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The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil recounts the dramatic formative years of the Safavid empire (1501–1722), as preserved in Iranian popular memory by coffeehouse storytellers and written down in manuscripts starting in the late seventeenth century. Beginning with the Safavids’ saintly ancestors in Ardabil, the story goes on to relate the conquests of Shāh Esmāʿil (r. 1501–1524) and his devoted Qezelbāsh followers as they battle Torkmāns, Uzbeks, Ottomans, and even Georgians and Ethiopians in their quest to establish a Twelver Shiʿi realm.
Barry Wood’s translation brings out the verve and popular tone of the Persian text. A heady mixture of history and legend, The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil sheds important light on the historical self-awareness of late Safavid Iran.
Price: $176.00
Pages: 486
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Studies on Performing Arts & Literature of the Islamicate World
Publication Date:
01 November 2018
ISBN: 9789004383524
Format: Hardcover
"The translation is masterly executed. Wood must be indeed complimented with this splendid rendering, bringing the Persian original fully to life for his English audience... Wood’s introduction is brief but excellent, full of information and pregnant analysis of the narrative...The book is certainly interesting for historians as there are many allusions to historical events. I certainly recommend the book for students and scholars of Persian and Turkish Studies."
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab in: BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS, LXXVII N° 1-2, January-April 2020.
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab in: BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS, LXXVII N° 1-2, January-April 2020.
Barry Wood, Ph.D. (2002, Harvard University) is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Dixie State University. He has published articles on Persian art, manuscripts, and cultural memory in journals including Ars Orientalis and Iranian Studies. This is his first book.