[Soasiastudents] Silk Road Lecture

[Keith Snodgrass]

Silk Road lectures 2006-2007

Stephen Dale Ohio State University

'Babur, a Renaissance Prince in Central Asia'

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 7:00 pm
Kane Hall 110 (U of Washington, Seattle campus)


The lecture is free and open to the public.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stephen Dale will also hold a seminar entitled:

'Turks, Mongols, Persians, Muslims: Linguistic Markers of Identity in the 
Memoirs of Babur'

Friday, December 8, 2006, 10:00 am -12 noon
Communications 202 (U of Washington, Seattle campus)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the lecture

Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530) founded the Mughal or Timurid-Mughal 
Empire of India in 1526.  Babur was portrayed by court historians, not only as 
a successful conqueror and empire builder, but also as a skilled poet, musician 
and prose writer. Italians might have described him as a l'uomo universale, a 
universal, or in later English parlance, a Renaissance Man. Yet what 
distinguishes Babur from other pre-modern rulers is not so much that he 
possessed diverse interests but rather that he bequeathed to posterity a 
remarkable literary legacy. His writings allow him to be seen as an individual, 
a complex, emotional man whose unapologetic egotism, intellectual curiosity and 
ruthlessness reveal human traits that some equate with the dynamism of the 
Italian Renaissance personalities or even the human spirit that explains the 
Rise of the West in Renaissance times. If the Italian goldsmith and sculptor, 
Benvenuto Cellini can be characterized as the most completely revealed 
individual in sixteenth century Europe, Babur deserves the same recognition for 
all of Asia. And more than Babur's wide-ranging accomplishments and interests, 
it is as an individual whose spirit and intellect are indistinguishable from 
Western individuals such as Cellini, that he can be described and deserves to 
be known as a Renaissance Man.

About the speaker

Stephen F. Dale is Professor of History at the Ohio State University. He is the 
author of: Islamic Society on the South Asian Frontier: the Mappilas of 
Malabar, 1498-1922 (1980), Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1600-1750 
(1994) and The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Babur and the Culture of Empire 
in Central Asia, Afghanistan and India 1483-1530 (2004).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This lecture and seminar are part of the Silk Road lectures series 2006-2007.
Co-sponsored by the Silkroad Foundation, Silk Road brings to campus specialists
at the cutting edge of the study of Eurasian cultural history. Each will offer 
a
public lecture and a seminar presentation. The focus of the 2006-2007 series
will be pre-modern Islamic Western and Central Asia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Up-coming Silk Road lectures:

April 3, 2007, 7:00 pm, Kane 110

The Monks of Kublai Khan: Christianity under the Mongols

Joel Walker
History, University of Washington


May 10, 2007, 7:00 pm, Kane 110

Secrets of Tamerlane's Tomb

Robert McChesney
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Silk Road 2006-2007 lectures are made possible with funding from the
Silkroad Foundation (www.silkroadfoundation.org) and the following University
of Washington sponsors: the Simpson Center for the Humanities; the Ellison
Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies; the Department of
Near Eastern Languages and Civilization; the Division of Art History, School of
Art; the Department of History; and the Department of Asian Languages and
Literature.

For more information, visit the Silk Road project website of the Simpson Center
for the Humanities at the University of Washington
(http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/projects_silkroad0607.htm) or contact Florian
Schwarz at fschwarz at u.washington.edu


Keith Snodgrass      
Associate Director  & Outreach Coordinator
South Asia Center, Jackson School                     
Box 353650, University of Washington                  
Seattle, WA 98195    
p: (206)543-4800
f: (206)685-0668
e:snodgras at u.washington.edu                                    
w:http://jsis.washington.edu/soasia/
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