Biography
Stefan Kamola is a historian of Mongol Iran and of the Mongol world more broadly. His research focuses on Persian-language histories written during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to understand how the population of Iran came to understand the new political reality of Mongol rule. For past publications, this meant studying Ilkhānid narrative chronicles. His current research looks to more marginal texts and traditions, including Zoroastrian astrological apocalyptic texts and post-Ilkhānid histories. He received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 2013 and held a post-doctoral fellow from 2013-2016 at the Princeton Society of Fellows. Since 2016 he has been part of the history faculty at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he received tenure in 2020.
Main Research Focal Points
Main Research Focal Points
- Mongol history
- Persian historiography
- Intellectual history
Current Projects
Selected Publications
Selected Publications
- “I made him praiseworthy: the Kül Tegin inscription in world history,” in Heritage and Identity in the Turkic World, ed. Alva Robinson, Kaǧan Arık, Elmira Köchümkulova, and Jonathan North Washington, 11-33 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023).
- “The Ilkhanate, 1260-1335,” co-authored with David Morgan, in The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire, edited by Michal Biran and Hodong Kim, 181-242 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).
- “Salghurid history in the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh: a preliminary exploration of its composition and transmission,” in New Approaches in Ilkhanid Studies, edited by Timothy May, Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, and Christopher P. Atwood (Leiden: Brill, 2021), pp. 122-144. isbn: 9789004437395
- “A sensational and unique novelty: the reception of Rashid al-Din’s world history,” Iran 58.1 (2020): 50-61. doi: 10.1080/05786967.2018.1544836
- “Untangling the Chaghadaids: why we should and should not trust Rashīd al-Dīn,” Central Asiatic Journal 62.1 (2019): 69-90. doi: 10.13173/centasiaj.62.1.0069
- Making Mongol History: Rashid al-Din and the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh, Edinburgh University Press, 2019. isbn: 9781474421423
- “Beyond history: Rashid al-Din and Iranian kingship.” In Iran After the Mongols, edited by Sussan Babaie (London: I.B. Tauris, 2019), pp. 55-74. isbn: 9781788315289
- “History and legend in the Jāmi` al-tawārīkh: Abraham, Alexander, and Oghuz Khan.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 25.4 (2015): 555-577. doi: 10.1017/S1356186315000218