Articles & Book Chapters by Andreas Wilde
"Introduction," Ḥadīqat al-ʿĀlam, (Maqālāt-i nakhust: Dar tārīkh-i Quṭbshahīyān), Facsimile Edition of a Persian Manuscript, edited by Eva Orthmann and Mohammad Karimi Zanjani Asl (Bonn/Qom: Islamwissenschaften, Universität Bonn & Majmaʿ-i zakhāyir-i islāmī Qom, 2017), 9-40., 2017
Central Asiatic Journal 59, nos. 1-2 (2016): 81–104.
in Bamberger Orient-Studien, Bd. 1, edited by Lale Behzadi et al. (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2014), 339–80.
Based on narrative sources dating from the first half of the eighteenth century, this article inv... more Based on narrative sources dating from the first half of the eighteenth century, this article investigates the social mobility of court eunuchs (khwaja sarayan) in late Tuqay-Timurid Bukhara. Putting their career into the context of the power struggles during that period, the paper attempts to flesh out the varying portrayals of these highly controversial figures and analyze their political strategies. The paper argues that the eunuchs belonged to an influential faction of courtiers called "the confidents" (ahl-i mahram), who wielded power through extensive personalized networks.
This article presents findings from long-term empirical fieldwork and archival research into curr... more This article presents findings from long-term empirical fieldwork and archival research into current and historical patterns of governance in north-eastern Afghanistan, conducted between 2006 and 2009. Despite the long civil war, striking continuities have been found in the make-up and functioning of the local social order. Patron -client relations, eldership, and related practices of mediation are crucial structuring principles of rural society. They have dominated Afghan politics over centuries and still do today. Viewed from a long-term perspective, this continuity, related patterns of representation, and the role of middlemen and brokers suggest a certain degree of stability, in contrast to the popular perception of instability and disorder in this country. Whilst in the past the expansion of the state relied on tacit agreement between government administrators and local elites, resulting in statemaking from above, the war broadly changed actors, regimes, and coalitions, but not the underlying mechanisms of the social order. Hence, today, the failure of the current statebuilding project can be attributed to the fact that the effects of these mechanisms are insufficiently recognized and grasped by Western actors and state-builders. We argue that local Afghan actors have captured the intervention from below. Instead of state-building, we are dealing here with state-making dominated by patronage networks.
in The Regional Dimensions to Security: Other Sides of Afghanistan, edited by Aglaya Snetkov and Stephen Aris (Basingstoke/Hampshire: Palgrave McMillan, 2013), 100-19.
in Local Politics in Afghanistan. A Century of Intervention in the Social Order, edited by Conrad Schetter (London/New York: Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2013), 59–75.
In this chapter I argue that the Afghan state, despite centralization efforts of the government, ... more In this chapter I argue that the Afghan state, despite centralization efforts of the government, largely rested on bonds of patronage and clientele networks until at least the 1950s. This means that Afghan statehood was shaped by social practices that have historically developed and always played a crucial role in local politics. In contrast to the notion of a strongly centralized state, the countryside always enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. The relationship between central and rural areas was mediated by local elites: well-to-do landlords, religious dignitaries and influential families. Although from a Western perspective patron-client relations are often seen as informal institutions, parallel structures and signs of deficient statehood; in Afghanistan, patronage and asymmetric power relations were conducive to modern state-building processes in Kabul and in rural areas. 1 Sometimes clientelistic structures are also associated with 'nepotism' typical of the field of qawm politics. Yet referring to formal and informal institutions, however, implies a dichotomy between social and state rules. But in fact, patronage, qawm networks and the Afghan state were so closely interwoven that dichotomic notions are not helpful for a structural understanding of local politics in Afghanistan. In the following I will substantiate my argument with a case study from Kunduz and a period of time that has attracted little scholarly attention: the first half of the twentieth century. The case is that of the network of the Arzbegi clan which played an influential role in local politics. 2
in Explorations in the Social History of Modern Central Asia (19th-Early 20th Century), edited by Paolo Sartori (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013), 267–98.
To the possessor of honor and manifestation of amīrhood, the trustworthy agent of the government ... more To the possessor of honor and manifestation of amīrhood, the trustworthy agent of the government Muḥammad Ḥakīm Bī Dīvānbīgī exalted by royal favors, be aware that the localities of ʿAjaz [?], Khānābād, Qūrghāshīm and Yanghikent have always belonged to Qarshī. Appoint and install a governor from Qarshī! You have done well in reconstructing the citadel of Panjāb. Since the populace of Panjāb is well acquainted with you, be kind to their arbābs and āqsaqāls (ba arbāb wa āqsaqālash mihrabānī kunīd)! Deliver robes of honor and address them with good parlance.1
Internationales Asienforum 40, nos. 1-2 (2009): 11-38.
Thesis Chapters by Andreas Wilde
WHAT IS BEYOND THE RIVER? Power, Authority and Social Order in Transoxania (18th-19th Centuries), 2016
What is beyond the River? - Power, Authority and Social Order in Transoxania (18th-19th Centuries):, 2016
This is the introduction of the monograph WHAT IS BEYOND THE RIVER? POWER, AUTHORITY & SOCIAL ORD... more This is the introduction of the monograph WHAT IS BEYOND THE RIVER? POWER, AUTHORITY & SOCIAL ORDER IN TRANSOXANIA (18th-19th CENTURIES) (Vienna 2016). As such it gives an overview of the topic, research questions and major sources this book is based on.
What is beyond the River? Power, Authority and Social Order in Transoxania (18th–19th Centuries). 3 Vols. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2016.
Encyclopaedia Entries by Andreas Wilde
Encyclopaedia of Islam Three, 2020
Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Asian History, 2017
Book Covers [Monographs] by Andreas Wilde
What is beyond the River? Power, Authority and Social Order in Transoxania (18th–19th Centuries), 3 Vols. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2016.
This book investigates the dialectics of power and social order in eighteenth and nineteenth-cent... more This book investigates the dialectics of power and social order in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Mā Warāʾ al-Nahr from an intrinsic perspective. Relying on a rich corpus of Bukharan primary sources, the study is a work of fundamental research that combines established traditions of social historical research and approaches borrowed from the social sciences. The resulting narrative stretches from the Mongols and Abu’l-Khairids to the eighteenth century and the late Tuqay-Timurids, when the established spatial-administrative framework crumbled into an archipelago of petty Uzbek principalities, chiefdoms and “city states,” continuing with the Manghits and finishing in the late nineteenth century with the colonial penetration.
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Articles & Book Chapters by Andreas Wilde
Thesis Chapters by Andreas Wilde
Encyclopaedia Entries by Andreas Wilde
Book Covers [Monographs] by Andreas Wilde