Transcript History 738 Comparative Frontiers in World History

Dr. John Curry
[email protected]
http://faculty.unlv.edu/curryj5
Room B-326 (History Conference Room)
Class meets: 4:30-7:30pm
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:30-4:00pm
 Columbia University (1976)
 Early contributor to world
history; Camel and Wheel
 Conversion to Islam in the
Medieval Period (1979)
 World History textbook
Earth and its Peoples
 Controversial theses: View
from Edge and Case for
Islamo-Christian Civ.
Maps of major cities in Iran and its northeast
Early Islamic conquests and provincial structure
Note Khorasan and Gorgan (Jurjan) at upper right
Map showing collapse of Abbasid power over time
Central Asian populations in modern times
 What is the basic narrative that Bulliet advances
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for Iran’s history from the 600s through 1200s?
Why does cotton matter?
Why does climate matter?
Why do camels matter?
What kinds of evidence does Bulliet advance,
and how does it relate to his earlier work?
Why a “moment in world history,” and what are
potential consequences for a wider audience?
 400-650 (Period of Sasanid dominance)
 650-900 (Gradual introduction of cotton)
 900-1000 (Heyday of “dual agriculture”)
 1000-1050 (Arrival of the “Big Chill” and
Turkmen nomadic peoples)
 1050-1150 (End of cotton growing and flight
of Iranian scholarly classes)
 1150-1250 (Failure to recover; Mongol era)
 622-750 (Islamic conquests; Umayyad rule)
 750-860 (Classical Islamic civilization
under the Abbasids)
 860-945 (Abbasid decline)
 945-1040 (Decentralization/competition)
 1040-1100 (Great Saljuq reconsolidation)
 1100-1220 (Institutional finalization)
 1220-1405 (Turco-Mongol invasions)
Conversion models for various regions of Near East
 Expanding production of
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cotton + religious tensions
Silk of earlier times
limited to non-Muslims
Lack of arable land leads
to Muslim involvement
with qanat-building
What is a fulanabad?
Result: trade boom and
monetarization (silver)
 New tools in historical
study: dendrochronology
and climate change
 Various medieval
chroniclers corroborate
tales of cold and shortage
 Weakening of cotton
market coincides with
cultural/ religious shifts
 Shift to nomadic goods
 The Oghuz, the Ghaznavids
and the Saljuq Turks
 Explaining the sudden
collapse of Mahmud’s state
after 1030 C.E.
 Issues of “ecological
determinism”—did camelherding cause migration?
 Saljuqs inherit economic
decline, intellectual flight
Extent of the Ghaznavid empire ca. 1030 C.E.
 Reading the intellectual genealogy of the work:
begins with Camel and Wheel
 Links new ecological-historical advances into
early work on conversion in medieval Persia
 Seeks to cover some of the weak or poorlysources elements in Islam: View From the Edge
 Introduces world historical significance
grounded in textbook writings and comparison
of Islamic and Christian civilizations
 All October classes (7th, 14th, 21st, 28th) will focus
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on the writing process
Be prepared to present at least 2-3 pages of
writing for evaluation to the class
Make 4 copies for me and your fellow three
members of the class (or e-mail in advance)
November 4: status report going into final phase
November classes on the 11th, 18th, and 25th will
be cancelled for holidays
Presentations on Dec. 2, final paper on Dec. 9