What do you think?
Rate this book
The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at .
Persian is one of the great lingua francas of world history. Yet despite its recognition as a shared language across the Islamic world and beyond, its scope, impact, and mechanisms remain underexplored. A world historical inquiry into pre-modern cosmopolitanism, The Persianate World traces the reach and limits of Persian as a Eurasian language in a comprehensive survey of its geographical, literary, and social frontiers. From Siberia to Southeast Asia, and between London and Beijing, this book shows how Persian gained, maintained, and finally surrendered its status to imperial and vernacular competitors. Fourteen essays trace Persian’s interactions with Bengali, Chinese, Turkic, Punjabi, and other languages to identify the forces that extended “Persographia,” the domain of written Persian. Spanning the ages of expansion and contraction, The Persianate World offers a critical survey of both the supports and constraints of one of history’s key languages of global exchange.
Persian is one of the great lingua francas of world history. Yet despite its recognition as a shared language across the Islamic world and beyond, its scope, impact, and mechanisms remain underexplored. A world historical inquiry into pre-modern cosmopolitanism, The Persianate World traces the reach and limits of Persian as a Eurasian language in a comprehensive survey of its geographical, literary, and social frontiers. From Siberia to Southeast Asia, and between London and Beijing, this book shows how Persian gained, maintained, and finally surrendered its status to imperial and vernacular competitors. Fourteen essays trace Persian’s interactions with Bengali, Chinese, Turkic, Punjabi, and other languages to identify the forces that extended “Persographia,” the domain of written Persian. Spanning the ages of expansion and contraction, The Persianate World offers a critical survey of both the supports and constraints of one of history’s key languages of global exchange.
368 pages, Paperback
Published April 9, 2019
53 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Nile Green
21 books31 followersNile Green is Professor of History at UCLA, with an interest in the multiple globalizations of Islam and Muslims. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018.
In pursuit of the patterns of both global and local Islams, he has traveled and researched in India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Chinese Central Asia, the Caucasus, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Myanmar, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
His seven monographs, seven edited books, and over seventy articles have traced Muslim networks that connect South and Central Asia with the Middle East, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe and the United States. His most recent book, The Love of Strangers: What Six Muslim Students Learned in Jane Austen’s London, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as Editors’ Choice. An earlier book, Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, received both the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Award and the Association for Asian Studies’ Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Award. His other books include Terrains of Exchange: Religious Economies of Global Islam; Sufism: A Global History; and, as co-editor, Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print, 1850-1930.
He served for eight years as founding director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia, as well as on various editorial and advisory boards, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies. He has held several visiting positions, such as at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and fellowships, including the Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs. Before moving to the United States from his native Britain, he was Milburn Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University. He holds degrees from London and Cambridge.
In pursuit of the patterns of both global and local Islams, he has traveled and researched in India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Chinese Central Asia, the Caucasus, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Myanmar, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
His seven monographs, seven edited books, and over seventy articles have traced Muslim networks that connect South and Central Asia with the Middle East, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe and the United States. His most recent book, The Love of Strangers: What Six Muslim Students Learned in Jane Austen’s London, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as Editors’ Choice. An earlier book, Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, received both the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Award and the Association for Asian Studies’ Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Award. His other books include Terrains of Exchange: Religious Economies of Global Islam; Sufism: A Global History; and, as co-editor, Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print, 1850-1930.
He served for eight years as founding director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia, as well as on various editorial and advisory boards, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies. He has held several visiting positions, such as at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and fellowships, including the Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs. Before moving to the United States from his native Britain, he was Milburn Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University. He holds degrees from London and Cambridge.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
