Subversive Skylines: Local History and the Rise of the Sayyids in Mongol Yazd

Mancini-Lander, Derek

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of the Ḥusaynī sayyids as key facilitators of the Mongols’ acculturation to Islamo-Persianate society and traces the expansion of their influence at imperial courts through the seventeenth century. Previous scholarship has emphasized the pivotal role of figures like Rashīduddīn Hamadānī in brokering reciprocal processes of acculturation from the empire's centre. This study builds on such work by shifting the focus to Yazd, a provincial city. It explores the evolving and unique role of Yazdī sayyids in facilitating such processes as they fashioned new patronage networks at court and reconfigured the urban morphology of Yazd. Furthermore, using local histories alongside universal ones, this study explores narrative strategies by which Yazdī authors, writing after the Mongol period, commemorated the sayyids’ emergence. It situates these writings in the context of larger transformations that affected relations between provincial elites and the imperial centre throughout these periods.

Citation

Mancini-Lander, D. (2019). Subversive Skylines: Local History and the Rise of the Sayyids in Mongol Yazd. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 82(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X18001015

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 19, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Oct 4, 2018
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Mar 13, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 13, 2018
• Journal: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
• Print ISSN: 0041-977X
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-0699
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 82
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-24
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X18001015