Said Reza Huseini

reza-website
Mr Said Reza Huseini
Research Fellow
Subject: 
History
Research: 
I specialise in Indo-Iranian and Islamic history in the connected regions of Khurasan and North India over the longue durée, from late antiquity to the early modern era.

Current Projects:

1) The Arab Conquest of Bactria: Local Power Politics and Arab Domination (651–750 CE)

2) The Mongols In Persian Discourse: Continuity and Changes 1252-1582

3) The Mongols of Mughal History: Imagining World Empire in Sixteenth-Century India

Research:

  1. Edited Volume or Journal Special Issue (peer reviewed)

2023- With Jelle Bruning, eds., “Textual Sources and Geographies of Slavery in the Early-Islamic Empire, ca. 600-1000 CE.” Journal of Slavery & Abolition Special Issue (136 manuscript pages.) https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2023.2264110

  1. Articles and Book Chapters (peer reviewed)

2024- With Jos Gommans. “New Dawn in Mughal India: Longue Durée Neoplatonism in the Making of Akbar’s Sun Project.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Forthcoming, 2024.

2024- “Between the Arabs and the Turks: Household, Conversion and Power Dynamics in early Islamic Bactria (700–772 CE).” In The Ties that Bind: Mechanisms of Social Dependency in the Early Islamic Empire, edited by Petra M. Sijpesteijn and Edmund Hayes. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024.

2023- “Slavery Represented in Bactrian Documents.” In Textual Sources and Geographies of Slavery in the Early-Islamic Empire, ca. 600-1000 CE, edited by Jelle Bruning and Said Reza Huseini, Special Issue, Journal of Slavery & Abolition. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2023.2264116

2022- “Thinking in Arabic, writing in Sogdian: Arab Sogdian Diplomatic Relation in the early eighth-century.” In From the Ruler of Samarqand to the Andalusian “Law of the Muslims”: Sogdian, Greek and Arabic Documents and Manuscripts from the Islamicate World and Beyond, edited by Andreas Kaplony and Matt Malczycki, 67–87. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004527874_004

2022- “The Rebellion of Ḥārith b. Surayj (116–128/734–746): A Local Perspective.” Al-ʿUsur al-Wusṭā 30 (2022): 516–53. https://doi.org/10.52214/uw.v30i.9040

2022- With Jos Gommans. “Neoplatonic Kingship in the Islamic World: Akbar’s Millennial History.” In Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence, edited by Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern, 192–222. Columbia University Press, Doi: 10.7312/moin20416-010

2022- With Jos Gommans. “Neoplatonism and the Pax Mongolica in the Making of Ṣulḥ-i Kull: A View from Akbar’s Millennial History.” Modern Asian Studies 56 (2022): 870–901. Doi: 10.1017/S0026749X21000044

2021- “The Muqaddam Represented in the pre-Mongol Persian Documents from Ghur.” AFGHANISTAN 4, no. 2 (2021): 91–113. Doi: 10.3366/afg.2021.0074

2021- “Acts of Protection represented in Bactrian Documents.” Annales Islamologiques 54 (2021): 107–124. Doi: 10.4000/anisl.7655

2020- “The Idea and Practice of Justice Represented in Bactrian Documents.” Association for Iranian Studies, Newsletter 41, no. 2 (2020): 28–31.

2013- “Medieval Tibet in Perso-Islamic Sources.” Journal of Himalayan and Central Asian Studies 18, no. 4, CHINA SPECIAL (2013): 251–283.

2012- “Destruction of Bamiyan Buddha: Taliban Iconoclasm and Hazara Response.” Journal of Himalayan and Central Asian Studies 16, no. 2, BAMIYAN SPECIAL (2012): 1550

2012- “Discovery of Bactro-Achaemenid Site in Northern Afghanistan.” Yavanika: India Society for Greek and Roman Studies 14 (Rohilkhand University, May 2012).

  1. Invited Comments and Opinion Essays (not peer-reviewed)

2020- “The Mughal Experiment with Islamic Extremism: A Sixteenth-Century Lesson for Today.” Leiden Islam Blog, Leiden University, available online https://leidenislamblog.nl/articles/the-mughal-experiment-with-islamic-extremism-a-sixteenth-century-lesson-for-today

2018- “Bactrian Documents: New Source for the early Islamic history of Tukharistan.” Humanities Common, available online https://emco.hcommons.org

2021- “Women in late Antique Bactrian Documents.” Leidenmedievalistsblog, available online https://leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/women-in-late-antique-bactrian-documents

2021- “Thumbnail impression on clay sealings from early Islamic Bactria,” Material Cultures III, Humanities Common, available online https://emco.hcommons.org

2020- “Ownership notes in imperial Mughal codices.” Muse & Manuscripts: Lessons in codicology and Paleography, available online https://mouse.digitalscholarship.nl/lessons/babur

PRESENTATIONS (selected)

2023- “Tarikh-i Alfi: Mughal Millennial History,” Ancient India-Iran Trust, Cambridge, 10 November.

2023- “Slavery in Eastern Iranian Regions: the case of Late Antique Bactria,” The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies, and Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, and Invisible East Project, Oxford, 16 October (Online).

2023- Chair and Discussant, History Panel, European Conference on Iranian Studies (ECIS 10), Leiden University, 24 August.

