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.
- Table of Contents
- 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 Atçıl
- 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 Yılmaz
- 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. 1629–1642), by Sholeh A. Quinn
- II. The Ottoman Conception of Sovereignty and Succession: Mustafa Ali’s Essence of History (Kunh al-Akhbar), by Zahit Atçıl
- 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 Atçıl
- 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-Eşrefoǧlu 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 Acil
- 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, 1400–1600, 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 Akın-Kıvanç
- III. Deccani Seals and Scribal Notations: Sources for the Study of Indo-Persian Book Arts and Collecting (c. 1400–1680), by Keelan Overton and Jake Benson
- Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
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