Kevin Schwartz | Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (original) (raw)

Books by Kevin Schwartz

Edinburgh University Press, 2020

Integrating forgotten tales of literary communities across Iran, Afghanistan and South Asia - at ... more Integrating forgotten tales of literary communities across Iran, Afghanistan and South Asia - at a time when Islamic empires were fracturing and new state formations were emerging - this book offers a more global understanding of Persian literary culture in the 18th and 19th centuries. It challenges the manner in which Iranian nationalism has infiltrated Persian literary history writing and recovers the multi-regional breadth and vibrancy of a global lingua franca connecting peoples and places across Islamic Eurasia. Focusing on 3 case studies (18th-century Isfahan, a small court in South India and the literary climate of the Anglo-Afghan war), it reveals the literary and cultural ties that bound this world together as well as some of the trends that broke it apart.

Papers by Kevin Schwartz

Iranian Studies

Persianate pasts die hard. Despite the birth of nation-states, advent of colonialism, rise of nat... more Persianate pasts die hard. Despite the birth of nation-states, advent of colonialism, rise of national literatures, and emergence of new global technologies, the Persianate connections defining the texts, idioms, and vocabularies that bound together large swaths of Islamic Eurasia throughout the early-modern period continued to shape and inflect cultural and literary production in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. If the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries established the high-water mark of Persianate transregionalism, then the following two centuries were defined not so much by the undoing of this world in toto, but by its redeployment, reimagining, and regeneration in new cultural guises and (trans)national contexts. Exchanges across borders and languages helped to articulate new meanings for Persian texts. Educational practices in British India and journalistic ones in Central Asia provided venues for Persianate norms to be preserved, contested, and consecrated. The inte...

Afghanistan, 2022

While much is made of the military capacity of the all-Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade as an Iranian mi... more While much is made of the military capacity of the all-Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade as an Iranian militia and proxy force in Syria, less attention has been devoted to how its fighters and their experiences have been integrated into Iranian society following deployment. As Afghans of the Fatemiyoun Brigade return to Iraneither as veterans or as bodies of martyrsthey have been incorporated into existing national frameworks of Shiʿi identity and martyrdom. Through the analysis of media reports, funeral processions, and visual iconography, this article demonstrates how state and non-state actors in Iran have used the example of Afghan "shrine defenders" as an occasion to re-invigorate the central importance of state narratives around Shiʿism and national sacrifice. Such practices have elicited new perceptions across government and media of Afghan contributions to the history of the Islamic Republic and have been accompanied by new mobilities and modalities for Afghans in Iranian society. While the experiences of Fatemiyoun fighters are not monolithic, and the reasons for enlisting varied, Afghans affiliated with the brigade are increasingly taking on citizenship characteristics, despite their non-citizenship status. In addition to fighting on behalf of the nation and Shiʿa community, Afghan members and veterans of the Fatemiyoun engage in civic acts of solidarity. Families of fallen fighters receive the financial benefits and cultural status accorded to "martyrs families." Accordingly, the experience of the Fatemiyoun Brigade and its increased visibility in Iranian society raise questions about the future citizenship prospects of Afghans in Iran as well as notions of citizenship in the Islamic Republic more generally.

Visual Studies, 2021

Located at one of Iran’s busiest intersections, the Vali Asr billboard has been a key venue for p... more Located at one of Iran’s busiest intersections, the Vali Asr billboard has been a key venue for projecting and promoting the regime messaging of the Islamic Republic since 2015. With its unique ability to frequently change its images, unlike the more traditional painted murals populating Iran’s urban landscape, the Vali Asr billboard has the capacity to convey a wide-range of regime messages tailor-made for a variety of domestic and international events, whether foreseen or unforeseen, from national holidays to the outbreak of Covid-19. This article assesses how the Vali Asr billboard’s unique features and design style allow it to present a mix of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ propaganda and succeed in attracting public engagement with its images. Through a close analysis of the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Suleimani (d. 2020), a series of murals unveiled during the holy month of Muharram in 2020, and a controversy around the 2018 World Cup, the article argues that the Vali Asr billboard is a unique communicative medium and potent tool for regime cultural producers in Iran’s twenty-first century media landscape.

