Authority And Identity In Medieval Islamic Historiography: Persian Histories From The Peripheries (cambridge Studies In Islamic Civilization)
by Mimi Hanaoka /
2016 / English / PDF
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Intriguing dreams, improbable myths, fanciful genealogies, and
suspect etymologies. These were all key elements of the historical
texts composed by scholars and bureaucrats on the peripheries of
Islamic empires between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. But how
are historians to interpret such narratives? And what can these
more literary histories tell us about the people who wrote them and
the times in which they lived? In this book, Mimi Hanaoka offers an
innovative, interdisciplinary method of approaching these sorts of
local histories from the Persianate world. By paying attention to
the purpose and intention behind a text's creation, her book
highlights the preoccupation with authority to rule and legitimacy
within disparate regional, provincial, ethnic, sectarian,
ideological and professional communities. By reading these texts in
such a way, Hanaoka transforms the literary patterns of these
fantastic histories into rich sources of information about
identity, rhetoric, authority, legitimacy, and centre-periphery
relations.
Intriguing dreams, improbable myths, fanciful genealogies, and
suspect etymologies. These were all key elements of the historical
texts composed by scholars and bureaucrats on the peripheries of
Islamic empires between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. But how
are historians to interpret such narratives? And what can these
more literary histories tell us about the people who wrote them and
the times in which they lived? In this book, Mimi Hanaoka offers an
innovative, interdisciplinary method of approaching these sorts of
local histories from the Persianate world. By paying attention to
the purpose and intention behind a text's creation, her book
highlights the preoccupation with authority to rule and legitimacy
within disparate regional, provincial, ethnic, sectarian,
ideological and professional communities. By reading these texts in
such a way, Hanaoka transforms the literary patterns of these
fantastic histories into rich sources of information about
identity, rhetoric, authority, legitimacy, and centre-periphery
relations.
