Persian Historiography

Preface writing is an old and the constant tradition in Iranian historiography that has been continued from 11th century to the present time. Although this part of historiography from the time formation to the Iranian modern historiography (the Constitutional Revolution-1906) relatively has constant elements and templates by external structures, but according to historical and political characters and the historian's relationship with political power, each preface has a unique feature from the viewpoint of concept and content which makes it different from other prefaces. The main problem of this study is review of the content and structural features of the prefaces of Afsharid’s historical texts and their similarities and differences with previous books. The results of this research shows that although the prefaces of Afsharid’s historical texts in many cases have modeled and simulated from previous texts, but their authors have been able to augmentation some aspects to common patterns of preface writing, especially from the perspective of content and concept.
دبياچه¬نویسی سنتی دیرپا و باثبات در سير تاریح¬نگاري ایران از قرن چهارم هجري به بعد است که تا زمان حال تداوم یافته است. این وجه از تاریخ‌نویسی، از بدو پیدایش تا شکل¬گیری تاریخ¬نویسی جدید در ایران (در دوره مشروطه) از نظر ساختار شكلي، دارای عناصر و قالب¬های نسبتاً ثابتی بوده است، اما با توجه به تحولات تاريخي و ويژ‌گي سياسي هر دوره و نوع رابطه مورخ با قدرت سياسي، هر ديباچه از نظر ساختار مفهومي و مضموني داراي ويژ‌گي‌هاي نسبتاً منحصر به فردي است كه آن را از ديباچه‌هاي ساير متون متفاوت مي‌سازد. مسأله اصلي پژوهش حاضر بررسی ويژگي‌هاي ساختاري و محتوايي ديباچه‌هاي متون تاريخي دوره افشاريه وتجزیه و تحلیل میزان شباهت‌ها و شیوه¬های الگوبرداری این دیباچه ها از منابع پيشين است. بررسي موردي ديباچه‌هاي اين دوره و تجزيه و تحليل آنها نشان مي‌دهد كه گرچه اين دیباچه‌ها از نظر قالب و ساختار شکلی و در مواردی از نظر محتوایی و مضمونی، در تداوم سنت دیباچه نویسی متون متقدم قرار می‌گیرند، اما مورخان این دوره ضمن استفاده از دستاوردهای این میراث و گرته‌برداري از آنها، توانسته‌اند وجوه متفاوتی به شیوه‌ها و الگوهای رایج دیباچه¬نویسی به ویژه از منظر محتوایی و مضمونی اضافه نمایند.

This is the preface and first chapter of Making Mongol History, Rashid al-Din and the Jami` al-Tawarikh (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019).  The full book is available from EUP: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-making-mongol-history.html.

In this paper I address two related points. First I give an example of how attention to the full range of historiographical traditions on the Mongol conquest of North China and the utilization of source criticism in their analysis can yield a very different, and much more convincing, narrative than that found in any tradition taken by itself. Secondly, I aim to show that this new narrative also challenges the teleological assumption that the Jin dynasty due was destined to fall and that the “Mongol military machine” was unstoppable. These two aims are linked since what the historiographical traditions share is precisely a commitment to such a teleological view: the Mongol­-derived ones viewing the Mongol Yuan dynasty as destined by Heaven to success, and the Jin tradition viewing the Jin as examples of the “nobility of failure." By contrast, when the traditions are combined, what emerges is a picture of a dynasty not content with being a noble lost cause, but attempting in a way that almost succeeded to emulate the Mongol military style. The question of a mysterious Mongol figure, Doqolqu, and his even more mysterious battlefield defeat and death, offers an entry into these two linked questions.

In Weltgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Schia und Sunna, Philip Bockholt addresses the question of how history was written in the premodern Islamic world, and offers new insights into one of the most important chronicles composed in Persian, Khvāndamīr’s universal history Ḥabīb al-siyar. Taking into account the political events which occurred in Iran and India around 1500, he examines the manuscript tradition of the work, and gives an in-depth analysis of how the author adapted his chronicle to the Shiʿi and Sunni religio-political outlook of his Safavid and Mughal overlords. Making use of new approaches in the fields of history and philology, Philip Bockholt convincingly proves how texts were transmitted and modified for various audiences during premodern times.

The Jami` al-tawarikh (Collected histories ) of Rashid al-Din Tabib (d. 1318) has long been considered the single richest witness to the history of the early Mongol Empire in general and its Middle Eastern branch, the Ilkhanate, in particular. This has created a persistent dependence on the work as a source of historical data, with a corresponding lack of appreciation for the place it holds within Perso-Islamic intellectual history. This understanding of Rashid al-Din and the Jami` al-tawarikh , however, does not match certain historiographical and ideological strategies evident in the work itself and in other works by Rashid al-Din and his contemporaries. This dissertation reads beyond the monolithic and uncritical use of the Jami` al-tawarikh that dominates modern scholarship on Mongol and Ilkhanid history. Instead, it fits Rashid al-Din and his work into the difficult process of transforming the Mongol Ilkhans from a dynasty of foreign military occupation into one of legitimate sovereigns for the Perso-Islamic world. This is the first study to examine a full range of Persianate cultural responses to the experience of Mongol conquest and rule through the life and work of the most prominent statesman of the period. Drawing on the example of cultural projects undertaken in the early decades of the Ilkhanate, Rashid al-Din canonized a narrative of Ilkhanid history in which his patrons embodied a model of sacred kingship that adhered both to contemporary intellectual trends in the Middle East and to Mongol dynastic traditions emphasizing descent from Genghis Khan. This new model, which first enters political discourse in the writing of Rashid al-Din in response to the vacuum of authority created by the fall of the Abbasid caliphate, laid the groundwork for later Timurid, Safavid and Mughal court ideologies. By fitting Rashid al-Din and his works within their historical context, this dissertation disentangles seven centuries of literary elaboration that have accrued to his historical memory

In 1543, a quarter century after the Ottoman conquest of the Holy Cities, the Meccan jurist, hadith scholar, and chronicler Jar Allah Muhammad Ibn Fahd (d. 1547) completed a short work devoted to the construction projects undertaken in the city by the Ottoman sultans Selim I (r. 1512–20) and his son Süleyman (r. 1520–66). The work is highly unusual from the perspective of the Arabic historiographical tradition and constitutes the first comprehensive response by an Arab chronicler to the emergence of an Ottoman imperial architectural idiom around the turn of the sixteenth century. The article situates Ibn Fahd and his work in three interrelated contexts: (a) the incorporation of Mecca and Medina into the Ottoman domains; (b) the emergence of an Ottoman architectural idiom and visual interest in the description of the Holy Sanctuaries across the Indian Ocean, from Istanbul to Gujarat; and (c) the competition between the new Custodians of the Two Holy Sanctuaries and other Islamic rulers, past and present. In particular, the article focuses on the challenges posed by the sultans of Gujarat, who were also quite interested in the Holy Sanctuaries. This interest is captured in Muhyi al-Din Lari’s (d. 1526–27) description of the pilgrimage and the Haramayn, which was written for the Gujarati sultan Muzaffar Shah II (r. 1511–26).


This article explores the historical writings of Rashid al-Din Tabib (d. 1318) as part of a programme
of political legitimisation for the Mongol Ilkhans of Iran. By considering both volumes of the Jami`
al-taw¯arikh alongside one another and in their political context, it reveals aspects of the text that get lost
when the dynastic and world history are treated in isolation. Rashid al-Din’s presentation of legendary
figures of communal identity from Perso-Islamic and Turko-Mongol traditions responds to immediate
political conflicts between his patrons and their neighbours, the Jochid Mongols of the Volga region
and the Mamluks of Egypt. In the relative absence of documentary evidence, court-sponsored narrative
chronicles can in this way inform our understanding of ruling ideology during the period.

