Subversive Skylines: Local History and the Rise of the Sayyids in Mongol Yazd

Main author: Mancini-Lander, Derek
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-25622
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This article examines the emergence of the Ḥusaynī sayyids as key facilitators of the Mongols’ acculturation to Islamo-Persianate society and traces the expansion of their influence at imperial courts through the seventeenth century. Previous scholarship has emphasized the pivotal role of figures like Rashīduddīn Hamadānī in brokering reciprocal processes of acculturation from the empire's centre. This study builds on such work by shifting the focus to Yazd, a provincial city. It explores the evolving and unique role of Yazdī sayyids in facilitating such processes as they fashioned new patronage networks at court and reconfigured the urban morphology of Yazd. Furthermore, using local histories alongside universal ones, this study explores narrative strategies by which Yazdī authors, writing after the Mongol period, commemorated the sayyids’ emergence. It situates these writings in the context of larger transformations that affected relations between provincial elites and the imperial centre throughout these periods.
format Journal Article
author Mancini-Lander, Derek
author_facet Mancini-Lander, Derek
authorStr Mancini-Lander, Derek
author_letter Mancini-Lander, Derek
title Subversive Skylines: Local History and the Rise of the Sayyids in Mongol Yazd
publisher Cambridge University Press
publishDate 2019
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/25622/