Royal inscriptions from pre-Mongol Iran revisited

International audienceEarly monumental inscriptions documented across the Iranian lands and bearing royal titles are few and relatively well known. What need is there, then, to re-examine these testimonies? Based on several case studies, this paper shows to what extent certain commonly agreed interpretations and attributions could be questioned today, thanks to a thorough investigation of the inscriptions’ archaeological and historical background Moreover, even if the poor state of conservation and an inadequate photographic documentation often complicate the analysis of a single text, the adoption of a comparative perspective can lead to a better understanding of fragmentary epigraphic evidence. However, while inscriptions from the Western Islamic lands have undergone comprehensive studies, no epigraphic repertoire of the Islamic East exists. Yet, several innovative features emerging from the content, language and writing styles of Eastern inscriptions reveal the highly valued contribution of the first Iranian and Turkic dynasties to the reshaping of the Islamic epigraphic tradition. The project of a corpus of royal inscriptions dating from the early 10th to the late 12th century constitutes a first step toward the reappraisal of epigraphic sources as part of a wider study on royal patronage and propaganda in the Persianate world