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Home , Deportation, Islamization of Iran

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Boston University CAS 233 Houchang E. Chehabi Spring 2012

IR 329/HI 385: PREMODERN

This course covers the of the Iranian plateau and adjacent areas from the eve of the Muslim conquest of the (early 7th century) to the eve of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. It aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to Persian culture and Iranian history, including sessions on Persian , socio- political thought, and the visual arts. Each session will comprise a lecture and a discussion of the assigned readings.

Requirements: each week students must turn in a one-page paper in response to one of the items on the reading list for that week. A total of eleven papers will be expected from each student in the course of the semester, and each paper will account for 5 % of the grade. Class participation will count for 15 % of the grade. There will be a final cumulative exam which will count for 30 % of the final grade. A student can miss up to two lectures; for every additional lecture missed the final grade will be taken down one level (an A will become an A- etc.). Cell phones are not allowed in class; a student found texting will be asked to leave the class.

Required readings include books and articles; they are available on Blackboard. Office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00-3:00 and Wednesday by appointment. The instructor can be reached at 617 358 0193.

Students are expected to know and understand the provisions of the CAS academic code. Cases of suspected academic misconduct will be referred to the Dean’s Office. Students are expected to know and understand the provisions of the CAS academic code. No make-up exams will be given except in very exceptional circumstances – travel arrangements will not count as such.

Weekly Schedule

Week 1 January 17: Introduction to the Geography of the Iranian plateau January 19: Pre-Islamic Iran

Readings: Richard N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia: in the East, pp. 1-103

Week 2 January 24: The of Iran January 26: Beginnings of Persian Awakening

Readings: David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1797, pp. 1-21 Richard N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, pp. 104-212. Roy Mottahedeh, “Some Islamic Views of the Pre-Islamic Past,” Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 1 (1994): 17-26. 2

Week 3 January 31: Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh February 2: Shahnamehs and the arts of the book: Museum visit or lecture

Readings: A. Shapur Shahbazi, Ferdowsī: A Critical Biography, pp. 19-22, 30-41, 49-53, 77-86, 89-97. Excerpts from the Shahnameh.

Week 4 February 7: The February 9: Persianate Political Culture

Readings: Gilbert Lazard, The Origins of Literary Persian. Mohammad Amir-Moezzi, “Persian, the Other Sacred Language of : Some Brief Notes,” in Omar Alí-de-Unzaga, ed., Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and Other Islamic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), pp. 59-75. Kai Kā’ūs ibn Iskandar, A Mirror of Princes, The Qābūs Nāma, trans. Reuben Levy, excerpts.

Week 5 February 14: The Encounter with Turks February 16: Political History of Pre-Mongol Iran

Readings: David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1797, pp. 21-51. Richard N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, pp. 213-236. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The : Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran, pp. 129-141. Nizam al-Mulk, Book of or, Rules for Kings, trans. Hubert Darke, pp. 74-93.

Week 6 February 21: No class February 23: The Mongol Invasions

Readings: David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1797, pp. 51-100. George Lane, Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth Century Iran: a Persian Renaissance, pp. 226- 254.

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Week 7 February 28: Pragmatism and Antinomianism in March 1: Sufism and Hafiz

Readings: Sa‘di of Shiraz, The Rose Garden. Obeyd-e Zakani: Ethics of the Aristocrats & Other Satirical Works, trans. Hasan Javadi, pp. 85- 125. Hafiz, Ghazals. Annemarie Schimmel, “The Genius of Shiraz: Sa‘di and Hāfez,” in Ehsan Yarshater, ed., Persian Literature, pp. 214-225.

Week 8 March 6: Zoroastrians in Medieval Iran March 8: in Medieval Iran

Readings: Jamsheed Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society, pp. 69-109. Robert Brody, “Judaism in the Sasanian Empire: A Case Study in Religious Coexistence,” in Shaul Shaked and Amnon Netzer, eds., Irano-Judaica II, pp. 52-62. More to be announced.

