DOCSLIB.ORG

Autobiography in the Muslim World (ISLA 739)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Autobiography in the Muslim World (ISLA 739) Course name: Autobiography in the Muslim World (ISLA 739) Term: Fall 2017 Location: Morrice Hall, Room 313 Times: Tuesday, 9.35 to 11.25 AM Professor: Prashant Keshavmurthy Institute of Islamic Studies Office 311, Morrice Hall Office hour: Wednesday 3.00 –4.00 or by appointment In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded. McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see Academic Integrity for more information). L'université McGill attache une haute importance à l’honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l'on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l'étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le site Academic Integrity. Description: This course addresses the rhetoric of selfhood. That is, rather than only ideas of the self, it is the linguistic forms of such ideas that will mainly preoccupy us. This emphasis on how language informs the ways in which the self was understood in the past will keep our attention focused on the wider cultures of rhetoric – courtly speech-situations, intimate circles of Sufi adepts, royal harems, trans-national print-communities, modern political parties – in which apparently abstract ideas of selfhood circulated. 1 We will read both biographies and autobiographies to pose the following questions among others: does the act of writing play a constitutive or representative role in the telling of a life? Is the self in question conceived of as unique or as transpersonal? Is it gendered and, if so, how? What are the articulations of individual and public memory? In answering these questions aspects of narrative design, the interplay of poetry and prose, the uses of painting embedded in writing and the logics of genre will form only some of our foci of attention. The text for every week will be paired with an essay or two on it or on the general field or genre it belongs to. Method of Evaluation: 25% of the final grade will depend on your participation in class discussions, including attendance. A further 25% will be based on a 20 to 25 minute class presentation on one of the prescribed texts. You are welcome to make more than one presentation. The remaining 50% will be assigned on the basis of your final paper. Texts to be purchased: If you do not already possess the following books you will need to buy them from the McGill University bookstore: 1. Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition; ed. Dwight F. Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California P, 2001) 2. Babur, Baburnama; trans. Wheeler Thackston (paperback) (Modern Library Classics, 2002) 3. Zikr-e Mir: the autobiography of an eighteenth century Mughal poet; trans. C.M. Naim (paperback) (Oxford University Press, 2002) 4. Farid ad-Din ʻAttār, Memorial of God’s Friends: Lives and Sayings of Sufis; translated and introduced by Paul Losensky; preface by Th. Emil Homerin (New York: Paulist Press, 2009). 2 Weekly readings Weeks 1 and 2: Reynolds’s introduction and selections from Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition; ed. Dwight F. Reynolds (University of California Press, 2001). Week 3: Al-Ghazali, The Deliverer from Error, translated by Montgomerry Watt as The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1953). With a) Kenneth Garden, “Coming Down from the Mountaintop: Al- Ghazālī ’s Autobiographical Writings in Context,” The Muslim World 101, no. 4 (October 1, 2011): 581–96; and b) Eric Ormsby, “The Taste of Truth: Structural Analysis of Al-Munqidh Min Al-Dalal,” in Islamic Studies Presented to Charles J.Adams, ed. Wael Hallaq and Donald P. Little (Leiden: Brill, 1991). There is an extensive list of scholarship on Ghazali as well as his autobiography that you should feel free to use. I have listed much of it in the bibliography below. Week 4: Naser Khosrow, Safar Nameh Trans. W. M. Thackston (New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1986). With Mostafa Sedighi, Laleh Atashi, “Semiotics of Power and Knowledge in Nasir Khusrow's Travelogue”, Persian Literary Studies Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, Summer 2014, Page 1-29. Week 5: The translator’s preface and selections from Farid ad-Din ʻAttar, Memorial of God’s Friends: Lives and Sayings of Sufis; translated and introduced by Paul Losensky; preface by Th. Emil Homerin (New York: Paulist Press, 2009). If everyone in class reads Persian at an adequate level we might also read a portion of ‘Abd al-Qadir Bedil’s (1644 -1720) autobiography, Chahar ‘unsur, which recounts a reading session of ‘Attar’s 3 text; and another portion which models two of Bedil’s Sufi teachers on ‘Attar’s accounts of Junayd of Baghdad and Abu Yazid al-Bistami respectively. Week 6: Babur, (selections from) Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor; trans. Wheeler M. Thackston (Modern Library, 2002). Azfar Moin, “Peering Through the Cracks in the Baburnama”, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 49 (4) 2012: 493-526. Week 7: Jahangir, (selections from) The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution ; New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999). With Corinne Lefèvre, “Recovering a Missing Voice from Mughal India: The Imperial Discourse of Jahāngīr (r. 1605- 1627) in His Memoirs”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 50, No. 4 (2007), pp. 452-489 Week 8: Gulbadan Begum, “Humāyūn-Nāma” in Three Memoirs Of Humayun (Bibliotheca Iranica, Intellectual Traditions Series, 2009), 1-68. Trans. W. M. Thackston. With Rebecca Gould, “How Gulbadan Remembered: The Book of Humāyūn as an Act of Representation”, Early Modern Women: an Interdisciplinary Journal, 2011, Vol. 6. Week 9: Zikr-i Mir: the autobiography of the eighteenth century Mughal poet Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir; trans. C.M. Naim (Oxford University Press, USA, 2002). With a) the translator’s introduction; b) Prashant Keshavmurthy, “Bidil’s Portrait: Asceticism and Autobiography”, Philological Encounters 1 (2015) 1-34; c) Zahra Sabri, “Mir Taqi Mir’s 4 Ẕikr-i Mīr An Account of the Poet or an Account by the Poet?”, Medieval History Journal, November, 2015. Week 10: Sadriddin Aini, The Sands of Oxus: Boyhood Reminiscences of Sadriddin Aini Trans. John R. Perry and Rachel Lehr (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, Bibliotheca Iranica, 1998). With http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ayni-sadr-al-din Week 11: Tahmas Khan, Tahmas Nama: the Autobiography of a Slave; abridged and translated by Setu Madhav Rao (Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1967). With Indrani Chatterjee, “A Slave’s Quest for Selfhood in Eighteenth Century Hindustan”, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 37, 1 (2000) 53-86. Week 12: Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, “The Vices of Men,” in The Education of Women and The Vices of Men: Two Qajar Tracts. Trans. Hasan Javadi and Willem Floor (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2010). With Afsaneh Najmabadi’s introduction to Bibi Khanum Astarabadi's Ma'ayib al-Rijal: Vices of Men (Midland Printers, Chicago, 1992). Week 13: Taj al-Saltanah, Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity, 1884-1914, Trans. Anna Vanzan and Amin Neshati; Ed. Abbas Amanat (Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 1993). With a) Abbas Amanat’s introduction to this volume, “The Changing World of Taj al-Saltana” b) Afsaneh Najmabadi, “A Different Voice: Tāj os- Salṭana,” in Women’s Autobiographies in Contemporary Iran, ed. Afsaneh 5 Najmabadi, Cambridge, Mass., 1990, pp. 17-31. You will find more studies of this text and its milieu listed in Afsaneh Najmabadi, “Taj al-Saltaneh” at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/taj-al-saltana Week 14: Yet to be decided. We may need this week as extra time for one of the earlier texts. Alternatively, if we all read Urdu fluently we could read Mullā Vāhidi, Merey Zamāne ki Dilli which has not been translated into English (Karachi: Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu Pakistan, 2000); or Banarasi Das, Ardhakathanak: A Half Story (Penguin Classics, 2009), the famous Braj verse autobiography of a Jain merchant traversing the Emperor Akbar’s empire. Though by a non-Muslim, the text merits our attention as an autobiography from the Islamic world. Two supplementary bibliographies: More autobiographies from the Muslim world: Banarasi Das, Ardhakathanak: A Half Story (Penguin Classics, 2009). Muhammad ʻAli Jamalzadah, Isfahan is Half the World: Memories of a Persian Boyhood (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). Said Sayrafiezadeh, When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood (New York: Penguin, 2009). Fadwa Tuqan, A Mountainous Journey: a Poet’s Autobiography (Greywolf Press, 1990). 