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"Tor, D. G"
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The 'Abbasid and Carolingian Empires : comparative studies in civilizational formation
\"Circa AD 750, both the Islamic world and western Europe underwent political revolutions; these raised to power, respectively, the 'Abbasid and Carolingian dynasties. The eras thus inaugurated were similar not only in their chronology, but also in the foundational role each played in its respective civilization, forming and shaping enduring religious, cultural, and societal institutions. The 'Abbāsid and Carolingian Empires: Studies in Civilizational Formation, is the first collected volume ever dedicated specifically to comparative Carolingian-'Abbasid history. In it, editor D.G. Tor brings together essays from some of the leading historians in order to elucidate some of the parallel developments in each of these civilizations, many of which persisted not only throughout the Middle Ages, but to the present day. Contributors are: Michael Cook, Jennifer R. Davis, Robert Gleave, Eric J. Goldberg, Minoru Inaba, Jürgen Paul, Walter Pohl, D.G. Tor and Ian Wood.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia
This volume examines the major cultural, religious,
political, and urban changes that took place in the Iranian world
of Inner and Central Asia in the transition from the pre-Islamic to
the Islamic periods.
One of the major civilizations of the first millennium was that
of the Iranian linguistic and cultural world, which stretched from
today's Iraq to what is now the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of
China. No other region of the world underwent such radical
transformation, which fundamentally altered the course of world
history, as this area did during the centuries of transition from
the pre-Islamic to the Islamic period. This transformation included
the religious victory of Islam over Buddhism, Nestorian
Christianity, and the other religions of the area; the military and
political wresting of Inner Asia from the Chinese to the Islamic
sphere of primary cultural influence; and the shifting of Central
Asia from a culturally and demographically Iranian civilization to
a Turkic one. This book contains essays by many of the preeminent
scholars working in the fields of archeology, history, linguistics,
and literature of both the pre-Islamic and the Islamic-era Iranian
world, shedding light on some of the most significant aspects of
the major changes that this important portion of the Asian
continent underwent during this tumultuous era in its history. This
collection of cutting-edge research will be read by scholars of
Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Iranian, and Islamic studies and
archaeology.
Contributors: D. G. Tor, Frantz Grenet, Nicholas Sims-Williams,
Etsuko Kageyama, Yutaka Yoshida, Michael Shenkar, Minoru Inaba,
Rocco Rante, Arezou Azad, Sören Stark, Louise Marlow, Gabrielle van
den Berg, and Dilnoza Duturaeva.
eBook
The Political Revival of the Abbasid Caliphate: Al-Muqtafī and the Seljuqs
The reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtafī (r. 1136–1160) was one of great historical significance. Despite his having been chosen and elevated to the caliphate by the Seljuq sultans during the nadir of Abbasid power, after they had murdered one caliph and deposed another, it was al-Muqtafī who finally succeeded in reestablishing Abbasid political rule over Iraq. This article traces the course of al-Muqtafī's relations with the Seljuq sultans, analyzes how and why he succeeded in reviving Abbasid political rule, and considers the import of the events that transpired during his reign.
Journal Article
The Islamization of Central Asia in the Sāmānid era and the reshaping of the Muslim world
The Sāmānid-era drive to Islamize Central Asia led not only to increased Islamic influence within the steppes, but, concomitantly, to the transformation of internal Muslim political life. Developments within the Muslim oecumene that were shaped or influenced by this Drang nach Osten range from the legitimizing of the political fragmentation of the Persianate Dynastic period to changes in Muslim military culture and practice, the successful religious conversion of the Turkic steppe; and growing Turkic influence inside the Sāmānid realms, culminating not only in the downfall of the Sāmānids, but in the end of the era of Iranian political and military dominance and the beginning of a millennium of Turkic political hegemony.
Journal Article
The Eclipse of Khurāsān in the twelfth century
The province of Khurāsān constituted the centre of political, cultural, and religious life in the Sunni Islamic world from the ninth until the mid-twelfth century, after which Khurāsān was completely eclipsed. The question of how this occurred has remained almost completely unstudied; and the one study that there is does not consult the key primary literary sources for the time. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to re-examine what the primary sources reveal about the catastrophic cultural and political eclipse of Khurāsān in the mid-twelfth century, in order to demonstrate that this catastrophe was not due to “climate, cotton and camels” – in fact, Khurāsān was doing very well until the 1150s – but to concrete human agency and action: namely, the province's destruction by the rampaging Oghuz Turkmens after Sultan Sanjar had been taken captive by them in 1153, thus leading directly to the downfall of the Great Seljuq Sultanate.
Journal Article
Historical Representations of Yaʿqūb b. al-Layth: A Reappraisal
The extraordinary ascendancy of the Saffarid dynasty
began with the meteoric career of its founder,
Yaʿqūb b. al-Layth al-Saffār. Yaʿqūb appeared on the
historical scene in 238/852 as the member of an
Eastern Iranian military band, and ended his days as
the ruler over a vast swathe of territory stretching
from today's ʿIraq to the borders of today's India;
while at least theoretical acknowledgement of his
overlordship was found both in Central Asia and the
holy cities of Arabia.
Journal Article
The Islamisation of Iranian Kingly Ideals in the Persianate Fürstenspiegel
The article examines the use of ancient Iranian rulers and traditions of rulership in the hortatory royal advice literature of the Seljuq era, in order to determine whether the embracing of pre-Islamic Iranian political paradigms during this period was, as is commonly maintained, inimical to or incompatible with Islamic norms and ideals. It concludes that, on the contrary, the Iranian model underwent a degree of Islamisation in the process of assimilation, manifested by the blending of Islamic and legendary Iranian pedigrees; in the incorporation of Shāh-nāma history into Islamic history, especially through the linking of the Sasanian kings with the caliphs and early Islamic religious figures; and through the anachronistic religious Islamising of the Sasanian kings and heroes.
Journal Article
‘SOVEREIGN AND PIOUS’: THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE GREAT SELJUQ SULTANS
The Seljuqs were, for much of history, remarkably successful in propagating the view of themselves as Sunni heroes: generous supporters of Sunni religious scholarship, staunch champions of the Abbasid caliphs, and indefatigable defenders of Islam against heresy, heretics and Infidels. Their success in projecting this image is reflected in the medieval historiography; the Tārīkh-i guzīda, for instance, after enumerating the flaws of every Muslim dynasty from the Umayyads through the Khwarazmshahs, asseverates: ‘But the Seljuqs were free of these defects: they were Sunni, and of pure religion and good beliefs …’Similarly fulsome praise of the Seljuqs as the saviours and renewers of Sunni Islam can be found in, for instance, the Saljūqnāma, which states:It is well known that in the Islamic community after the Ṣaḥāba and the Rāshidūn caliphs … there were no kings who were greater, or more worthy of ruling over humanity, than the kings of the House of Seljuq … How many good [works] were manifested in the days of their dynasty: the revival of the signs of religion, the raising high of the articles of faith of the Muslims; the building and creating of mosques, madrasas, ribāṭs, bridges and stipends … and [the bestowal of] awqāf upon the ʿulamāʾ, sayyids, ascetics and holy people [which] had never been in any period [before] …
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