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020

The tadhkira (biographical anthology) represents one of the most prolific and prevalent categorie... more The tadhkira (biographical anthology) represents one of the most prolific and prevalent categories of texts produced in Islamicate societies, yet few studies have sought to understand the larger processes that governed their production and circulation on a transregional basis. This article examines and maps the production, circulation, and citation networks of tadhkiras of Persian poets in the 18th and 19th centuries. It understands tadhkiras of Persian poets as a transregional library that served as a repository of accessible and circulating texts meant to be incorporated, reworked, and repackaged by a cadre of authors separated by space and time. By relying on a macroanalytical approach, quantifiable data, and digital mapping, this article highlights the overall construction of the transregional library itself, the impact of state disintegration and formation on its constitution, and the different ways authors on opposite ends of the Persianate world came to view this library by the end of the 19th century.

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020

These are higher quality versions of the maps found in the article. They include: Map 1. Locatio... more These are higher quality versions of the maps found in the article. They include:

Map 1. Location of Tadhkira Production in the 18th c.
Map 2. Location of Tadhkira Production in the 19th c.
Map 3. Density of Tadhkira Production in the 19th c.
Map 4. Intertextual Citations between Tadhkiras of Iran and South Asia in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Map 5. Citation Network of Majma al-Fusaha (1871) and Nigaristan-i Sukhan (1875)

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020

These appendices include important information and statistics regarding the data set of tadhkiras... more These appendices include important information and statistics regarding the data set of tadhkiras discussed in the article.

The appendices are as follows:

Appendix 1: A General List of Tadhkiras
Appendix 2: Most Common Citations in 18th c. Tadhkiras
Appendix 3: Most Common Citations in 19th c. Tadhkiras
Appendix 4: Citation Comparison between two 19th c. Tadhkiras

These maps are part of a larger, ongoing project that seeks to analyze the production and circula... more These maps are part of a larger, ongoing project that seeks to analyze the production and circulation of tazkirahs (loosely defined as "biographical anthologies") of Persian poets across Islamic Eurasia from 1200-1900. For a time lapse video on how tazkirah production expanded over time, go here: https://www.kevinschwartz.org/tazkirahs

While the nineteenth century is a period that generally witnessed Persian’s longue durée of decl... more While the nineteenth century is a period that generally witnessed Persian’s longue durée of decline in post-Mughal South Asia, it is also one in which Persian literary culture reconstituted itself in multiple ways that allowed participants to remain invested in its production. This article focuses on one such environment in the nineteenth century—the court of the last Nawab of Arcot (d. 1855). It highlights the development of Persian literary culture at Arcot, its promo- tion by the last Nawab through an exclusive Persian poetry society and the personal clashes and poetic rivalries that beset debates around Persian poetry. It demonstrates how Persian literary culture not only remained an important part of the Arcot court’s cultural milieu but also how its poetic debates remained connected to larger issues vexing poets elsewhere in the Persianate world, in particular around the questions of ‘who speaks for Persian’ and ‘what constitutes the Persian canon’.

Keywords: Indo-Persian, literary history, Arcot, south India, poetry

This article focuses on the different ways in which the personality and poetry of the Indian-born... more This article focuses on the different ways in which the personality and poetry of the Indian-born poet ‘Abd al-Qāder Bidel (d. 1721) has been interpreted and deployed in a variety of contexts across the Persianate sphere of West, Central, and South Asia, particularly in the nineteenth century. In highlighting different interpretations of Bidel as an obscurantist poet, agent of change, progressive voice, unabashed innovator, and canonic master, it demonstrates how these impressions of the poet make for a more complicated historiography than that which permeates his typical understanding in Persian literary history. In exploring the ways in which different peoples and places in the Persianate world have interpreted Bidel a larger complex historiography emerges, one that elucidates some transregional similarities among West, Central and South Asia and gives hope to writing a more integrative literary history of the Persianate world.

