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Guy Le Strange (1854-1933) pioneered the study of the historical geography of the Middle East, and especially Persia, notably in his Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (Cambridge, 1905) and the present work which contains an English translation of Mustaufi¿s Nuzhat al-qulub ?amd-Allah Mustaufi was a fourteenth-century historian and geographer. His Nuzhat al-qulub (Hearts¿ delight) sets out to give a description of Iran in the form of a gazetteer. Despite some repetition of previous accounts, there are many snippets of up to date information embedded in his descriptions of the various provinces and cities and villages of Iran, including altered circumstances and productivity, and changes in their names and prosperity, and his work gives a graphic account of the area in the latter days of the Il-Khans. Mustaufi¿s Nuzhat al-qulub captures a moment in time caught between an old world and a new ¿ the familiar but moribund universal Islamic Caliphate, fatally destroyed by the Mongol invasions, and the new dispensation of the Mongol Empire, within which Iran once more found independence and cultural self-determination. But this world too was in transition, as the Ilkhanate was in the process of collapsing and new insecurities threatened. This accessible new edition will make this important work, extensively used but little studied and long out of print available to a new generation of scholars.
About the author
Guy Le Strange (1854-1933) pioneered the study of the historical geography of the Middle East, and especially Persia, notably in his Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (Cambridge, 1905) and the present work which contains an English translation of Mustaufī's Nuzhat al-qulūb. Ḥamd-Allāh Mustaufī was a fourteenth-century historian and geographer. His Nuzhat al-qulūb (Hearts' delight) sets out to give a description of Iran in the form of a gazetteer. Despite some repetition of previous accounts, there are many snippets of up to date information embedded in his descriptions of the various provinces and cities and villages of Iran, including altered circumstances and productivity, and changes in their names and prosperity, and his work gives a graphic account of the area in the latter days of the Īl-Khāns. Charles Melville is Emeritus Professor of Persian History, University of Cambridge. His research interests cover the history of Iran from the Mongols to the Safavids (13th-17th century), Persian historiography and epic literature, and Persian manuscript culture, especially illustrated texts. Recent edited and co-edited volumes include
Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires (I.B. Tauris, 2021);
Shahnama Studies III (Brill, 2018); and
The Mongols' Middle East. Continuity and transformation in Ilkhanid Iran (Brill, 2016).
Summary
The Nuzhat al-qulub by 14th century historian and geographer Hamd-Allah Mustaufi gives a description of Iran in the form of a gazetteer. This edition makes Guy Le Strange's English translation (1919) available once more.
