A TRANSREGIONAL PERSIANATE LIBRARY: THE PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATION OF TADHKIRAS OF PERSIAN POETS IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES. (February 2020) - Schwartz, Kevin L.
Abstract: The tadhkira (biographical anthology) represents one of the most prolific and prevalent categories of texts produced in Islamicate societies, yet few studies have sought to understand the larger processes that governed their production and circulation on a transregional basis. This article examines and maps the production, circulation, and citation networks of tadhkira s of Persian poets in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. It understands tadhkira s of Persian poets as a transregional library that served as a repository of accessible and circulating texts meant to be incorporated, reworked, and repackaged by a cadre of authors separated by space and time. By relying on a macroanalytical approach, quantifiable data, and digital mapping, this article highlights the overall construction of the transregional library itself, the impact of state disintegration and formation on its constitution, and the different ways authors on opposite ends of the Persianate world came to view this library by the end of the 19 th century.