Formation of a Religious Landscape: Shi‘i Higher Learning in Safavid Iran

In Formation of a Religious Landscape: Shi‘i Higher Learning in Safavid Iran, Maryam Moazzen offers the first systematic examination of Shi‘i educational institution and practices by exploring the ways in which religious knowledge was produced, authenticated, and transmitted in the second half of Safavid rule (1588-1722). By analyzing the deeds of endowment of the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī and other mosque-madrasas built by the Safavid elite, this study sheds light on the organizing mechanisms and structures utilized by such educational foundations. Based on the large number of ijazās and other primary sources including waqfiyyas, biographical dictionaries and autobiographies, this study also reconstructs the Safavid madrasas’ curriculum and describes the pedagogical methods used to transmit religious knowledge as well as issues that faced Shi‘i higher learning in early modern times.

"This is a work of considerable scholarship. It is based on many primary sources, for instance, "biographical dictionaries, autobiographies, ijāzas, deeds of endowment (waqfiyyas), chronicles and historical sources, European travelers’ accounts, anthologies and polemics written by Safavid ʿulamā, administrative accounts and chancery literature, and works written by Safavid ʿulamaʾ” (p. 24). All are supported by a notable command of the secondary literature in the field. The outcome is a book that, for the first time, tells us how Safavid madrasas worked, and what and how they taught. It is a considerable achievement." - Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 139/3 (2019)

Maryam Moazzen, Ph.D. (2011), University of Toronto and Ph.D. University of Tehran (1999), is Assistant Professor in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Louisville. She has published several book chapters and articles in Iranian Studies and Studia Iranica.