6 Scholarship on autobiographies from the Muslim world: Bargeron, Carol. “Sufism’s Role in Al-Ghazali’s First Crisis of Knowledge.” Medieval Encounters 9, no. 1 (2003): 32–72. Kenneth Garden, “Coming Down from the Mountaintop: Al-Ghazālī ’s Autobiographical Writings in Context,” The Muslim World 101, no. 4 (October 1, 2011): 581–96 ———. “Duncan Macdonald’s Pioneering Study of Al-Ghazālī: Paths Not Taken.” MUWO The Muslim World 104, no. 1–2 (2014): 62–70. ———. “Revisiting Al-Ghazālī’s Crisis through His Scale for Action (Mizān Al-ʿAmal),.” In Islam and Rationality: The Impact of Al-Ghazālī, Papers Collected on His 900th Anniversary, edited by Georges Tamer, I:207–28. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2015. ———. The First Islamic Reviver: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali and His Revival of the Religious Sciences.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Art in Between Empires: Visual Culture & Artistic
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Columbia University Academic Commons ART IN BETWEEN EMPIRES: VISUAL CULTURE & ARTISTIC KNOWLEDGE IN LATE MUGHAL DELHI 1748-1857 Yuthika Sharma Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Yuthika Sharma All rights reserved ABSTRACT Art in between Empires: Visual Culture & Artistic Knowledge in Late Mughal Delhi 1748 -1857 Yuthika Sharma This dissertation focuses on the artistic culture of late Mughal Delhi spanning the last century of Mughal rule and the administration of the English East India Company in North India, from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. It brings a hitherto unrecognized period of artistic accomplishment to light and studies the transformations within painting culture in the multicultural Anglo-Mughal society of Delhi. Rather than being fixated on the continuum of Mughal painting over centuries, this dissertation suggests that the art of the late Mughal period should be studied on its own terms as a response to immense socio-political and cultural changes. At its core this study is concerned with dissolving the stylistic barriers between Mughal and Company painting in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I take up the question of what the term ‘late Mughal painting’ entails and discuss how the term privileges the notion of a court centric culture of painting in an era when the Mughal court was only one of many venues of artistic expression. On the other hand, I highlight the inadequacy of the term ‘Company painting’ to address the variegated nature of works produced under East India Company patronage in this period.
    [Show full text]
  • King of the Birds
    KING OF THE BIRDS Print of a peacock. Catherine Hettler. SPRING 2020 50 KRISTEN HICKEY KING OF THE BIRDS: MAKING SYMBOL, SUBJECT, AND SCIENCE IN THE SKIES OF HINDUSTAN When the Mughals founded an empire in Hindustan, they sought to legitimize their budding dynasty through diverse sources of power. In the texts and art produced by emperors and their courts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these performances of power constantly featured birds. Birds, enfleshed and imagined, were used as motifs that positioned the Mughals as the cultural descendants of a long Islamic tradition of storytelling and spirituality. Wild and captive birds became an extension of the imperial court as emperors strove to model the legendary rule of King Solomon, who was renowned for his just power over all creatures. During this age of scientist-kings, avians also became catalysts for experimentation and the production of knowledge. This intricate relationship between birds and power reveals a Mughal conception of empire, defined by fluid boundaries between the human and animal kingdoms. Kristen Hickey Written for Ruling Hindustan (HIST 494) Dr. Lisa Balabanlilar In the Hindustani empire of the Mughals, birds were companions, partners in the hunt, playthings, and sources of great entertainment. They were fascinating airborne creatures, worthy of great scientific attention. The subject of unimaginable hours of artistic labor, they appeared in countless folios, with their feathers adorning the jeweled turbans of only the most powerful emperors.1 The presence of birds illuminated and defined the seat of the Mughal emperor as a ruler in an ancient tradition of powerful kingships.
