Rudi Matthee is een gerenommeerd historicus die zich richt op het vroege moderne Iran en de Perzische Golf. Zijn werk verkent diepgaand de politieke en economische dynamiek van de regio, met name tijdens het Safawidenrijk. Hij onderzoekt cruciale levensaspecten zoals drugs en stimulerende middelen, terwijl hij ook de ingewikkelde relaties tussen handel, zijde en zilver in deze periode ontleedt. Zijn onderzoek belicht de factoren die de opkomst en ondergang van machtige dynastieën beïnvloedden en de Iraanse samenleving en haar interacties met de bredere wereld vormden.
The decline and fall of Safavid Iran is traditionally seen as the natural outcome of the unrelieved political stagnation and moral degeneration which characterised late Safavid Iran. This book challenges this view. It takes a fresh look at Safavid Iran in the century preceding the fall of Isfahan... číst celé
Islam is the only major world religion that resists the juggernaut of alcohol consumption. In many Islamic countries, alcohol is banned; in others, it plays little role in social life. Yet, Muslims throughout history did drink, often to excess—whether sultans and shahs in their palaces, or commoners in taverns run by Jews or Christians. This evocative study delves into drinking’s many historic, literary and social manifestations in Islam, going beyond references to ‘hypocrisy’ or the temptations of ‘forbidden fruit’. Rudi Matthee argues that alcohol, through its ‘absence’ as much as its presence, takes us to the heart of Islam. Exploring the long history of this faith—from the eight-century Umayyad dynasty to Erdogan’s Turkey, and from Islamic Spain to modern Pakistan—he unearths a tradition of diversity and multiplicity in which Muslims drank, and found myriad excuses to do so. They celebrated wine and used it as a poetic metaphor, even viewing alcohol as a gift from God—the key to unlocking eternal truth. Drawing on a plethora of sources in multiple languages, Matthee presents Islam not as an austere and uncompromising faith, but as a set of beliefs and practices that embrace ambivalence, allowing for ambiguity and even contradiction.