Love and devotion: from Persia and beyond

Abstract

Jointly published by Macmillan and the State Library of Victoria in association with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, this book accompanies an exhibition of original manuscripts relating to Persian poetry and its milieu to be held at the State Library of Victoria from March 2012.

Contents

Literary Works, Selected Characters and Summaries of the Major Stories -- Biographies of the Major Persian Poets and Writers -- Timeline -- Map -- Glossary -- List of Illustrations -- Select Bibliography. An Introduction to Persian Poetry and Its Milieu / Susan Scollay -- Love and Devotion in the Shahnama of Firdausi / Barbara Brend -- Women in the Romances of the Shahnama / Firuza Abdullaeva -- 'Bahram Gur Visits the Lady from Khwarazm in the Blue Pavilion on Wednesday' and Similar Representations from Illustrated Manuscripts by Nizami, Hatifi and Mir 'Ali Shir in the Bodleian Library / Eleanor Sims -- Earthly and Spiritual Love in Sufism: Ibn 'Arabi and the Poetry of Rumi / Suleyman Derin -- The Mystic Poetry of 'Attar and the Conference of the Birds / Rafal Stepien -- Meetings of Lovers: The Bodleian Majalis al-'Ushshaq, MS. Ouseley, Add. 24 / Lâle Uluç -- Dreams, Premonitions and Cosmologies in Persianate Literature / Stefano Carboni -- Images of Love and Devotion: Illustrated Mughal Manuscripts and Albums in the Bodleian Library / Andrew Topsfield -- An Ottoman 'Garden of Love': The Oxford Dilsuznama, the 'Book of Compassion' / Susan Scollay -- The Two Faces of Love: Devotion and Terror in Medieval and Renaissance Europe / Danijela Kambaskovic-Sawers -- Romance and Love in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, The Squire's Tale and The Parliament of Fowls / Nicholas Perkins -- Imagining Persia: European Travellers' Tales and Their Literary Offspring / Clare Williamson -- A Glance at the History of Romantic Versified Stories in Persian Poetry / Seyed Mohammad Torabi.