This doctoral dissertation discusses the transmission and evolution of Bahrām Čūbīn stories in early Arabic and Persian historiography in fourteen source texts. Bahrām Čūbīn (d. 591) was a historical figure and general in the Sasanian army during the reigns of Hurmuzd IV (r. 579–590) and Khusraw II (r. 591–628). The original stories were written in Middle Persian probably at the end of the 6th century or at the beginning of the 7th century and then translated into Arabic in the 8th century. Both the Pahlavi versions and early Arabic translations are irretrievably lost. The extant versions are based on the Arabic translations.
The corpus includes fourteen Arabic and Persian texts: Ibn Qutayba’s (d. 889) Kitāb al-Maʿārif, al-Dīnawarī’s (d. ca. 903) Kitāb al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, Al-Yaʿqūbī’s (d. ca. 905), Taʾrīkh, al-Ṭabarī’s (d. 923) Taʾrīkh al-Rusul wa-l-Mulūk, al-Masʿūdī’s Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar (written in 956), Balʿamī’s Tārīkhnāma-yi Ṭabarī (written after 963), Al-Maqdisī’s Kitāb al-Badʾ wa-l-Taʾrīkh (written 966), anonymous Nihāyat al-Arab fī Akhbār al-Furs wa-l-ʿArab (ca. 1000–1050), Firdawsī’s (d. 1020) Šāhnāma, al-Ṯaʿālibī’s (d. 1038) Ghurar Akhbār Mulūk al-Furs wa-Siyari-him, Gardīzī’s Zayn al-Akhbār (written before 1052), Ibn al-Balkhī’s Fārsnāma (written after 1126), anonymous Mujmal al-Tawārīkh wa-l-Qiṣaṣ (written after 1126), and Ibn al-Aṯīr’s Kitāb al-Kāmil fī al-Taʾrīkh (written before 1233). These are the oldest extant Arabic and Persian texts including versions of the story of Bahrām Čūbīn.
The findings of this dissertation include mapping the connections within the corpus, presenting textual evidence about the transmission, establishing probable lines of transmission and excluding others, and providing reasons for the diversity within the corpus. The study aims to answer the following questions: How are the texts linked together? What sources did the fourteen Arabic and Persian texts use? How were the stories of Bahrām Čūbīn transmitted? What can explain the diversity of the versions? Why did the Bahrām Čūbīn story continue to appeal to the writers? What characteristics did the stories of Bahrām Čūbīn have in the beginning? I argue that the extant versions must be based on multiple early Arabic adaptations which are based on multiple Pahlavi originals. The findings of this study deepen our understanding of the transmission of the Persian cultural and literary heritage, of which Bahrām Čūbīn stories form a part, in early Islamic historiography and bring forth many new connections and details within the corpus. The study provides lines of inquiry and material for further studies.

Zayn al-aḵbār is the first original history book in Persian prose and thus is of great importance in research on Persian historiography. This work is also significant because of the author's great consideration on the history of pre-Islamic Iran and Iranian culture, and the special information he provides on different cultures. Although we have little information about this book and its author, due to its importance in Persian and Iranian historiography, we decided to study his historiography and historical perspective based on the text itself to achieve a better understanding of the book and comprehend its position in and its effect on the Iranian historiography. Fairness, brevity, orderliness, and coherence are the most important features of the historiography of this work. Deterministic view, denial of unconditional obedience to the kings, and dignity of Iran and Iranian thought are also features of Gardīzī’s historical perspective.

The volume contains papers presented at the Round Table Texts and Contexts. Ongoing Researches on the Eastern Iranian World (Ninth-Fifteenth C.), held at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” on September 14, 2018. The contributors deal with a variety of topics (textual and manuscripts studies, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics), and present new researches and little-known data on the history and material culture of the Pre-Modern Persianate world. The Scientific Committee was composed by M. Bernardini (“L’Orientale”), G. van den Berg (Universiteit Leiden), R. Giunta (“L’Orientale”) and M. Szuppe (CNRS-CeRMI, Paris).

