Iran and the Persian Cosmopolis: The Ris

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a vast civilizational expanse spread over more than 5000 years of recorded history, centered in Iran and expanded into the wider Persian cosmopolis that extends from the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia to the Caucuses and reaches the Mediterranean coasts, with Persian language, literature, and culture as its “Lingua Franca.”  Scholars of the field refer to the Persian Cosmopolis as the vast territory extending from the Balkans to Bengal where for millennia “an integrated sense of moral, social, political, and aesthetic order was informed by the circulation of normative Persian texts.”  In this course we explore the main features of that civilization—from its classical to its contemporary manifestations.