Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia

Edited by A.K.S. Lambton

Paperback : 9780887061349, 425 pages, January 1988
Hardcover : 9780887061332, 425 pages, January 1988
Out of print (Paperback)
Out of print (Hardcover)

Alternative formats available from:

View Table of Contents

Request Desk or Examination Copy
Request a Media Review Copy

Table of contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1. The Wazirate

2. The Law and Its Administration

3. The iqta': State Land and Crown Land

4. Landed Property and Its Administration: idrarat and auqaf

5. Agriculture and Irrigation: The Hinterland of the Cities

6. The Tax Administration: Land Taxes, Additional Cesses and Dues

7. The Constitution of Society
(1) Elements of Change: the Ruling Family and the "Men of the Sword"

8. The Constitution of Society
(2) Women of the Ruling House

9. The Constitution of Society
(3) Elements of Continuity: the "Men of the Pen"

10. The Constitution of Society
(4) "Men of Affairs"

Epilogue

Glossary

Description

Continuity and often violent change in medieval Persia are revealed in this detailed study of aspects of Persian history during three turbulent centuries (1040–1335 A. D.). An extensive introduction provides the chronological framework for this examination of the vital areas of administrative, economic, and social history.

This book is a major contribution from the pen of a scholar whose knowledge of the sources of the history of Islamic Persia and of the country itself is hardly to be matched by any living Western scholar. Lambton provides an astonishing amount of information and also uniquely deep insights into Persian history and society.

Ann K. S. Lambton, Professor Emeritus of Persian at the University of London and author of Landlord and Peasant in Persia, has devoted more than a half-century to the study of medieval Persian government.