The Dorn 306 manuscript of the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg is a copy revised by the author of the Šarafnāma, a history of Kurdish dynasties written in Persian in 1005-7/1596-99 by Šaraf Ḫān Bidlīsī. Dated Šavvāl 1007/May 1599, the manuscript was bequeathed as a vaqf by Šāh ʿAbbās to Šayḫ Ṣafī’s shrine’s library in 1017/1608. This article studies the history of the manuscript’s circulation between the years 1007/1599 and 1017/1608.

Few traces of the splendour of Medieval Ghazni, capital city of the Ghaznavid dynasty between the late 10th and the mid-12th century, survive up to these days. Among other references in literary sources, the extant volumes of the chronicle compiled by Abū ʻl-Faḍl Bayhaqī (385-470/995-1077) provide vivid descriptions of the Ghaznavid court under the rule of Masʻūd I b. Maḥmūd (421-32/1031-41). This study analyses the information issued from Bayhaqī’s narrative about royal palaces and gardens, in order to gain better knowledge about Ghazni's urbanism. An attempt was made to complement historical information with archaeological data resulted from the excavations of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan (1957-68) and from recent researches carried out on this documentation. Despite the fact that the buildings mentioned in Bayhaqī’s History do not correspond with those explored by archaeologists, the crosscheck of textual and archaeological data enable us to locate some landmarks on a reconstructed map of mediaeval Ghazni. Both the Tarīḫ-i Masʻūdī and the archaeological investigations bear witness to intensive construction activity patronised by the Ghaznavid rulers, aiming at the achievement of new architectural projects as well as at the restoration of pre-existing structures. Moreover, we realize the existence, in the early Ghaznavid period, of a 'royal circuit' including some residences and gardens standing in the city's suburbs.

Среди арабо-персидских источников по истории государства Сельджукидов труд Наджм ад-Дина Абу-л-Резы ал-Кумми «Тарих ал-Вузара» является наименее известным для российских исследователей. При этом сам этот памятник, завершенный автором в 1189 г., содержит богатый массив информации о политической истории Ирака, Ирана и сопредельных регионов, особенно в XII в. Данная статья посвящена тому, какую информацию и в каком объеме предоставляет данный исторический источник об истории Хорезма в годы правления династии Ануштегинидов. С нашей точки зрения, такого рода исследование важно, прежде всего, по той причине, что именно в XII в. Хорезм обретает независимость в составе державы сельджукского султана Санджара, а после его смерти является одним из главных претендентов на роль центра в деле присоединения бывших владений этого правителя. Период постепенного превращения Хорезма в одно из самых могущественных государств Среднего Востока начинается именно во второй половине XII в.; было крайне важно выделить сведения, которые могло содержать в себе сочинение ал-Кумми по данной проблематике. В связи с этим обращение к этому историческому источнику способно скорректировать некоторые наши представления относительно политической
истории данного государственного образования в XII в. Исследование подобного рода важно еще
и по причине того, что многие арабо-персидские исторические сочинения XII в. оказались утрачены, а официальная историография династии Ануштегинидов в Хорезме практически не сохранилась. Эта ситуация требует от исследователей более пристального внимания к памятникам XII в., целью создания которых было не описание непосредственно истории Хорезма, но при этом включающим в себя больший или меньший объем сведений по интересующим нас сюжетам. Именно к таким арабо-персидским текстам можно отнести и «Тарих ал-Вузара», информационный потенциал которого в отношении истории Хорезма мы постараемся раскрыть в рамках этой статьи.

