April 8-10


View of Isfahan

Please read either Morgan or Arjomand and either Murphey or Bacque-Grammont.  Answer one question.  Due Sunday April 6.   Also read Ochsenwald/Fisher, pp. 215-230

1. How do Bacque-Grammont and Murphey differ in their view of general
Ottoman policy towards Iran and vice versa?

2. In Murphey's view, what were the real motives behind Ottoman policy
towards Iran?

3. How would an Ottoman sultan view the claims to authority of a Safavid
Shah?

4. How would a Shah view the Ottoman sultan's claims to authority?

5. According to Morgan, what were the intellectual and political origins
of the Safavids?

6.. Why did Shah Isma'il pick Twelver Shi'ism and what were the long-term
effects of this choice?

Rhoads Murphey , "Suleyman's Eastern Policy," in Halil Inalcik and Cemal Kafadar (eds), Suleyman the Second and His Time, on the WEB. Study guide for Murphey .

Jean-Louis Bacque-Grammont , "The Eastern Policy of Suleyman the Magnificent 1520-1533," in Halil Inalcik and Cemal Kafadar (eds), Suleyman the Second and His Time, on the WEB. Study guide for Bacque-Grammont .

Said Amir Arjomand , "The Shadow of God on Earth: The Ethos of Persian Patrimonialism," from his The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890, on the WEB. Study guide for Arjomand .

Additional Bibliography - Ottoman Economic History and Slavery

North American Graduate Programs in Middle East History