Keywords: ‘Abd al-Qāder Bidel, Persian literature, historiography, sabk-e Hendi, bâzgasht-e adabi, nineteenth century, Central Asia, Afghanistan

Conference Presentations by Kevin Schwartz

Religion and State Ideology in the Middle East and Asia Workshop, 2019

The Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Afghan fighting force operated and trained by Iran to fight in Syria,... more The Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Afghan fighting force operated and trained by Iran to fight in Syria, continues to garner attention. Foreign policy analysts have focused on how Iran could deploy this force to other conflict areas, while human rights organizations have highlighted the mistreatment of Afghans during recruitment and deployment. But questions remain about the relationship between these Afghan fighters and the Iranian state for which they serve. How has the Iranian state come to understand its use of Afghan non-citizens to fight in a support of an Iranian national cause? How do state and non-state actors in Iran seek to incorporate the experiences of the Fatemiyoun Brigade into narratives of national struggle, determination, and sacrifice, in particular in regards to Shiʿism? This article addresses how Afghan fighters of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, whether they are veterans or martyrs, relate to existent frameworks of Shiʿi national identity and martyrdom in Iran. Analyzing veteran testimonials, funeral processions, visual iconography, and other socio-cultural activities, this article explores how the "shrine defenders" of the Fatemiyoun Brigade have allowed the Iranian state to at once re-invigorate the centrality of state narratives around Shiʿism and national sacrifice, while at the same time outsourcing the prospect of potential martyrdom to its most economically and politically marginalized domestic community.

Reviews by Kevin Schwartz

Online Publications and Media by Kevin Schwartz

The Hill, 2021

As the United States commemorates 20 years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, images of the Tal... more As the United States commemorates 20 years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, images of the Taliban returning to power in Afghanistan fill the screens. The War in Afghanistan has led to 241,000 deaths, displaced 5.9 million Afghans and cost $2.3 trillion. So much blood and treasure lost is arguably the greatest legacy of 9/11 and the “global war on terror”. But it is hardly the only one, nor the one that may be the longest lasting.

Responsible Statecraft, 2021

Washington’s Middle East policy has long been shaped by grand narratives. The Global War on Terro... more Washington’s Middle East policy has long been shaped by grand narratives. The Global War on Terror characterized religious observance and anti-Western sentiments as inherently dangerous. The hyper focus on sectarian identity viewed all regional dynamics through the lens of Sunni versus Shiite and the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The great-game narrative is just the latest iteration of these earlier grand policy visions, erasing the region’s internal dynamics and reducing its people to walking stereotypes or pawns of more powerful actors and trends.

MERIP online, 2020

The regime in Iran has taken the opportunity provided by the tense political environment to conne... more The regime in Iran has taken the opportunity provided by the tense political environment to connect the current coronavirus pandemic to the memories and experiences of past national traumas in the hopes of positioning all these crises on a single ideological arc that spans the lifetime of the Islamic Republic, right up to the present. This ideological work is manifested particularly in the transposition of iconographic motifs from the time of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) to the current pandemic. Time and space are collapsed in such a way as to connect the participants of multiple national crises with one another and create a singular narrative of national resistance.

Edinburgh University Press, 2020

Iranian Studies

Afghanistan, 2022

Visual Studies, 2021

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020

These are higher quality versions of the maps found in the article. They include: Map 1. Locatio... more These are higher quality versions of the maps found in the article. They include:

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020

The appendices are as follows:

Keywords: Indo-Persian, literary history, Arcot, south India, poetry

Keywords: ‘Abd al-Qāder Bidel, Persian literature, historiography, sabk-e Hendi, bâzgasht-e adabi, nineteenth century, Central Asia, Afghanistan