    [Show full text]
  • Dara-Shikoh Shooting Nilgais : Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting
    FREER GALLERY OF ART ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY Occasional apers Dara-Shikoh Shooting Nilgais Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting Ebba Koch SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WASHINGTON, D.C. Dara-Shikoh Shooting Nilgais: Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting 1 Dara-Shikoh Shootir Hunt and Landscape in Mughal F Ebba Koch Occasional Papers 1998/voL FREER GALLERY OF ART ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION —— — HO 10(0 ©1998 Smithsonian Institution Funding for this publication was provided All rights reserved by the Freer and Sackler Galleries' Publications Endowment Fund, initially Aimed at the specialist audience, the established with a grant from the Andrew Occasional Papers series represents W, Mellon Foundation and generous important new contributions and inter- contributions from private donors. pretations by international scholars that advance art historical and conservation The paper used in this publication meets research. Published by the Freer Gallery the minimum requirements for the of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, American National Standard for Smithsonian Institution, the series is a Permanence of Paper for Printed Library revival ot the original Freer Gallery of Materials, Z39. 48-1984. Art Occasional Papers. Contributions, including monographic studies, transla- Note: Dimensions given throughout are tions, and scientific studies oi works of in centimeters; height precedes width. art, span the broad range of Asian art. Each publication draws its primary Photo credits: emphasis from works ot art in the Freer Frontispiece
    [Show full text]
  • Politics, Poetry and Pluralism: Bulleh Shah in the Late Mughal Empire
    Politics, Poetry and Pluralism: Bulleh Shah in the Late Mughal Empire Ashna Hussain Thesis submitted for Master of Research Western Sydney University 2018 Dedication To my parents, for believing in me. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my principal supervisor, Dr. Milad Milani, for all the support and guidance he has provided me over the last two years. Sir, without your encouragement I would never have made it this far – thank you. I would also like to thank my second supervisor, Dr. Alison Moore, who gave me some wonderful feedback on my ideas and encouraged me to present my research at a seminar. To all my colleagues from the Friday discussion group, our conversations resulted in some great insights and inter-religious dialogue. Thank you for all the wonderful conversations and the poetry shared – the poetic inspiration for my thesis came from here. Finally, I am indebted to my friends and family who supported me throughout these two years. To my father, for inspiring me to pursue higher degree research, and my mother for always believing in me – thank you. A huge thank you to my sister, Kinza, for her sharp eyes and incredible proofreading skills – your ability to pick out the smallest of typos and mistakes is appreciated. A special thanks to my best friend and cousin, Azkaa, who, despite being across the seas in a different continent, put up with my rants and periodical frustration – thank you for allowing me to vent without judgement. Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text.
    [Show full text]
  • Rashīd Al-Dīn and the Making of History in Mongol Iran
    Rashīd al-Dīn and the making of history in Mongol Iran Stefan T. Kamola A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Joel Walker, Chair Charles Melville (Cambridge) Purnima Dhavan Program Authorized to Offer Degree: History ©Copyright 2013 Stefan Kamola University of Washington Abstract Rashīd al-Dīn and the making of history in Mongol Iran Stefan T. Kamola Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Joel Walker History The Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh (Collected histories) of Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb (d. 1318) has long been considered the single richest witness to the history of the early Mongol Empire in general and its Middle Eastern branch, the Ilkhanate, in particular. This has created a persistent dependence on the work as a source of historical data, with a corresponding lack of appreciation for the place it holds within Perso-Islamic intellectual history. This understanding of Rashīd al-Dīn and the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, however, does not match certain historiographical and ideological strategies evident in the work itself and in other works by Rashīd al-Dīn and his contemporaries. This dissertation reads beyond the monolithic and uncritical use of the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh that dominates modern scholarship on Mongol and Ilkhanid history. Instead, it fits Rashīd al-Dīn and his work into the difficult process of transforming the Mongol Ilkhans from a dynasty of foreign military occupation into one of legitimate sovereigns for the Perso-Islamic world. This is the first study to examine a full range of Persianate cultural responses to the experience of Mongol conquest and rule through the life and work of the most prominent statesman of the period.
