Iran Colloquium, Yale Program in Iranian Studies and the Council on Middle East Studies: “Fitting Tributes and Fine Brocades: The Politics of Gift Giving in Qajar Iran”

Event time: 
Friday, December 5, 2014 - 12:00pm
Location: 
Luce Hall, Room 202 See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06520
Event description: 

The Iran Colloquium, Yale Program in Iranian Studies and the Council on Middle East Studies present:

Assef Ashraf, History, Yale University:  “Fitting Tributes and Fine Brocades: The Politics of Gift Giving in Qajar Iran”

This talk uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785 — 1925). Gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, but the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, held a central role in the politics and economy of Qajar Iran. It was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power and control in the provinces. Gifts and honors to the Shī‘ī religious establishment, to broader society, and to foreign envoys were part of Qajar rulers’ strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate.

Assef Ashraf is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Yale University. His dissertation research focuses on the political and cultural history of nineteenth-century Qajar Iran. More broadly, he is interested in the history of comparative empires, travel literature, and gift economies. Assef is Assistant Managing Editor at Dissertation Reviews, where he also serves as field editor of the Iran and Persian Studies series.
 

Admission: 
Free
Open to: 
General Public