DARP Occasional Lecture
Early Mongol-Nizari Contacts in Northern Persia and the Diwan-i Qa’imiyyat
Dr Miklos Sarkozy
(Karoli Gaspar University, Budapest)
Date: Thursday, 1 May 2014
Time: 15:00 BST
Venue: Room 2:3 (2nd Floor)
The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 210 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, UK
Dr Miklos Sarkozy will present his paper examining the relations between the Nizari Ismaili state and the Mongol Empire from the time of the arrival of the Mongols to Northern Iran in 1220 CE until nearly 1240 CE.
To this end, he discusses the 13th century Diwan-i Qa’imiyyat (Poems of the Resurrection). Compiled in Alamut during the reign of the Nizari Ismaili Imam, ‘Ala al-Din Muhammad (1221-1255 CE), it is rich in the vocabulary of the Nizari Ismaili literature and tradition.
In this Diwan, Dr Sarkozy finds evidence from some of the qasa’id of very close and complex Mongol-Nizari relations between 1220 CE and 1240 CE, and both pro-Mongol and anti-Mongol gestures and statements. In his paper, he presents a view of the Nizari Ismaili state as successful in creating a balance between factious groups, as evidenced by material in the Diwan-i Qa’imiyyat and other contemporary sources.
