Call for papers: Repositioning Mughal Architecture Within the Persianate World

Deadline for abstracts: June 6, 2014

Society of Architectural Historians
1365 N. Astor Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
312.573.1365

Annual Conference, Chicago, April 15-19, 2015

For complete instructions for submissions, the the web page, below.  

When the Mughal dynasty ruled over South Asia (here referring to

modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal), in the

creation of their courtly culture and systems of administration they

drew on both their Central Asian, Timurid heritage as well as

pre-existing South Asian traditions. This was true also of the Mughals'

architectural patronage, in which aspects of Timurid building practices

were combined with characteristics of an existing, local South Asian

repertoire of architecture to create a Mughal style.

While not diminishing the importance of South Asia's impact on the

architectural creations of the Mughals, this panel seeks to examine the

idea of a shared cultural and artistic heritage that existed between

the Mughals and other Persian-speaking societies and kingdoms.

Therefore, papers presenting new research on Indo-Islamic architecture

of the Mughal-era (1526-1858) as part of an architectural tradition

belonging to the wider Persianate world, a broad region including Iran,

the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and some parts of the former

Ottoman Empire, are welcome.

Possible themes to consider include, but are not limited to: the

movement of architects and/or craftsmen between the Mughal Empire and

other parts of the Persianate world; architectural forms and/or

decoration used within and throughout the Indo-Iranian region; papers

which focus on a single building or group of buildings that were built

in South Asia but looked to a Persianate heritage for their creation,

or a monument or group of structures created within the wider

Persianate world that were indebted to Mughal architecture for theirs;

exploring the commonality between the architecture of the Indo-Iranian

world through texts, visual representations and archaeology.

Session chair: Mehreen Chida-Razvi, SOAS, University of London,

m.chidarazvi@gmail.com

See: