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From Ghazaniyya to the Sahib Abad Square: The Ritual and Martial Performance of Open Spaces in Medieval Tabriz
Abstract
The Mongol invasions of Iran saw the ascension of a new and foreign force that was both unknown to locals and unfamiliar with the terrain of Iran. Although the city of Tabriz was largely spared from the onslaught, its subsequent location as the capital of the Ilkhanid empire brought forth might and prestige as well as lasting transformations to the urban development and landscape of the city. An important example of this was a newfound appreciation for open spaces that were primarily used for military exercises or encampments. The seventh Ilkhan, Ghazan Khan (d. 1304), built himself a mausoleum outside of the walls of the city of Tabriz that was flanked on all sides by gardens and pasturelands, fully equipped for feeding encamped soldiers. The mausoleum soon became a growing suburb of the city, called Ghazaniyya, where subsequent Khans and Turkmen rulers would set camp whenever they reached Tabriz. It also inspired multiple imitations, such as Uzun Hassan’s (d. 1478) construction of Sahib Abad on the northern banks of the Mihran River, a large square that was used for administrative, social, cultural and military activity. Ghazaniyya itself was so well known and ideally situated as a military campground that, in later times, the Ottomans used it as a staging ground for invading Safavid domains. This strategic significance led Abbas I (d. 1629) to finally tear it down, only to create his own post-Mongol open space, the Naqsh-i Jahan square in his capital, Isfahan. Naqsh-i Jahan square represents the culmination and fusion of Mongol and Persianate conceptions of legitimacy. In it, razm, military prowess, and might on the battlefield manifest in open spaces of performance within the confines of Persianate courtyard architecture and gardens. The long lasting success of such open spaces was the result of this fusion, allowing Turko-Mongol norms of ever-present itinerant armies and encampments, processions, and the open performance of military exercise to mesh into the urban fabric of Persianate cities. This paper demonstrates that in post-Mongol Tabriz and its imitators, the performance of razm in such open spaces was as intimately tied to the performance of legitimacy as the minting of coins, the patronage of religious orders, the reading of the khutbah in one’s name, and the expression of benevolence to the poor.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
13th-18th Centuries