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160 Reviews from the summaries at the end of each chapter', but oftenfindsonly bewildering indications of these. The translators' brief introduction reflects recent Mas'udian scholarship - T. Khatidi, Islamic historiography (1975) and A. Shboul, al-Mas'udi and his world (1979). However, their notes do not. Certain elementary mistakes undermine one's confidence in the work. For example, Mas'udi's reference to the ta'assub (bias) of the ninth-century polymath, al-Jahiz, is wrongly rendered in the text as 'heretical tendencies' (p. 309) and explained in the notes with 'Jahiz was a Mu'tazilite'. Indeed, Jahiz was a leading Mu'tazilite. However, Mas'udi, himself a disciple of the rationalistic Mu'tazilite school but also a Shi'a sympathiser, was specifically criticising Jahiz's ostensible anti-Shi'a bias. While generally succeeding in rendering Mas'udi's entertaining portrayal of 'Abbasid court life and his skills as a story-teller, the translators not only disregard Mas'udi's historical structure by presenting only 'the bits that interested [them]' but also occasionally betray inadequate understanding of linguistic and cultural nuances. This volume deserves atitlesuch as Anecdotes of the 'Abbasids from Mas'udi's Meadows and is to be used only with caution by the student Ahmad Shboul Department of Semitic Studies University of Sydney Morgan, D., Medieval Persia 1040-1797, London/N.Y., Longman, 1988; paperback; pp. x, 197; 4 genealogical tables, 1 map; R. R. P. AUS$23.95. The medieval Persia of this book included, besides today's Iran, parts of the U S S R and much of Afghanistan under four major dynasties: the Saljuqs, ilkhans, Timurids, and Safavids to the rise of the Qajars. Dr Morgan's familiarity with both original sources and modern research on this period is demonstrated in his succinct text, with a comprehensive bibliographical survey making this book an excellent guide for the serious student. Although the framework is chronological, important themes are discernible; for example, continuity and change, diversity of Iranian society, roles of elites, and the interplay between urban, peasant and nomadic populations. The important role of nomadic (Turkmen, Persian or Kurdish) tribes in politics is highUghted. All the dynasties under discussion, from the Saljuqs to the Qajars, were of tribal (Turkmen) origin or, as with the sixteenth-century Safavids, came to power with such tribal support. That the relationship between nomad and sedentary was not purely predatory and that social and pohtical tensions can no longer be explained simply in racial or religious terms makes much historical sense and can be supported by paraUels from the history of the Arab East Arab- Reviews 161 Berber North Africa, Turkish AnatoUa and Central Asia. The author underlines important socio-economic, strategic and environmental factors and highlights vital historical processes such as patterns of conquest and tribal migration, the progress of Shi'ism and thefinalriftwith the Sunni world, and the evolution of Persian identity under Islam. The 400 years of early Islamic history preceding this 'medieval' period receives only a bird's-eye-view, with more emphasis on the role of the Persian Buyids (tenth-century) and Turkic Ghaznawids (early eleventh) in the formation of a Persian cultural identity, and less attention to the Arab factor. However, despite the flourishing of Persian literature from the late tenth century, the student of Persian history to the end of the eleventh century has to rely mainly on Arabic historical sources. The role of Arabic has been profound, not only in the script and vocabulary of Persian, but also in the use of Arabic by many leading reUgious scholars to this day. But the author is right to question assumptions of recent quantitative research on the conversion of Persia to Islam, which, as elsewhere in the Islamic world, was a slow and gradual process, accelerating somewhat in the Mongol period, which also saw further consolidation of Persian Uterature and culture. In this concise book covering more than 750 years, politico-religious, institutional, and socio-economic developments are well discussed; for example, the impact of the Turks and Mongols, the importance of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in the consolidation of Persia's Shi'a character and cultural identity, and its relations with India, the...

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