Studying the Near and Middle East at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1935–2018 9781463240035

Table of contents :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
NEAR AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES AT THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY: A HISTORICAL SKETCH
IAS SCHOLARS IN NEAR AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, PAST AND PRESENT: A DIRECTORY
FRUITS OF SCHOLARSHIP
THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY
“THERE WE SAT DOWN”: MAPPING SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN SASANIAN BABYLONIA
THE NEAR EASTERN HERITAGE IN GRECO-ROMAN ASTRONOMY
ARABIA BEFORE ISLAM
THE RISE AND FALL OF A JEWISH KINGDOM IN ARABIA
ENTANGLEMENTS OF CLASSICS AND ORIENTALISM IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOLOGY, AND OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, CIRCA 1900
FOR A DIFFERENT HISTORY OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY CE: SYRIAC SOURCES AND SASANIAN AND ARAB-MUSLIM OCCUPATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST
TRADE AND GEOGRAPHY IN THE ORIGINS AND SPREAD OF ISLAM
NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE CONTINUATION OF ANCIENT SCIENCE AMONG THE ARABS
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: THE RESTORATION OF CALIPHAL POLITICAL POWER IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC WORLD
THE BIBLE AND THE QURʾAN
WHO WROTE THE TORAH? TEXTUAL, HISTORICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL, AND IDEOLOGICAL CORNERSTONES OF THE FORMATION OF THE PENTATEUCH
IS A QIBLA A QIBLA? SAMARITAN TRADITIONS ABOUT MOUNT GARIZIM IN CONTACT AND CONTENTION
MUSLIM PERCEPTIONS AND RECEPTIONS OF THE BIBLE
EDITING THE QURʾAN IN SIXTEENTH- AND SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE
THE CONCEPT OF TIME IN THE QURʾAN
THE VOICE OF GOD
ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL HISTORY WITHIN AND BEYOND DENOMINATIONAL BORDERS
VISUALIZATION AND MATERIAL CULTURES OF THE HEAVENS IN EURASIA AND NORTH AFRICA
RETHINKING THE CANONS OF ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
THE PEOPLE OF JUSTICE AND MONOTHEISM: MONOTHEISM IN ISLAM AND JUDAISM
THE NECESSITY OF A HISTORICAL APPROACH TO ISLAMIC THEOLOGY: TRACING MODERN ISLAMIC THOUGHT TO THE MIDDLE AGES
ABRAHAM AND ARISTOTLE IN DIALOGUE
WHAT MAKES AN ORATOR TRUSTWORTHY? SOME NOTES ON THE TRANSMISSION OF ARISTOTLE’S RHETORIC IN THE ARABIC WORLD AND ITS INTERPRETATION BY AL-ARABI
ARISTOTLE AND AVICENNA ON THE HABITABILITY OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
PHYSICAL THEORY AND MEDICAL PRACTICE IN THE POST-AVICENNA ERA: YAʿQUB B. ISHAQ AL-ISRAʾILI ON PROPERTIES (EXPLORATORY NOTES)
WAS FAKHR AL-DIN AL-RAZI AN AVERROIST AFTER ALL? ON THE DOUBLE-TRUTH THEORY IN MEDIEVAL LATIN AND ISLAMIC THOUGHT
THE CHALLENGES OF DRUZE STUDIES
ARABIC AND OTHER SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
CHASING AFTER A TRICKSTER: THE MAQAMAT BETWEEN PHILOLOGY AND WORLD LITERATURE
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN LITERATURE IN TENTH-CENTURY ISLAMIC COURTS
“A GLIMPSE OF THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES”: IBN TUFAYL ON LEARNING AND SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT PROPHETS AND SCRIPTURES
ARAMAIC AND ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
DOTS IN THE WRITING SYSTEMS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
UNLOCKING MIDDLE EASTERN NAMES
ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS AND LEGAL PRACTICES, LAW AND SOCIETY
JURISTS ON LITERATURE AND MEN OF LETTERS ON LAW: THE INTERFACES OF ISLAMIC LAW AND MEDIEVAL ARABIC LITERATURE
LAW, ETHICS, AND THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTIC LABOR IN THE ISLAMIC MARRIAGE CONTRACT
THE SHIʿITE INTERPRETATION OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN
ISLAMIC LAW AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE CASE OF INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION
A RENAISSANCE INTERRUPTED? DEBATING PERSONHOOD THROUGH A SEXUAL ACT IN THE TWELFTH-CENTURY CHRISTIANATE AND ISLAMICATE WORLDS
SAY SOMETHING NICE: SUPPLICATIONS ON MEDIEVAL OBJECTS, AND WHY THEY MATTER
TEN THESES ON WORKING WITH DEMONS (JINN) IN ISLAMIC STUDIES
THE INVISIBILITY OF PATERNAL FILIATION: THE POWER OF INSTITUTIONS VERSUS SCIENTIFIC PROOF IN ROMAN AND MUSLIM LAW
JOSEPH SCHACHT AND GERMAN ORIENTALISM IN THE 1920s AND 1930s
THE ISLAMIC WEST AND BEYOND
THE OTHER EDGE: THE MAGHRIB IN THE MASHRIQ
IDENTIFYING “THE MUFTI OF ORAN”: A DETECTIVE STORY
CASTILIAN AND ARABIC: THE DEBATES ABOUT THE NATURAL LANGUAGES OF SPAIN
PEACE AND QUIET IN CASTILE: BAPTIZED MUSLIMS, FEUDAL LORDS, AND THE ROYAL EXPULSION
THE HERMENEUTICS OF ISLAMIC ORNAMENT: THE EXAMPLE OF THE ALHAMBRA
THE OTTOMAN WORLD AND BEYOND
EDIRNE/ADRIANOPLE: THE BEST CITY IN GREECE
THE CHIEF EUNUCH OF THE OTTOMAN IMPERIAL HAREM
PERSIAN AESTHETICS IN OTTOMAN ALBUMS
SYPHILIS AS MEASURE OF CIVILIZATION AND PROGRESS? OTTOMAN-TURKISH RESPONSES TO EUROPEAN MEDICAL DISCOURSES ON THE GENERAL PARESIS OF THE INSANE
THE CONSTRUCTION OF ETHNICITY IN MEDIEVAL TURKIC EURASIA
TAMERLANE’S (FICTITIOUS) PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS
BUILDING A FAMILY SHRINE IN OTTOMAN CAIRO
IRANIAN AND PERSIANATE STUDIES
THE SHAPING OF THE HOLY SELF: ART AND RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MANICHAEISM
PATRICIA CRONE’S CONTRIBUTION TO IRANIAN STUDIES
LORD OF THE PLANETARY COURT: REVISITING A “NATIVIST PROPHET” OF EARLY MODERN IRAN
NADIR SHAH IN IRANIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY: WARLORD OR NATIONAL HERO?
THE BIRTH OF NEWSPAPER CULTURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY IRAN
A BRIEF HISTORY OF JUDEO-PERSIAN LITERATURE
THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST AND ISLAM IN THE WEST
LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC LEGACIES IN MODERN EGYPT: THE ROLE OF THE INTELLECTUALS, 1900–1950
ISIS AND AL-QAEDA-WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? UNDERSTANDING THE ADVERSARY
JIHADI WEEPING
FOR LOVE OF THE PROPHET: A REPLY
LIVING IN A HUMANITARIAN WORLD: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AND THE CHALLENGE OF LONG-TERM DISPLACEMENT
THE MULTIPLE FIGURES OF THE WITNESS IN PALESTINE
HAGAR: JEWISH-ARAB EDUCATION FOR EQUALITY, CREATING A COMMON FUTURE IN ISRAEL
LA NOUVELLE LAÏCITÉ AND ITS CRITICS: PREFACE TO THE FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE POLITICS OF THE VEIL

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Near and Middle Eastern Studies DWWKH Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton: 1935–2018

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Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton: 1935–2018

Edited by

Sabine Schmidtke

gp 2018

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2018 by Gorgias Press LLC All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC.

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1

2018

ISBN 978-1-4632-0750-2

ISSN 1935-6838

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A Cataloging-in-Publication Record is available from the Library of Congress. Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... xi List of Contributors ........................................................................................................... xv Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study: A Historical Sketch .................................................................................................... xxxi SABINE SCHMIDTKE IAS Scholars in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Past and Present: A Directory ................................................................................................................. xcix FRUITS OF SCHOLARSHIP The Ancient Near East and Early Islamic History “There we sat down”: Mapping Settlement Patterns in Sasanian Babylonia ............. 3 GEOFFREY HERMAN The Near Eastern Heritage in Greco-Roman Astronomy .......................................... 11 FRANCESCA ROCHBERG Arabia before Islam ........................................................................................................... 21 DAVID F. GRAF The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Kingdom in Arabia ....................................................... 33 G. W. BOWERSOCK Entanglements of Classics and Orientalism in the History of Philology, and of Princeton University, circa 1900 ........................................................................ 35 HENNING TRÜPER For a Different History of the Seventh Century CE: Syriac Sources and Sasanian and Arab-Muslim Occupation of the Middle East.............................. 45 MURIEL DEBIE Trade and Geography in the Origins and Spread of Islam ......................................... 48 STELIOS MICHALOPOULOS New Insights into the Continuation of Ancient Science among the Arabs ............. 66 CARLO SCARDINO The Empire Strikes Back: The Restoration of Caliphal Political Power in the Medieval Islamic World ........................................................................................... 73 D. G. TOR The Bible and the Qurʯćn Who Wrote the Torah? Textual, Historical, Sociological, and Ideological Cornerstones of the Formation of the Pentateuch ............................................. 81 KONRAD SCHMID

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Is a Qibla a Qibla? Samaritan Traditions about Mount Garizim in Contact and Contention.......................................................................................................... 95 STEFAN SCHORCH Muslim Perceptions and Receptions of the Bible....................................................... 101 SABINE SCHMIDTKE Editing the Qurʱćn in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe ...................... 115 ROBERTO TOTTOLI The Concept of Time in the Qurʱćn............................................................................. 118 GEORGES TAMER The Voice of God ............................................................................................................ 125 G. W. BOWERSOCK Islamic Intellectual History Within and Beyond Denominational Borders Visualization and Material Cultures of the Heavens in Eurasia and North Africa......................................................................................................................... 134 SONJA BRENTJES Rethinking the Canons of Islamic Intellectual History .............................................. 154 KHALED EL-ROUAYHEB The People of Justice and Monotheism: Muʲtazilism in Islam and Judaism.......... 164 SABINE SCHMIDTKE The Necessity of a Historical Approach to Islamic Theology: Tracing Modern Islamic Thought to the Middle Ages .................................................... 170 KELLY DEVINE THOMAS Abraham and Aristotle in Dialogue .............................................................................. 173 GARTH FOWDEN What Makes an Orator Trustworthy? Some Notes on the Transmission of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in the Arabic World and Its Interpretation by al)ćUćEĪ ........................................................................................................................ 181 FRÉDÉRIQUE WOERTHER Aristotle and Avicenna on the Habitability of the Southern Hemisphere.............. 188 FRANÇOIS DE BLOIS Physical Theory and Medical Practice in the Post-Avicenna Era: YaʲqŠb b. Isʘćq al-IsrćʱĪlĪ on Properties (Exploratory Notes) ........................................... 194 EMMA GANNAGÉ Was Fakhr al-'ĪQDO-5ć]Īan Averroist after All? On the Double-Truth Theory in Medieval Latin and Islamic Thought................................................. 205 FRANK GRIFFEL The Challenges of Druze Studies .................................................................................. 217 SAMER TRABOULSI

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Arabic and other Semitic Languages and Literatures Chasing after a Trickster: The 0DTćPćW between Philology and World Literature .................................................................................................................. 228 MAURICE A. POMERANTZ Employment Opportunities in Literature in Tenth-Century Islamic Courts ......... 243 BILAL ORFALI “A Glimpse of the Mystery of Mysteries”: Ibn ʝufayl on Learning and Spirituality without Prophets and Scriptures ...................................................... 251 SEBASTIAN GÜNTHER Aramaic and Endangered Languages............................................................................ 262 GEOFFREY A. KHAN Dots in the Writing Systems of the Middle East ........................................................ 265 GEORGE A. KIRAZ Unlocking Middle Eastern Names ................................................................................ 276 WILL HANLEY Islamic Religious and Legal Practices, Law and Society Jurists on Literature and Men of Letters on Law: The Interfaces of Islamic Law and Medieval Arabic Literature .................................................................... 285 ZOLTAN SZOMBATHY Law, Ethics, and the Problem of Domestic Labor in the Islamic Marriage Contract .................................................................................................................... 294 MARION KATZ The Shiʲite Interpretation of the Status of Women ................................................... 300 HASSAN ANSARI Islamic Law and Private International Law: The Case of International Child Abduction................................................................................................................. 304 ANVER M. EMON A Renaissance Interrupted? Debating Personhood through a Sexual Act in the Twelfth-Century Christianate and Islamicate Worlds ................................ 308 VANJA HAMZIĀ Say Something Nice: Supplications on Medieval Objects, and Why They Matter ........................................................................................................................322 MARGARET S. GRAVES Ten Theses on Working with Demons (Jinn) in Islamic Studies .............................. 331 BIRGIT KRAWIETZ The Invisibility of Paternal Filiation: The Power of Institutions versus Scientific Proof in Roman and Muslim Law ...................................................... 337 BABER JOHANSEN Joseph Schacht and German Orientalism in the 1920s and 1930s .......................... 344 RAINER BRUNNER

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The Islamic West and Beyond The Other Edge: The Maghrib in the Mashriq ........................................................... 353 MARIBEL FIERRO Identifying “the Mufti of Oran”: A Detective Story .................................................. 359 DEVIN J. STEWART Castilian and Arabic: The Debates about the Natural Languages of Spain ............ 363 MERCEDES GARCÍA-ARENAL Peace and Quiet in Castile: Baptized Muslims, Feudal Lords, and the Royal Expulsion ................................................................................................................. 371 PATRICK J. O’BANION The Hermeneutics of Islamic Ornament: The Example of the Alhambra............. 375 VALERIE GONZALEZ The Ottoman World and Beyond Edirne/Adrianople: The Best City in Greece ............................................................. 390 AMY SINGER The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem ................................................. 399 JANE HATHAWAY Persian Aesthetics in Ottoman Albums ....................................................................... 402 EMINE FETVACI Syphilis as Measure of Civilization and Progress? Ottoman-Turkish Responses to European Medical Discourses on the General Paresis of the Insane ................................................................................................................. 413 YÜCEL Y$1,.'$û The Construction of Ethnicity in Medieval Turkic Eurasia...................................... 420 PETER B. GOLDEN Tamerlane’s (Fictitious) Pilgrimage to the Tombs of the Prophets......................... 429 RON SELA Building a Family Shrine in Ottoman Cairo ................................................................ 436 ADAM SABRA Iranian and Persianate Studies The Shaping of the Holy Self: Art and Religious Life in Manichaeism .................. 443 ANDREA PIRAS Patricia Crone’s Contribution to Iranian Studies ........................................................ 450 HASSAN ANSARI Lord of the Planetary Court: Revisiting a “Nativist Prophet” of Early Modern Iran ............................................................................................................. 455 DANIEL J. SHEFFIELD 1ćGLU6KćKLQ,UDQLDQ+LVWRULRJUDSK\:DUORUGRU1DWLRQDO+HUR" ........................ 467 RUDI MATTHEE

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The Birth of Newspaper Culture in Nineteenth-Century Iran ................................. 475 NEGIN NABAVI A Brief History of Judeo-Persian Literature ................................................................ 479 VERA B. MOREEN The Modern Middle East and Islam in the West Liberal Democratic Legacies in Modern Egypt: The Role of the Intellectuals, 1900–1950......................................................................................... 485 ISRAEL GERSHONI ISIS and al-Qaeda—What Are They Thinking? Understanding the Adversary.................................................................................................................. 495 BERNARD HAYKEL Jihadi Weeping.................................................................................................................. 505 THOMAS HEGGHAMMER For Love of the Prophet: A Reply ................................................................................ 515 NOAH SALOMON Living in a Humanitarian World: Palestinian Refugees and the Challenge of Long-Term Displacement ..................................................................................... 522 ILANA FELDMAN The Multiple Figures of the Witness in Palestine ....................................................... 528 DIDIER FASSIN Hagar: Jewish-Arab Education for Equality, Creating a Common Future in Israel .......................................................................................................................... 543 CATHERINE ROTTENBERG La Nouvelle Laïcité and Its Critics: Preface to the French Translation of The Politics of the Veil ....................................................................................................... 546 JOAN WALLACH SCOTT

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 6.1: Letter from Charles Rufus Morey to Abraham Flexner, April 9/10, 1934 (Director’s Office. General Files. Box 44. Morey, Charles Rufus 1931-1938. Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ), p. 1 Figure 6.2: Letter from Charles Rufus Morey to Abraham Flexner, April 9/10, 1934 (Director’s Office. General Files. Box 44. Morey, Charles Rufus 1931-1938. Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ), p. 2 Figure 6.3: Letter from Charles Rufus Morey to Abraham Flexner, April 9/10, 1934 (Director’s Office. General Files. Box 44. Morey, Charles Rufus 1931-1938. Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ), p. 3 Figure 6.4: Letter from Charles Rufus Morey to Abraham Flexner, April 9/10, 1934 (Director’s Office. General Files. Box 44. Morey, Charles Rufus 1931-1938. Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ), p. 4 Figure 6.5: Letter from Charles Rufus Morey to Abraham Flexner, April 9/10, 1934 (Director’s Office. General Files. Box 44. Morey, Charles Rufus 1931-1938. Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ), p. 5 Figure 6.6: Letter from Charles Rufus Morey to Abraham Flexner, April 9/10, 1934 (Director’s Office. General Files. Box 44. Morey, Charles Rufus 1931-1938. Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ), p. 6 Figure 8.1: Titlepage of Die Landschaft Babylonien im Zeitalter des Talmuds und des Gaonats: Geographie und Geschichte nach talmudischen, arabischen und anderen Quellen, von Jacob Obermeyer (Frankfurt am Main, I. Kauffmann, 1929). Figure 8.3: Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Genizah, 31v. An early fragment of the Babylonian Talmud with geographical content. Figure 8.2: Portrait Jacob Obermeyer (b. 1845, d. 1938), public domain Figure 9.1: BM 34580+42690, a lunar ephemeris for the years 208-210 S.E. (104/103-102/101 BCE). @Trustees of the British Museum (with kind permission) Figure 10.1: Aerial photo of Shabwa, the capital of the Hadramawt Kingdom, excavated by the French in the 970s and 1980s (photo courtesy of Jane Taylor) Figure 10.2: The site of al-Rajajil ("the old men") in the Jauf oasis on the edge of the Great Nafud. They have been dated to the fourth millennium BCE (photo David Graf). Figure 14.1: Muslim Adherence and Ancient Trade Routes: China

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NEAR AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES AT THE IAS, PRINCETON

