Medieval Central Asia and the Persianate World : Iranian Tradition and Islamic Civilisation

A.C.S. Peacock is Lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews, and holds a PhD in Oriental Studies from Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is the author of Early Seljuq History: A New Interpretation (2010), and is the co-editor of The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East (I.B.Tauris, 2012) and Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran: Art, Literature and Culture from Early Islam to Qajar Persia (I.B.Tauris, 2013). D.G. Tor is Assistant Professor of Medieval Middle Eastern History at the University of Notre Dame, and holds a PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. She is the author of The Great Selkuq Sultanate and the Formation of Islamic Civilization: A Thematic History (forthcoming) and Violent Order: Religious Warfare, Chivalry and the 'Ayyar Phenomenon in the Medieval Islamic World (2007). From the political dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate in the mid-ninth century to the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Persianate dynasties of Islamic Central Asia constituted the political and military stronghold of Sunni Islam. It was in this region, historically known as Khurasan and Transoxiana, that many of the important religious and cultural developments of Islamic civilisation took place. The region first gave rise to the Abbasid Revolution, provided the troops for its success, and supplied the military slaves and auxiliaries that led to its political dissolution. From the second part of the ninth century and for the ensuing 400 years, the Sunni Persianate dynasties formed the mainstay of Islamic military might over the Islamic heartland, from India to Egypt. The period was also characterised by the cultural dominance of the Persian-speaking court, bringing about the acceptance of classical Persian as the second primary Islamic language of high culture. It produced the writing of many of Islamic civilisation s greatest works of poetry, philosophy, biography, history, belles-lettres and religion, in both Arabic and Persian. This volume explores the origins and nature of this cultural and political authority and sheds light on one of the most formative yet unexplored eras of Islamic history Front Cover Title page Copyright page Dedication Table of Contents List of Illustrations In Memoriam Acknowledgements Abbreviations Contributors Maps Preface, by A.C.S. Peacock and D.G.Tor 1 The Importance of Khurasan and Transoxiana in the Persianate Dynastic Period (850–1220) 2 The Spread of Ḥanafism to Khurasan and Transoxiana 3 The khāṣṣa and the ‘āmma: Intermediaries in the Samanid Polity 4 Content versus Context in Samanid Epigraphic Pottery 5 A Venture on the Frontier: Alptegin’s Conquest of Ghazna and its Sequel 6 Finding Iran in the Panegyrics of the Ghaznavid Court 7 Khurasani Historiography and Identity in the Light of the Fragments of the Akhbār Wulāt Khurāsān and the Tārīkh-i Harāt 8 The Life and Times of ‘Amīd al-Mulk al-Kundurī 9 Local Lords or Rural Notables? Some Remarks on the ra’īs in Twelfth Century Eastern Iran 10 The Ghurids in Khurasan Index