Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700-1900 (Edinburgh Historical Studies of Iran and the Persian World)

Integrating forgotten tales of literary communities across Iran, Afghanistan and South Asia - at a time when Islamic empires were fracturing and new state formations were emerging - this book offers a more global understanding of Persian literary culture in the 18th and 19th centuries. It challenges the manner in which Iranian nationalism has infilitrated Persian literary history writing and recovers the multi-regional breadth and vibrancy of a global lingua franca connecting peoples and places across Islamic Eurasia. Focusing on 3 case studies (18th-century Isfahan, a small court in South India and the literary climate of the Anglo-Afghan war), it reveals the literary and cultural ties that bound this world together as well as some of the trends that broke it apart. Contents 6 List of Figures 7 Acknowledgements 8 Note on Transliteration and Translation 12 Introduction 14 1 Remembering Iran, Forgetting the Persianate: Persian Literary Historiography of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 48 2 Reformation and Reconstruction of Poetic Networks: Isfahan c.1722–1801 94 3 A Market for the Masters: Afghanistan c.1839–1842 137 4 Debating Poetry on the Edge of the Persianate World: Arcot c.1850 176 Conclusion 215 Bibliography 221 Index 243