Figure 14.2: Muslim Adherence and Ancient Trade Routes: Mali Figure 14.3: Muslim Adherence and Ancient Trade Routes: Tanzania Figure 14.4: Muslim Adherence and Ancient Trade Routes: Indonesia Figure 14.5: Muslim Adherence and Ancient Trade Routes: India Figures 14.6: Old World network of Roman roads, ancient ports and harbors, and trade routes in 600 CE. Figure 14.7: Old World network of Roman roads, ancient ports and harbors, and trade routes in 1800 CE. Figure 14.8: Nonparametric Conditional Correlation – Cross-country Figure 17.1: Victory stele of Esarhaddon, ca. 669 BCE (Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin). Figure 18.1: Numbers 34 from the Samaritan Pentateuch, MS Manchester, John Rylands Library, Sam. 1. Figure 20.1: MS Rome, Ordine della Madre di Dio Marracci II (B69 ML VIII), beginning of Sura 18 (photograph Roberto Tottoli) Figure 22.1: Siyar-L1DEĪ (Life of the Prophet), sixteenth century. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul/Universal Images Group/Art Resource. Figure 22.2: A Muslim family praying, Rockwood, Minnesota, 2003. Gueorgui Pinkhassov/Magnum Photos. Figure 23.1: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/projects/visualizationand-material-cultures-heavens-image-database-eurasia-and-north Figure 23.2: Huibei (Yuebo) Planet, St. Petersburg, Hermitage, ǣǣ–2450. Figure 23.3: Indian sculpture of the nine luminaries, c. 900-1000. Figure 23.4: Ernst Weidner, Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1967, plate 6. Figure 23.5: MS Madrid, BNE, 8282, f 2v, celestial map. Figure 23.6: Saturn, Tangut painting, 13th-14th centuries, Hermitage no. XX-2451. Figure 23.7: MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Or. 133, f 13b, .LWćEDO-%XOKćQ, Saturn on the bottom of Virgo in Libra, extract. https://archive.org/details/KitabAlBulhan Figure 23.8: MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Or. 133, f 41a, .LWćEDO-%XOKćQ, Saturn in Capricorn, extract. https://archive.org/details/KitabAlBulhan Figure 23.9: Seven-DUPHG6DWXUQIURPDFRS\RI=DNDUL\\ć’ b. Muʘammad al4D]ZĪQL’s Wonders of CreaturesSRVVLEO\SURGXFHGIRUWKH7LPXULGUXOHU6KćK Rukh (r. 1405- DQGODWHULQWKHSRVVHVVLRQRIWKH0XJKDOFRXUWLHU$PćQDW .KćQ6KćK-DKćQG Sotheby’s, Arts of the Islamic World, London, 11 October 2006, Lot 31. Figure 23.10: Seven-armed Saturn, Mughal )ćOQćPHF6RWKHE\’s, Arts of the Islamic World, London, 20 April 2016, Lot 46.

LIST OF FIGURES

xiii

Figure 23.11: Anonymous celestial map of the northern hemisphere. Bonhams’ catalog Islamic and Indian Art, October 11, 2000, 37. Figure 23.12: Silver-inlaid brass jug with Zodiacal signs, Jazira, first half of the 13th FHQWXU\6RWKHE\’s, Arts of the Islamic World, London, 9 October 2013, Lot 116. Figure 23.13: Artuqid coin, Sagittarius, Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan (1201-1239), c. 1202'DYLG&ROOHFWLRQ&RSHQKDJHQ,QYQR&191. Figure 23.14: Silver coin, Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg Julius (r. 1568-1589), minted 1574, with planets and Zodiacal signs, Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, object no. 18201919. Figure 30.1: Over the centuries, the enclosed cemetery (Pers. ʚaʲĪUD) around Fakhr al-'ĪQDO-5ć]Ī’s grave in Herat, Afghanistan, attracted numerous other prominent burials (photo courtesy of Waleed Ziad). Figure 31.1: A directive from the office of the Druze Shaykh al-ʲ$TO1DʲĪPʗasan dated 11/29/2017, http://mouwahidoundruze.gov.lb/adds/36/2. Figure 31.2: The reconstructed mausoleum of al-$PĪUDO-6D\\LGʲ$EG$OOćKDO7DQQŠNKĪLQʲ8Eayy (© Samer Traboulsi). Figure 31.3: The tomb of al-$PĪUDO-6D\\LGʲ$EG$OOćKDO-7DQQŠNKĪG1479) (© Samer Traboulsi). Figure 33.1: MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Arabe 5847, fol. 103r. Figure 33.2: MS Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Salisbury 63, fols. 29v–30r. Figure 33.3: The textual travels of the 0DTćPćW of al-ʗDUĪUĪ  Figure 36.1: Geoffrey Khan carrying out fieldwork on Neo-Aramaic in the village of Kanda, Georgia. Figure 43.1: Two ‘sodomites’ in Hell. Romanesque panel on the west frieze of Lincoln Cathedral, c.1141–1148 or c.1160 (restored 1990–2002). Figure 43.2: Two Seljuks depicted on a bowl. Fritware with overglaze-painted design (PLQćʯi ZDUH SUREDEO\.ćVKćQODWHWZHOIWKFHQWXU\7KH&OHYHODQGMuseum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1944.478. Figure 44.1: Ewer base, cast copper-alloy (brass) inlaid with silver and copper. Khurasan, first half of the thirteenth century, height 22.2 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891, acc. no. 91.1.530. Figure 44.2: Ewer base, cast copper-alloy (brass) inlaid with silver and copper. Khurasan, first half of the thirteenth century, height 22.2 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891, acc. no. 91.1.530. Figure 51.1: View of Deza (photograph Patrick O’Banion). Figure 52.1: 6KćKʲ$EEćV0RVTXH,VIDKDQ6DIDYLGDUWVHYHQWHHQWKFHQWXU\3KRWR courtesy of Sanaz Mazinani, contemporary Iranian artist, San Francisco.

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Figure 52.2: Blue and red Iznik tiles, Ottoman art, sixteenth century. Figure 52.3: Sala de Las Dos Hermanas (The Hall of the Two Sisters), Alhambra, fourteenth century, Granada, Spain. Photo by Liam987. Figure 52.4: Ceiling of the Comares Hall, Alhambra, fourteenth century, Granada, Spain. Figure 52.5: View of the Comares Hall, Alhambra. Figure 52.6: Muqarnas cupola in the Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra. Figure 52.7: Mihrab of Uljaytu, Great Mosque of Isfahan, Iran, Ilkhanid art, fourteenth century. Photo by Marco Rameniri. Figure 52.8: Muqarnas ceiling of the Cappella Palatina, Palermo, Sicily. AraboNorman art, 1130-1140. Photo by Kabaeh49. Figure 55.1: Ottoman text about an imminent war, Album of Mehmed III, ca. 1600, 7RSNDSï6DUD\ï0Ù]HVL.ÙWÙSKDQHVL+2165, fol. 8a. Figure 55.2: Drawing of a shepherd surrounded by poetry, Album of Mehmed III, ca. 1600, TopkaSï6DUD\ï0Ù]HVL.ÙWÙSKDQHVL+2165, fol. 16a. )LJXUH&DOOLJUDSK\E\6KćK0DʘPŠGVXUURXQGHGE\WKH2WWRPDQWH[WRID letter to Sinan Pasha from the sultan via Hoca Sadeddin, Album of Mehmed III, FD7RSNDSï6DUD\ï0Ù]HVL.ÙWÙSKDQHVL+ fol. 33b. Figure 55.4: Lightly tinted ink drawing of a captured warrior with signaWXUHDWWULEXWLRQWR%LK]ćGAlbum of Mehmed III, ca. 16007RSNDSï6DUD\ï Müzesi Kütüphanesi, H 2165, fol. 45b. )LJXUHq7ĪPŠU&RQWHPSODWLQJDQ$QWr,VIDKDQ Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Art and History Collection, folio 110b (detail). Figure 61.1: Alireza Firouzi/Getty Images. Figure 63.1: Cartoon from an issue of the Persian newspaper .DVKNŠO published in 1907. Figure 65.1: 5Š]DO-)LUGDZVĪ@ $IWHUZDUGV WKH\ UHFHLYHG favor from the emperor. 12

