Court Cultures in the Muslim World : Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries

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. 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 Courts and the complex phenomenon of the courtly society 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. This book provides broad coverage of the history of Islamic courts from the time of Muhammed and the early Caliphates through to the 19th century. In particular it examines issues of politics and patronage from across the Islamic world stretching from Cordoba east to India.