The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is pleased to present a conference organized by
Roy P. Mottahedeh, Gurney Professor of History, Harvard University
This conference will consider the social and economic history of Iranian cities and their hinterlands from the 7th to the 15th centuries (excluding the Safavid and Qajar periods), and including Persianate areas beyond the borders of modern-day Iran. Topics considered will include questions of arrangement such as the placement of symbols of authority and markets, systems of water distribution, rents and land ownership, the public space available to women, patterns of trade between cities, and inhabitants' sense of 'belonging' to their city or neighborhood.
The conference and a subsequent publication will be funded by CMES's new Neekeyfar Fund for Iranian Studies, which was made possible by a generous anonymous donation to the Center. To download a PDF of speaker abstracts, click here.
Program
Friday, May 1, 2015: Science Center Hall A
10:00 am: Welcome: William Granara, Director, CMES, Harvard University
10:05: Opening Remarks: Roy P. Mottahedeh, Harvard University
10:15: 'From Shahristan to Medina' revisited, Donald Whitcomb, University of Chicago
11:00: Inherited landscapes in Muslim Bactra, Etienne de la Vaissière, CETOBAC, EHESS, Paris
(Dr. de la Vaissière cannot attend; Prof Mottahedeh will read his paper)
11:45: Iranian Cities: Settlements and Water Management between Antiquity and the Islamic period, Rocco Rante, Musée du Louvre
12:30 pm: Lunch Break (1 hour)
1:30: Early Islamic Marv: From the Islamic Conquest to the Ghaznavid Era, Deborah Tor, University of Notre Dame
2:15: What is Really Known about Ancient and Medieval Yazd? Jamsheed K. Choksy, Indiana University, Bloomington
3:00: Coffee Break (30 minutes)
3:30: Balkh from the Seljuqs to the Mongol invasion, Juergen Paul, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenburg Halle
4:15: Kashan, A Crossroad of Knowledge, Mehrdad Amanat, University of California, Santa Barbara
Saturday, May 2, 2015: Science Center Hall D
**PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION (Day 2 of the conference will now be in Hall D)**
10:00 am: Isfahan under Turko-Mongol rule (11th-15th centuries), David Durand-Guedy, Institut Francaise de Recherche en Iran, Tehran
10:45: Early Sufis of Isfahan: A Forgotten Path, Hossein Kamaly, Barnard College
11:30: An Arabized exile's perspective on intellectual life in Seljuq Isfahan, Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen
12:15 pm: Lunch Break (1 hour)
1:15: The Shiraz of Hafez: A Most Learned, Poetic, and Violent Place, John Limbert, U.S. Naval Academy; former Deputy Asst. Secretary of State for Iran, US State Department
2:00: Tabriz before, under and after Mongol rule (6th/12th–9th/15th centuries): From the City Turning Imperial to the Kingdom Localized, Daniel Zakrzewski, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
2:45: Coffee Break (30 minutes)
3:15: The Writing Culture of Nishapur in the 11th Century, Sarah Savant, The Aga Khan University, London, and Maxim Romanov, The Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University
4:00: A Tale of Three Cities: Nishapur, Tus, Jurjan, Richard Bulliet, Columbia University
4:45: General Discussion
End of conference
Contact: Elizabeth Flanagan
Sponsor: Neekeyfar Fund for Iranian Studies