Indeed, as we have seen above, Ćҷar Kayvćn and his disciples wrote extensively on the practice of planetary worship and theurgy, which they held as necessary for the maintenance of cosmic harmony. Details regarding the ancient construction of the planetary temples, the fashioning of their idols, and the rituals to be performed therein are elaborated in the extant ĆҷarĪ literature. In summary, it is stated in the $NKWDULVWćQWKDWWKHEHOLHIRIWKH6LSćVĪVZDVWKDW the stars and heavens are shadows of the incorporeal lights. For this reason, they would build the temples of the seven planets. They fashioned a talisman corresponding to each planet out of stone (NćQĪ), and each of the talismans was placed in the house at the [time of the] corresponding ascendant. At the corresponding time, they would worship them and devote themselves to service. When they came to serve those idols, at special times, they would burn what was suitable, and they held them to be great. Those houses were called SD\NDULVWćQ-L VKĪGćQ, SD\NDULVWćQ, and VKĪGLVWćQ. 13

The appearance of the idols was apparently so important for the author of the 'DELVWćQthat he saw it necessary to include illustrations of them. According to the text, rituals should be performed at each of the planetary temples on their corresponding day of the week. These rituals include the wearing of a specific color and the offering of specific foods and specific burnt offerings. The temple of the world-illuminating sun is larger than the other temples. Its dome is built of golden bricks, and its interior is studded with rubies, diamonds, cornelian, and the like. They have fashioned the idol of the Great Luminary out of red gold, like a man who has two heads. On each head is a precious crown studded with rubies. Each crown has seven prongs. He is seated on a powerful horse. His face is like the face of a man, but his tail resembles that of a dragon. In

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DANIEL J. SHEFFIELD his right hand is a staff made of gold, and on his neck is a collar of gems. The servants of this temple wear yellow garments, with robes woven with gold, a golden crown, and a belt studded with rubies, diamonds, and other solar stones, and golden rings. They burn aloe and similar things, and they bring pleasant foods. The descendants of kings and sultans, the nobles, chiefs, gentry, leaders, commanders, lords of countries, and scientists live on its lane, and newcomers of this group are brought into audience with the king by the leaders of this temple. 14

In this connection, it is worth pointing out that the ever-pessimistic courtier of AkEDUʲ$EGDO-4ćGLUDO-%DGćʱŠQĪG UHFRUGVWKDWRQ1DZUŠ]RIWKH\HDU the Mughal emperor Akbar began to prostrate himself before the sun and to wear clothing of the color of the regent planet associated with the day of the week. While it is certainly the case that such practices were already prevalent at the Mughal court during the lifetime of Akbar’V IDWKHU +XPć\ŠQ LW LV QHYHUWKHOHVV LQWULJXLQJ WR Rbserve the degree to which such ideas were widespread during this period and to ask the question whether other aspects of Ćҷar Kayvćn’s political theology might be reflected at the Mughal court. 7KH\>$NEDUDQG$EŠO-)DŰO@ZURWHOHWWHUVWRĆҷar Kayvćn, who was the chief of the YazdćnĪs, and asked him to come to India. Ćҷar Kayvćn excused himself, and sent a book of his own writings in praise of the Necessary Existent (YćMLEDO-YXMŠG), the Intellects, the spirits, the heavens, the stars, and the elements, and (written) in advice to the king, comprising fourteen sections. The beginning of each line was in pure GDUĪPersian (SćUVĪ-LEDʚW-LGDUĪ). When they would read it by changing the diacritical points, it became Arabic. When they read it backwards, it was Turkish, DQG ZKHQ WKH\ >DJDLQ@ FKDQJHG WKH GLDFULWLFDO SRLQWV LW EHFDPH +LQGL 1DZćE ʲ$OOćPĪ6KD\NK$EŠO-)DŰOKDGFRPSOHWHIDLWKLQĆҷar Kayvćn. 15

It is tempting here to draw parallels between another aspect of the ĆҷarĪ religion and WKH'ĪQ-L,OćKĪLQWKHWLPHRI$NEDU.D\YćQKHOGWKDWDVWKHUHOLJLRQVRIWKHZRUOG originate from the same essential origin, they are all essentially translations of the same divine message, and all equally paths to salvation. The author of the 'DELVWćQ writes: And now, a morsel regarding the mingling of the ĆEćGĪdervishes with the various peoples shall be written with the pen of inquiry. This group calls this practice “The Mixing of Cultures” (ćPĪ]LVK-i farhang) and “*Table Manners” (PĪ]FKćU, perhaps “The Table Remedy”). When someone foreign to their doctrine (EĪJćQDJćQ-i NĪVK) is introduced to the assembly of this group, they do not speak coarsely of KLP they praise the path of his doctrine (maܴhab), and they accept what he says, and do not overlook even a morsel of politeness or generosity, according to the principle of their doctrine, namely, that in their belief (iʰWLTćG), one can approach God (NKXGć) through every religion. If those of another doctrine (MXGćJćQDNĪVKćQ) should present them with something with which they disagree, that is, they proselytize to them to approach God, they do not distress about it. Moreover, they do not command that one should change from the doctrine (NĪVK) to which he belongs, as they do not consider anything besides the removing of pain obligatory. 16

