The event recording is now available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YufrDhZurOM&list=PLV4tCChJ7aFg8Txk3lD5FFVKM16CML0et&index=26
The Al ireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Twelv er Shiite Martyrologies in Turkic: The Politics of Translation and Ritual i n Early Modern Iran on March 2\, 2024.
The talk will di scuss the political\, social\, and ritual function of Turkic in early moder n Iran through the genre of martyrology. It analyzes the otherwise unknown Riżā Khāksārī’s Jannat al-muʾminīn (‘The Paradise of the Believers ’)\, a late seventeenth-century Turkic translation of Kāshifī’s Rawżat al-shuhadā\, one of the most popular Alid martyrologies in early moder n Iran. The presentation will analyze the work as a base text for Shiite mo urning ceremonies against the background of the Ṣafavids’ attempt to define and control religious ritual among their Turkophone following.
Ferenc Csirkés studies the literary and cultural history of medieval and early moder
n Iran\, Central Asia\, and the Ottoman Empire. He holds a PhD in Near East
ern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago and is curre
ntly an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Birmingham\; pr
ior to that\, he worked at Simon Fraser and Sabancı Universities\, the Univ
ersity of Tübingen and Central European University. He is currently complet
ing a book manuscript about the politics of Turkic in medieval and early mo
dern Iran.
Kathryn Babayan specializes in the social h istory and culture of the early-modern Persianate world\, gender studies\, and the history of sexuality. She has just been awarded a National Endowmen t for the Humanities Fellowship for 2024-25. Babayan is the author of two a ward winning books\, Mystics\, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscap es of Early Modern Iran (Cambridge M.A.: Harvard University Press\, 20 03)\, and The City as Anthology: Eroticism & Urbanity in Early Modern I sfahan (Stanford: Stanford University Press\, 2021). Babayan has also co-authored Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavi Iran\, with S ussan Babaie\, Ina Baghdiantz-McCabe\, and Massumeh Farhad (London: I.B. Ta uris\, 2004)\, and co-edited two books Islamicate Sexualities: Translat ions Across Temporal Geographies of Desire with Afsaneh Najmabadi (Cam bridge M.A.: Harvard University Press\, 2008)\, and An Armenian Mediter ranean: Words and Worlds in Motion with Michael Pifer (Cham\, Switzerl and: Palgarve Macmillan\, 2018).
Registration required. Regis ter here: https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bU5LZtl4STi4czN7AL9yiQ< /strong>