Thesis (M.S. in L.S.)--Catholic University of America.

Inaug.-diss.--Halle. / Lebenslauf. Published also without thesis note as Katalog der bibliothek der Deutschen morgenländlischen gesellschaft.

This dissertation writes the intertwined histories of education and religion in Iran in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “New education” (maʿārif-i jadīd) —from 1889, the founding of the first dabistān in Tabriz, to 1934, the founding of the first university in Tehran—implemented an aspiration towards mass, functional literacy and disciplinary learning. Disciplinary education obliged learners into the service of the nation and the state, overshadowing ādāb al-mutaʻallimīn that had embarked the student on God-centered learning. As Iranians went through the twentieth century, new education transformed schooling, learning norms, and intellectual identities. Less evidently but perhaps more significantly, new education brought about an unintended consequence: religious optionality, or the possibility of literacy without religious belief and practice. In making these arguments among others, this dissertation draws on printed, manuscript, and documentary sources in Persian and Arabic. It engages debates on secularization, also revising them in reference to the histories of the Global South. The present dissertation destabilizes received, Eurocentric theory of secularization, opening up the issues of religious and epistemic modernity to a wider range of human histories.

This dissertation is the first book-length study to analyse the production and patronage of Islamic illuminated manuscripts in late medieval RÅ«m in their fullest cultural contexts and in relation to the arts of the book of neighbouring regions. Although research concerning the artistic landscapes of late medieval Rūm has made significant progress in recent years, the development of the arts of the book and the nature of their patronage and production has yet to be fully addressed. The topic also remains relatively neglected in the wider field of Islamic art history. This thesis considers the arts of the book and the part they played in artistic life within contemporary scholarly frameworks that emphasise inclusivity, diversity and fluidity. Such frameworks acknowledge the period's ethnic and religious pluralism, the extent of cross-cultural exchange, the region's complex political situation after the breakdown in Seljuk rule, and the itinerancy of scholars, Sufis and craftsmen. Analyses are based on the codicological examination of sixteen illuminated Persian and Arabic manuscripts, none of which have been published in depth. In order to appropriately assess the material and to partially redress scholarly emphases on the constituent arts of the book (calligraphy, illumination, illustration and binding), the manuscripts are considered as whole objects. The manuscripts' ample inscriptions also help to form a clearer picture of contemporary artistic life. Evidence from further illuminated and non-illuminated manuscripts and other textual and material primary sources is also examined. Based on this evidence, this dissertation demonstrates that Rūm's towns had active cultural scenes despite the frequent outbreak of hostilities and the absence of an effective centralised government. The lavishness of some manuscripts from this period also challenges the often-assumed connection between dynastic patronage and sophisticated artistic production. Furthermore, the identities and affiliations of those involved in the production and patronage of illuminated manuscripts reinforces the impression of an ethnically and religiously diverse environment and highlights the role that local amīrs and Sufi dervishes in particular had in the creation of such material.