2023- “Form of Political Structure in the Late Antique Bactria,” European Conference on Iranian Studies (ECIS 10), Leiden University, 24 August.

2023- “Local Administration and Political Structure in Late Antique Bactria: Documentary Evidence,” State Documents from the Medieval Islamicate World, Trinity College, Oxford University, 21-23 June.

2023- “New Dawn in Mughal India: Longue Durée Neoplatonism in the Making of Akbar’s Sun Project,” Joint presentation with Jos Gommans for the conference on The Ethics of Idolatry: Sun and Cosmos Worship in Judaism and Islam, UT Austin, 17 April.

2023- “The Arab Muslim Conquests of Qum: Cooperation, Co-existence and the Rise of a New Urban Centre in Iran during the early Islamic Period,” Water & the Urban/Rural Nexus in the Medieval Islamic World, Radboud University, Nijmegen 30-31 March.

2023- “Tarikh-i Alfi: Akbar’s Millennial History,” Persian Impact on History, Literature and Culture of Central and South Asia, British Institute of Persian Studies and Institute of Language Studies and Research, Kolkata, 1-2 March.

2022- Chair and Discussant, Panel on Land Management and the Organisation of Production, A Hard Row to Hoe Conference, Oxford University, 12 December.

2022- “A Sixteenth Century Mongol Observation of Tibet: Mirza Haidar Dughlat and his Tarikh-i Rashidi,” Mongol and Inner Asia Studies Unit, Cambridge University, 15 November.

2022- “A Day in Late Antique Bactria,” (In Persian). For Invisible East Project, Oxford University, 13 October.

2022- “Local Political Autonomy and Overlordship in Late Antique Bactria,” Ahmad Shah Massoud: The Past, Present and Future of Afghanistan II, Emanuel College, Cambridge University, 22-23 September.

2022- “Zoroastrianism in Late Antique Bactria,” IV International Symposium of Young Scholars in the Humanities (ISYS), Ivane Javakhishvali Tbilisi State University, 29 May.

2022- “Slavery Represented in Bactrian Documents,” for Conference on Textual Sources and Geographies of Slavery in the Early Islamic Empire ca. 600-1000, Leiden University, Online Session on 3 March.

2022- “Mongol Nomads in Persianate Discourse,” King’s College, Cambridge University, 22 February.

2022- “Persian Documents form pre-Mongol Ghur,” Invisible East Project, Oriental Institute, Oxford University, 14 February.

2021- “Conquests and Trade in the Early Islamic East,” Networks and Ties of Exchange: Trade ND Merchants Across the pre-Modern Middle East (60-1000) Workshop Leiden University, 3 June.

2020- “Political Fragmentation in Central Asia on the eve of the early Muslim Conquests,” Online Symposium organized by the University of Bukhara, 27 April.

2019- “Between the Arabs and the Turks: The family of Mir b. Bek al-Bamiyāni in early Abbasid Bactria (750-772),” Ties that Bind Conference, Leiden University, 5 December.

2019- “Role of Bactrian local Elites in the Rebellion of Harith b. Suraij in Late Umayyad Khurasan (734-746),” Acts of Rebellion Conference, Leiden University, 7 November.

2019- “The Idea and Practice of Justice represented in Bactrian documents,” 9th European Conference for Iranian Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 10 September.

2019- “The Idea and Practice of Justice represented in Eastern Iranian world in Late antiquity: The Case of Bactria,” Symposium Iranica, St. Andrews University, 12-14 April (could not attend because my Visa arrived later).

2019- “Early Muslim Patronage and its Impact on the Rise of Local Elites in the Early Islamic Bactria: The case of the Barmakids of Balkh,” NISIS Spring School, Granada, Spain 18-22 March.

2018- “Arab Sogdian Relations reflected in Documents of Mount Mugh,” International Institute for Central Asian Studies (IICAS), Samarkand, 27 September.

2018- “Thinking in Arabic, Writing in Sogdian: Arab Sogdian Diplomatic Relation in the Early Eighth Century Transoxiana,” The International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP), Freie Universität Berlin, 21 March.

2018- “Shia-Sunni Ideological Conflict Represented in the 16th century Mughal Historiography: The Case of Tarikh-i Alfi,” Shia Studies Workshop, Leiden University, 16 November.

2017- “Marriage Regulations in the Eastern Iranian World in the Late Antiquity: The Documentary Evidence,” the Iranian World in Late Antiquity: A graduate Student Workshop, The Chicago Initiative for Global Late Antiquity, the University of Chicago Center in Paris, the Oriental Institute, and the EPHE Paris, 18 September.

2017- “Sixteenth Century Millennium and the Making of the Tarikh-i Alfi in Mughal India,” Global Nodes, Networks, Orders: Three Global History Workshops on Transformative Connectivity, Leiden University, 20 April.

Documentaries (selected)

2023- Influence of Buddhism on Islam (Ta’thiri Buddism bar Iran), BBC Persian Pargar17 June. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjZG-JpPb18&t=1554s

2023- History of Music in Iran (Sarguzasht-i Musiqi Iran), Part 2 Marjan TV Network (based in London), 6 February. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI79GQmMZNA&t=3674s

2022- History of Music in Iran (Sarguzasht-i Musiqi Iran), Part 1 Marjan TV Network (based in London), 19 April. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuk04nTzIys&t=332s

 

 

 

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