The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran

Perhaps no single historical occurrence looms larger in the imagining of contemporary Iranian identity than Islam’s rise and the ensuing widespread conversions on and around the Iranian plateau. Of course, as with any events occurring over a millennium ago, not to mention events that have shaped th...

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Autor principal: Samad Alavi
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2015
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/047d4e573fd444a996e64902af263290
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:047d4e573fd444a996e64902af2632902021-12-02T17:26:11ZThe New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran10.35632/ajis.v32i1.9642690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/047d4e573fd444a996e64902af2632902015-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/964https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Perhaps no single historical occurrence looms larger in the imagining of contemporary Iranian identity than Islam’s rise and the ensuing widespread conversions on and around the Iranian plateau. Of course, as with any events occurring over a millennium ago, not to mention events that have shaped their heirs’ confessional commitments, one encounters a gulf between how Iran’s Muslim conversion is written in the popular imagination and how historiographical studies attempt to make sense of such complex transformations. Nonetheless, Sarah Bowen Savant’s The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and Conversion might ultimately shape Iranian and Islamic studies not only by contributing novel scholarship to the field, but also by speaking to non-specialists’ interests as well. As evidence of popular interest, one need only note the continual reprints of Abd al-Husayn Zarrinkub’s seminal 1957 study, Dū Qarn Sukūt (Two Centuries of Silence), which considers the period following the Islamic conquest and the Sasanian Empire’s collapse. Savant’s study picks up where Zarrinkub’s ends, arguing that post-conquest Iranians experienced a twofold conversion during the ninth to eleventh centuries: becoming both Muslim and Persian. And while the author disavows simplistic notions like historical silence or static national identities, her book, like Zarrinkub’s, sheds new light on Persian Muslim identities in a particular historical context and suggests how they are formed, negotiated, contested, and transformed over time and space ... Samad AlaviInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 32, Iss 1 (2015)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Samad Alavi
The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran
description Perhaps no single historical occurrence looms larger in the imagining of contemporary Iranian identity than Islam’s rise and the ensuing widespread conversions on and around the Iranian plateau. Of course, as with any events occurring over a millennium ago, not to mention events that have shaped their heirs’ confessional commitments, one encounters a gulf between how Iran’s Muslim conversion is written in the popular imagination and how historiographical studies attempt to make sense of such complex transformations. Nonetheless, Sarah Bowen Savant’s The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and Conversion might ultimately shape Iranian and Islamic studies not only by contributing novel scholarship to the field, but also by speaking to non-specialists’ interests as well. As evidence of popular interest, one need only note the continual reprints of Abd al-Husayn Zarrinkub’s seminal 1957 study, Dū Qarn Sukūt (Two Centuries of Silence), which considers the period following the Islamic conquest and the Sasanian Empire’s collapse. Savant’s study picks up where Zarrinkub’s ends, arguing that post-conquest Iranians experienced a twofold conversion during the ninth to eleventh centuries: becoming both Muslim and Persian. And while the author disavows simplistic notions like historical silence or static national identities, her book, like Zarrinkub’s, sheds new light on Persian Muslim identities in a particular historical context and suggests how they are formed, negotiated, contested, and transformed over time and space ...
format article
author Samad Alavi
author_facet Samad Alavi
author_sort Samad Alavi
title The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran
title_short The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran
title_full The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran
title_fullStr The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran
title_full_unstemmed The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran
title_sort new muslims of post-conquest iran
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/047d4e573fd444a996e64902af263290
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