Turkestan and the rise of Eurasian empires : a study of politics and invented traditions / Ali Anooshahr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Anooshahr, Ali, 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Asia, Central--Historiography.

Asia, Central.

Turkey--Historiography.

Turkey.

Iran--Historiography.

Iran.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 volume (unpaged))

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

Any visitor to Belgium or the Netherlands is immediately struck by the number of convents and beguinages (begijnhoven) in both major cities and small towns. Their number and location in urban centres suggest that the women who inhabited them once held a prominent role. Despite leaving a visible mark on cities, much of the story of these women—known variously as beguines, tertiaries, klopjes, recluses, and anchoresses - remains to be told. Instead of aspiring to live as traditional religious, they transcended normative assumptions about religion and gender and had a very real impact on their religious and secular worlds. The sources for their tale are often fragmentary and difficult to interpret. However, careful scrutiny allows their voices to be heard. Drawing on an array of sources including religious rules, sermons, hagiographic vitae, and rapiaria, this work traces the story of pious laywomen between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. It both emphasizes the innovative roles of women who transcended established forms of institutional religious life and reveals the ways in which historiographical habits have obscured the dynamic and fluid nature of their histories. By highlighting the development of irregular and extra-regular communities and tracing the threads of regularization and monasticization that wove their way around pious laywomen, this book draws attention to the vibrant and dynamic culture of feminine lay piety that persisted from the later middle ages onwards.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Penitents and the Institutionalization of Penitential Life in the Thirteenth Century

2 After Supra montem

3 The Western Schism, Observant Reform, and Institutionalization

4 Creating a Textual Identity? Pastoralia and Models of Tertiary Life

5 Order and Identity in Women’s Communities

6 Unification and Regularization in the Sixteenth-Century Spiritual Climate

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Anooshahr, Ali Turkestan and the Rise of Eurasian Empires : A Study of Politics and Invented Traditions

ISBN:

0-19-069358-4

0-19-069359-2

0-19-069357-6