Zoroaster, the prophet of pre-Islamic Persia, was already a legendary figure, highly reputed for his wisdom and antiquity, when his name first appeared in Europe in Greek authors of the fourth century B.C. From this date, well into the late nineteenth century A.D., Zoroaster's n…
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When the Persians conquered Lydia in the mid-sixth century B.C., they had to incorporate this large and wealthy province into the empire so that it might function as an integral part of the larger whole. Such a transition affected culture as well as commerce, people as well as p…
Russia and Iran have been subject to mutual influence since the reign of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629). For most of the time this relationship was not one of equals: since the early nineteenth century and lasting at least until 1946, Russia and then the USSR, in strong competition wi…
This thesis aims to consider the competing visions of Sasanian Iran advanced by Arthur Christensen in ‘L'Iran sous les Sassanides' (1944) and Parvaneh Pourshariati in ‘Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire' (2008), discuss the relevant evidence in relation to their arguments, …
This study treats the historical and administrative geography of the regions of southwestern Iran around the Achaemenid Persian palace complex at Persepolis during the fifth century BC. It relies on the evidence of two groups of administrative documents excavated at Persepolis b…
This dissertation seeks to demonstrate that Jam i's Salaman va Absal, an allegorical Persian romance dismissed by modern scholarship as a bizarre tale about an incestuous relationship between a youth and his wet-nurse, is actually a sophisticated book of advice for a medieval Is…
This paper is a study of the prose and poetry of the Iranian author and political activist Muhammad Taqī Bahār (1886-1951) with the aim of shedding light on the part he played in shaping nationalist thought in early twentieth century Iran. His model of Iranian linguistic and lit…
This is a study of the Kart dynasty (1245-1381), one of the small polities that flourished in Iran at a time of weak central authority following the Mongol invasion. The Karts were an anomaly in being a Tajik, or native Persian, dynasty at a time Mongols and Turks dominated the …
How did the rulers try to generate their own loyal retainers in pre-modern Asia? As an attempt to answer the question, the dissertation first focus on the Inner Asian institution of personal guards, who were personally attached and fostered by the ruler, with a special emphasis …
The epic hero of the ancient and medieval world is a problematic character: he simultaneously embodies the bright dream of a protective and courageous aristocrat, and the brutal fact of a violent man with a talent for killing. This dichotomy is often found in the characters of I…
This dissertation examines the role that Catholic missionary movements in the Ottoman Empire and Persia played in fostering the growth of science and learning in early modern Europe. The Ottoman Empire's alliance with France, solemnized in the Capitulations, opened the Ottoman E…
This dissertation tells the story of how Russian strategies of imperial rule changed as a result of tsarist officials' efforts to expand their empire over the Caucasus in the long nineteenth century (1762-1918). Central to this work is the assertion the Caucasus represented a fr…
The dissertation examines an eleventh century Arabic manuscript entitled Raunaq al-Majalis. It consists of 22 chapters each containing 10 anecdotes. Eight of the 12 extant later copies of the manuscript were used. Though the manuscript does not identify itself as emanating from …
The ulama community in the Shi'i Shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala was characterized throughout the 19th century by multi-ethnic composition, numerical growth, and the lack of overall organization. In the absence of formal procedures and bureaucratic structures, patronage relat…
A program of representation was designed during the reign of Darius I (522-486 B. C.) in which, in the metaphorical language of Achaemenid art, the concept of the seat of the king was applied to the throne object, to the palatial complex of Parsa/Persepolis at the center of the …
Theatre is a place for magic, a place where dreams come true by transforming "written" words into living images. It is a place where artists, such as actors, directors, designers, visual artists, etc., combine their different art mediums in order to find the common denominator, …
In this study, the relationship between medical thought and philosophy is investigated through the works of the famous Islamic thinker, Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariya al-Razi (ca. 250-323/864-935). In one of the texts we shall be examining Razi thought that he could resolve the p…
During the period of their decline in the tenth and early eleventh centuries, the Jewish Academies of Baghdad, the Gaonic Yeshivot, saw a spurt of literary creativity on the part of their heads, the Gaonim. Samuel ben Hofni Gaon, the head of the Academy of Sura, was particularly…
This thesis explores the Khaterat (Memoirs) written by Taj as-Saltane (1884-?), a Qajar princess who was a daughter of Naser ad-Di n Shah (1848-1896) and a sister of Mozaffar ad-Di n Shah (1896-1906). These Memoirs, which were probably written in the 1920's, belong to a traditio…