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A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Persian is one of the great lingua francas of world history. Yet despite its recognition as a shared language across the Islamic world and beyond, its scope, impact, and mechanisms remain underexplored. A world historical inquiry into pre-modern cosmopolitanism, The Persianate World traces the reach and limits of Persian as a Eurasian language in a comprehensive survey of its geographical, literary, and social frontiers. From Siberia to Southeast Asia, and between London and Beijing, this book shows how Persian gained, maintained, and finally surrendered its status to imperial and vernacular competitors. Fourteen essays trace Persian's interactions with Bengali, Chinese, Turkic, Punjabi, and other languages to identify the forces that extended "Persographia," the domain of written Persian. Spanning the ages of expansion and contraction, The Persianate World offers a critical survey of both the supports and constraints of one of history's key languages of global exchange Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- A Note on Transliteration -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Introduction The Frontiers of the Persianate World (ca. 800-1900) / Green, Nile -- Part I. Pan-Eurasian Expansions, ca. 1400-1600 -- 1. Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian Learning in the Ottoman World / Inan, Murat Umut -- 2. Persian at the Court or in the Village? The Elusive Presence of Persian in Bengal / Hubert, Thibaut d' -- 3. The Uses of Persian in Imperial China: Translating Practices at the Ming Court / Ford, Graeme -- 4. Persian and Turkic from Kazan to Tobolsk: Literary Frontiers in Muslim Inner Asia / DeWeese, Devin -- Part II. The Constraints of Cosmopolitanism, ca. 1600-1800 -- 5. Marking Boundaries and Building Bridges: Persian Scholarly Networks in Mughal Punjab / Dhavan, Purnima -- 6. A Lingua Franca in Decline? The Place of Persian in Qing China / Brophy, David -- 7. Speaking "Bukharan": The Circulation of Persian Texts in Imperial Russia / Bustanov, Alfrid -- 8. Lingua Franca or Lingua Magica? Talismanic Scrolls from Eastern Turkistan / Papas, Alexandre -- Part III. New Empires, New Nations, ca. 1800-1920 -- 9. Conflicting Meanings of Persianate Culture: An Intimate Example from Colonial India and Britain / Fisher, Michael H. -- 10. De-Persifying Court Culture: The Khanate of Khiva's Translation Program / Toutant, Marc -- 11. Dissidence from a Distance: Iranian Politics as Viewed from Colonial Daghestan / Gould, Rebecca Ruth -- 12. From Peshawar to Tehran: An Anti-imperialist Poet of the Late Persianate Milieu / Amanat, Abbas -- Epilogue: The Persianate Millennium / Spooner, Brian -- Glossary -- List of Contributors -- Index
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