Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia, (Hardcover)

<p><b><i>Polymaths of Islam</i></b><b> analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a shared culture that integrated Central Asia, Iran, and India from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth. </b></p><p>James Pickett demonstrates that Islamic scholars were simultaneously mystics and administrators, judges and occultists, physicians and poets. This integrated understanding of the world of Islamic scholarship unlocks a different way of thinking about transregional exchange networks. Pickett reveals a Persian-language cultural sphere that transcended state boundaries and integrated a spectacularly vibrant Eurasia that is invisible from published sources alone. </p><p>Through a high cultural complex that he terms the "Persian cosmopolis" or "Persianate sphere," Pickett argues that an intersection of diverse disciplines shaped geographical trajectories across and between political states. In <i>Polymaths of Islam</i> he paints a comprehensive, colorful, and often contradictory portrait of mosque and state in the age of empire.</p>

• Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia, (Hardcover)
• Author: James Pickett
• ISBN: 9781501750243
• Format: Hardcover
• Publication Date: 2020-09-15
• Page Count: 320