'This book takes a giant step, cogently arguing how the shared heritage of medieval Persian literary culture, that had once held together many literary communities over the vast expanse of the Eurasian landmass, began to break up, eventually leading to the emergence of divergent ideals and efforts through the 18th and 19th centuries.' Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, author of Recasting Persian Poetry 'Before colonialism, Persian literature lay at the heart of the global literary system. Schwartz elegantly and vividly recuperates the trans-regional history of Persian literature during the crucial 18th and 19th centuries - an essential and under-studied dimension of the transition from traditional culture to European-inflected modernity. A must-read for anyone interested in traditional and modern world literatures.' Alexander Beecroft, University of South Carolina An integrative multi-regional account of Persian literary history on the cusp of the modern period Integrating forgotten tales of literary communities across Iran, Afghanistan and South Asia - at a time when Islamic empires were fracturing and new state formations were emerging - this book offers a more global understanding of Persian literary culture in the 18th and 19th centuries. It challenges the manner in which Iranian nationalism has infiltrated Persian literary history writing and recovers the multi-regional breadth and vibrancy of a global lingua franca connecting peoples and places across Islamic Eurasia. Focusing on 3 case studies (18th-century Isfahan, a small court in South India and the literary climate of the Anglo-Afghan war), it reveals the literary and cultural ties that bound this world together as well as some of the trends that broke it apart. Kevin L. Schwartz is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, specialising in the literary history and culture of Iran and the Persianate world. Cover image: (c) The British Library Board, Tarjūmah-' al-Masālik wa al-Mamālik in Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad al-FārisīManuscript No or BL Shelfmark: IO Islamic 1026 Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN Barcode