Presented By: Iranian Studies
Water, Weirs, and Itchy Welts: commemorating Shushtar in transregional contexts, 1678-1830
Derek Mancini-Lander, SOAS, University of London
The Persianate Studies Workshop is pleased to welcome Derek Mancini-Lander (SOAS, University of London), who will be presenting a paper titled “Water, Weirs, and Itchy Welts: commemorating Shushtar in transregional contexts, 1678-1830” on Monday, April 9, 5:00-7:00 PM in room 2022 South Thayer Building.
Mancini-Lander’s paper contributes to the study of transregional Persianate communities by examining a corpus of biographical and historical works centered on the town of Shushtar. These works were composed by members of the eminent family of Nuri sayyids of Shushtar, who moved between Khuzistan, the Deccan, Bengal, and the shrine-towns of Iraq, and whose writings spanned four generations and encompassed a variety of genres, including local history, geography, self-narrative, travel-writing, family history, Shiʿi jurisprudence, medicine, and astrology. The texts of this corpus preserve a set of dialogues between generations of family members, who were deliberately engaging with one another’s memories of home, family, travel, and ideas, as each of them moved between Shushtar, Iraq-i Arab, and the kingdoms of Hind, and penned their narratives. Nonetheless, these writers appear to have maintained a sense of family solidarity and homeland even as they were dispersed throughout cities on both sides of the Indian Ocean.
In his presentation, Mancini-Lander will argue that the dialogic and intertextual nature of this corpus, where the boundaries between individual authors is fluid, provides a blueprint for understanding a process by which these authors negotiated two opposing, yet commensurately fluid sensibilities—one cosmopolitan and the other local. Focusing on the authors’ prevalent and intertwined conceits constructed around flows of water, disease, knowledge, and the Prophet’s seed, he contends that the logic of this negotiation becomes comprehensible. More importantly, by observing the historically contingent variations in strategy by which these writers emplot Shushstar’s history, he traces their development as they changed over time.
Mancini-Lander is a Lecturer in the History of Iran as SOAS, London. In 2012, he completed his dissertation in UM’s Near Eastern Studies Department under the supervision of Kathryn Babayan. Entitled “Memory on the Boundary of Empire: Narrating Place in the Early Modern Historiography of Yazd,” it was awarded the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Prize (Humanities) by the Middle East Studies Association in 2013. Mancini-Lander’s research focuses on the cultural history of the late medieval and early modern Persianate world, with a particular interest in urban and local historiography.
We look forward to seeing you there!
For more information about our workshop and a calendar of events, check out our website:
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/iranian-studies/psw
Mancini-Lander’s paper contributes to the study of transregional Persianate communities by examining a corpus of biographical and historical works centered on the town of Shushtar. These works were composed by members of the eminent family of Nuri sayyids of Shushtar, who moved between Khuzistan, the Deccan, Bengal, and the shrine-towns of Iraq, and whose writings spanned four generations and encompassed a variety of genres, including local history, geography, self-narrative, travel-writing, family history, Shiʿi jurisprudence, medicine, and astrology. The texts of this corpus preserve a set of dialogues between generations of family members, who were deliberately engaging with one another’s memories of home, family, travel, and ideas, as each of them moved between Shushtar, Iraq-i Arab, and the kingdoms of Hind, and penned their narratives. Nonetheless, these writers appear to have maintained a sense of family solidarity and homeland even as they were dispersed throughout cities on both sides of the Indian Ocean.
In his presentation, Mancini-Lander will argue that the dialogic and intertextual nature of this corpus, where the boundaries between individual authors is fluid, provides a blueprint for understanding a process by which these authors negotiated two opposing, yet commensurately fluid sensibilities—one cosmopolitan and the other local. Focusing on the authors’ prevalent and intertwined conceits constructed around flows of water, disease, knowledge, and the Prophet’s seed, he contends that the logic of this negotiation becomes comprehensible. More importantly, by observing the historically contingent variations in strategy by which these writers emplot Shushstar’s history, he traces their development as they changed over time.
Mancini-Lander is a Lecturer in the History of Iran as SOAS, London. In 2012, he completed his dissertation in UM’s Near Eastern Studies Department under the supervision of Kathryn Babayan. Entitled “Memory on the Boundary of Empire: Narrating Place in the Early Modern Historiography of Yazd,” it was awarded the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Prize (Humanities) by the Middle East Studies Association in 2013. Mancini-Lander’s research focuses on the cultural history of the late medieval and early modern Persianate world, with a particular interest in urban and local historiography.
We look forward to seeing you there!
For more information about our workshop and a calendar of events, check out our website:
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/iranian-studies/psw
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