Nomadic Rule in sedentary context: States, Cities and Hinterland in Iran from the beginning of Turkic rule through Mongols and Timurids (11th – 15th centuries)

Programme

Both fields of work of the project analyse changes in the spatial construction of rule that dynasties of nomadic origin brought about in Iran since they first established themselves in this country. The central thesis is that with the Seljūq takeover in the 11th century hitherto unknown forms of statehood were introduced to Iran that remained characteristic also for the following Turko-Mongol dynasties. In this view, the ruler’s camp was to constitute a second locus of power besides the city.

The first field of work, “Ruling from the Outside: Turkish Lords and Cities in Pre-Mongol Iran”, covers a wide geographic area and, thus, offers a rather synchronous analysis of relations between urban centers and princely military encampments. The question pursued is to what extent the ethnic-cultural rift separating the Iranian population from the Turkish ruling elite was mirrored by a spatial rift assigning urban space to the former and non-urban space to the latter. Work focuses on the late Seljūq period (12th century) and the thesis to be examined is that with the advent of this Turkish tribal dynasty the spatial structure of the exercice of power changed. It shifted from a concentric order the city being the sole locus of power to a bipolar order with the ruler’s encampment gradually becoming an additional one.

The assumption that such a structure of rule leaves to the urban population a greater freedom of action provides a thesis to be examined on the local level within the second field of work, “The Hinterland and the City: Tabriz and its region from Seljūq to Timūrid Times (late 12th – mid 15th centuries)”. For most of this period Tabriz was as contested by various rulers and pretenders as it was a major city of Western Iran. Integrating the surroundings of the city into the analysis research, here, aims at detecting possible changes in the local organization of rule over the longue durée. To this end, first, the physical appearance of Tabriz including fortified sites and grazing areas shall be reconstructed as far as possible.

Second, urban actors and social groups shall be identified and their relations to the nomadic ruling elites analysed with respect to questions of political agency.
In both fields of work sources will mainly be texts of various sorts ranging from dynastic chronicles to poetry and also comprising biographical as well as hagiographical literature. On a general scale the project takes up the title of “Nomadic rule in sedentary context” from the previously conducted research projects on state formation in early modern Central Asia and, thus, chronologically and by its regional focus on Western Iran bridges the gap to the work accomplished back then.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Paul

The State and the Military – a Nomadic Perspective. In: Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 5 (2003), 25–68.

Nomaden in persischen Quellen. In: Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 1 (2002), 11–40.

(ed.): Katalog sufischer Handschriften aus der Bibliothek des Instituts für Orientalistik der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Republik Usbekistan. Stuttgart 2002 (Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplementband 37).

The Histories of Isfahan: Mafarrukhi's Kitâb mahâsin Isfahân. In: Iranian Studies 33 (2000), 117–132.

The Histories of Herat. In: Iranian Studies 33 (2000), 93–115.

Doctrine and Organization. The Khwâjagân-Naqshbandîya in the First Generation after Bahâ'uddîn. Berlin/Halle 1998 (ANOR 1). Russische Übersetzung als: "Doktrina i organizacija Chwadzhagan-Naqšbandija v pervom pokolenii posle Bacha' ad-dina" (Übersetzung: E. Berezina). In: A. Chismatulin (ed.): Sufizm v central'noj Azii. Zarubezhnye issledovanija. Sankt Peterburg 2001, 114–199.

Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ostiran und Transoxanien in vormongolischer Zeit. Stuttgart 1996 (Beiruter Texte und Studien 59).

The State and the Military: The Samanid Case. Bloomington (Ind.), 1994 (Papers on Inner Asia 26).

The Histories of Samarqand. In: Studia Iranica 22 (1993), 62–92.

Die politische und soziale Bedeutung der Naqšbandiyya in Mittelasien im 15. Jahrhundert. Berlin 1991.

Hagiographische Texte als historische Quelle. In: Saeculum 41 (1990), 17–43.

Dr. David Durand-Guédy

(ed.) Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City Life, Brill, Leiden, forthcoming 2012.

‘The tents of the Saljuqs’, in D. Durand-Guédy (ed.), Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City Life, Brill, Leiden, forthcoming 2012.

‘Ruling from the outside. A new perspective on early Turkish kingship in Iran’, in L. Mitchell and C. Melville (eds.), Every Inch a King: Comparative Studies in Kings and Kingship in the Ancient and Mediaeval Worlds, Brill, Leiden, forthcoming 2012.

‘Goodbye to the Turkmens? The Military Role of Nomads in Iran after the Saljūq Conquest’, in K. Franz and W. Holzwarth (eds.), Nomadic Military Power, Iran and adjacent areas in the Islamic period, Wiesbaden, Reichert Verlag, forthcoming 2012.

‘Where did the Saljūqs live? A case study based on the reign of sultan Mas‘ūd b. Muḥammad (1134-1152)’, Studia Iranica, 2011, 42, pp. 211-58.

‘The Türkmen-Saljūq relationship in twelfth-century Iran: New elements based on a contrastive analysis of three inshāʾ documents’, in J. Büssow, D. Durand-Guédy and J. Paul (eds.), Nomads in the Political Field, special issue of Eurasian Studies, 9(1-2), 2011, pp. 11-66.

Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers: A History of Iṣfahān in the Saljūq Period, London and New-York, Routledge, 2010.

Daniel Zakrzewski, M.A.

Terms of politics and pastoral nomadism in two works of fifteenth-century Persian historical writing, in: Johann Büssow, David Durand-Guédy, Jürgen Paul (eds.): Nomads in the political field, Eurasian Studies IX (2011) Special Issue, pp. 159-185 .

Review article – Richard W. Bulliet, Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in World History, Columbia University Press, New York 2010, in: Johann Büssow, David Durand-Guédy, Jürgen Paul (Hgg.): Nomads in the political field, Nomadic Peoples XV/1 (2011) Special Issue, pp. 148-150.

Schahsevan, in: Annegret Nippa (ed.): Kleines abc des Nomadismus. Publikation zur Ausstellung „Brisante Begegnungen. Nomaden in einer sesshaften Welt“ vom 17.11.2011 – 20.05.2012 im Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, pp. 194-195.

with Annegret Nippa: Wolle, in: Annegret Nippa (ed.): Kleines abc des Nomadismus. Publikation zur Ausstellung „Brisante Begegnungen. Nomaden in einer sesshaften Welt“ vom 17.11.2011 – 20.05.2012 im Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, pp. 246-248.

„Mit Gott und Frankreich“. Zum Verständnis von Nation und Republik in Schriften des algerischen Reformtheologen Ibn Bādīs zur Zeit der Volksfrontregierung (1936-1938), Islamkundliche Untersuchungen 307, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin 2012 (in print).