{"title":"Hilali and Mir ‘Ali: Sunnis among the Shi‘is, or Shi‘is among the Sunnis between the Shaybanids, Safavids and the Mughals","authors":"F. Melville","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1911756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1911756","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In 1788 Ephraim Pote, a British merchant in Patna, sent a large portion of the manuscript collection which formerly belonged to Colonel of the East India Company Antoine Polier. Among those manuscripts there was a Divan by Badr al-Din Hilali, who was executed by the Uzbek Sultan ‘Ubaydallah right after the conquest of Herat in 1529. The calligrapher responsible for compiling the impressive selection of Hilali's Divan was the famous Mir ‘Ali Haravi. He produced it in fond memory of his perished friend and their beloved Herat, when he was already working for ‘Ubaydallah in Bukhara, where he had been brought as part of the Sultan's intellectual booty. The manuscript is exceptionally important from various points of view: history, literature, artistic decoration and provenance. It is not only the earliest surviving copy of Hilali’s Divan, but allows the siege of Herat to be attributed with more chronological precision than was possible before. When the manuscript arrived to Delhi by the time of Emperor Shahjahan, it had spectacular marginal decorations of arabesque, floral and animalistic motifs in gold and polychrome. This makes the manuscript a brilliant example of intercultural communication between Persia, Central Asia and India in the sixteenth century.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"59 1","pages":"245 - 262"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1911756","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47977814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N. Eskandari, F. Desset, M. Shafiee, Meysam Shahsavari, Salman Anjamrouz, Irene Caldana, A. Daneshi, A. Shahdadi, M. Vidale
{"title":"Preliminary Report on the Survey of Hajjiabad-Varamin, a Site of the Konar Sandal Settlement Network (Jiroft, Kerman, Iran)","authors":"N. Eskandari, F. Desset, M. Shafiee, Meysam Shahsavari, Salman Anjamrouz, Irene Caldana, A. Daneshi, A. Shahdadi, M. Vidale","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1936595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1936595","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to introduce the large prehistoric site of Hajjiabad-Varamin, its changes in time and the first discoveries made there, in the specific literature on the early Bronze Age of the south-eastern Iranian Plateau. The first part of the article describes the site, its present damaged conditions, the periodisation we adopted and the complex topographic shifts and changes of functions through time. The second part focuses on the settlement of the 3rd millennium BC and discusses a major craft activity area found east of the main elevation of the site, in which were manufactured vessels in various stones (white alabaster, grey limestones with white fossil inclusions, and probably chlorite). Collections include large drill-heads in volcanic rocks used on the interior of the stone pots, and standardised beads of a green and red-banded calcite broken while being drilled. While the stone vessels find abundant comparisons and were certainly in demand for long-distance trade, the beads type is not known in other contexts and were presumably made for a local demand. We also present the unusual find of a hoard of copper objects which helps framing the 3rd millennium BC centre in terms of cultural links and chronology.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"149 - 176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1936595","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47623809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Change and Continuity: Safavid Administration in Eighteenth-century Iran","authors":"A. Barati","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1936594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1936594","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1936594","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48766248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lost and Found: The Ilkhanid Tiles of the Pir-i Bakran Mausoleum (Linjan, Isfahan)","authors":"Ana Marija Grbanovic","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1927141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1927141","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"7 2","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1927141","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41296639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Objects of Loyalty in the Early Mongol Empire (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries)","authors":"T. Jones","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1915701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1915701","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The world empire created by the Mongols in the thirteenth century was based upon a system of loyalties to different figures, families and institutions. This article explains some of the key “objects of loyalty” at the heart of the Mongol Empire and at a regional level. These loyalties, when acting in concert, served as the glue which bound the Mongol Empire together, but when they came into conflict, served to weaken and finally collapse the unity of the empire. Disagreements about the legacy and will of Chinggis Khan led to diverging loyalty decisions in succession struggles in the mid-thirteenth century and the breakdown of the empire into smaller khanates. This article will examine the system of loyalty as it functioned in the early thirteenth century and how it broke down in the late thirteenth century.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"196 - 220"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1915701","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42148282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Old Man, a Garden, and an Assembly of Assassins: Legends and Realities of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims","authors":"Shafique N. Virani","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1901062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1901062","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For centuries, Marco Polo's legends of the Old Man of the Mountain, his paradise garden, and his assembly of assassins have fascinated readers. Modern scholarship, however, has demonstrated that these are a fanciful history of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims of the state of Alamut. This article analyses the causes and motivations for the persistence of these tales and their trappings. The trope permeates popular culture ranging from medieval fables to the multi-billion dollar Assassin's Creed video game franchise. More surprising, the offensive “assassin” moniker and its associated images are strangely resilient within academia itself, long after Orientalist portrayals of the Muslim world stopped being fashionable. The study also introduces several little-known works, often newly discovered, which emanate from the state centred at Alamut. These allow us a rare glimpse into the community's self-perception. The steady recovery of such long-lost sources sheds new light on the Nizaris, revealing the life of a community that is equally fascinating, if less fantastic, than the “assassins” of Marco Polo's imagination.