The Idea of Iran: From Saljuq Collapse to Mongol Conquest

The Anushteginid Khwarazm Shahs: Gentle Ascent and Catastrophic Fall

Emeritus Professor Edmund Bosworth, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Middle East and Islamic Studies, Exeter University

This dynasty of Shahs, in effect the last of a line of Iranian and then Turkish rulers of Khwarazm in Central Asia (now falling essentially within the Uzbek and Turkmen republics), held power there as vassals of the Great Saljuqs, but increasingly in name only from the later eleventh century. In the second half of the twelfth century they built up a powerful military empire extending from Khwarazm and Transoxania in the east to north-western Iran and the Transcaucasian region in the west, only for this rapidly to collapse in the early thirteenth century under the onslaught of the Mongols.

The Periphery as Centre: The Ghurids between the Persianate and Indic Worlds

Dr Alka Patel, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, University of California, Irvine

The short-lived Ghurid empire occupies an ambiguous historiographical locus, and throws into relief the power of hindsight in evaluating the differing significance of a polity according to time and place. In the medieval Persianate world of greater Iran (encompassing modern Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia) the Ghurids were a short-lived minor dynasty that, according to learned opinion, did little to change or even contribute to Persianate culture. They were based in the isolated central areas of modern Afghanistan and extended only as far west as Herat. Towards the east, however, the Ghurid armies campaigned into northern India, bringing large swaths of it under an Islamic political power for the first time.

The Mongols in Iran, 1219—1256

Professor David Morgan, Former Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Iran was not fully incorporated into the Mongol Empire until Hulegu’s expedition, which began in 1256, but the country had felt the Mongol impact from the time of Chinggis Khan’s invasion of the Khwarazm Shah’s empire in 1219-1223. This paper will explore the Mongol impact on Iran during the period between the two invasions, and the nature of Mongol rule in parts of Iran at that time. In recent years historians have, justifiably, pointed to the previously undervalued positive features of Mongol rule. But these came into play, effectively, from the time of the establishment of the Ilkhanate as a stable polity in the late 1250s. Prior to that, the Mongol invasion was initially catastrophic, though the ground was in some ways laid for a more benevolent future which was to be dominated, until the 1330s, by Hulegu and his descendants.

Scholarship and Science under the Qara Khitai (1124—1218)

Professor Michal Biran, The Max and Sophie Mydans Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Director, The Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies, Institute of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In the twelfth-century a Manchurian people expelled from north China established in Central Asia the Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty. This “infidel” dynasty ruled over a mostly Muslim population in a rare harmony. Moreover, the relative stability and prosperity that the Qara Khitai brought to Central Asia enabled the flourishing of Islamic and “secular” scholarship under their rule. By following the careers of twelfth and thirteenth- century scholars, including migrants from the Qara Khitai realm who were active under Mongol rule, this paper reconstructs the main fields of knowledge and achievements of Central Asian scholars under the Qara Khitai and the impact they had on the later Islamic world, including Iran.

Isma’il Jorjani’s Zakhira-ye Khwarazmshahi: Towards Vernacular Medicine

Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad, Lecturer in the History of Modern Iran and the History of Medicine, University of Southampton

Following the translation of Galenico-Hippocratic medicine into Arabic, the major reference sources in the Islamic world were written in Arabic, such as Avicenna’s Canon and Razi’s Continent. Jorjani’s Zakhira might be considered as an attempt to assert Persian scientific authority in an Islamic empire, in line with the revival of the Persian language and culture, represented by Ferdowsi’s Shahnama. In this paper, I test the hypothesis that the Zakhira represented the process whereby Humoral medicine was adopted by local populations, just as the medicine of the Prophet indicated that Humoral medicine had been assimilated into religion. Vernacular medicine (medical texts written in Persian) did exist before Jorjani but a reference text book such as the Canon, or Havi’s calibres was lacking. The Zakhira filled this gap.

Nezami’s Giant Brain: Poet, Scholar, Rewriter

Dr Christine van Ruymbeke, Soudavar Senior Lecturer in Persian, University of Cambridge

This presentation will examine the artistic achievement of Nezami of Ganja, probably one of the most intelligent figures in the history of literature. His talent as a poet is undisputed and recognised by anyone who has been in contact with his divan, or most probably his collection of six (!) masnavis, collectively called the Khamsa. In today’s presentation I will explore two facets of this compelling artist. First I will look at the evidence found in his verses of a solid grounding in, and whimsical game with, the multiple scientific knowledge of his time, with which he plays elegantly in order to titillate the audience, and I will next examine what becomes of the Shahnama plots and stories he used in four of his masnavis, showing how he manipulates the older poet’s work.

Sa’di on Love and Morals

Dr Homa Katouzian, Iran Heritage Foundation Research Fellow, St Antony’s College and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford

What is certain about Sa’di’s life is that he flourished in the thirteenth century (seventh century hijra), went to the Nezamiya College of Baghdad, travelled wide and lived long. It is clear from his love poetry that he was an ardent lover, and from many of his works that he was not a Sufi, although he cherished the ideals of Sufism and admired the legendary classical Sufis. He was also a teacher of manners and morals. There is a humanist tendency in his works which is remarkable as it was another two-and-a-half centuries before the emergence of Christian humanism in Europe.

Inlaid Metalwork in Iran in the Twelfth to Early Thirteenth Centuries

Professor James Allan, Khalili Research Centre for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East

In spite of the political uncertainties, the quality of inlaid metalwork produced at this period in Khurasan, and particularly in Herat, is outstanding. The forms and colour schemes of the objects suggest the transfer of craftsmen from silver to base metal, but the main source for the decoration must have been manuscript illumination and illustration, even though the relevant manuscripts are no longer extant. From inscriptions on particular objects comes the first direct evidence of the craft industry, and of the members of the middle class who commissioned the pieces.