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A Safe Space for the Shah and His Women: The Practice of Quruq in the Safavid Period

Publication date: 22.10.2019

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2019, Volume 14, Special Issue, pp. 113 - 133

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.19.027.10970

Authors

Rudi Matthee
University of Delaware, United States of America
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Titles

A Safe Space for the Shah and His Women: The Practice of Quruq in the Safavid Period

Abstract

This study traces the evolution of quruq – a Mongol term referring to something restricted, embargoed – from its original meaning as a royal burial or hunting ground off-limits to commoners, to what it came to signify in the (late) Safavid period – the embargoed, male-free and eunuch-controlled zone surrounding royal females during their appearance in the public arena. I show how the growing incidence of quruq in 17th-century Iran reflects the transition of the Safavid polity from a steppe dispensation to a sedentary order, turning what used to be the freerange mobility of an ambulant court into controlled mobility fit for urban royal living. The final part of the study documents how quruq persisted long beyond the safavids, only to fade in the late 19th century.

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Information

Information: Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2019, Volume 14, Special Issue, pp. 113 - 133

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

A Safe Space for the Shah and His Women: The Practice of Quruq in the Safavid Period

English:

A Safe Space for the Shah and His Women: The Practice of Quruq in the Safavid Period

Authors

University of Delaware, United States of America

Published at: 22.10.2019

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Rudi Matthee (Author) - 100%

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Publication languages:

English