Books by Abbas Amanat
Iran: A Modern History, 2017
This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploratio... more This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation. It offers a revealing look at how events, people, and institutions are shaped by currents that sometimes reach back hundreds of years. The book covers the complex history of the diverse societies and economies of Iran against the background of dynastic changes, revolutions, civil wars, foreign occupation, and the rise of the Islamic Republic.
Abbas Amanat combines chronological and thematic approaches, exploring events with lasting implications for modern Iran and the world. Drawing on diverse historical scholarship and emphasizing the twentieth century, he addresses debates about Iran’s culture and politics. Political history is the driving narrative force, given impetus by Amanat’s decades of research and study. He layers the book with discussions of literature, music, and the arts; ideology and religion; economy and society; and cultural identity and heritage.
For further details about this book, including the Table of Contents and selections from chapters, please visit: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300112542/iran. For ebook (including Kindle) and audio version (both Audiobook and audio CDs) please see: https://www.amazon.com/Iran-Modern-History-Abbas-Amanat/dp/0300112548/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=amanat+Iran&qid=1557691542&s=gateway&sr=8-1. The audio version can be listened concurrent with highlighted ebook through Audible. A paperback edition by Yale University Press appeared in August 2019. For audio sample (4 hours) go to: https://play.google.com/books/listen?id=AQAAAECMBkxG0M.
For reviews please search online: New York Review of Books, Economist, Times (of London), Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, and International Journal of Middle East Studies.
Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar of the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896
Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar of the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896, 1997
When he was assassinated in 1896, Nasir al-Din Shah had occupied the Peacock throne for nearl... more When he was assassinated in 1896, Nasir al-Din Shah had occupied the Peacock throne for nearly half a century. A colorful, complex figure, he is frequently portrayed as indolent and indulgent. Yet he was in many ways an effective ruler who displayed remarkable resilience in the face of dilemmas and vulnerabilities shared by most monarchs of the Islamic world in the nineteenth century.
The Pivot of the Universe is the first biography of this fascinating monarch. In it Amanat traces Nasir al-Din Shah's transformation from an insecure crown prince, and later an erratic boy-king, to a ruler with substantial control over his government and foreign policy. He provides a vivid picture of the political culture that determined Nasir al-Din Shah's behavior and, ultimately, his conception of government: the mode of succession in an urbanizing nomadic dynasty, the complicated relationships of the harem and his family, and the fatherly role of his guardian-ministers.
Based on extensive research into public and private papers, illustrated with drawings and photographs from the period, this book offers a fresh interpretation both of the significance of Nasir al-Din Shah and the way in which the Iranian monarchy, the centerpiece of an ancient political order, withstood and adjusted to the challenges of modern times.
Crowning Anguish: Taj al-Saltana, Memoirs of A Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity, 1884-1914, 1993
For the full text, see: https://www.aasoo.org/fa/books/2011.
This book is a collection of Per... more For the full text, see: https://www.aasoo.org/fa/books/2011.
This book is a collection of Persian documents about the Babis (and later, the Baha’is) of Iran. It consists mostly of rare official correspondence covering the period between 1852 and 1872, when the remnant of the leadership of the nascent Babi community resided in exile in the Ottoman Empire, first in Baghdad and then in Edirne and eventually in the port of Akka in Palestine. Most documents in the collection are from Ghasim Ghani Collection at the Sterling Memorial Library in Yale University. Others were gleaned from variety of sources.
These documents reveal important details about the Qajar state’s treatment of the Babis and its suspicions and fears toward them. It documents repeated attempts by officials and diplomats to silence Babi-Baha’i voices, restrain the ties with coreligionists in Iran, and efforts to persuade the Ottoman authorities to relegate them to farther locations away from Iran. They also throw important light on the inner dynamics of the Babi leadership, the place Mirza Husain-‘Ali Nuri, better known as Bahaullah, held within the Babi community almost from the outset of the Baghdad period and the painful schism that eventually divided the community into the majority Baha’is and the minority Azali Babis. They also reveal the part played by the celebrated statesman Mirza Hosain Khan Moshir al-Dowleh, then the Iranian ambassador to the Ottoman Sublime Porte. Naser al-Din Shah Qajar and a number of Iranian and Ottoman officials also prominently appear in these documents.
All the correspondence in this volume are annotated so as to provide the necessary historical details. The Preface and the Introduction also offer a broader context about the political and cultural history of the period and the nature of the documents.
