NlBS-QXJS32vHWMkBgrQEA
Abstract: "The study of nomads' manuscript cultures has understandably and rightly focused on the vast range of material related to Islam in one way or another. Yet even after conversion to Islam, the Ilkhanate remained a profoundly multi-religious society, both owing to the presence of substantial non-Muslim indigenous populations in areas such as Anatolia, and the Mongols' tolerance of the presence of western missionaries in the Ilkhanate, in particular the archbishopric of Sultaniyya. For the activities of these missionaries we are normally reliant entirely on the evidence of Latin sources, but the current paper tries to offer a new perspective by examining two Bible translations or arrangements into Persian that can be proved to have originated in this milieu, currently held in manuscript collections in Istanbul. They offer new insights both as to the role of local Christians in supporting the missionaries' conversion efforts, and into the transmission of the Bible in Persian."
6 NOVEMBER 2022, 5 PM CET, ONLINE ZOOM LECTURE
REGISTRATION:
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lRznEGeTSNCBiQMELzYcPg
The collapse of the Timurid empire set in motion the complex mechanisms of a political reorganization of Eurasia and led to the emergence of new political formations. Among them, the nomadic Abu l-khayrids dynasty (906-1007/1500-99) established their power in Transoxiana but remained a marginal polity trying to enforce their influence and authority in the region. They did so by 'favouring' religious orthodoxy, which enabled them to unify the legal basis of society and battled, on the outer contour of their territory, against Shi'ism, which had become the state ideology of Iran, which based its legitimacy as an "al-firqa al-nājiyya".
hybrid workshop registration:
Inaugural lecture (Thursday 1st of December)
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FG9Fl3x0RxmQFfbj5XBnFw
Conference
Day 1: 2 December 2022, 9.00 - 17.30
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M2L-Kit-SX2K3PmV62B_RA
Day 2: 3 December 2022, 10.00 - 17.00
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_np7gCAUqTj6at12WmeIijw
More information:
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/veranstaltungen/event-details/the-mongols-baghdad-knowledge-transmission-through-manuscript-cultures-before-and-after-the-conquest
REGISTRATION
https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IDBK0bEAQ8GZeUtK04tHkA
Though ignored by contemporary scholarship, the 13th-century Sufi Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūya (d. 1252) both inspired and bewildered generations of occultists, mystics, and messiahs across the medieval and early-modern Persianate world. This talk will illustrate the deconstructive ethos and radical openness of Ḥamuya's work through attention to a manuscript of his Mirror of Spirits (Sajanjal al-arwāḥ), dated to AH 656/1258 CE and held in Istanbul's Süleymaniye Library (Fatih 2645). On first glance, the manuscript reflects the countless collections of Sufi prayers housed in archives across the world. The Mirror soon takes an abrupt turn, however, unfurling a host of Qurʾānic pericopes, warped letters, and arcane diagrams whose rhizomatic forms permeate the manuscript's folia. Reading Ḥamūya's text against the prayer manuals, theoretical treatises, and talismanic images of his colleagues, I explore how the shaykh's playful deconstruction of textual and visual languages may have provoked readers to experiment with new ways of imagining Reality. Once activated by the embodied and affective practices of Sufi prayer, Ḥamūya's diagrams are not static representations, but generative tools for improvisation.