Hardback : HK$800.00
Originally published in 2007, this groundbreaking work is based on detailed and sensitive readings of travel accounts in Persian, dealing with India, Iran and Central Asia between around 1400 and 1800. The first comprehensive treatment of this neglected genre of literature (safar nama), it links the Mughals, Safavids and Central Asia in a crucial period of transformation and cultural contact. The authors' close reading of these travel accounts help us enter the mental and moral worlds of the Muslim and non-Muslim literati who produced these valuable narratives. These accounts are presented in a comparative framework, which sets them side by side with other Asian accounts, as well as early modern European travel narratives, and opens up a rich and unsuspected vista of cultural and material history. This book can be read for a better understanding of the nature of early modern encounters, but also for the sheer pleasure of entering a new world.
Originally published in 2007, this groundbreaking work is based on detailed and sensitive readings of travel accounts in Persian, dealing with India, Iran and Central Asia between around 1400 and 1800. The first comprehensive treatment of this neglected genre of literature (safar nama), it links the Mughals, Safavids and Central Asia in a crucial period of transformation and cultural contact. The authors' close reading of these travel accounts help us enter the mental and moral worlds of the Muslim and non-Muslim literati who produced these valuable narratives. These accounts are presented in a comparative framework, which sets them side by side with other Asian accounts, as well as early modern European travel narratives, and opens up a rich and unsuspected vista of cultural and material history. This book can be read for a better understanding of the nature of early modern encounters, but also for the sheer pleasure of entering a new world.
1. Introduction: the travel account from Beijing to the Bosphorus; 2. From Timur to the Bahmanis: fifteenth-century views; 3. Courtly encounters; 4. An ocean of wonders; 5. When hell is other people; 6. An eastern mirror; 7. The long road to rum; 8. On early-modern travel.
A study of Persian travel accounts, dealing with India, Iran and Central Asia between 1400 and 1800.
Muzaffar Alam is Carl Darling Buck Professor in South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. His previous publications include A European Experience of the Mughal Orient, with S. Alavi (2001). Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Professor and Doshi Chair of Indian History at UCLA. His previous publications include The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama (1997).
"This is a highly intelligent and beautifully written study. The
authors cite poetry and include many black and white renderings of
miniature paintings, all of which enrich the text. Anyone whose
intellectual interests are global will enjoy the challenging and
rewarding adventure that the travellers and authors provide."
--The Northern Mariner
"....Comparative in approach, the authors also critically draw on
the European discourse of travel writing as discovery and
ethnography in this geographic area....the book consists of
extensive summaries of the works grouped under broad headings that
categorize the accounts according to the attitudes of the
writers....Combining the linguistic and historical acumen of two
formidable scholars, this book is sure to open up many avenues for
future research."
--Sunil Sharma, Boston University, The Historian
"It is remarkable what is shared and not shared in this
Indo-Persian world. Travel literature—in both the theoretical
discussions and the glimpses into the authors' own motivations,
assumptions, preferences, and complaints—brings this world alive.
Indo-Persian Travels enables this corpus of travel literature to
illuminate the social, cultural, and intellectual history of the
period."
--Monica M. Ringer, Amherst College, Journal of Interdisciplinary
History
"The primary value of this work for educators is that it can be
utilized to greatly expand the knowledge and understanding of the
Indo-Persian culture, and to a lesser extent that of the eastern
Mediterranean. The mulitcultural nature of the travel accounts
lends the work to comparative studies in political, religious, and
economic systems. Overall, the comparative organization of the
travel narratives makes this work a valuable tool in reconstructing
the encounters between not only East and West, but also the
regional empires of India, Persia, and the Ottoman Turks of
Anatolia."
--World History Bulletin
"...a masterful travelogue of travelogues..." -Jamsheed K. Choksy,
American Historical Review
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