REVISITING A “NATIVIST PROPHET” OF EARLY MODERN IRAN

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:KDW LV LQWULJXLQJ KHUH LV WKH QRWLRQ RI UHOLJLRXV XQLYHUVDOLVP H[SUHVVHG LQ Ć਎arĪ sources, termed ćPĪ]LVK-i farhang, “the mixing of cultures,” and elsewhere described as ʜXOʚEćKDPD, “universal harmony.” Here it is worth recalling Akbar’s own usage of the phrase “universal harmony” (ʜXOʚ-i kull), in which the king refers to his own role in fostering harmony at the microcosmic level of the corporeal body, the mesocosmic level of the body politic, and the macrocosmic level of the celestial bodies. In any case, it is clear that Akbar used the notion of ʜXOʚ-i kull to promote his own claim to VDQFWLILHGSRZHURYHUWKDWRIKLV6DIDYLGULYDO6KDKʲ$EEćV$FFRUGLQJWR the 'DELVWćQ$NEDUXUJHGʲ$EEćVWRLQVWLWXWHKLVRZQYHUVLRQRIʜXOʚ-i kull. The emperor, now residing at the throne of God, composed a book of advice for 6KDKʲ$EEćVʙDIDYĪDQGLWZDVZULWWHQE\6KD\NK$EŠO-)DŰO6RPHH[FHUSWVRI that famous letter are as follows: The upper strata of mankind are the deposits of the [divine] treasures (YDGćʯLʰ-LNKDOćʯiq), and we must strive for the reconciliation of our hearts. Realizing that the universal divine compassion (UDʚPDW-LʰćPD-\LLOćKĪ) incorporates all religions and sects, let us strive ever more to bring ourselves into the garden that is always a spring of universal harmony (ʜXOK-i kull). We must always consider the full view to be the pursuit that increases one’s own fortune, for God the powerful, having opened the door of grace (ID\Ű) to people of different creeds and diverse persuasions, nurtures them. Thus, in service to the Exalted, it is incumbent on kings, who are the shadows of divine sovereignty, not to give up this rule, since the Creator has brought for this lofty group the organization of the manifest creation and the guardianship of the population of mankind, so that they can protect the law of the classes of man. 17

A SANCTIFIED HERESY: THE NATIVIST PATTERN IN EARLY MODERNITY To conclude, I have tried to illustrate the way in which articulations of political theology in the early modern period of Islamic history were closely linked to the memory of Persian kingship. Mystics such as Ćҷar Kayvćn in the early Safavid period claimed to revive the ancient Persian religion not according to the “orthodox” practices of what Patricia Crone termed “official” Zoroastrianism, but rather according to the doctrines of the “local Zoroastrianism” that fed into so much nativist UHEHOOLRQLQWKHHDUO\,VODPLFSHULRG.D\YćQ’s disciples combined ideas about cyclical time, reincarnation, and divine indwelling with spiritual exercises to promote bodily harmony through dietary practices, social harmony through religious pluralism, and celestial harmony through the worship of planets. Such practices they described as “universal harmony.” Indeed, in distinction from what we know about the nativist thinkers of the early Abbasid period, Ćҷar Kayvćn and his disciples were highly literate, with access to an eclectic body of scholarship ranging from Islamic philosophy to astrological manuals to “orthodox” Zoroastrian texts. Whether or not the transmission of such ideas was entirely literary, or whether there remained a “local Zoroastrian” substrate whereby such ideas could be conveyed, remains to be seen. Nevertheless, the political theology of Ćҷar Kayvćn seems to have attracted the interest of the Mughal emperor Akbar, who similarly in his GĪQ-LLOćKĪpromoted vegetarianism, religious toleration, and the worship of the sun. Thus, the intellectual

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history that Crone so painstakingly outlined in her writings on Iranian religion is important not only for the later history of Iran but, because of the mobility of Iranian scholars and ideas across the Islamic world, also for the broader intellectual history of the early modern Islamic world in general.

* For the purposes of this volume, the citations of this paper have been limited to GLUHFWUHIHUHQFHVWRSULPDU\VRXUFHV)RUIXUWKHUUHDGLQJRQĆҷar Kayvćn and the Dabistćn-i Maιćhib, see: Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran, CambriGJH+DUYDUG8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV$GLW\D Behl, “Pages from the Book of Religions: Encountering Difference in Mughal India,” Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia, ed. Sheldon Pollock, Raleigh-Durham: Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 210–239*HUDld GrREEHOq'DV'DELVWćQ-i 0Dʪćhib und seine Darstellung der Religionsgespräche an Akbars Hof,” Islamische *UHQ]HQXQG*UHQ]Ùbergange, ed. Benedikt Reinert and Johannes Thomann, Bern: Peter Lang Verlag, 2007, pp. 85–'DQLHO6KHIILHOG“The Language of Heaven: 6SHHFKDQG&RVPRORJ\LQWKH7KRXJKWRIĆҷar Kayvćn and His Followers,” No Tapping around Philology, ed. Alireza Korangy and Daniel Sheffield, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014, pp. 161–183 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Europe’s India: Words, People, Empires, 1500–1800&DPEULGJH0$+DUYDUG8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV0ohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Historiography, New York: Palgrave, 2001. 1 Jones, The Sixth Discourse: On the Persians (London, 1789), pp. 48–50. 2 ҶŠl-)LTćUĆҷar SćsćnĪ “0ŠEDG,” 'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, ed. 5DʘĪP5LŰć]ćGD0DOLN, 7HKUDQ7DKŠUĪ, p. 72. Translated as The Dabistan, or School of Manners, trans. David Shea and Anthony Troyer, London: Oriental Translation Fund, 1843. 3 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, pp. 36–37. 4 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, p. 55. 5 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, p. 51. 6 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, p. 18. 7 The Desatir or Sacred Writings of the Ancient Persian ProphetsHG0XOOć)ĪUŠ]E.ćʱŠV Bombay: Courier Press, 1818, pp. 28–32. 8 Desatir, pp. 293–295. 9 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, p. 20. 10 %DKUćPE)DUKćG6KćULVWćQ-LFKDKćUFKDPDQHG%DKUćP%Ī]KDQHWDO%RPED\ 0DʜEDʲ-i MuʴDIIDUĪS 11 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, pp. 276–277. 12 %DKUćPE)DUKćG6KćULVWćQ-LFKDKćUFKDPDQ, pp. 244–245. 13 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, p. 14. 14 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, pp. 15–16. 15 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, pp. 300–301. 16 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, pp. 47–48. 17 0ŠEDG'DELVWćQ-i Maιćhib, p. 313.

