have received intensified interest in academic research over recent decades, however, the field of Islamic court culture has so far been overlooked. This book provides a comparative perspective on the history of courtly culture in Muslim societies from the earliest times to the nineteenth century, and presents an extensive collection of images of courtly life and architecture within the Muslim realm. The thematic methodology employed by the contributors underlines their interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to issues of politics and patronage from across the Islamic world stretching from Cordoba to India. Themes range from the religious legitimacy of Muslim rulers, terminologies for court culture in Oriental languages, Muslim concepts of space for royal representation, accessibility of rulers, the role of royal patronage for Muslim scholars and artists to the growing influence of European courts as role models from the eighteenth century onwards. Discussing specific terminologies for courts in Oriental languages and explaining them to the non specialist, chapters describe the specific features of Muslim courts and point towards future research areas. As such, it fills this important gap in the existing literature in the areas of Islamic history, religion, and Islam in particular.
Author(s): Albrecht Fuess & Jan-Peter Hartung (eds)
Series: SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 628
Tags: court culture, patronage, ceremonials, Islamic history
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 6
Copyright Page......Page 7
Table of Contents......Page 8
List of figures......Page 11
List of Contributors......Page 15
Introduction......Page 22
PART I Politics......Page 43
The Prophet and the early Caliphates......Page 44
1 Did the Prophet Muḥammad keep court?......Page 45
2 The representation of the early Islamic Empire and its religion on coin imagery......Page 54
3 Great estates and elite lifestyles in the Fertile Crescent from Byzantium and Sasanian Iran to Islam......Page 85
4 Court and courtiers: A preliminary investigation of Abbasid terminology......Page 117
Muslim court cultures of the Middle Ages......Page 131
5 Redressing injustice: Maẓālim jurisdictions at the Umayyad court of Córdoba (eighth–eleventh centuries CE)......Page 132
6 Social elites at the Fatimid court......Page 147
7 Courts, capitals and kingship: Delhi and its sultans in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE......Page 170
8 Between dihlīz and dār al-‘adl: Forms of outdoor and indoor royal representation at the Mamluk court in Egypt......Page 202
9 The Mongol court in Baghdad: The Juwaynī brothers between local court and central court......Page 228
Muslim court cultures of early modernity......Page 245
10 Monolithic or dynamic: The Safavid court and the subaltern in the late seventeenth century......Page 246
11 Court culture and cosmology in the Mughal Empire: Humāyūn and the foundations of the dīn-i ilāhī......Page 266
12 Taming the tribal native: Court culture and politics in eighteenth century Shiraz......Page 291
13 Global and local patterns of communication at the court of the Egyptian khedives (1840–1880)......Page 309
PART II Patronage......Page 338
Networks of patronage......Page 339
14 The administration of welfare under the Mamluks......Page 340
15 Favouritism at the Ottoman court in the eighteenth century......Page 352
Sciences......Page 376
16 Enacting the Rule of Islam: On courtly patronage of religious scholars in pre- and early modern times......Page 377
17 Ayyubid princes and their scholarly clients from the ancient sciences......Page 414
Literature......Page 454
18 Royal dishes: On the historical and literary anthropology of the Near and Middle East......Page 455
19 The Guidance for Kingdoms: Function of a “mirror for princes” at court and its representation of a court......Page 468
Art and architecture......Page 485
20 Art and architecture of the Artuqid courts......Page 486
21 Court patronage and public space: Abū ’l-Ḥasan Ṣanī‘al-Mulk and the art of Persianizing the Other in Qajar Iran......Page 515
22 Theatres of power and piety: Architecture and court culture in Awadh, India......Page 564
Index......Page 598
