Persian Letters from the ‘Second Iran’

Edition and analysis of an inshāʾ work written in mid-thirteenth century Anatolia (MS Marʿashī 11136, fol. 1–92)

2023–2025

The project focuses on an inshāʾ work (compilation of sample letters) composed in Central Anatolia in the mid-thirteenth century. The material includes official as well as private correspondence, all in Persian. Its anonymous author worked in the chancery of the Rum Saljuq state. The work, running on 92 folios, is now found in the first part of a manuscript kept at the Ayatollah Maʿrashī library (Qum, Iran). It is the oldest and also the most extensive collection of documents written in a chancellery milieu in Anatolia.

The project will produce an annotated edition of this work. The analysis will also help in understanding the function of an inshāʾ work, whether it can be considered as an original creation and functioned as an archival depository. The examination of the different hands and paratextual notes will give indications on how the manuscript was used over time. On a broader historical scope, the project will provide new data for the history of the Rum Saljuq sultanate, in particular during the pivotal period around the Mongol victory of 1243. In terms of cultural history, the work will serve as an illustration of Anatolia’s integration into the Persianate world, at a time when the region became a haven for many literate elites from Iran.

The project is financially supported by the DFG (German Research Foundation) for a duration of two years and is primarily based at the Asien-Afrika-Institut (Universität Hamburg).

Before the start of the project in March 2024, the PI has published two articles to introduce the manuscript and showcase its historical potential. See D. Durand-Guédy, “A New Source on the Saljūqs of Rūm and their Persian Chancery: Manuscript 11136 of the Marʿashī Library (Qum)”, Der Islam 99/1 (2022): 113–141; Ibid. “The Ribāṭ of Gurjī Khātūn (“the Georgian Lady”): New Data about Women Patrons, Chancery Practices, and Foundation Inscriptions in Seventh/Thirteenth- Century Saljuq Anatolia”, al-ʿUsur al-Wusta. The Journal of Middle East Medievalists, 29 (2021): 181–216.