Medieval Persia 1040-1797

by David O. Morgan

The medieval period of Persia's remarkably continuous, history began with its conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the seventh century AD and gave way to the modern period at the end of the eighteenth century when the influence of the West became pervasive. Without an understanding of the confused legacy of these centuries, no-one can hope to understand the complexities and dynamism of modern Iran. Concise, clear and colourful, David Morgan's book is the best and most up-to-date short account of its subject in the English language.

Genres: History, Iran, Middle East, Ancient History, World History, Medieval History, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really clear explanation of Persia's most chaotic and violent centuries under a series of basically predatory invaders and tribal warlords, accompanied by enormous cultural creativity.

[Mohammad Reza · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب انسجام خوبی داره، ولی به شدت خلاصه شدس،بیشتر مقاطع تاریخی مقاله وار توضیح داده شده، و از جزئیات کتاب نویسنده هایی مثل لوگوف برخوردار نیست.
ولی با توجه به حجمی که داره،مطالب خوبی ارائه میده، و میشه گفت یه دید سطحی برای شروع مطالعات بعدی در اختیار خواننده قرار میده.

[goracalucyna69 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Świetny podręcznik historyczny, który nie zanudza, a odpowiada na wiele pytań, ma też rozważania. Dużo szczegółów, zwłaszcza o Safawidach, których nie znalazłam w innych opracowaniach historycznych. Cud miód i orzeszki, o takie książki walczyłam.

[Iman Yousefi · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب منو علاقه مند به مطالعات بیشتر درمورد تاریخ ایران کرد

[Hamideh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting book about Persia after Islam and Arabs, during Turks, invasions of Mongols and Timurids, the apex of Safavids and then plunge into chaos and finally rise of Qajar.
A brief summary of those dynasties with lots of names and dates which make it a little bit confusing.
The book describes what Persians went through during 8 medieval centuries.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concise, but well researched.

[Eressea]

波斯中世紀史，2022甲骨文待出

[Horus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a long book and as the author states at the beginning, it does cover a very specific portion of Persian history that he felt, at the time of publication, had been seriously overlooked. The book is not new, but I am unaware if other authors have followed on this subject. It does contain a good amount of detailed info for those interested in history from a more Persian perspective. However, it is terribly dry. It reads an awful like like so and so born …date and was killed ..date. His son, blah, blah. It is not a book meant to discuss the arts that were so prominent even during these turbulent centuries, but the author does mention that some of the rulers were patrons of the arts. It is unfortunate that he doesn’t bother to include any photos. There is also only one map at the back of the book, of which segments dispersed throughout might have been better for orienting the reader. Not a bad primer, but more for skimming and reference than anything else.

[Rafay · Rating 5 out of 5]

read in full for uni.

very accessible introduction to medieval iran, broadly covering the seljuks, mongol invasion, the ilkhanate, the timurids, the safavids, rounding off briefly with post-safavid iran (afsharids/zands).

some really interesting descriptions of the political and power structures of each period, with overviews of traditional sasanian, caliphal, mongol and turkic notions of leadership. as well as insights into how each dynasty interacted, or located themselves, with the persian/iranian aspects of the land they ruled. similarly, descriptions of ethnic associations that were commonplace in the islamic world e.g. regarding the turkic dynasties who ruled iran for centuries. the discussion of religion, either of dynastic families, or of iran itself, was done well without being too complicated.

balanced being brief and digestible, with being informative extremely well, sometimes hard to find with academic texts :p

[Taro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and accessible book for the general reader who is interested in Persian history, particularly its medieval period. Being as inexperienced as I am in the world of history textbooks, particularly with regards to Persian history, I cannot for certain say how this book qualifies in terms of historiography, but to someone who is unknowledgable to the subject, it succeeded in giving a fair and thoughtful account on Persian history, without the personal biases that have seemed to linger most pop history books as of late. I highly recommend this book to start with if you want to broach the subject of Persian history, if only for the richness of recommendations in the epilogue for further reads. 5 out 5 stars