Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface Introduction: The Turquoise Ring of the Emperor Jahangir 1. The Colored Earth 2. Turquoise, Trade, and Empire in Early Modern Eurasia 3. The Turquoise of Islam 4. Stone from the East 5. The Other Side of the World Epilogue: Indian Stone Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

Arash Khazeni is Assistant Professor of History at Pomona College and author of Tribes and Empire on the Margins of Nineteenth-Century Iran.

Reviews

"This is a small and elegant book that modestly hides the author's extraordinary linguistic and cultural knowledge, along with his reach across disciplines such as the histories of science, medicine, and architecture. The range of archival materials consulted is staggering. Another move toward "re-Orientation," Sky Blue Stone sets a high bar for anyone attempting a global study of a rare and elusive commodity whose producers, traders, and consumers were often content to ignore the West."
*American Historical Review*

"The obvious and compelling strength of this book is Khazeni's ability to synthesize information from the remarkably numerous Persian language sources and later European commentaries . . . . on three major themes: the chemistry, mining, and sale of turquoise, the value and appreciation of the stone in Safavid Iran and the neighboring Ottoman and Mughal empires, and perhaps most important of all, the cultural significance of the stone and its color in Iranian culture."
*International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies*

"An important aspect of the author's approach is that it exposes a previously underutilized body of writing as its main source base: javahirnama . . . . Khazeni argues provocatively that these texts operated as natural histories in their own right, exerting significant influence over environmental, scientific, cultural, and political economic knowledge in the Persian-reading world, as well as prefiguring Western environmental and mineralogical thinking. This is the most captivating dimension of the monograph and one that should incite much future study for those looking to reorient and globalize our understanding of the history of the natural world . . . . It will be welcome reading for anyone looking to complicate their understanding of the early modern world of trade, Islamic World history, environmental history, the meanings of blue, and ornamentalism."
*Cultural and Social History*