    [Show full text]
  • Jahangir, Collector
    41 JAHANGIR, COLLECTOR Jahangir, Collector: Seizing the World Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) was an avid collector of many things: art, animals, and natural wonders. By tracing his acquisition habits, including networks of trade and types of acquisitions, this article reveals how the emperor constructed his self-concept by way of his collection. Jahangir collected prestige objects to reinforce his own wealth, but also desired to know and possess the most fantastic animals, plants, stones, or other natural oddities. By allowing him to place his mark on such a wide range of objects, Jahangir’s collection justified his regnal title: Jahangir, World-Seizer. Due to copyright restrictions, not all figures referenced were reproduced within this journal. Clair Hopper Written for HIST 477: Cover Image: Figure 2, Mansur. Zebra. 1620-21. Islamic Art and Empire Opaque watercolor and ink on paper. 18.3 x 24cm. Dr. Lisa Balabanlilar London, Victoria and Albert Museum. and Dr. Aimée E. Froom SPRING 2019 CLAIR HOPPER 42 9 mules very fayre and lardg, 7 Camells laden with veluett, two Sutes of …Venetian hanginges of veluett with gould…two Chestes of Persian Cloth of gould, 8 Carpettes of silke, 2 Rubyes ballast, 21 Cammelles of wyne of the Grape, 14 Camelles of distilld sweet waters, 7 of rose waters, 7 daggers sett with stones, 5 swordes sett with stones, 7 Venetian looking glasses, but these so fame, so rich that I was ashamed of the relation.1 The above passage was recorded by Sir Thomas Roe, English emissary to the court of Mughal emperor Jahangir, upon seeing a convoy of finery acquired by the emperor.
    [Show full text]
  • NCERT-Class-12-History-Part-2.Pdf
    CONTENTS PART II THEME FIVE THROUGH THE EYES OF TRAVELLERS 115 Perceptions of Society (c. tenth to seventeenth century) THEME SIX BHAKTI-SUFI TRADITIONS 140 Changes in Religious Beliefs and Devotional Texts (c. eighth to eighteenth century) THEME SEVEN AN IMPERIAL CAPITAL: VIJAYANAGARA 170 (c. fourteenth to sixteenth century) THEME EIGHT PEASANTS, ZAMINDARS AND THE STATE 196 Agrarian Society and the Mughal Empire (c. sixteenth-seventeenth centuries) THEME NINE KINGS AND CHRONICLES 224 The Mughal Courts (c. sixteenth-seventeenth centuries) PART III* THEME TEN COLONIALISM AND THE COUNTRYSIDE Exploring Official Archives THEME ELEVEN REBELS AND THE RAJ 1857 Revolt and Its Representations * Part III will follow xii THEME TWELVE COLONIAL CITIES Urbanisation, Planning and Architecture THEME THIRTEEN MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT Civil Disobedience and Beyond THEME FOURTEEN UNDERSTANDING PARTITION Politics, Memories, Experiences THEME FIFTEEN FRAMING THE CONSTITUTION The Beginning of a New Era PART I (Pages 1-114) THEME ONE BRICKS, BEADS AND BONES The Harappan Civilisation THEME TWO KINGS, FARMERS AND TOWNS Early States and Economies (c. 600 BCE -600 CE) THEME THREE KINSHIP, CASTE AND CLASS Early Societies (c. 600 BCE - 600 CE) THEME FOUR THINKERS, BELIEFS AND BUILDINGS Cultural Developments (c. 600 BCE -600 CE) THEME Through the Eyes of Travellers Perceptionserce o ooff Societycie t FIVE Perceptionserce o of Societyciet (((ccc. tenthth too seventeenthe ntntnt nt century)nt ) Women and men have travelled in search of work, to escape from natural disasters, as traders, merchants, soldiers, priests, pilgrims, or driven by a sense of adventure. Those who visit or come to stay in a new land invariably encounter a world that is different: in terms of the landscape or physical environment as well as customs, languages, beliefs and practices of people.
