Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran

I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation
Iran's rich cultural heritage has been shaped over many centuries by its rich and eventful history. This impressive book, which assembles contributions by some of the world's most eminent historians, art historians and other scholars of the Iranian world, explores the history of the country through the prism of Persian literature, art and culture. The result is a seminal work which illuminates important, yet largely neglected, aspects of Medieval and Early Modern Iran and the Middle East. Its scope, from the era of Ferdowsi, Iran's national epic poet and the author of the Shahnameh to the period of the Mongols, Timurids, Safavids, Zands and Qajars, examines the interaction between mythology, history, historiography, poetry, painting and craftwork in the long narrative of the Persianate experience. As such, Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran is essential reading and a reference point for students and scholars of Iranian history, Persian literature and the arts of the Islamic World.

Robert Hillenbrand is Professor Emeritus of Islamic Art at the University of Edinburgh. A.C.S. Peacock is Lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews, and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Firuza Abdullaeva is Director of the Shahnameh Project at the University of Cambridge.

1. Charles Melville and Persian Pembroke. Miguel Kuczynski
STUDIES ON HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
Iran and the Ancient World
2. On the Epithets of Two Sasanian Kings in the Mujmal al-Tawarikh wa-l-Qisas. Touraj Daryaee
3. The Changing Face of an Iranian Sacred Place: The Takht-i Sulayman. Josef Wiesehöfer
4. Legitimating Greece. Lynette Mitchell
History and Historiography in the Early Islamic East
5. Between Persian Legend and Samanid Orthodoxy: Accounts about Gayumarth in Bal'ami's Tarikhnama. Maria Subtelny
6. Recent Contributions to the History of the Early Ghaznavids and Seljuqs. Edmund Bosworth
7. Idris 'Imad al-Din and Medieval Ismaili Historiography. Farhad Daftary
8. The Kimiya-yi sa'adat (The Alchemy of Happiness) of al-Ghazali: A Misunderstood Work? Carole Hillenbrand
9. 'Help Me If You Can!' An Analysis of a Letter Sent by the Last Seljuq Sultan of Kirman David Durand-Guédy
10. Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's Nusrat al-fatra, Seljuq Politics and Ayyubid Origins. A.C.S. Peacock
11. The Rise and Fall of a Tyrant in Seljuq Anatolia: Sa'd al-Din Köpek's Reign of Terror, 1237-8. Sara Nur Y?ld?z
Mongol Iran and its neighbours
12. 'It is as if their aim were the extermination of the species': The Mongol Devastation in Western Asia in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century. Peter Jackson
13. Juvayni's Historical Consciousness. Beatrice Forbes Manz
14. Persian and Non-Persian Historical Writing in the Mongol Empire. David Morgan
15. Ruling from Tents: Some Remarks on Women's Ordos in Ilkhanid Iran. Bruno de Nicola
16. Mamluks, Franks and Mongols: A Necessary but Impossible Triangle. Reuven Amitai
17. Protecting Private Property vs. Negotiating Political Authority: Nur al-Din b. Jaja and his Endowments in Thirteenth-Century Anatolia. Judith Pfeiffer
Nomads, Rulers and Historians after the Mongols
18. The Mongol Puppet Lords and the Qarawnas. Michele Bernardini
19. Remarks on Steppe Nomads and Merchants. Thomas T. Allsen
20. Loyalty, Betrayal and Retribution: Biktash Khan, Ya'qub Khan and Shah 'Abbas I's Strategy in Establishing Control over Kirman, Yazd and Fars. Rudi Matthee
21. Reading Safavid and Mughal Chronicles: Kingly Virtues and Early Modern Persianate Historiography. Sholeh A. Quinn
British views of Qajar Iran
22. Sir John Malcolm and the Idea of Iran. Ali M. Ansari
23. Edward Granville Browne amongst the Qalandars. Jan Just Witkam
STUDIES ON PERSIAN LITERATURE
Literary Culture in the Persianate world
24. From Zulaykha to Zuleika Dobson: The Femme Fatale and her Ordeals in Persian Literature and Beyond. Firuza Abdullaeva
25. A Pictorial Aetiology of Ferdowsi as a Transcendent Poet. Olga Davidson
26. The Armenian Poet Frik and his Verses on Arghun Khan and Bugha. Theo van Lint
27. An Epic for Shah 'Abbas. Gabrielle van den Berg
The Theory and Practice of Persian verse
28. A Note on Form and Substance in Classical Persian Poetry. Homa Katouzian
29. Stringing Replica Pearls: Translations of Persian Verse into Verse. Barbara Brend
PERSIAN AND ISLAMIC ART
Aspects of Religion
30. The Prophet Muhammad's Footprint. Christiane Gruber
31. Non-Islamic Faiths in the Edinburgh Biruni Manuscript. Robert Hillenbrand
32. A Tale of Two Minbars: Woodwork in Egypt and Syria on the Eve of the Ayyubids. Bernard O'Kane
The Arts of the Book
33. Illuminating Shah Tahmasp's Shahnameh. Sheila Canby
34. Rethinking Persian Painting: The Silsila of Sultan Muhammad. Layla S. Diba
35. Composite Figures in the Hadiqat al-haqiqa wa Shari'at al-tariqa of Sana'i. Francis Richard
36. A Medieval Representation of Kay Khusraw's jam-i giti namay. Marianna Shreve Simpson
37. The ?uraqqa' Album of the Zand period (PNS 383) in the National Library of Russia. Olga Vasilyeva and Olga Yastrebova
38. Interrogating Marks in a Persian Painting from Fifteenth-Century Herat: A Note. Barbara Bre