Puzzles and Patronage in the Persian Cosmopolis: Moʿin al-Din Esfezāri's Acrostic Letter to Mahmud Gāvān.

This article studies a literary puzzle, a maktub-e movashshah or acrostic letter, that is among the Persian monshaʾāt (stylized literary letters) of the Herat-based historian and secretary Moʿin al-Din Mohammad Zamji Esfezāri (fl. 1468–94/873–99). Created in praise of the Bahmani vizier Mahmud Gāvān...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Persianate Studies Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 42 - 67
Main Author: Walravens, Meia
Format: Article
Published: Brill Academic Publishers 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=174546573&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 174546573
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        18747094
        5D7R
      jtl: Journal of Persianate Studies
      issn: 18747094
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: 2023
      vid: 16
      iid: 1
      pid: 639
      pub: Brill Academic Publishers
    artinfo:
      ui:
        174546573
        10.1163/18747167-bja10033
      ppf: 42
      ppct: 25
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 1.9MB
      tig:
        atl: Puzzles and Patronage in the Persian Cosmopolis: Moʿin al-Din Esfezāri's Acrostic Letter to Mahmud Gāvān.
      aug:
        au: Walravens, Meia
        affil: Trinity College, University of Oxford, 61503, UK
      su:
        Patronage
        Epistolary fiction
        Puzzles
        Letter writing
        Khurāsān (Iran)
      sug:
        subj:
          Khurāsān (Iran)
          Patronage
          Epistolary fiction
          Puzzles
          Letter writing
      keyword:
        Bahmani
        Khorasan-Deccan relations
        letter writing
        patronage
        Persian
        Timurid
        transregional networks
      ab: This article studies a literary puzzle, a maktub-e movashshah or acrostic letter, that is among the Persian monshaʾāt (stylized literary letters) of the Herat-based historian and secretary Moʿin al-Din Mohammad Zamji Esfezāri (fl. 1468–94/873–99). Created in praise of the Bahmani vizier Mahmud Gāvān (d. 1481/886), Esfezāri's composition fits within a corpus of letters that testifies to the existence of epistolary contacts between Gāvān and the élites of the court of Soltān-Hosayn Bāyqarā (r. 1469–1506/873–911). Esfezāri's letter is especially valuable because it elucidates Timurid intellectuals' interests in such relations in the second half of the fifteenth/ninth century. An analysis of its message shows that Timurid literati could pursue long-distance patronage in the Deccan, without necessarily migrating to the region. The letter's acrostic form, moreover, is an interesting case of how authors of Persian texts could strike a balance between local expectations and transregional aspirations in the Persian cosmopolis.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Journal of Persianate Studies is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Journal of Persianate Studies
      holder: Brill Academic Publishers
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2023
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N