The Mongol Ilkhan Abu Sa’id ruled his Persian empire from the capital Sultaniyya, near Tabriz, from 1317 to 1335 CE. After his death in battle, his appointed successor Arpa Khan became Ilkhan before also being killed in 1336 CE. There followed a dynastic struggle for power, and the empire disintegrated. This latter part of the Ilkhanate was, on balance, a reasonably hospitable environment for religious minorities, like Jews, some of whom reached high power at court, or were prominent doctors. Jewish literature flourished during this period. I will focus on three literary genres:
- Tafsir – translations of the Torah into vernacular Judeo-Persian. We have an excellent example of this in the British Library, copied in 1319 CE.
- Masnavi – original epic poetry – written (50 years before Chaucer) by a poet whose pen name was Shahin, and who is associated with the city of Shiraz. We will survey his literary output (fl. 1327-1359 CE).
- Talmudic Dictionaries – we have an excellent example of a dictionary written for Talmudic scholars, explaining difficult Hebrew and Aramaic words in Judeo-Persian. This was written in Urganj, in 1338 CE.
Most of these works remain unpublished in accessible formats.
David Gilinksy is a PhD candidate at Hamburg University. His doctoral research explores Shahin’s Rabbinic sources. David studied Arabic and Persian as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and completed his MSc by Research at Edinburgh in Islamic Studies in 2022.
Edinburgh Jewish Literary Society 