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"272 - 284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1901062","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41857874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Equestrian Relief of Hung-e Azhdar: A Historical Memory for the Dynastic Lineages of Elymais","authors":"D. Salaris","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2020.1846999","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2020.1846999","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT During the Parthian era (ca. 238 BC–224 AD), rupestrian art was mainly the product of the patronage of kings, independent aristocrats, subjugated vassals, or peripheral rulers, which often developed independently from the main authorities conventions, shaping a proper tradition through the canonisation of certain motifs. In the minor kingdom of Elymais, the socio-political situation seems to have stimulated a creative combination of native, Hellenistic and Parthian artistic elements. Within this panorama, the enigmatic carving of Hung-e Azhdar within the Zagros-Bakhtiari region in southwestern Iran embraces a tradition of two to three centuries of Iranian art, starting from the use of well-rooted Hellenistic heritage at Izeh-Malamir. The choice of this specific boulder, already bearing an Elamite relief, suggests that this enclosed spot represented a regionally important cult site where the reaffirmation of royal power and the necessity of political propaganda was evoked by the kings of Elymais.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"36 - 58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2020.1846999","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46194688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Survey on Parthian Pithos Cemeteries on The Western Bank of The Little Zab River, Sardasht Region, Northwest Iran","authors":"S. Salimi, M. Dehpahlavan, J. MacGinnis","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1889928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1889928","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Sardasht is a mountainous region located in the northern part of the Zagros. The Little Zab river, has had an important role in the formation of archaeological sites in the region. During field studies conducted along the eastern bank of the Iranian Little Zab we found seven pithos cemeteries, as well as archaeological sites that belong to multiple cultures. Unfortunately, all the cemeteries have been disturbed by illegal excavations and many pithos cemeteries have been destroyed. We were able to recover a significant amount of ceramic material, including glazed potsherds and sherds of the fine orange “Clinky ware” characteristic of the Parthian period, as well as glass, agate and clay beads. This paper presents the evidence from the newly discovered Parthian cemeteries in Sardasht, and compares their characteristics with other known Parthian pithos cemeteries such as those at Mingeçevir, Germi, Kangavar, Taq-e Bostan, Marivan and the Acropolis and the Royal City of Susa. A comparative study on the shape of the pithoi and other finds indicates a close similarity between the pithos cemeteries of Sardasht with the cemeteries at Germi and Taq-e Bostan. Considering these comparisons, we believe that the Sardasht cemeteries date to the first and second centuries AD.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"177 - 195"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1889928","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44891791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modernity, Borders and Maps: Iran’s Ability to Advocate for its Borders During the Reign of Naser al-Din Shah","authors":"Philip Henning Grobien","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1895672","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1895672","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Iran’s encounters with Britain and Russia after the turn of the nineteenth century necessitated coming to terms with British and Russian imperialism, modern ideas of border implementation and the modern skills of surveying and mapping, all of which were to perform roles in modifying Iran’s pre-modern frontiers. Iran’s engagement with this imperial modernity proved to be an even greater challenge during Naser al-Din Shah’s reign in the second half of the nineteenth century. Iran’s ability, under the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, to counter and ameliorate the power and wishes of the British and Russians was facilitated by incorporating these modern methods. This paper will explore, set against a background of Iran’s own “enlightenment” in cartography and negotiating skills, how the Iranians were able to mitigate against the worst possible outcomes as their borders were re-drawn. Using Persian language sources and Iranian maps together with British archives, and concentrating on the Dargaz-Kalat region between 1881 and 1884, this paper will show that the Iranians did have agency and were not always the victims in this process.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"285 - 298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1895672","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46043815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Excavation at Tahyaq – A Subterranean Rock-Cut Architecture Complex in Khomein, Markazi Province, Iran","authors":"E. Sharahi, H. Sedighian, M. Nikzad","doi":"10.1080/05786967.2021.1889927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1889927","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Subterranean rock-cut architecture is a known and frequently used type of architecture in Iran and the world. This type of architecture is documented with residential, defensive and ritual characteristics and was introduced and well studied in different parts of Iran. Recently, one of the such architectural features was excavated in the Tayhaq region of Markazi province in Iran. This subterranean rock-cut architecture was investigated in 2014. Apart from revealing various architectural spaces, its excavation provided important assemblages of small finds such as ceramic and metal vessels, gold personal ornaments, etc. The site was apparently in use only during the twelfth and thirteenth century AD before it was permanently abandoned. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a look into the excavated assemblages from the site.","PeriodicalId":44995,"journal":{"name":"Iran-Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"59 - 74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/05786967.2021.1889927","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46366993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}