1st Edition

Court Cultures in the Muslim World Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries

Edited By Albrecht Fuess, Jan-Peter Hartung Copyright 2011
    512 Pages 67 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    512 Pages 67 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    Introduction Albrecht Fuess, Jan-Peter Hartung  Part I: Politics.  The Prophet and the Early Caliphates  1. Did the Prophet Keep Court? Michael Cook  2. The Representation of the Early Islamic Empire and its Religion on Coin Imagery Stefan Heidemann  3. Great Estates and Elite Lifestyles in the Fertile Crescent from Byzantium and Sasanian to Islam Hugh Kennedy  4. Court and Courtiers: A Preliminary Investigation of Abbasid Terminology Nadia Maria El Cheikh  Muslim Court Cultures of the Middle Ages  5. Redressing Injustice: "Ma'ālim" Jurisdictions at the Umayyad Court of Cordoba (Eighth-Eleventh Centuries CE) Christian Muller  6. Social Elites at the Fatimid Court Paul E. Walker  7. Courts, Capitals and Kingship: Delhi and its Sultans in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries CE Sunil Kumar  8. Between Dihlīz and Dār al-‘Adl. Forms of Outdoor and Indoor Royal Representation at the Mamluk Court in Egypt Albrecht Fuess  9. The Mongol Court in Baghdad: The Brothers Juwaynī between Local Court and Central Court Hend Gilli-Elewy  Muslim Court Cultures of Early Modernity  10. Monolithic or Dynamic? The Safavid Court and the Subaltern in the Late Seventeenth Century Andrew Newman  11. Court Culture and Cosmology in the Mughal Empire : Humāyūn and the Foundation of the dīn-i ilāhī Eva Orthmann  12. Taming the Tribal Native: Court Culture and Politics in Eighteenth Century Shiraz Christoph Werner  13. Global and Local Patterns of Communication at the Court of the Egyptian Khedives (1840–1880) Felix Konrad  Part II: Patronage.  Networks of Patronage  14. The Administration of Welfare under the Mamluks Lucian Reinfandt  15. Favouritism at the Ottoman Court in the Eighteenth Century Henning Sievert  Sciences  16. Enacting the Rule of Islam: On Courtly Patronage of Religious Scholars in Medieval and Early Modern Times Jan-Peter Hartung  17. Ayyubid Princes and their Scholarly Clients from the Ancient Sciences Sonja Brentjes  Literature  18. Royal Dishes: On the Historical and Literary Anthropology of the Near and Middle East Stefan Leder  19. “The Guidance of Kingdoms”: Function of a Mirror for Princes at Court and its Representation of a Court Syrinx von Hees  Art and Architecture  20. Art and Architecture of the Artuqid Courts Lorenz Korn  21. Court Patronage and Public Space: Abū ’l-asan anī al-Mulk and the Art of Persianizing the Other in Qajar Iran Abbas Amanat  22. Theatres of Power and Piety: Architecture and Court Culture in Awadh, India Hussein Keshani

    Biography

    Albrecht Fuess is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. He specialises in the history of the Middle East (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries). Among his publications is Verbranntes Ufer: Auswirkungen mamlukischer Seepolitik auf Beirut und die syro-palästinensische Küste (1250-1517), Leiden: Brill 2001.

    Jan-Peter Hartung has taught at the universities of Erfurt, Bonn and Bochum and is currently Senior Lecturer for the Study of Islam at SOAS, University of London. He specialises in Indo-Muslim intellectual history. Among his publications is Viele Wege und ein Ziel: Leben und Wirken von Sayyid Abū l-Hasan ‘Alī al-Hasanī Nadwī (1914-1999), Wurzburg: Ergon 2004.