Full PDF, 1983
Cities and Trade: Consul Abbott on the Economy and Society of Iran, 1847-1866, edited with an Int... more Cities and Trade: Consul Abbott on the Economy and Society of Iran, 1847-1866, edited with an Introduction by Abbas Amanat (Oxford Oriental Monographs no. 5, London: Ithaca Press for the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford University, 1983).
In the middle decades of the 19th century Iran experienced major changes in its economy and foreign trade. Keith Edward Abbott, the British consul in Tehran and Tabriz, traveled throughout Iran and produced a number of unique reports pertaining to the geography, demography, economy, trade, finance and social life of towns and villages of Iran. The reports produced in this volume are prefaced by a comprehensive introduction by the editor examining Keith Abbott and Anglo-Iranian economic relations, important features of these reports and variety of studies and primary sources for the study of economic and social history of Iran in the Qajar period.
Edited Books by Abbas Amanat
Iran Facing Other: Identitiy Buonderies in A Historical Perpective , 2012
Iran's long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenou... more Iran's long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenous Iranian identity in the face of ethnic, linguistic and communal diversity. The volume examines the fluid boundaries of pre-modern identity in history and literature as well as the shaping of Iranian national identity in the 20th century.
For chapters in this volume by Abbas Amanat: "Introduction" and "In the Persian Eye" see under Articles and Chapters.
Is There a Middle East , 2011
Is the idea of the "Middle East" simply a geopolitical construct conceived by the West to serve p... more Is the idea of the "Middle East" simply a geopolitical construct conceived by the West to serve particular strategic and economic interests―or can we identify geographical, historical, cultural, and political patterns to indicate some sort of internal coherence to this label? While the term has achieved common usage, no one studying the region has yet addressed whether this conceptualization has real meaning―and then articulated what and where the Middle East is, or is not. This volume fills the void, offering a diverse set of voices―from political and cultural historians, to social scientists, geographers, and political economists―to debate the possible manifestations and meanings of the Middle East. At a time when geopolitical forces, social currents, and environmental concerns have brought attention to the region, this volume examines the very definition and geographic and cultural boundaries of the Middle East in an unprecedented way. Edited by late Michael E. Bonine, Abbas Amanat and Michael E. Gasper
U.S.-Middle East: A Histtorical Encounter , 2007
At a time when relations between the United States and the Middle East seem to be based on mutual... more At a time when relations between the United States and the Middle East seem to be based on mutual misunderstandings, intolerance, violence, and distrust, this cutting-edge collection of essays reveals that the history of this relationship is richer and more complex than recent events suggest.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, relations between the Middle East and the United States were generally quite positive. After World War I, as U.S. policy toward the region took on aspects of European-style imperialism, the relationship began to sour.
Written by leading scholars from literary, historical, and political science backgrounds, these essays examine a range of encounters. They analyze early American missionary efforts in the Middle East, views of New York City in Arabic literature, and the development of Middle East studies as an academic field in the United States. Archaeological expeditions, twentieth-century diplomatic relations, and the current war on terror are also discussed.
Abbas Amanat is professor of history at Yale University. Magnus Bernhardsson is assistant professor of history at Williams College.
Of Related Interest
Shari'a: Islamic Law in Contemporary Context , 2009
This volume presents ten leading scholars' writings on contemporary Islamic law and Muslim though... more This volume presents ten leading scholars' writings on contemporary Islamic law and Muslim thought. The essays examine a range of issues, from modern Muslim discourses on justice, natural law, and the common good, to democracy, the social contract, and "the authority of the preeminent jurist." Changes in how Shari'a has been understood over the centuries are explored, as well as how it has been applied in both Sunni and Shi'i Islam. Debates on the nature, interpretation, reform, and application of Shari'a lie at the core of all Islamist revivalist ideologies and movements of the past two centuries. The demand for the implementation of Shari'a is one of the hallmarks of Islamic fundamentalism, and Shari'a has become one of the most controversial and politicized concepts in Muslim-majority countries today. This is one of the first books to examine how Muslims understand and apply Shari'a in contemporary societies.
Apocalypse and Violence
Amanat, Abbas, and John J. Collins. Apocalypse and Violence. New Haven: Yale Center for Internati... more Amanat, Abbas, and John J. Collins. Apocalypse and Violence. New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 2004.
