Authority and Identity in Medieval Islamic Historiography: Persian Histories from the Peripheries

Abstract

Mimi Hanaoka’s Authority and Identity in Medieval Islamic Historiography offers an important and productive new perspective on the multifaceted identities and complex mentalities of elites in Persianate urban centers of the Islamic Middle Period. The book conducts a close study of a handful of Persian local histories from key urban localities of various sizes and geographic regions, which the author reads in comparison: Qum, Ṭabaristān, Bukhārā, Bayhaq, and Sīstān. The final chapter compares these with Anatolian histories.