Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Courts of the Deccan Sultanates
  • Cited by 11
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      July 2019
      July 2019
      ISBN:
      9781108680530
      9781108481939
      9781108741644
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108680530
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.69kg, 336 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (229 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.45kg, 340 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Middle East Studies, Area Studies, South Asian History, Asian Studies, History, Middle East History
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Middle East Studies, Area Studies, South Asian History, Asian Studies, History, Middle East History
    Information

    Book description

    In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, courtliness was crucial to the political and cultural life of the Deccan. Divided between six states competing for territory, resources and skills, the medieval and early modern Deccan was a region of striking ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity. People used multifaceted trans-regional networks - mercantile, kinship, friendship and intellectual - to move across the Persian-speaking world and to find employment at the Deccan courts. This movement, Emma J. Flatt argues, was facilitated by the existence of a shared courtly disposition. Engagement in courtly skills such as letter-writing, perfume-making, astrological divination, performing magic, sword-fighting and wrestling thus became a route to both worldly success and ethical refinement. Using a diverse range of treatises, chronicles, poetry and letters, Flatt unpicks the ways this challenged networks of acceptable behaviour and knowledge in the Indo-Islamicate courtly world - and challenges the idea of perpetual hostility between Islam and Hinduism in Indian history.

    Reviews

    ‘The Courts of the Deccan Sultanates shifts the spotlight from South Asian kingship and rulers to the courtly environments they inhabited. Challenging Orientalist stereotypes of Indo-Muslim courts as mired in luxury and decadence, the book examines the courts of the early modern Deccan on their own terms, showing how the syncretic sensibilities and skills they cultivated accommodated the wide range of peoples who served in them. A marvellous achievement and a convincing exploration in historical anthropology.'

    Richard Eaton - University of Arizona

    ‘In this magisterial work, Emma J. Flatt skillfully opens up for us the ‘black box' of Persianate court culture. Always recognized as important but never before theorized or understood in any detail, the social networks and bodily practices of Persianate courtly culture now stand illuminated in all their fascinating complexity.'

    Phillip B. Wagoner - Wesleyan University, Connecticut

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents
    • 1 - Courtly Disposition
      pp 31-73
        • You have access
      • PDF
      • HTML
      • Export citation
    References

    Metrics

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.