NĆ',5S+Ć+,1IRANIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY: WARLORD OR NATIONAL HERO? RUDI MATTHEE INTRODUCTION Western—European and North American—historiography generally portrays the years between the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as having given birth to the modern world—a republican world founded on rational GLVFRXUVH DQG SRSXODU VRYHUHLJQW\ DQ HPSLULFDOO\ JURXQGHG LQGXVWULDOL]LQJ ZRUOG EXLOW RQ SURJUHVV DQG SURGXFWLYLW\ DQ DJJUHVVLYH PDUNHW-driven world espousing expansion as agenda and organizing principle. In the traditional interpretation of Islamic Middle Eastern history, the “eighteenth century” projects an entirely different image. Rather than evoking energy and innovation, it conjures up stasis, decline, and defeat. It speaks of exhausted, mismanaged empires that either succumbed to regional competitors or proved too weak to resist the juggernaut of European imperialism. Examples abound. The state that had ruled Iran since the early sixteenth century, the Safavids, collapsed in 1722 under the onslaught of Afghan insurgents from the tribal periphery. The Ottomans, having failed to take Vienna in 1684, subsequently retreated against the Austrians and the Russians in the Balkans and later lost Egypt, first to the French and then to the $OEDQLDQ ZDUORUG 0XʘDPPDG ʲ$OĪ 3DVKD ,Q WKH ,QGLDQ 6XEFRQWLQHQW PHDnwhile, the once mighty Mughal Empire disintegrated and was brought into the British orbit. Iran was doubly disadvantaged in this process of “regression.” The Ottomans suffered defeat and lost territory yet maintained military, diplomatic, and commercial contact with the nations of Western Europe, the source of most of what was new at the time. The so-called Tulip Period of the early eighteenth century reflects a fascination with things European among the ruling classes of Istanbul. The Mughal state became tributary to the English East India Company and then was absorbed into the expanding British Empire. Yet that same process caused its elite gradually to become familiar with the ways and means of the new colonizers, creating models and generating ideas that helped the country keep in touch with developments in the wider world. Iran, by contrast, in this period not just fell precipitously from stability to chaos, but in the process became disconnected from the world in ways not experienced by the other “gunpowder empires.” Until the late seventeenth century the Safavids had been roughly on par with the Ottomans and the Mughals in their projection of wealth, power, and cultural prestige. Sophisticated Europeans knew Iran as the legendary land of the Sophy, a term personified by the most dynamic ruler of the dynDVW\6KDKʲ$EEćV,U– 6KDKʲ$EEćVKDGFRQQHFWHGKLVFRXQWU\WRWKH world in unprecedented ways. After proclaiming Isfahan his capital and endowing it with a newly designed, awe-inspiring center, he had turned this centrally located city

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into a nexus of trade links between Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and India—and a favored destination for European traders and travelers, who saw in it a latter-day reflection of the Persian Empire as they imagined it from reading Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny. All this energy and efflorescence had come crashing down with the fall of Isfahan in 1722. The Afghan tribesmen who brought down the Safavid state failed to build their own on its ruins and were soon swept aside. What followed was threequarters of a century of chaos and anarchy during which the Iranian plateau became a remote and forbidding territory, run by warlords and mostly shunned by Westerners. As the world was radically reconfigured in this period, Iranians continued to live in a rather self-congratulatory, inward-looking mode, secure in the knowledge that their country was, if no longer the center of the world, a place of consequence. In reality, Iran in this period rapidly “retreated” from the global scene as its ties with the outside world diminished in frequency and intensity. Iran’s short “eighteenth century,” the roughly seventy-five years that separate the fall of the Safavids from the rise of the Qajars, thus runs contrary to the perceived “global eighteenth century” and its presumed new level of (elite) connectivity. This relative insularity was shattered in the early nineteenth century as the newly acceded Qajar regime (r. 1795–1925) with its largely tribally organized and poorly disciplined army suffered several terrible defeats against the well-equipped Russians, people the Iranians had always thought of and dismissed as bibulous, thick-skulled barbarians. As the Russians occupied large swaths of Iranian territory in the north— much of the southern Caucasus, comprising the modern countries of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan—the British intruded from the other side, the Persian Gulf. Historians of late have turned away from this type of narrative, with its focus on a golden age followed by decline and on great rulers and their deeds as organizing principles, to call for contingency, indeterminacy, and attention to the common man. Yet modern nationalism demands linearity and purposefulness, and shows little patience for revisionist complication. Faced with the flux and reflux of history, nationalism likes to tell a story of loss and regeneration through resilience, of foreign-inflicted defeat followed by phoenix-like resurgence. It is therefore hardly surprising that modern Iranian historiography—and certainly the Iranian popular imagination—tends to portray the Safavids and the Qajars in starkly contrasting terms— the first symbolizing pride and glory, the second representing fecklessness and submissiveness. Iranians have come to look back at the Safavid period nostalgically, as the last time their country was proud, independent, and the envy of the world. The Qajars, by contrast, the dynasty that would bring Iran to the threshold of the modern age, count as spineless, corrupt rulers who blithely led the country into defeat and humiliation at the hands of foreigners, and who facilitated the country’s creeping incorporation into a Western-dominated imperialist network, preventing it from regaining its “natural” greatness. The period in between is not so easily classified, for it seems neither a glorious moment in national history nor a century of potential splendor snatched away by foreign powers. Dark, seemingly directionless, and relatively short on written sources, the eighteenth century in Iranian history remains an awkward interlude. Modern Iranian historians have nevertheless sought to weave this period into a con-

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tinuous national narrative by adopting a Carlylean “great man” view of history, highlighting the stature of the two rulers who created identifiable albeit short-lived states and thus present a semblance of coherence and direction to Iranian history in an RWKHUZLVHWXPXOWXRXVSHULRG1ćGLU6KćKU–1747) DQG.DUĪP.KćQ=DQGU 1763–69). Both stand out, not just as the only two rulers who defied the period’s centrifugal forces, but as national heroes who revived Iran’s genius. The first, a brilliant warrior, redeemed the nation by restoring the honor it had lost with the fall of Isfahan to foreign tribesmen. The second represents the quintessentially Iranian search for justice. The first also stirred the Western imagination in ways the second never did— especially after he marched into India in 1739, ransacked Delhi, and returned home ZLWKIDEXORXVWUHDVXUHV,QGHHGWKHUHFHSWLRQRI1ćGLU6KćKLQHLJKWHHQWK-century Europe was as swift and dramatic as it was complex. The image it created—half brutal warlord, half national liberator—would significantly contribute to the image modern Iranians would construct of him.

