The seminar will explore the practice of producing anthologies (majmu’a & muraqqa’) written on paper and then bound in a volume in seventeenth century Isfahan. Anthologies provide us with the types of materials, the particular objects, images, and texts people filled their minds with. We will read albums of calligraphy, paintings, letters, essays and poetry produced in elite households as part of a cultured practice of adab, or etiquette. In particular, we will focus on the multiplication of materials for writing in and about the city of Isfahan. Writing on paper, the attention to subjective knowledge production, and its assemblage into anthologies represents different ways of being in the city, a subject that will be explored in this seminar. Some texts will be read in manuscript form as an introduction to paleography.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

No data submitted

Class Format:

No data submitted