Journal Special Issues by Abbas Amanat
Iranian Studies, Special Issue, 1998
This special issue is an extensive and multi-authored peer-review of Encyclopaedia Iranica sixtee... more This special issue is an extensive and multi-authored peer-review of Encyclopaedia Iranica sixteen years after it began publication in 1982. It was first initiated by Abbas Amanat, then the editor-in-chief of the journal of Iranian Studies, who later invited the late William Hanaway to serve as the co-editor. Consisting of 29 reviews as well as an interview with Encyclopaedia's Editor-in-Chief, Ehsan Yarshater, and an introduction by the editors, it covers nearly all the areas of Iranian and Persianate studies. It was a unique publication which demonstrated not only the Encyclopaedia's scope but served as a corrective assessing up to 1998 its successes and drawbacks.
Iranian Studies , 1998
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Chapters in books by Abbas Amanat
“The Global Islamic Revolution,” in Revolutionary World: Global Upheavals in the Modern Age, ed. David Motadel, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 192-214. , 2021
The last years of the 1970s and early 1980s witnessed an unprecedented growth of radical Islamic ... more The last years of the 1970s and early 1980s witnessed an unprecedented growth of radical Islamic movements throughout the greater Middle East and North Africa from Pakistan to the Sudan. The climax of this process, and its most consequential trajectory, was no doubt the 1978-1979 Iranian Revolution and the emergence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was a revolution in the classic sense with instantaneous and vast popular support and with an Islamic ideological core that throughout the 1980s gradually evolved into a theocratic doctrine. The Islamic Revolution was by no means the only Islamist upheaval of the period that changed the sociopolitical climate of the region. Other movements of dissent in the Sunni world shared with Shi 0 i Iran the desire to transform their societies, cultures, and political orders with the presumed desire of returning to the paradigm of "pristine" Islam. They widely differed from the Iranian case in their doctrinal objectives, organizational format, radical intensity, and mass appeal. In the half century prior to the Iranian revolution of 1979, Islamist movements ranging from the Society of Muslim Brothers in Egypt to the Jama 0 at-i Islami in Pakistan came to contribute, at times even more then the Islamic Revolution in Iran, to the rise of a defiant Islamic awareness. At this juncture, it may be argued, the societies of the Muslim world offered a perfect example of "connected histories," made possible through the press and other forms of mass media. 1 Between 1978 and 1983 there emerged at least seven protorevolutionary trends throughout the region promoting a shari'a-based Islamic order in one form or another. The anti-Ba'athist uprising in Syria, the siege of the Holy Mosque in Mecca, the storming of the US Embassy in Islamabad, the Shi 0 i unrest in southern Iraq, and pro-1 David Motadel, "Islamic Revolutionaries and the End of Empire," in Martin Thomas and Andrew S. Thompson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the End of Empires (Oxford, 2018), 555-79, discusses this longer trajectory of Islamic revolutionary movements. For "connected histories," albeit in early modern times, see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Explorations in Connected History: Mughals and Franks (Oxford, 2012).
The Persianate World: The Frontiers of Euroasian Lingua Franca ed. by Niel Green, 2019
The Persinate World: Rethinking a Shared Sphere , 2018
The Layered Heart: Essays on Persian Poetry, A Celebration in Honor of Dick Davis, ed. A. Seyed-Ghorab , 2018
History of Persian Literature (general Editor: Ehsan Yarshater): Vol. X: Persian Historiography, ed. Charles Melville, I.B.Tauris, London and New York, Chap. 7 (pp. 292-366), 2012
This chapter covers the evolution of Qajar historiography with an emphasis on the shaping of the ... more This chapter covers the evolution of Qajar historiography with an emphasis on the shaping of the Iranian national narrative and search for historical continuity from ancient to modern.
“Iranian Identity Boundaries: An Introduction,” Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in Histor... more “Iranian Identity Boundaries: An Introduction,” Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in Historical Perspective, co-edited with F. Vejdani (Palgrave-MacMillan, New York, 2011), pp. 1-36.
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Books by Abbas Amanat
Abbas Amanat combines chronological and thematic approaches, exploring events with lasting implications for modern Iran and the world. Drawing on diverse historical scholarship and emphasizing the twentieth century, he addresses debates about Iran’s culture and politics. Political history is the driving narrative force, given impetus by Amanat’s decades of research and study. He layers the book with discussions of literature, music, and the arts; ideology and religion; economy and society; and cultural identity and heritage.