    [Show full text]
  • Thackston Wheeler M. (Ed
    VI. CODicOLOGIE, ÉDITION ET TRADUCTION DE TEXTES Thackston Wheeler M. (ed. tr.) Classical historiographique, sans précédent avant l’époque Writings of the Medieval Islamic World. Persian pré-moderne, a été menée sous la direction de Rashīd Histories of the Mongol Dynasties. al-Dīn lui-même. Il a mis en forme les traductions en Volume 1. persan réalisées par ses collaborateurs à partir d’origi- Tarikh-i Rashidi by Mirza Haydar Dughlat, naux en diverses langues. Son principal informateur pour les données sur les Mongols et les Turks est Londres, Tauris, Bolad Čīnksāng. Ce dernier, après avoir débuté sa car- 2012, xii, 222 p. rière en Chine au service de Qubilai (r. 1260-1294), fut envoyé comme ambassadeur et conseiller politique Volume 2. du grand khan en Iran où il passa vingt-huit ans (2). Habibu’s-Siyar by Khwandamir, Rashīd al-Dīn a fait exécuter dans son scriptorium de Tabriz de nombreuses copies (en arabe et en persan) Londres, Tauris, 2012, ix, 672 p. de son Ǧāmi‘ al-tawārīkh, dont seulement quatre exemplaires ont été conservés (description p. viii-ix). Volume 3. La partie du Ǧāmi‘ al-tawārīkh commanditée par Ǧami’u’t-Tawarikh by Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Ghāzān Khān fait l’objet de la traduction annotée de Wheeler Thackston (3). Londres, Tauris, Le Ǧāmi‘ al-tawārīkh appartient à ce que 2012, xiv, 586 p. l’on appelle l’« histoire officielle », c’est-à-dire un ISBN : 978 1 78076 054 4 ouvrage qui, relatant le récent passé, doit laisser du règne de celui qui a patronné le texte l’image Trois importantes chroniques pour l’histoire de la plus favorable.
    [Show full text]
  • Osu1179937403.Pdf (2.74
    THE LORDS OF THE AUSPICIOUS CONJUNCTION: TURCO-MONGOL IMPERIAL IDENTITY ON THE SUBCONTINENT A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lisa Ann Balabanlilar, M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Stephen Dale, Advisor Professor Jane Hathaway ____________________________ Professor Geoffrey Parker Advisor Graduate Program in History Copyright by Lisa Ann Balabanlilar 2007 ABSTRACT Contemporary studies of the Mughal dynasty in India have long been dominated by nationalist, sectarian and ideological agendas which typically present the empire of the Mughal as an exclusively Indian phenomenon, politically and culturally isolated on the sub- continent. Cross disciplinary scholarship on the Middle East and Islamic Central Asia assigns to the Mughals a position on the periphery. Omitting reference to a Central Asian legacy, scholars instead link the Mughals to the preceding nearly one thousand years of Muslim colonization in India. Yet to insist on a thousand years of Muslim continuity in India is to ignore the varied religious, cultural, and political traditions which were transmitted to the subcontinent by a widely diverse succession of immigrant communities. This study radically re-evaluates the scholarly and intellectual isolation with which the Mughals have been traditionally treated, and argues that the Mughals must be recognized as the primary inheritors of the Central Asian Turco- Persian legacy of their ancestor Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane). Driven from their homeland in Central Asia, the Timurid refugee community of South Asia meticulously maintained and asserted the universally admired charisma of their imperial lineage and inherited cultural ii personality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mughal Empire Is a Long Overdue Scholarly Study of the Mughal Period in Early Modern India
    I.B.TAURIS SHORT HISTORIES I.B.Tauris Short Histories is an authoritative and elegantly written new series which puts a fresh perspective on the way history is taught and understood in the twenty-first century. Designed to have strong appeal to university students and their teachers, as well as to general readers and history enthusiasts, I.B.Tauris Short Histories comprises a novel attempt to bring informed interpretation, as well as factual reportage, to historical debate. Addressing key subjects and topics in the fields of history, the history of ideas, religion, classical studies, politics, philosophy and Middle East studies, the series seeks intentionally to move beyond the bland, neutral ‘introduction’ that so often serves as the primary undergraduate teaching tool. While always providing students and generalists with the core facts that they need to get to grips with the essentials of any particular subject, I.B.Tauris Short Histories goes further. It offers new insights into how a topic has been understood in the past, and what different social and cultural factors might have been at work. It brings original perspectives to bear on the manner of its current interpretation. It raises questions and – in its extensive bibliographies – points to further study, even as it suggests answers. Addressing a variety of subjects in a greater degree of depth than is often found in comparable series, yet at the same time in concise and compact handbook form, I.B.Tauris Short Histories aims to be ‘introductions with an edge’. In combining questioning and searching analysis with informed history writing, it brings history up-to-date for an increasingly complex and globalized digital age.
