Palaces and Pythons in Post-Colonial Manipur

The poker-like As nas was one of the most popular card games in Qajar era Iran. Played primarily in coffeehouses (gavehkhaneh), where men could socialise within the urban environment of nineteenth-century towns and cities, games also took place closer to home within the otherwise chaste domestic environment.

The city of Bukhara, one of the major urban centres of Mawarannahr, reached a climax of its demographic and cultural development between the 10th and the 12th century, when it served as capital for the Samanid Dynasty and for several Qarakhanid rulers.

Reading this document in a broader context, the paper hopes to shed new light on the social and architectural history of medieval Shiraz.