The Cosmic Perils of Qadi Husayn Maybudi in Fifteenth-Century Iran

In The Cosmic Perils of Qadi Husayn Maybudi in Fifteenth-Century Iran Alexandra Dunietz explores the life and works of a provincial judge during a time of tribal rivalries and millennial expectations. During the decades preceding the rise of the Safavid regime and the establishment of Shi'ism throughout Iran, Maybudi participated in a network of intellectuals, administrators, and mystics, wrote prolifically, and worked as a judge within the Ak Koyunlu sphere. Drawing upon Maybudi’s commentaries and correspondence, the work focuses on the judge’s education, complex commentary on the poetry of ‘Ali, the foundational figure of Shi'ism, his professional life, and his death during a rebellion against Safavid control of his hometown. Maybudi exemplified the natural development of relations between Sunnis and Shiis, provincial elites and central authorities, rationalist philosophers and devotees of the esoteric.