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Books by Assef Ashraf
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](In 1722, the Safavid Empire collapsed. An empire that ruled for over two centuries, in its heyday... more In 1722, the Safavid Empire collapsed. An empire that ruled for over two centuries, in its heyday it spanned parts of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and present-day Iran. The decades following its fall were ones of unrest and discord, and it was only with the rise of the Qajars in the 1780s that a level of stability was restored. Assef Ashraf devotes this book to an analysis of the making of the Qajar Empire. It adopts a socially oriented approach to political history-an approach that examines the discourse and political practices, and the centers and peripheries, of empire. Each chapter focuses on a particular practice that was at the heart of Qajar governance-land administration, gift-giving, marriage, political correspondence, provincial diplomacy, and territorial conquest and tribal relations. By situating the formation of Qajar Iran in its early nineteenth-century context, Ashraf highlights the overarching themes of transition and change.
The Persinate World: Rethinking a Shared Sphere , 2018
Journal Articles by Assef Ashraf
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2019
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2019
This article examines the social makeup of the early Qajar administration or chancery (dı̄vān). ... more This article examines the social makeup of the early Qajar administration or chancery (dı̄vān). Using a wide range of Persian sources, the article focuses on those individuals who held offices in the dı̄vān and traces their family, social, and geographic backgrounds, highlights their marital ties, and reveals their sources of economic and social prestige. In doing so, the article draws attention to patterns of continuity and change between Safavid, Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar rule, and to the familial and informal nature of political power during the early Qajar period (1785-1834). Ultimately the article suggests that an analysis of the social makeup of the dı̄vān, and of what political office-holders actually do, offers a more fruitful pathway for understanding the formation of Qajar Iran than a focus on institutions and political structures.
This article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecr... more This article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.
Book Chapters by Assef Ashraf
The Contest for Rule in Eighteenth-Century Iran, Idea of Iran 11 (ed. Charles Melville), 2022
The eighteenth century has long been viewed as a disruptive moment in Iranian history. The collap... more The eighteenth century has long been viewed as a disruptive moment in Iranian history. The collapse of the Safavid empire in 1722; the Afghan occupation of Esfahan; the brief reigns of Nader Shah (r. 1736-47) and Karim Khan Zand (r. 1751-79); the rise of Aqa Mohammad Khan in the 1780s-together these episodes seem to present a picture of disintegration, discontinuity, and disruption in the eighteenth century. Although both Nader Shah and Karim Khan attempted to establish dynasties that would outlast their own lives, neither of them was successful. Upon their deaths, various claimants to the throne competed and fought with one another for political control. Meanwhile, war, famine and natural disasters took their toll on society, upending lives, creating economic hardship and leading some cities to be depopulated. 1 Any cursory reading of the sources from the period-whether in the form of chronicles, memoirs, travel accounts, or literature-would provide plenty of support for the view that the eighteenth century was a turbulent time. It is no surprise, therefore, that the century has been characterized by scholars as a 'period of political contraction and economic decline', an 'interregnum' between the Safavid and Qajar eras, and of 'crisis' and 'collapse'. 2 The periods of rule by Nader Shah and Karim Khan-both the subject of some scholarship-have been described as 'islands' of stability amidst a 'morass of anarchy'. 3 Most recently, it has been argued that the eighteenth century marked the end of a long period in Iranian history stretching back to the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century, and which may serve as a point of departure from which to begin the 'modern' era of Iranian history. 4 The rise of the Qajars to power in the late eighteenth century,
The Persianate World: Rethinking a Shared Sphere (eds. Abbas Amanat and Assef Ashraf), 2018
The conference that gave rise to this volume began with a series of questions: does the term "Per... more The conference that gave rise to this volume began with a series of questions: does the term "Persianate" work as a conceptual framework beyond language and literature, to such areas as habitat, economy and trade routes, and political and material cultures? Are there tangible historical ties in the pre-modern and early modern eras among such diverse regions as Anatolia, the Iranian plateau and the greater Khorasan region, the Caucasus, the southern rim of Central Asia, Western Xinjiang, and the Indian subcontinent? Can these ties create a viable field of study beyond Middle Eastern, Central Asian, South Asian and East Asian studies to underscore subtle interregional connections and longue durée commonalities? What circumstances, on the other hand, reoriented these regions and helped break up the Persianate ecumene in modern times? When Marshall Hodgson wrote of a "Persianate zone" in The Venture of Islam, he conceptualized it as a region that stretched from the Euphrates to the Oxus rivers-a region defined primarily along literary and cultural lines. But for a region whose defining feature was supposed to be language, it is curious that there was no Persian-language equivalent for the term "Persianate." The peoples living in the so-called Persianate zone did not call themselves "Persianate." Thus it has fallen to modern-day scholars to flesh out Hodgson's conceptualization. In the years since Hodgson's The Venture of Islam appeared, the term has seeped into the academic lexicon and established itself as a category of analysis. Following a couple decades during which the term was used infrequently, since the 1990s the term's use has risen sharply.
