All posts by Sandra Aube

Binge Reading in Fifteenth-Century Damascus

Binge Reading in Fifteenth-Century Damascus [DYNTRAN Working Paper, no. 27, August 2017]

by Konrad HIRSCHLER

At the end of the ninth/fifteenth century, in the year 897/1492, a Damascene scholar sat down in his garden to read through his considerable library. He neither did so silently nor alone, rather he read the books aloud with members of his family. Over the course of Continue reading Binge Reading in Fifteenth-Century Damascus

Local Aristocrats in a Time of Critical Dynastic Change

Two Notable Families of Tabriz Facing the New Ṣafavid Order [DYNTRAN Working Paper 26, July 2017]

by Daniel ZAKRZEWSKI

The Ṣafavid conquest of Tabriz in 906/1501 marks a watershed in the history of Iran and the Islamic Middle East. By taking control of the city the young Ismāʿīl earned the right to proclaim himself king of Iran. In this capacity he also declared Imami Shiism to be the Continue reading Local Aristocrats in a Time of Critical Dynastic Change

A Family of Woodworkers

The work of Master Faḫr al-dīn and his son ‘Alī in the Māzandarān (Iran, end 15th c.)*   [DYNTRAN WORKING PAPER 25, June 2017]

by Sandra AUBE

Medieval Iranian woodcarving is quite unknown. Unlike calligraphers or painters, the woodworkers usually did not appear in biographical or other Persian sources, and many wooden pieces of art have nowadays vanished. In this context, the remarkable corpus Continue reading A Family of Woodworkers

From the Centre to the Margins

The Transfer of Books Across the Early Modern Western Indian Ocean        [DYNTRAN WORKING PAPER 24, May 2017]

by Christopher D. BAHL

The early modern Western Indian Ocean (1400-1700) represented a transregional space with various historical phenomena of circulation. Movements of people and goods linked the Red Sea in the West via the Persian Gulf and across the baḥr al-hind to the Continue reading From the Centre to the Margins

The Role of Copyists in the Transmission of Manuscripts

A Case Study on Šaraf Xān Bidlīsī’s Šarafnāma (1005-1314/1597-1897)      [DYNTRAN WORKING PAPER 23, April 2017]

by Sacha ALSANCAKLI

The Šarafnāma is a well-known history of Kurdish dynasties and ruling houses, written in Persian in 1005-7/1596-99 by Amīr Šaraf Xān Bidlīsī (949-1009/1543-1600), leader of the Rōjikī tribe and prince of Bidlīs, southwest of Lake Van, in northern Kurdistan. It Continue reading The Role of Copyists in the Transmission of Manuscripts