Iran Across the East/West Trade: Routes of Communication and Exchange, Products of Exchange, and Networks of Trade Circa 500-900 CE, ISAW, April 22, 2016

Workshop organized by Parvaneh Pourshariati (ISAW Visiting Research Scholar)

The central location of Iran in the overland routes of trade and communication between western and eastern Asia, throughout the historical and up to the early modern period, has been long acknowledged by the scholarly community. Yet pre-modern overland trade, trade routes, networks of trade and exchange, or the products of exchange of the Iranian world, have yet to attract the scholarly attention that they deserve. This lacuna is especially felt in the Late Antique period of Iranian history (circa 500-900 CE). This workshop, conceived as an interdisciplinary dialogue, seeks to highlight the parameters of research on this important aspect of Late Antique history of western Asia. How central was Iran to the networks of trade and exchange in the Late Antique world, what role did it play in connecting the Byzantine Empire to China, and how was its position affected, if at all, by the Arab conquests of the early seventh century and the Abbasid Revolution of the mid-eighth, or the construction of Baghdad?

Parvaneh Pourshariati is an Associate Professor of History in the Department of Social Sciences at New York City College of Technology (CUNY). From 2000-2014 she was a faculty of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the Ohio State University. Recently, she has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (Summer 2013) and a Lady Davis Visiting Professor /Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Israel (Fall 2012). Pourshariati served as the President of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) from 2012-2015. A specialist in late antique, early medieval/modern, history of Iran and the Middle East, she received her Ph.D. from the Department of History at Columbia University. Pourshariati’s research focuses on the social and cultural history and interconnections of the Middle East, the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia in the Late Antique and medieval period.

RSVP required.