The Empires of the Near East and India

This is an invaluable book for anyone studying, teaching, and/or researching the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires and will definitely find its way onto many university reading lists as a core text.

Auteur
Hani Khafipour received his doctorate at the University of Chicago. A historian of medieval and early modern Iran, he teaches in the Department of Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California.

Texte du rabat

This volume is a comprehensive sourcebook of newly translated texts from the Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal empires of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, accompanied by scholarly essays, that aims to provide a new model for the study and teaching of the early modern history of the Near East and India.

Résumé
In the early modern world, the Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal empires sprawled across a vast swath of the earth, stretching from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. The diverse and overlapping literate communities that flourished in these three empires left a lasting legacy on the political, religious, and cultural landscape of the Near East and India. This volume is a comprehensive sourcebook of newly translated texts that shed light on the intertwined histories and cultures of these communities, presenting a wide range of source material spanning literature, philosophy, religion, politics, mysticism, and visual art in thematically organized chapters. Scholarly essays by leading researchers provide historical context for closer analyses of a lesser-known era and a framework for further research and debate. The volume aims to provide a new model for the study and teaching of the region's early modern history that stands in contrast to the prevailing trend of examining this interconnected past in isolation.

Contenu
Editor's Note
Editor's Acknowledgments
Introduction, by Hani Khafipour
Part I. The Religious Landscape

1. Converts, Apostates, and Polytheists
   I. Confessions of an Armenian Convert: The I'tirafnama of Abkar ('Ali Akbar) Armani, by Rudi Matthee
   II. Conversion, Apostasy, and Relations Between Muslims and Non-Muslims: Fatwas of the Ottoman Shaykh al-Islams, by Nikolay Antov
   III. The Night Debates at Jahangir's Court'Abd al-Sattar's Majalis-i Jahangiri, by Corinne Lefèvre
2. Heretics, Polytheists, and the Path of the Righteous
   I. The Shi'a Path of the Righteous: The Strength of Akhbarism in Safavid Iran, by Maryam Moazzen
   II. Ottoman Religious Rulings Concerning The Safavids: Ebussuud Efendi's Fatwas, by Abdurrahman Atçl
   III. A Mughal Debate About Jain Asceticism, by Audrey Truschke
   
   3. The Zealot, the Sufi, and the Quest for Spiritual Transcendence
      I. Opposition to Sufism in Safavid Iran: A Debate Between Mulla Muhammad-Tahir Qummi and Mulla Muhammad-Taqi Majlisi, by Ata Anzali
      II. The Worldview of a Sufi in the Ottoman Realm: Hakiki and His Book of Guidance, by F. Betul Yavuz
      III. Sufism and the Divine Law: Ahmad Sirhindi's Ruminations, by Arthur F. Buehler
      Part II. Political Culture
   4. Conceptions of Sovereignty: The Poet, the Scholar, and the Court Sufi
      I. The Safavid Claim to Sovereignty According to a Court Bureaucrat, by Hani Khafipour
      II. Kingship and Legitimacy in the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Empire, by Huseyin Ylmaz
      III. The Millennial and Saintly Sovereignty of Emperor Shah Jahan According to a Court Sufi, by A. Azfar Moin
   5. The King's Deathbed: Coronation, Execution, and Fratricide
      I. In the Shadow of Shah 'Abbas: The Succession of Shah Safi (r. 16291642), by Sholeh A. Quinn
      II. The Ottoman Conception of Sovereignty and Succession: Mustafa Ali's Essence of History (Kunh al-Akhbar), by Zahit Atçl
      III. The Way of Tradition and the Path of Innovation: Aurangzeb and Dara Shukuh's Struggle for the Mughal Throne, by Jane Mikkelson
   6. A Tale of Three Cities: Diplomacy and Conquest
      I. Imperial Geopolitics and the Otiose Quest for Qandahar, by Hani Khafipour
      II. The Ottoman Conquest of Buda(pest): Sultan Suleiman's Imperial Letter of Victory, by Zahit Atçl
      III. The Mughal Conquest of Chittor: Study of Akbar's Letter of Victory, Taymiya R. Zaman
      Part III. Philosophical Inquiries
   7. Philosophy as a Way of Life
      I. The Many Faces of Philosophy in the Safavid Age, by Sajjad Rizvi
      II. Philosophia Ottomanica: Jalal al-Din Davani on Establishing the Existence of the Necessary Being, by Ahab Bdaiwi
      III. Philosophy and Legal Theory: The Musallam al-thubut of Muhibballah al-Bihari and Its Commentary by 'Abd al-'Ali Bahr al-'Ulum, by Asad Q. Ahmad
   8. Lettrists, Alchemists, and Astrologers: The Occult Sciences
      I. The Occult Sciences in Safavid Iran, by Matthew Melvin-Koushki
      II. A Commentary on The Secret of Ta-Ha by the Pseudo-Erefolu Rumi, by Tuna Artun
      III. The Occult Sciences at the Mughal Court During the Sixteenth Century, by Eva Orthmann
      Part IV. Literature and the Arts
   9. Three Poets and the Three Literary Climes
      I. Selections from the Poetry of Muhtasham Kashani, by Paul Losensky
      II. The Poet 'Azmizade Haleti and the Transformation of Ottoman Literature in the Seventeenth Century, by Berat Açl
      III. Mughal Sanskrit Literature: The Book of War and the Treasury of Compassion, by Audrey Truschke
   10. Royal Patronage: A College, Poets, and the Making of an Imperial Secretary
       I. The Leading Religious College in Early Modern Iran: Madrasa-yi Sultani and Its Endowment, by Maryam Moazzen
       II. Imperial Patronage of Literature in the Ottoman World, 14001600, by Murat Umut Inan
       III. A Letter of Advice from a Mughal Gentleman to His Son, by Rajeev Kinra
   11. Painters, Calligraphers, and Collectors
       I. Reading a Painting: Sultan-Muhammad's The Court of Gayumars, by Sheila Blair
       II. The Making of a Legendary Calligrapher: Textual Portraits of Sheikh Hamdullah, by Esra Akn-Kvanc
       III. Deccani Seals and Scribal Notations: Sources for the Study of Indo-Persian Book Arts and Collecting (c. 14001680), by Keelan Overton and Jake Benson
       Bibliography
       List of Contributors
       Index