Rudi Matthee est un historien éminent spécialisé dans l'Iran du début de l'époque moderne et le golfe Persique. Son œuvre explore en profondeur les dynamiques politiques et économiques de la région, particulièrement durant l'ère Safavide. Il enquête sur des aspects cruciaux de la vie tels que les drogues et les stimulants, tout en disséquant les relations complexes entre le commerce, la soie et l'argent à cette époque. Ses recherches éclairent les facteurs qui ont influencé l'ascension et la chute de dynasties puissantes et ont façonné la société iranienne ainsi que ses interactions avec le monde.
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.