NĆ',5S+Ć+: SCOURGE OF GOD OR NATIONAL HERO? 7KHSRUWUD\DORI1ćGLULQWKHHLJKWHHQWK-century West was the combined outcome of eyewitness accounts, Persian-language sources, and Enlightenment anxieties. Europeans, still puzzled by the sudden fall of the Safavids, learned of him even before he took power in 1736 as the warrior who reconquered Isfahan from the Afghans in 1729. The Mercure de France of November 1731 contained an “eyewitness report” thaWSRUWUD\HG7DKPćVS4XOĪ.KćQDV1ćGLU6KćKZDVVWLOOFDOOHGDWWKHWLPHDVD savior, a man of valor and fidelity, brave and full of esprit. His stature as the dynamic warlord who might rescue his nation by liberating it from the barbarians who had invaded this old, sophisticated land—the Afghans, the Ottomans, and the Russians—only grew with time. In 1738 a huge tome appeared in Germany depicting 1ćGLUDVWKHGLYLQHO\LQVSLUHGVDYLRURIDFROODSVHGQDWLRQ7KHQRWLRQRI1ćGLUWKH savior resonated with the political philosophy of the Enlightenment as articulated by Montesquieu, Diderot, and Holbach, who distinguished between the legitimate right to defend and recover one’s home country, and illegitimate wars of conquest. $UDWKHUGLIIHUHQW1ćGLUEXUVWRQWo the European scene soon thereafter, with KLVGHIHDWRIWKH0XJKDOHPSHURU0XʘDPPDG6KćKDW.DUQDOLQDQGKLVVXbsequent sack of Delhi. News of these exploits spread quickly, carried by missionaries and agents of the European maritime companies, and soon gave rise to numerous SDPSKOHWV DQG ERRNV 7KH HDUOLHVW QDUUDWLYH DERXW 1ćGLU’s Indian campaign seems to have been a report written in 1739 by Dutch East India Company agents in Bengal. Published in Holland in 1740, this report may have been the source of the anonymous two-volume work that came out in Amsterdam a year later as Histoire de Thamas Kouli-Kan Sophi de Perse, a text that subsequently was translated into English, Italian, and Spanish. In the next few years the Asian warlord was the subject of a number of articles in the British press, some of which have plausibly been attributed to Samuel Johnson. Two years later the Anglo-Saxon world became thoroughly acTXDLQWHGZLWK1ćGLUWKURXJK-DPHV)UDVHU’s History of Nader Shah, which was mostly based on reports by William Cockell, an agent of the English East India Company

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ZKR KDG VHUYHG LQ ,UDQ ZKLOH 1ćGLU ZDV LQ SRZHU ,Q WKH VDPH \HDU  -DPHV Spilman, a Russia Company merchant, published an account of a journey he had undertaken to Iran in 1739 and to which was appended a brief account of the rise of 1ćGLU6KćKIn 1743 André de Claustre published Histoire de Thamas Kouli-Kan, roi de Perse. A generation lateUWKH)UHQFKUHDGLQJSXEOLFZDVUHPLQGHGRI1ćGLUWKURXJK the translation the famous Orientalist William Jones made of a Persian chronicle ZULWWHQLQ1ćGLU6KćK’VRUELW0ĪU]ć0XʘDPPDG0DKGĪ$VWDUćEćGĪ’s 7ćUĪNK-L1ćGLUĪ. $ ILFWLRQDOL]HG 1ćGLU TXLFNO\ IROOowed. The first novel—in which a young 6ZLVVPDQVHWVRXWRQDQ$VLDQDGYHQWXUHWKDWLQFOXGHVKLVSDUWLFLSDWLRQLQ1ćGLU’s Indian campaign—appeared in 1754. A second, presented as the memoirs of Shah 7DKPćVS ,, 1ćGLU’s protégé until he deposed him, followed in 1758. Both reflect the spirit of a relatively pacific European age in search of a heroic cause in their portrayal of young, poor, and intelligent men who in Europe find no outlet for their martial inclinations. They also reflect the prevailing notion that the East, unfettered by feudal stratification, was open to talent. The same theme appears in the contemSRUDQHRXVWKHDWULFDOUHSUHVHQWDWLRQRI1ćGLU6KćKLQ+ROODQG)UDQFHDQG,WDO\ 7KHZD\1ćGLUZDVLQ(XURSHUHSUHVHQWHGYDULHGE\FRQWH[W,QWKH'XWFKVHtting, he became an emblem of republicanism, a “protagonist of lowly origins whose right to the throne sprang from his desire to serve his subjects.” Yet a more common theme in the earliest European references to him was the image of the disciplined warrior, the type Europe lacked until the appearance of Frederick the Great on the European scene in 1740. As in the case of Alexander the Great, to whom he was sometimes likened, the PRUHQHJDWLYHDVSHFWVRI1ćGLU’s career over time received ample attention as well. Several authors highlighted his rapaciousness and linked the vast treasure he bought back from India to the typical Oriental despot who plunders and hoards rather than EXLOGV1ćGLU’s cruelty and growing madness as the ultimate symbol of the descent into violence and cruelty of a land previously known for its humanism, tolerance, and sophistication did not go unnoticed either. The English merchant-traveler Jonas +DQZD\IRULQVWDQFHZKRLQKDGYLVLWHG1ćGLU’s army camp, at once presented the ruler’s appearance as punishment for Iranian sloth and dissolution and painted a lurid portrait of a usurper driven by greed and brutality. Contemporary Iranian sources evince a similar ambivalence. The chroniclers ZULWLQJ LQ 1ćGLU 6KćK’s immediate orbit naturally hedge their bets and defuse the ruler’s obvious ruthlessness and gathering madness by turning a blind eye to these uncomfortable facts or by blamiQJ WKH YLFWLPV 7KH\ JHQHUDOO\ SRUWUD\ 1ćGLU DV D ruler of military virtue and sound lineage, hail him as a strongman who had restored order, and defend him against the indictment of having usurped power. The aforePHQWLRQHG $VWDUćEćGĪ VHW WKH WRQH IRU DQ HQGXULQJ QDUUDWLYH E\ ODXGLQJ 1ćGLU IRU expelling all foreign occupiers from Iranian soil. At pains to rationalize the ruler’s JURZLQJFUD]LQHVVDQGFUXHOW\KHFODLPHGWKDW1ćGLUFKDQJHGRQO\DIWHUKLVH[SHGition to the Caucasus, eventually bringing ruin to his country. As a new dynasty of questionable roots and legitimacy, the Qajars had to expunge the legacy of those who came before them—other than the Safavids, to ZKRP WKH\ SDLG DOOHJLDQFH RQ DFFRXQW RI WKH 6KLʲL FUHGHQWLDOV WKH\ WKHPVHOYHV VR sorely laFNHG1ćGLU6KćKZDVRQHRIWKRVHĆJKć0XʘDPPDG.KćQWKHIRXQGHURI

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the Qajar dynasty and a ruthless warlord himself, chose to distance himself from 1ćGLU IRU KDYLQJ GHYLDWHG IURP WKH 6KLʲL IRXQGDWLRQV ODLG E\ WKH 6DIDYLGV DQG LnYRNHGE\ĆJKć0XʘDPPDG6KćKWREXWWUHVVKLVRZQOHJLWLPDF\