Speaker: Azfar Moin
The Mughal Empire stands out in the history of South Asia and the Islamic world for the variety and innovation of the coinage styles it introduced. From one emperor to the next, and sometimes even within a single reign, Mughal rulers transformed the symbols, languages, and sacred formulae that appeared on their coins. This talk explores what this dynamism reveals about the nature of Mughal sovereignty, intra-dynastic competition, conceptions of the sacred, and the empire's religious policies.
Azfar Moin is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam (Columbia University Press, 2012).
This program is co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, the Middle East and North African Studies Program, the South Asia Research Forum, and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
Alexander Barna
Email