The Seljuqs: Politics, Society and Culture

What were the ideological foundations and ritual expressions of Seljuq power? How did the learned classes and the state feel about each other? How was social space organised? What was the relationship between nomads and settled peoples? Split into three parts, this collection of essays addresses questions like these about life during the Seljuq period. Part 1 follows the gradual transformation of the Seljuqs into a powerful dynasty and their concepts of political legitimisation. Part 2 examines social history, particularly with regard to the 'ulama' and the urban populations. Part 3 explores how religious thought, jurisprudence, belles-lettres and architecture developed under the Seljuqs. The contributors include leading international experts, including Carole Hillenbrand, Robert Hillenbrand, C. E. Bosworth and Massimo Campanini.

Author: Christian Lange
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 10/03/2012
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780748668571

About the Author

Christian Lange is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He is author of Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination (2008) and co-editor (with Maribel Fierro) of Public Violence in Islamic Societies: Power, Discipline and the Construction of the Public Sphere, 7th-19th Centuries (EUP, 2009).

Songül Mecit is a Part-time Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh.