An Almost Ordinary Town? Three Ninth- / Fifteenth-Century Fiscal Edicts at the Friday Mosque of Ardabīl

This contribution presents three fiscal decrees that were formerly displayed at the minaret of the great mosque of Ardabīl. Two were inscribed in the name of uzun Ḥasan Aqquyunlu in 878 and 879, the third in the name of ʿAlī Ṣafawī in 899. This type of fiscal epigraphy was first introduced to the area of modern Iran under Jahānshāh Qaraquyunlu in the mid-ninth/fifteenth century. Contextualized within Qaraquyunlu and Aqquyunlu epigraphic practices, these three inscriptions suggest glimpses into the negotiation of local autonomy and imperial administration at Ardabīl as an ‘almost ordinary town’ preceding the rise of Ismāʿīl I

Administration (probate law · Asian studies · Epigraphy · Inscribed figure · Negotiation · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Islamic Studies and History