Japan-Germany Joint Seminar / Tobunken Symposium

International Conference

Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City-Life
in Iran and the Neighboring Countries

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Scientific goals

For nearly a millennium, Iran was ruled by Turkish or Mongol dynasties of nomadic origin. It is well known that the Mongol Ilkhans remained true to their nomadic ways, moving from one camp to another and living under tents. But elements of a nomadic way of life are also to be found, to various degrees, among all the other dynasties. The Saljuqs, the first Turkish dynasty of nomadic origin to have ruled over Iran, were not the Iranized kings sometimes described and they lived very far away from the cities they controlled. At the other end of the period, the Qajars, which cannot be considered as a nomadic dynasty, nonetheless used to leave Tehran in summer for greener places near Damavand.

To what extent the Turkish and Mongol princes who ruled the Middle East and Central Asia lived – or not – like their subjects? Some important research has already been done on this topic, in particular on the Ilkhans and the Safavids, but it remains sparse and isolated. This conference aims to give a more global view of the various types of relationship that the Turko-Mongol rulers had with cities and city life by bringing together specialists in various periods and of various disciplines (history, archaeology, history of art).

Among the themes of the conference that we wish to explore are: the type of lifestyle (itinerant or sedentary?) of the Turko-Mongol rulers and the role and importance of their ‘capital’; a place of power (palaces, gardens, mausoleums, fortresses, ordo, etc.); the changing relationship of the rulers towards cities and city-life.

The main area dealt with will be Iran (in the broader sense), but special consideration will also be given to the neighboring areas in Central Asia, Anatolia and the Arab world.

The conference is open to the public. The language of the conference is English. The proceedings will be published.

Date

12-13 September 2009

Venue

The Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo (www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)

Speakers

(in alphabetical order): Michal Biran, David Durand-Guédy, Kurt Franz, Peter Golden, Claus-Peter Haase, Minoru Inaba, Yury Karev, Nobuaki Kondo, Tomoko Masuya, Charles Melville, Jin Noda, Jürgen Paul, Andrew Peacock, Maria Subtelny.

Organizing Institutions

This conference is a joint seminar between Japan and Germany. It is organized by the Institute of Oriental Culture (Univ. of Tokyo) and the Sonderforschungsbereich ‘Differenz und Integration’ (SBF 586, Univ. of Halle & Leipzig), with the help of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Japan-Germany Research Cooperative Program) and the NIHU Program IAS Center at the University of Tokyo.

An organizing committee has been formed with (in alphabetical order): David Durand-Guédy (The Institute of Oriental Culture, Univ. of Tokyo; chair person), Hisao Komatsu (IAS Center, Univ. of Tokyo), Kazuo Morimoto (The Institute of Oriental Culture, Univ. of Tokyo), Jürgen Paul (SFB 586, Univ. of Halle).

Program, Abstracts and Speakers' Profiles (updated on 31 August)

Program, Abstracts and Speaker's Profiles (PDF/507KB)

Participation Form (updated on 28 August)

Participation Form (doc/30KB)

Poster of the conference

Click here to download the poster of the conference: (a) for print (high resolution, zip), (b) for mailing (low resolution).

Convener

Photo Gallery

非常に専門的なテーマであったにもかかわらず、66名もの多数の方の参加を得て、活発な議論が展開されました。