Figurations of the Nobility in South Asian Intellectual History | UBC History Global Premodern Research Cluster


DATE
Friday February 17, 2023
TIME
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
COST
Free


On February 17, 2023, join the UBC History Global Premodern Research Cluster for “Figurations of the Nobility in South Asian Intellectual History”, a presentation by Dr. Hasan Siddiqui, UBC Asian Studies.

The Global Premodern Research Cluster was established to bring together a multidisciplinary community with shared and varied interests in global premodern studies. It serves as a forum for faculty, sessional and limited-term instructors, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and interested undergraduate students affiliated across department at UBC as well as interested participants beyond UBC. The Global PreModern Research Cluster conceives of ‘premodern’ as global in its geographic breadth and flexibly ranging in its temporal scope from ancient times up to 1800 CE. The group embraces a plurality of perspectives to the past and the evidence used to study the past, including textual, material, oral, and visual sources.

The Cluster is convened by Drs. Sara Ann Knutson, John Christopoulos, and Shoufu Yin. To be added to the mailing list or for other queries, please contact Sara Ann Knutson at sa.knutson@ubc.ca.


Talk Abstract

In scholarship on the Islamic world, the historiography of late medieval and early modern South Asia is unusual in its use of the term “nobility” to translate the role of elite groups in sultanates and the Mughal empire. Now usually treated as a self-evident category, the very idea of a South Asian nobility has rested on shifting foundations that have produced different figurations of socially and politically privileged groups. My talk will examine this terrain, including the uses of the nobility in early modern theories of oriental despotism and the idea of an integrated cross-confessional nobility in nationalist historical thought.

About the Presenter

Hasan Siddiqui is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at UBC. He is a historian of South Asia specializing in early-modern intellectual history. His research interests include the history of political thought, the history of the book, and the history of the Mughal empire.



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