a translation of the article “’the jewels of wonder’: learned ladies and princess politicians in the provinces of early safavid iran” from the book “women in the medieval islamic world: power, patronage, and piety”

the present research has tried to translate szuppe ,maria , &the jewels of wonder ’: learned ladies and princess politicians in the provinces of early safavid iran& in women in the medieval islamic world: power, patronage , and piety. ed.g.r.g. hambly basingstoke, review by: nikki r. keddie: macmillan publishers 1998 (the new middle ages. 6 ). based on contemporary sources, this essay presents some new data on the participation of royal and urban elite women in public and literary life in early sixteenth - century iran . in şafavid history (907-1135/1501-1722), the primary sources in i persian do not pay much attention to women and the part they occupied on the social as well as the political scene. the conventional treatment of history by muslim historiographers avoids bringing women into the limelight. it cannot, however, eliminate them altogether, and, when the rather fragmentary information is put together, şafavid women often do emerge with unexpected force.