Book Reviews by Assef Ashraf
American Historical Review, 2024
Global Intellectual History, 2022
What has kingship looked like in Islamic history? Much of the initial scholarship addressing this... more What has kingship looked like in Islamic history? Much of the initial scholarship addressing this question centred on Islam's attitude towards kingship-an attitude found in the Qurʾan,
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2015
Persian Articles by Assef Ashraf
Dissertation by Assef Ashraf
Talks by Assef Ashraf
Reviews of Own Books by Assef Ashraf
American Historical Review, 2024
In 1722, the Safavid Empire collapsed. An empire that ruled for over two centuries, in its heyday... more In 1722, the Safavid Empire collapsed. An empire that ruled for over two centuries, in its heyday it spanned parts of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and present-day Iran. The decades following its fall were ones of unrest and discord, and it was only with the rise of the Qajars in the 1780s that a level of stability was restored. Assef Ashraf devotes this book to an analysis of the making of the Qajar Empire. It adopts a socially oriented approach to political history-an approach that examines the discourse and political practices, and the centers and peripheries, of empire. Each chapter focuses on a particular practice that was at the heart of Qajar governance-land administration, gift-giving, marriage, political correspondence, provincial diplomacy, and territorial conquest and tribal relations. By situating the formation of Qajar Iran in its early nineteenth-century context, Ashraf highlights the overarching themes of transition and change.
The Persinate World: Rethinking a Shared Sphere , 2018
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2019
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2019
This article examines the social makeup of the early Qajar administration or chancery (dı̄vān). ... more This article examines the social makeup of the early Qajar administration or chancery (dı̄vān). Using a wide range of Persian sources, the article focuses on those individuals who held offices in the dı̄vān and traces their family, social, and geographic backgrounds, highlights their marital ties, and reveals their sources of economic and social prestige. In doing so, the article draws attention to patterns of continuity and change between Safavid, Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar rule, and to the familial and informal nature of political power during the early Qajar period (1785-1834). Ultimately the article suggests that an analysis of the social makeup of the dı̄vān, and of what political office-holders actually do, offers a more fruitful pathway for understanding the formation of Qajar Iran than a focus on institutions and political structures.
This article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecr... more This article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.
The Contest for Rule in Eighteenth-Century Iran, Idea of Iran 11 (ed. Charles Melville), 2022
The eighteenth century has long been viewed as a disruptive moment in Iranian history. The collap... more The eighteenth century has long been viewed as a disruptive moment in Iranian history. The collapse of the Safavid empire in 1722; the Afghan occupation of Esfahan; the brief reigns of Nader Shah (r. 1736-47) and Karim Khan Zand (r. 1751-79); the rise of Aqa Mohammad Khan in the 1780s-together these episodes seem to present a picture of disintegration, discontinuity, and disruption in the eighteenth century. Although both Nader Shah and Karim Khan attempted to establish dynasties that would outlast their own lives, neither of them was successful. Upon their deaths, various claimants to the throne competed and fought with one another for political control. Meanwhile, war, famine and natural disasters took their toll on society, upending lives, creating economic hardship and leading some cities to be depopulated. 1 Any cursory reading of the sources from the period-whether in the form of chronicles, memoirs, travel accounts, or literature-would provide plenty of support for the view that the eighteenth century was a turbulent time. It is no surprise, therefore, that the century has been characterized by scholars as a 'period of political contraction and economic decline', an 'interregnum' between the Safavid and Qajar eras, and of 'crisis' and 'collapse'. 2 The periods of rule by Nader Shah and Karim Khan-both the subject of some scholarship-have been described as 'islands' of stability amidst a 'morass of anarchy'. 3 Most recently, it has been argued that the eighteenth century marked the end of a long period in Iranian history stretching back to the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century, and which may serve as a point of departure from which to begin the 'modern' era of Iranian history. 4 The rise of the Qajars to power in the late eighteenth century,
The Persianate World: Rethinking a Shared Sphere (eds. Abbas Amanat and Assef Ashraf), 2018
The conference that gave rise to this volume began with a series of questions: does the term "Per... more The conference that gave rise to this volume began with a series of questions: does the term "Persianate" work as a conceptual framework beyond language and literature, to such areas as habitat, economy and trade routes, and political and material cultures? Are there tangible historical ties in the pre-modern and early modern eras among such diverse regions as Anatolia, the Iranian plateau and the greater Khorasan region, the Caucasus, the southern rim of Central Asia, Western Xinjiang, and the Indian subcontinent? Can these ties create a viable field of study beyond Middle Eastern, Central Asian, South Asian and East Asian studies to underscore subtle interregional connections and longue durée commonalities? What circumstances, on the other hand, reoriented these regions and helped break up the Persianate ecumene in modern times? When Marshall Hodgson wrote of a "Persianate zone" in The Venture of Islam, he conceptualized it as a region that stretched from the Euphrates to the Oxus rivers-a region defined primarily along literary and cultural lines. But for a region whose defining feature was supposed to be language, it is curious that there was no Persian-language equivalent for the term "Persianate." The peoples living in the so-called Persianate zone did not call themselves "Persianate." Thus it has fallen to modern-day scholars to flesh out Hodgson's conceptualization. In the years since Hodgson's The Venture of Islam appeared, the term has seeped into the academic lexicon and established itself as a category of analysis. Following a couple decades during which the term was used infrequently, since the 1990s the term's use has risen sharply.
American Historical Review, 2024
Global Intellectual History, 2022
What has kingship looked like in Islamic history? Much of the initial scholarship addressing this... more What has kingship looked like in Islamic history? Much of the initial scholarship addressing this question centred on Islam's attitude towards kingship-an attitude found in the Qurʾan,
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2015
American Historical Review, 2024