The Making of Persianate Modernity: Language and Literary History between Iran and India

For a millennium, Persian was a preeminent language of learning beyond Iran, from the Balkans to China. In this talk based on his recent book, Alexander Jabbari explores what became of this vast Persian literary heritage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Iran and South Asia, as nationalism took hold and fractured the Persianate world into nation-states.

Drawing from both Persian and Urdu sources, Jabbari shows how Iranians and South Asians drew from their shared past to produce a “Persianate modernity,” modernizing literary history, sexuality, national identity, and print culture.

Speaker

Alexander Jabbari is an Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of The Making of Persianate Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and has published in journals such as Iranian Studies, Journal of Persianate Studies, PMLA, Philological Encounters, and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Discussant

Hasan Siddiqui is an Assistant Professor of South Asian History at the University of British Columbia. A historian of early-modern South Asian intellectual history, his research interests include encyclopedias, political thought, and the history of the book. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Chicago.

Registration is required. Register here:

https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sJbzgHjARnqX1PRRpEZqEQ