First published in 1926. Don Juan was a Persian Moslem who became a Spanish Roman Catholic. His description of Persia and his account of the wars waged by the Persians during the sixteenth century considerably add to modern day knowledge of the history of the period. The book describes the Safavi rule as first established, and the system of government set up in the prime of Sháh 'Abbás, as well as being an account of the long journey from Isfahán to Valladolid. Guy Le Strange's comprehensive introduction places the book in its historical context, as well as providing important information on how the book was written. Many of the inaccuracies of the original text are corrected in translation with references and notes added to the index to guide the reader.
Missing Persians serves to articulate in elegant, vibrant prose the disparate and displaced narratives of five Persian subjects. Nasrin Rahimieh's complex and nuanced arguments effectively demonstrate the links that her five figures have to a stable Persian identity—complicated by their experiences of travel, exile, conversion, and social change. Rahimieh delineates the captivating histories of "missing" Persians from the sixteenth century to modern times and defines the arbitrary generic boundaries that isolate Persian biographies, autobiographies, travelogues, and social histories. Balancing their documentary and historical value with creative and fictional elements, she reads them as individual engagements with broader questions of Persian identity at different moments of the nation's history. As modes of self-expression, these texts reveal both remnants of traditional Persian literary forms and new styles adopted through translations and readings in European literature and history. Even as it sheds new light on crucial points in cultural self-definition, Missing Persians offers a fresh look at traditional institutions, the role of women, and Persia's turbulent struggle to enter modernity on its own terms.
Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History 9 (CMR 9) covering Western and Southern Europe in the period 1600-1700 is a further volume in a general history of relations between the two faiths from the seventh century to the early 20th century. It comprises a series of introductory essays and also the main body of detailed entries which treat all the works, surviving or lost, that have been recorded. These entries provide biographical details of the authors, descriptions and assessments of the works themselves, and complete accounts of manuscripts, editions, translations and studies. The result of collaboration between numerous leading scholars, CMR 9, along with the other volumes in this series is intended as a basic tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations. Section Editors: Clinton Bennett, Luis F. Bernabé Pons, Jaco Beyers, Karoline Cook, Lejla Demiri, Martha Frederiks, David D. Grafton, Stanisław Grodź, Alan Guenther, Emma Loghin, Gordon Nickel, Claire Norton, Reza Pourjavady, Douglas Pratt, Radu Păun, Peter Riddell, Umar Ryad, Mehdi Sajid, Cornelia Soldat, Karel Steenbrink, Davide Tacchini, Ann Thomson, Carsten Walbiner.
Given the important role that the Portuguese played in the Persian Gulf from 1507 to 1720, knowing what is available about their activities in this area is not only of importance to those interested in the history of Portugal, but also of those interested in the history of Bahrein, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, eastern Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This bibliography of printed published works therefore contains a full list of primary and secondary sources, not only in Western languages, but also in Persian, Arabic and Turkish. It aims to facilitate the work of scholars and students, but also of the non-specialist, i.e. those among the general public who want to know more about this part of the world during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and about the activities of the Portuguese. Although other bibliographies exist that include the activities of the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf, all are in need of updating, and none are as comprehensive as this bibliography.
With its emphasis on early modern emissaries and their role in England's expansionary ventures and cross-cultural encounters across the globe, this collection of essays takes the messenger figure as a focal point for the discussion of transnational exchange and intercourse in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It sees the emissary as embodying the processes of representation and communication within the world of the text, itself an 'emissary' that strives to communicate and re-present certain perceptions of the 'real.' Drawing attention to the limits and licenses of communication, the emissary is a reminder of the alien quality of foreign language and the symbolic power of performative gestures and rituals. Contributions to this collection examine different kinds of cross-cultural activities (e.g. diplomacy, trade, translation, espionage, missionary endeavors) in different world areas (e.g. Asia, the Mediterranean, the Levant, the New World) via different critical methods and approaches. They take up the literary and cultural productions and representations of ambassadors, factors, traders, translators, spies, middlemen, merchants, missionaries, and other agents, who served as complex conduits for the global transport of goods, religious ideologies, and socio-cultural practices throughout the early modern period. Authors in the collection investigate the multiple ways in which the emissary became enmeshed in emerging discourses of racial, religious, gender, and class differences. They consider how the emissary's role might have contributed to an idealized progressive vision of a borderless world or, conversely, permeated and dissolved borders and boundaries between peoples only to further specific group interests.
Focused on the work of the renegade missionary 'Ali Quli Jadid al-Islam (d. 1734), this book contributes to ongoing debates on the nature of confessionalism, interreligious encounters, and cultural translation in early modern Muslim empires.
As well as including Sherley's own account of his journey into Persia in 1600, this valuable edition includes the main works dealing with Anthony Sherley and his life. Original inaccessible texts are reprinted in full and the critical bibliographical introduction provides excellent guidance for the understanding of the various sources (and their merits and limitations), and the context in which Sherley's own account was composed. When first published in 1933, Sherley's narrative (1613) had never before been reprinted.