Week 9 March 20: The Legacy of the Timurids March 22: The Rise of the Safavids

Readings: David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1797, pp. 101-131. Thomas Lentz and Glenn D Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision: and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, chapter 1. Saïd Amir Arjomand, “The Rise of Esmā‘il as a Mahdist Revolution,” in Studies on Persianate Societies 3 (2005): 44-65. Kathryn Babayan, “Sufis, Dervishes and Mullas: the Controversy over Spiritual and Temporal Dominion in Seventeenth-Century Iran,” in Charles Melville, ed., Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society, pp. 117-138.

Week 10 March 27: Shah Abbas March 29: Safavid Society

Readings: David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1797, pp. 132-149. Edmund Herzig, “The of the Armenians in 1604-1605 and Europe’s Myth of Shāh ‘Abbās I,” in Charles Melville, ed., History and Literature in Iran: Persian and Islamic Studies in honour of P.W. Avery, pp. 59-71. Kathryn Babayan, “The Aq’id al-Nis’: A Glimpse of Safavid Women in Local Isfahani Culture,” in Gavin Hambly, ed., Women in the Medieval Islamic World, pp. 349-381.

Week 11 4

April 3: The Safavids’ Relations with Europe and Persia in the European Imagination April 5: Film on

Readings: Rudi Matthee, “The Safavids under Western Eyes: Seventeenth-Century European Travelers to Iran,” Journal of Early Modern History 13 (2009): 137-171. Masashi Haneda, “Europeans at Bandar Abbas and the ‘State’ of Persia in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” in Markus Ritter, Ralph Kauz und Birgitt Hoffmann, eds., Iran und iranisch geprägte Kulturen: Studien zum 65. Geburtstag von Bert G. Fragner, pp. 85-93. Montesquieu, Persian Letters, excerpts.

Week 12 April 10: The Religious Sphere under the Safavids April 12: The Eighteenth Century

Readings: Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam, pp. 172-183. V.B. Moreen, “The Status of Religious Minorities in ,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40 (1981): 119-134. Vera B. Moreen, “A Seventeenth-Century Iranian Rabbi’s Polemical Remarks on Jews, Christians, and ,” in Michel Mazzaoui, ed., Safavid Iran and Her Neighbors, pp. 157- 168. John R. Perry, “Cultural currents in the Turco-Persian world of Safavid and post-Safavid times,” in Colin P. Mitchell, ed., New Perspectives on Safavid Iran: Empire and society, pp. 84-96. David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1797, pp. 152-161.

Week 13 April 17: Early Qajar Rule: 1796-1848 April 19: Late Qajar Rule: 1848-1906

Readings: Nikki R. Keddie, and the Rise of Reza Khan, pp. 1-64. Nikki Keddie, “The Economic , 1800-1914,” in Iran: Religion, Politics and Society, pp. 119-136. Monica Ringer, “Negotiating Modernity: Ulama and the Discourse of Modernity in Nineteenth- Century Iran,” in Ramin Jahanbegloo, ed., Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity, pp. 39-50.

Week 14 April 24: Non-Muslims in Iran April 26: The Beginnings of Iranian Modernism

Readings: Daniel Tsadik, “The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: Imāmī Shī‘ī and Iran’s Constitutional Revolution,” Islamic Law and Society 10:3 (2003): 376-408. Abbas Amanat, “The historical roots of the persecution of Babis and Baha’is in Iran,” in Dominic Parviz Brookshaw and Seena B. Fazel, eds., The Baha’is of Iran: Socio-historical studies, pp. 170-183. Mehrdad Amanat, “Messianic expectation and evolving identities: the conversion of Iranian Jews to the Baha’i faith,” in ibid., pp. 6-29. Mangol Bayat, and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran, chapter 5.

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Week 15 May 1: Conclusions

Readings: Alessadro Bausani, “The Qajar period: an epoch of decadence?,” in Edmond Bosworth and Carole Hillenbrand, eds., Qajar Iran: Political, Social, and Cultural Change 1800-1925.