Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th - 15th Century Tabriz

Judith Pfeiffer, Ph.D. (2003), The University of Chicago, is University Lecturer at the University of Oxford. She has published extensively on the Islamicate history of the 13th-16th centuries, including History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East, (Harrassowitz, 2006).

"The volume does not attempt to cover all aspects of intellectual activity in Tabriz in this period, a task which would be impossible to accomplish in a single volume. However, it fulfils expectations by contributing to a better understanding of the political, economic and intellectual life of Tabriz from the arrival of the Chinggissid rulers to Iran in the mid thirteenth century until the region became a disputed zone after the consolidation of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the sixteenth century." - Bruno de Nicola, in: Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques, 29 (2014)

• Table of ContentsIntroductionJudith Pfeiffer (University of Oxford, UK)From Baghdad to Marāgha, Tabriz, and beyond: Tabriz and the multi-cephalous cultural, religious, and intellectual landscape of the 13th to 15th century Nile-to-Oxus regionPart I: Intellectuals, bureaucrats and politicsReuven Amitai (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)Hülegü and His Wise Men: Topos or Reality?Devin DeWeese (Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA)ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla Simnānī’s Religious Encounters at the Mongol Court near TabrizDomenico Ingenito (UCLA, CA, USA)“Tabrizis in Shiraz are worth less than a dog:” Saʿdī and Humām, a lyrical encounterJudith Pfeiffer (University of Oxford, UK)Confessional Ambiguity vs. Confessional Polarization: Politics and the Negotiation of Religious Boundaries in the IlkhanatePart II: The Transmission of KnowledgeBirgitt Hoffmann (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany)In pursuit of memoria and salvation: Rashīd al-Dīn and his Rabʿ-i RashīdīNourane Ben Azzouna (University of Vienna, Austria)Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl-Allāh al-Hamadhānī’s Manuscript Production Project in Tabriz ReconsideredRobert Morrison (Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA)What Was the Purpose of Astronomy in Ījī’s Kitāb al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām?F. Jamil Ragep (McGill University, Montreal, Canada)New Light on Shams: The Islamic Side of Σὰμψ ΠουχάρηςPart III: Tabriz and Interregional NetworksJohannes Preiser-Kapeller (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria)Civitas Thauris. The significance of Tabriz in the spatial frameworks of Christian merchants and ecclesiastics in the 13th and 14th centuryPatrick Wing (University of Redlands, USA)“Rich in Goods and Abounding in Wealth:” The Ilkhanid and Post-Ilkhanid Ruling Elite and the Politics of Commercial Life at Tabriz, 1250-1400Sheila Blair (Boston College, MA, and Virginia Commonwealth University, VA, USA)Tabriz: International Entrepôt under the MongolsJoachim Gierlichs (Qatar National Library, Doha, Qatar)Tabrizi Wood Carvings in Timurid IranErtuğrul Ökten (29 Mayis Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey)Imperial Aqquyunlu Construction of Religious Establishments in the Late Fifteenth Century Tabriz