Religion and State Ideology in the Middle East and Asia Workshop, 2019

The Hill, 2021

Responsible Statecraft, 2021

MERIP online, 2020

jadaliyya.com, 2020

The Vali Asr billboard in Teheran is designed to change its image with frequency. This flexibilit... more The Vali Asr billboard in Teheran is designed to change its image with frequency. This flexibility allows it to diversify its messaging and to employ a subtle style of soft propaganda in Iran. The billboard has the capacity to respond to rapidly unfolding events. It lives in the moment and can go one day from venerating the martyrdom of Qassem Soleimani to displaying a call for unity in the face of Corona the next. With its capacity to toggle between divergent types of messaging, the Vali Asr mural mixes thematically controversial images associated with the regime's hard propaganda with more mundane ones. This paper discusses, the value of the Vali Asr billboard for the regime which lies in its capability to (re)present some of the more rigid aspects of the Islamic Republic’s ideology and encode it in inventive ways. The billboard can serve as a flexible and communicative supplement to other representations, visual or otherwise, of the Islamic Republic’s ideology.

Responsible Statecraft, 2020

In places like Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, and Libya, the three countries have sought to stymie citi... more In places like Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, and Libya, the three countries have sought to stymie citizen uprisings, meddle in elections, arm allies, strengthen military rule, and wage disinformation campaigns.

The Hill, 2019

For too long the U.S. has been guided by a near mythological understanding of the Middle East, wh... more For too long the U.S. has been guided by a near mythological understanding of the Middle East, where evil is caricatured by Iran and “terrorists,” while its own actions remain defined by morality and just action. It is a fantabulist vision more befitting the “Marvel Universe” than the real world. A sober assessment of the nature and costs of U.S. engagement in the Middle East would conclude that the country is not a net force for good (or stability) in the region, simply because it wishes to be so.

LobeLog, 2019

If both the United States and Iran wish to escape the cycle of provocation and escalation, then t... more If both the United States and Iran wish to escape the cycle of provocation and escalation, then they should begin by ending their involvement in the war they are already fighting in Yemen.

The New Arab, 2019

As India continues to silence, oppress and infringe upon the human rights of Kashmiris, through s... more As India continues to silence, oppress and infringe upon the human rights of Kashmiris, through startling methods of violence and under the cover of media blackout, the global practice of Muslim repression has now reached new heights.

The Hill, 2019

US policy in the Middle East is founded upon the precarious notion that what matters most is stat... more US policy in the Middle East is founded upon the precarious notion that what matters most is state security, even if this means supporting a security state. In the Middle East — more so than perhaps any other region in the world — the security of states and the security of peoples are mutually-exclusive: the focus on state security has in fact made people less secure. As a result, external support for security states led by autocrats continues while the support — even if only rhetorical — for human security, such as the need to address widespread repression against political opponents, is negligible.

LobeLog, 2019

The prospect of war between the United States and Iran is more likely than it has been in decades... more The prospect of war between the United States and Iran is more likely than it has been in decades, with the pretext for justifying a U.S. military strike or invasion already in place. In recent weeks, leading Iran hawks in the Trump administration have presented a framework to assign culpability to Iran in any future attack. Intentionally broad statements threaten military action in response not only to Iranian actions, but the attacks of “their proxies of any identity.” They also assert that the United States will respond to actions against a wide array of interests including U.S. military vessels, commercial vehicles, and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

Many questions still remain unanswered about the nature of the protests in Iran that began in Dec... more Many questions still remain unanswered about
the nature of the protests in Iran that began in
December 2017. However, events seem to point to a
watershed moment.

New US National Security Adviser John Bolton is only a by-product of a general policy environment... more New US National Security Adviser John Bolton is only a by-product of a general policy environment in Washington continually primed to directly confront Iran.

Middle East Report Online, 2022

Like all governments, Iran’s response to the coronavirus pandemic combines public health measures... more Like all governments, Iran’s response to the coronavirus pandemic combines public health measures with ideological messaging. This article analyzes Iran’s visual iconography and the politics of the state’s early narratives of self-reliance and resistance and why these shifted when vaccines became the dominant tool to fight the virus.