    [Show full text]
  • Monarchs, Merchants, and Devotees Sponsored by the Society for Asian Art
    Arts of Asia Lecture Series Spring 2016 Patronage in Asian Art: Monarchs, Merchants, and Devotees Sponsored by The Society for Asian Art “The Indo-Persian Painter Farrukh Husayn/Beg (through the lens of the Muraqqa)” Keelan Overton, Lecturer in Art History (UCLA) and Independent Scholar Key Works • Salim Album, Mughal India, compiled c.1600-5, http://www.cbl.ie/Exhibitions/Past- Exhibitions/Travelling-Exhibition/The-Salim-Album.aspx (Chester Beatty Library description) • Salim/Jahangir Album, Mughal India, compiled c. 1600-30 (dispersed; primarily Tehran, next Berlin, and various other collections) • “Babur receiving a courtier,” attributed to Farrukh Beg, Kabul or Lahore, ca. 1580s. Folio from a Baburnama (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, DC), http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_S1986.230 • “Mirza Muhammad Hakim with Hajji Yaqut,” signed by Farrukh Husayn, Kabul, dated 992 (1584-85). Folio from the Salim/Jahangir Album (Tehran, Gulistan Palace) • “Akbar’s entry into Surat,” ascribed to Farrukh Beg (in red) at the Mughal court. Folio from an Akbarnama (V&A, London), http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9411/akbar-painting- farrukh-beg/ • “Saraswati enthroned,” signed by Farrukh Husayn, Bijapur, ca. 1595-1609 (Jaipur) • “Ibrahim playing the tambur,” ascribed to Farrukh Beg, Bijapur, ca. 1595-1609. Folio from the Salim/Jahangir Album (National Museum, Prague), http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7B8951577E-FB8D-4B46-92DE- C4F08364DF96%7D&oid=454791 • “Ibrahim offering obeisance to Jahangir,” attributed to Farrukh Husayn, Bijapur, ca. 1595- 1609. Folio from the Salim/Jahangir Album (Gulistan Palace, Tehran) • “Entangled lovers,” ascribed to Farrukh Beg, probably Khorasan or Lahore, ca.
    [Show full text]
  • Adab As Ethics of Literary Form and Social Conduct: Reading the Gulistān in Late Mughal India
    Adab as Ethics of Literary Form and Social Conduct: Reading the Gulistān in Late Mughal India Mana Kia1 Abstract: This essay examines the role and meaning of Shaykh Mushrif al-Dīn “Saʻdī” Shīrāzī’s Gulistān in late Mughal India. As the prose primer for a Persian education, the Gulistān encompassed the double meaning of adab, as exemplar both of literary form and of proper conduct. I explore instances in which the original text is cited in the work of Sirāj al-Din ʻAli Khān Ārzū (1689-1756 CE), a scholar and poet, who also wrote a commentary on the text. I then explore the larger context of Ārzū’s life and work in the context of mid- eighteenth-century Delhi, to situate the stakes of social and literary adab in a time of political fragmentation and social upheaval. Patronized by high-ranking Mughal officials, Ārzū was engaged in a larger project of recouping the cultural prestige of the imperial capital as political power devolved to regional centers in the face of factional politics and external invasion. Such an analysis seeks to historicize particular readings of classical texts of Persianate education. In addition to training several generations of scholars in a number of languages, Wheeler Thackston’s numerous translations of Persian and Turkish texts from all over the Islamicate world have made them accessible to readers without language training. These translations are in pithy, precise English that is contemporary, yet captures the tone and tenor of the original. Among his recent efforts is an English translation of the most important prose work in the Persian language, Shaykh Mushrif al-Dīn Muṣliḥ Saʻdī Shīrāzī’s Gulistān, presented alongside an easy to read typeset of the Persian original.2 While it is widely accepted that for centuries Shaykh Mushrif al-Dīn Muṣliḥ Saʻdī Shīrāzī’s Gulistān was the most commonly read Persian prose work, we still know little about how historically it was read and understood.
    [Show full text]