James Pickett

Historian of Islam and Empire in Eurasia · University of Pittsburgh

I am a historian of Eurasia at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in the history of Islam and empire as entangled sources of authority. My work centers on Bukhara, the Central Asian city that was, in turn, a peerless seat of Islamic learning and a protectorate of the Russian Empire. I am now exploring similar themes in the Indian princely state of Hyderabad.

The gate of the Ark, citadel of the amirs of Bukhara. Links to Polymaths of Islam.
Polymaths of Islam
Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia
Cornell University Press · 2020
The Russian Imperial Political Agency at Kagan, near Bukhara. Links to Russian Subject, Muslim Monarch.
Russian Subject, Muslim Monarch
Sovereignty and Scribal Culture in Colonial Bukhara
Cornell University Press · 2026