The Idea of Iran: From Saljuq Collapse to Mongol Conquest

A Symposium Saturday 9 February 2013

Organised by The Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS, University of London and The Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford

Supported by The Soudavar Memorial Foundati on The Idea of Iran: From Saljuq Collapse to Mongol Conquest

Aft er the death of Sultan Sanjar in the mid twelft h century the Saljuq empire rapidly unravelled. This was the era when the atabegs – originally guardians responsible for the upbringing of Saljuq princes – developed into a series of independent local dynasti es, each holding a fi g-leaf of legiti macy in the shape of a Saljuq puppet prince. All of these were blown away by the Mongol conquest at the start of the thirteenth century, an event which contemporaries present as a veritable cataclysm. Neither the breakdown of imperial power and centralized government, nor even the Mongol catastrophe, prevented from fl ourishing: , , Nezami, Att ar, and Sa’di all belong to this period, while other arts and sciences also conti nued to fi nd patronage.

In this the tenth Idea of Iran symposium, we will explore the complex politi cal dynamics of this age – up to the second Mongol invasion under Hulegu in the 1250s and the establishment of the Il-Khanid state.

The Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS and the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford remain deeply grateful to the Soudavar Memorial Foundati on for its conti nued support for this series.

9.40 Welcoming Remarks

9.45-10.30 The Anushteginid : gentle ascent and catastrophic fall Emeritus Professor Edmund Bosworth, Visiti ng Professor at the Centre for and Islamic Studies, Exeter University This dynasty of Shahs, in eff ect the last of a line of Iranian and then Turkish rulers of Khwarazm in Central (now falling essenti ally within the Uzbek and Turkmen republics), held power there as vassals of the Great Saljuqs, but increasingly in name only from the later eleventh century. In the second half of the twelft h century they built up a powerful military empire extending from Khwarazm and Transoxania in the east to north-western Iran and the Transcaucasian in the west, only for this rapidly to collapse in the early thirteenth century under the onslaught of the Mongols.

10.30-11.15 The Periphery as Centre: the Ghurids between the Persianate and Indic worlds Dr Alka Patel, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, University of California, Irvine The short-lived Ghurid empire occupies an ambiguous historiographical locus, and throws into relief the power of hindsight in evaluati ng the diff ering signifi cance of a polity according to ti me and place. In the medieval Persianate world of (encompassing modern Iran, and ) the Ghurids were a short-lived minor dynasty that, according to learned opinion, did litt le to change or even contribute to Persianate culture. They were based in the isolated central areas of modern Afghanistan and extended only as far west as Herat. Towards the east, however, the Ghurid armies campaigned into northern India, bringing large swaths of it under an Islamic politi cal power for the fi rst ti me.

11.15-11.45 Coff ee

11.45-12.30 The Mongols in Iran, 1219—1256 Professor David Morgan, Former Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison Iran was not fully incorporated into the Mongol Empire unti l Hulegu’s expediti on, which began in 1256, but the country had felt the Mongol impact from the ti me of Chinggis ’s invasion of the Khwarazm ’s empire in 1219-1223. This paper will explore the Mongol impact on Iran during the period between the two invasions, and the nature of Mongol rule in parts of Iran at that ti me. In recent years historians have, justi fi ably, pointed to the previously undervalued positi ve features of Mongol rule. But these came into play, eff ecti vely, from the ti me of the establishment of the as a stable polity in the late 1250s. Prior to that, the Mongol invasion was initi ally catastrophic, though the ground was in some ways laid for a more benevolent future which was to be dominated, unti l the 1330s, by Hulegu and his descendants.

12.30-1.15 Scholarship and Science under the (1124—1218) Professor Michal Biran, The Max and Sophie Mydans Foundati on Professor in the Humaniti es, Director, The Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies, Insti tute of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem In the twelft h century a Manchurian people expelled from north China established in Central Asia the Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty. This “infi del” dynasty ruled over a mostly Muslim populati on in a rare harmony. Moreover, the relati ve stability and prosperity that the Qara Khitai brought to Central Asia enabled the fl ourishing of Islamic and “secular” scholarship under their rule. By following the careers of twelft h and thirteenth- century scholars, including migrants from the Qara Khitai realm who were acti ve under Mongol rule, this paper reconstructs the main fi elds of knowledge and achievements of Central Asian scholars under the Qara Khitai and the impact they had on the later Islamic world, including Iran.

