Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th-15th Century Tabriz, edited by Judith Pfeiffer

Abstract

First paragraph: The field of Middle Eastern history in the later Middle Period has considerably expanded over the last decades freeing itself from the last remnants of the idea of decline. In particular Mamlūk history and, closely linked, what might be called Eastern Mediterranean history have now dedicated journals, conferences, and book series with a continuous stream of articles and monographs. This expansion has been in particular focused on the Arabic-speaking lands, but has to some extent sidelined the study of contemporaneous neighbouring regions to the east. This is in particular true for the period after the Mongol invasions and the consolidation of new political structures in the Persianate world first under the Ilkhanids and subsequently under the Timurids and the Aqquyunlus. The book under review sets out to tackle this imbalance in studying Middle Eastern history by honing in on one particular case study, the history of Tabrīz in north-western Iran.

Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th-15th Century Tabriz, edited by Judith Pfeiffer

Abstract

First paragraph: The field of Middle Eastern history in the later Middle Period has considerably expanded over the last decades freeing itself from the last remnants of the idea of decline. In particular Mamlūk history and, closely linked, what might be called Eastern Mediterranean history have now dedicated journals, conferences, and book series with a continuous stream of articles and monographs. This expansion has been in particular focused on the Arabic-speaking lands, but has to some extent sidelined the study of contemporaneous neighbouring regions to the east. This is in particular true for the period after the Mongol invasions and the consolidation of new political structures in the Persianate world first under the Ilkhanids and subsequently under the Timurids and the Aqquyunlus. The book under review sets out to tackle this imbalance in studying Middle Eastern history by honing in on one particular case study, the history of Tabrīz in north-western Iran.

Keywords

• Politics
• Patronage
• Transmission of Knowledge
• Tabriz
• Middle Eastern