For further details about this book, including the Table of Contents and selections from chapters, please visit: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300112542/iran. For ebook (including Kindle) and audio version (both Audiobook and audio CDs) please see: https://www.amazon.com/Iran-Modern-History-Abbas-Amanat/dp/0300112548/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=amanat+Iran&qid=1557691542&s=gateway&sr=8-1. The audio version can be listened concurrent with highlighted ebook through Audible. A paperback edition by Yale University Press appeared in August 2019. For audio sample (4 hours) go to: https://play.google.com/books/listen?id=AQAAAECMBkxG0M.
For reviews please search online: New York Review of Books, Economist, Times (of London), Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, and International Journal of Middle East Studies.
The Pivot of the Universe is the first biography of this fascinating monarch. In it Amanat traces Nasir al-Din Shah's transformation from an insecure crown prince, and later an erratic boy-king, to a ruler with substantial control over his government and foreign policy. He provides a vivid picture of the political culture that determined Nasir al-Din Shah's behavior and, ultimately, his conception of government: the mode of succession in an urbanizing nomadic dynasty, the complicated relationships of the harem and his family, and the fatherly role of his guardian-ministers.
Based on extensive research into public and private papers, illustrated with drawings and photographs from the period, this book offers a fresh interpretation both of the significance of Nasir al-Din Shah and the way in which the Iranian monarchy, the centerpiece of an ancient political order, withstood and adjusted to the challenges of modern times.
Crowning Anguish: Taj al-Saltana, Memoirs of a Persian Princess from Harem to Modernity, 1884-1914, edited with an Introduction and notes by Abbas Amanat, Translated by Anna Vanzan and Amin Neshati, Mage Publishes, 1993, second edition 2014.
See:
http://magepublishers.com/crowning-anguish-memoirs-of-a-persian-princess-from-the-harem-to-modernity-1884-1914
This book is a collection of Persian documents about the Babis (and later, the Baha’is) of Iran. It consists mostly of rare official correspondence covering the period between 1852 and 1872, when the remnant of the leadership of the nascent Babi community resided in exile in the Ottoman Empire, first in Baghdad and then in Edirne and eventually in the port of Akka in Palestine. Most documents in the collection are from Ghasim Ghani Collection at the Sterling Memorial Library in Yale University. Others were gleaned from variety of sources.
These documents reveal important details about the Qajar state’s treatment of the Babis and its suspicions and fears toward them. It documents repeated attempts by officials and diplomats to silence Babi-Baha’i voices, restrain the ties with coreligionists in Iran, and efforts to persuade the Ottoman authorities to relegate them to farther locations away from Iran. They also throw important light on the inner dynamics of the Babi leadership, the place Mirza Husain-‘Ali Nuri, better known as Bahaullah, held within the Babi community almost from the outset of the Baghdad period and the painful schism that eventually divided the community into the majority Baha’is and the minority Azali Babis. They also reveal the part played by the celebrated statesman Mirza Hosain Khan Moshir al-Dowleh, then the Iranian ambassador to the Ottoman Sublime Porte. Naser al-Din Shah Qajar and a number of Iranian and Ottoman officials also prominently appear in these documents.
All the correspondence in this volume are annotated so as to provide the necessary historical details. The Preface and the Introduction also offer a broader context about the political and cultural history of the period and the nature of the documents.
In the middle decades of the 19th century Iran experienced major changes in its economy and foreign trade. Keith Edward Abbott, the British consul in Tehran and Tabriz, traveled throughout Iran and produced a number of unique reports pertaining to the geography, demography, economy, trade, finance and social life of towns and villages of Iran. The reports produced in this volume are prefaced by a comprehensive introduction by the editor examining Keith Abbott and Anglo-Iranian economic relations, important features of these reports and variety of studies and primary sources for the study of economic and social history of Iran in the Qajar period.
Edited Books by Abbas Amanat
For chapters in this volume by Abbas Amanat: "Introduction" and "In the Persian Eye" see under Articles and Chapters.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, relations between the Middle East and the United States were generally quite positive. After World War I, as U.S. policy toward the region took on aspects of European-style imperialism, the relationship began to sour.
Written by leading scholars from literary, historical, and political science backgrounds, these essays examine a range of encounters. They analyze early American missionary efforts in the Middle East, views of New York City in Arabic literature, and the development of Middle East studies as an academic field in the United States. Archaeological expeditions, twentieth-century diplomatic relations, and the current war on terror are also discussed.
Abbas Amanat is professor of history at Yale University. Magnus Bernhardsson is assistant professor of history at Williams College.
Of Related Interest
Journal Special Issues by Abbas Amanat
Chapters in books by Abbas Amanat