Charles Melville

The Seismicity of Kuhistan, Iran

For some remote areas of Iran, as for other parts of the world, accurate and reliable details of the occurrence of earthquakes have only been available for events of the past 25 years. This paper provides a new approach to the problem of establishing the seismicity of eastern Iran, by examining not only the instrumental data, but also the literary and historical sources of information. Despite the fact that the data concerning Kuhistan is poor in comparison with some other areas of Iran, it has nevertheless been possible to identify several major earthquakes which have occurred there since the thirteenth century. These have been described within their tectonic context, often on the basis of field studies of the areas indicated by the historical account of the event. In addition, field studies of some of the earlier earthquakes of this century have made it possible to relocate these events more accurately by supplementing the meagre instrumental data available. A study of this kind, with a long historical perspective, indicates areas of high seismicity that are apparently quiescent today and, taken in conjunction with similar information for the rest of the country, suggests a definite tectonic framework for the major earthquakes in Iran.

The Royal Image in Mongol Iran

This chapter offers a brief survey of the topic with respect to illustrated Persian texts produced in the Mongol period in Iran. It focuses on two distinct types of work, the verse epic and the prose chronicle. The first is represented by the Shahnama (“Book of Kings”), by the poet Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi, completed in AD 1010. The second is represented by a number of narrative histories of Iran. The Shahnama covers only the pre-Islamic history of Iran, whereas the prose chronicles are “universal” histories, covering both ancient Iranian and Islamic history. The aim of the chapter is to discern the use of the past in the construction of an image of the Mongol ruler (Il-Khan), and articularly to what extent the pre-Islamic model derived from the Shahnama was actually influential. Keywords:Iran; Mongol period; royal image; Shahnama

The Illustration of History in Persian Manuscripts

ABSTRACT Many medieval manuscripts are illuminated with paintings and other graphic elements, one purpose of which may have been to reinforce the significance of the work in question with a pictorial gloss, and perhaps also as a visual aid to convey its message for the benefit of readers who may not always have been literate. Reading the text through pictures is a matter of particular interest in the case of historical literature, as chronicles often commissioned at court lend themselves especially well to a deliberate programme of enhancing the image of the ruler and celebrating his deeds according to the political concepts and ideological imperatives of the time. This paper addresses the question of the illustration of historical texts within the Persian tradition of book art, focusing on the Jami‘ al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din and its impact on later productions.

Sultans and Lovers: Gazorgahi’s Tales of Royal Infatuation

ABSTRACT Kamal al-Din Gazorgahi’s Majales al-‘oshshaq (“The Assemblies of Lovers”), dating from the last decade of Timurid rule in Khorasan, presents an entertaining and light-hearted selection of stories of the earthly loves of over 70 well-known poets, sufis and members of the Turkish ruling elites, cast in a pseudo-mystical framework. This paper discusses a handful of the latter cases of contemporary and near contemporary sultans, including the putative “author”, Soltan-Hosain Mirza, grandson of Bayqara, with a view to identifying any possible historical basis for Gazorgahi’s narratives, and in the process noting the strong cultural connections between the rival courts of Tabriz and Herat.

New Light on Shah ʿAbbas and the Construction of Isfahan

The discovery and recent publication of the third volume of the Afḍal al-tawārīkh (The Most Excellent of Histories) by Fazli Beg Khuzani Isfahani (d. after 1640), with its rich layers of new details on the reign of Shah ʿAbbas I (1587–1629), has made possible a search for fresh information on the shah’s architectural patronage and development of the Safavid capital at Isfahan in the early seventeenth century. Apart from several details not recorded elsewhere, Fazli Beg’s chronicle provides a more continuous account of the development of the city than other contemporary sources, which tend instead to concentrate and group the details of the construction of different buildings into the record of a few specific dates, so that it is not always clear when they were initiated or completed. Fazli Beg gives the impression of a city under constant construction, and of the shah’s restless impatience to propel the work forward. The paper also attempts to address the chronological disparities found in the main sources for the period.

“Every Inch a King”. Kings and Kingship in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

The chapters in this book focus on legitimacy, propaganda and political ideology issues and reveal how they interrelate-so that kingship is shown to be a nexus of ideas and representations which connect earthly concerns of legitimacy and power with the larger concerns of mans place in the cosmos. The book emphasises the centrality of the Middle Eastern and Iranian perspective on kingship, which so often is ignored or incidental in comparative studies of this nature, as also stresses the continuities between the ancient and medieval worlds, generally treated separately. Kingship was concerned with constraint of the ruler, and the consent of the ruled. In the late medieval period this relationship between ruler and ruled had been imagined in various ways. The late sixteenth-century French political philosopher, Jean Bodin, developed the theory of the divine right of kings in order to justify the king’s absolute authority. Keywords:ancient world; kingship; medieval world

Every Inch a King

Drawing on studies of kings from Cyrus to Shah Abbas, this volume provides a rich variety of readings on royal authority and its limitations in medieval societies in both Europe and the Middle East, exemplified especially in the case of Alexander the Great, God and King, and the persistence of his legend in later eras.