1.15-2.15 Lunch

2.15-3.30 Isma’il Jorjani’s Zakhira-ye Khwarazmshahi: towards vernacular medicine Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad, Lecturer in the History of Modern Iran and the History of Medicine, University of Southampton Following the translati on of Galenico-Hippocrati c medicine into , the major reference sources in the Islamic world were writt en in Arabic, such as ’s Canon and Razi’s Conti nent. Jorjani’s Zakhira might be considered as an att empt to assert Persian scienti fi c authority in an Islamic empire, in line with the revival of the and culture, represented by ’s Shahnama. In this paper, I test the hypothesis that the Zakhira represented the process whereby Humoral medicine was adopted by local populati ons, just as the medicine of the Prophet indicated that Humoral medicine had been assimilated into religion. Vernacular medicine (medical texts writt en in Persian) did exist before Jorjani but a reference text book such as the Canon, or Havi’s calibres was lacking. The Zakhira fi lled this gap.

3.30-4.15 Nezami’s Giant Brain: poet, scholar, rewriter Dr Christi ne van Ruymbeke, Soudavar Senior Lecturer in Persian, University of Cambridge This presentati on will examine the arti sti c achievement of Nezami of Ganja, probably one of the most intelligent fi gures in the history of literature. His talent as a poet is undisputed and recognised by anyone who has been in contact with his divan, or most probably his collecti on of six (!) masnavis, collecti vely called the Khamsa. In today’s presentati on I will explore two facets of this compelling arti st. First I will look at the evidence found in his verses of a solid grounding in, and whimsical game with, the multi ple scienti fi c knowledge of his ti me, with which he plays elegantly in order to ti ti llate the audience, and I will next examine what becomes of the Shahnama plots and stories he used in four of his masnavis, showing how he manipulates the older poet’s work.

4.15-4.45 Tea

4.45-5.30 Sa’di on Love and Morals Dr Homa Katouzian, Iran Heritage Research Fellow, St Antony’s College and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford What is certain about Sa’di’s life is that he fl ourished in the thirteenth century (seventh century hijra), went to the Nezamiya College of Baghdad, travelled wide and lived long. It is clear from his love poetry that he was an ardent lover, and from many of his works that he was not a Sufi , although he cherished the ideals of Sufi sm and admired the legendary classical Sufi s. He was also a teacher of manners and morals. There is a humanist tendency in his works which is remarkable as it was another two-and-a-half centuries before the emergence of Christi an humanism in .

5.30-6.15 Inlaid Metalwork in Iran in the Twelft h to Early Thirteenth Centuries Professor James Allan, Khalili Research Centre for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East In spite of the politi cal uncertainti es, the quality of inlaid metalwork produced at this period in Khurasan, and parti cularly in Herat, is outstanding. The forms and colour schemes of the objects suggest the transfer of craft smen from silver to base metal, but the main source for the decorati on must have been manuscript illuminati on and illustrati on, even though the relevant manuscripts are no longer extant. From inscripti ons on parti cular objects comes the fi rst direct evidence of the craft industry, and of the members of the middle class who commissioned the pieces.

6.15-6.25 Closing Remarks

Cover: 12th-century Harpy vessel contemporary with the Dhakhira-ye Khwarazmshahi (Courtesy of Bonham’s London, April 2012) The Idea of Iran: From Saljuq Collapse to Mongol Conquest A Symposium

Date Saturday 9 February 2013

Time 9.40am - 6.10pm (Registrati on from 9.00am)

Venue Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre SOAS, University of London Russell Square London WC1H 0XG

Admission £15.00; £10.00 conc. (OAPs & LMEI Affi liates) students free (to include lunch and refreshments)

Organised by Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS and University of Oxford

Supported by The Soudavar Memorial Foundati on

Convened by Edmund Herzig, The Masoumeh and Fereydoon Soudavar Chair of Persian Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford and Sarah Stewart, Department of the Study of Religions, SOAS

Enquiries & Bookings Vincenzo Paci-Delton: Tel. No. 020 7898 4490 E-mail: [email protected]; www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/