Utilizing treatments of uncertainty regarding history in four major Arabic and Persian works (Ṭabarī, Bīrūnī, Badāʾūnī, and Abū l-Fażl), this article treats Islam as an ever-changing set of arguments rather than a panoply of beliefs and practices. 'Islamic history' is internally varied, without necessary universality or internal cohesion. The Islamic case underscores the methodological point that the interrelationship between religion and history is a multichannel and multidirectional affair whose valences differ in treatments of history of Islam versus that of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and so on. Each of these histories has its distinctive history as a subject, with attendant fields of possibility and impossibility. An overarching history of religions must then be a vast, ever-expanding matrix not reducible to generalizations except in thematic treatments conceptualized with self-conscious attention to categories of analysis.

The genesis of the Persian language in South Asia is seen back in the early Medieval period. It developed as a language of influence during the medieval period and reached its zenith under the Mughal empire. It was the Mughal courtly culture that pushed and prevailed it as the main langue-Franca of South Asia during the 17thcentury A.D. However, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, the destiny of the Persian language and literature were to drastically change in the Indian subcontinent. This was due to a transnational phase for Indian socio-politics and literary culture, which began with the downfall of the Mughal Empire on the one hand and the rise of the East India Company on the other. During this phase, the Persian language was gradually marginalized and started fading its color as a language of influence and authority. Hindustani (later Urdu and Hindi) and English were combinedly pushing it out and replacing it selves. In this critical time, East India company reimagined itself as a political re-constructer of Mughal province. This political transformation led the Persian language into a new phase. British colonialists had desires to be the real master of India. While India having a diverse culture, castes, and religions, there was no better option, other than the Persian literary sources, to understand it. British administrators, soldiers, engineers, linguists, politicians, and writers used these Persian texts to the fullest to understand the core of Indian politics and the past. They also played the role of patron to Indian writers and authors. This new literary class, generally known as Munshis, gave birth to a new stage of history writings under new patronship In the second half of eighteenth the century, officials and scholars of East India company multiplied their efforts to associate themselves with the study, translations, and production of new Persian histories. This emerged into a new shift in the core of historical narration as well as the audience of Persian historical traditions.

This paper argues that Persian historiographic sources from the period from ca. 1350 to ca. 1450 do not offer a single unequivocal term for "pastoral nomads" and that in fact social divisions following ways of life seem to be alien to them to a very large extent. The paper offers a detailed analysis of the uses of two terms: sahra-nishinan and hasham/ahsham. The latter term occurs far more frequently. It is argued that besides its meaning of "retinue/followers of a ruler/military leader", the term also denotes "military retinue, indeed warriors, mobilized for campaigns, coming from a pastoral nomadic background, and returning to their more peaceful occupations after the campaign".

In this article I examine four historiographical sources originally written in Greek, Armenian, Arabic, and Persian regarding Bahrām Čūbīn. Given that the sources represent four distinct histo-riographical traditions, they will shed light on the traditions' respective styles, tendencies, and religious and historical affiliations.

Winner of the World Award for Book of the Year of Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Askari has produced a highly valuable contribution to studies not only of the Shāhnāma but also of the long tradition of Persian moralia.” “In this fine study, Askari furthers our awareness of the broad dissemination in the Persian mirror literature of Sasanian political wisdom, and the spectrum of uses to which it was put.” Louise Marlow, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 138, no. 4 (2018), pp. 886-888.

Nasrin Askari explores the medieval reception of Firdausī’s Shāhnāma, or Book of Kings (completed in 1010 CE) as a mirror for princes. Through her examination of a wide range of medieval sources, Askari demonstrates that Firdausī’s oeuvre was primarily understood as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly elites. In order to illustrate the ways in which the Shāhnāma functions as a mirror for princes, Askari analyses the account about Ardashīr, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, as an ideal king in the Shāhnāma. Within this context, she explains why the idea of the union of kingship and religion, a major topic in almost all medieval Persian mirrors for princes, has often been attributed to Ardashīr.

This article provides a Chinese translation and commentary of the chapter on "The Death of Temur Qa'an" in Vassaf's work (based on an abridgment version by Ayati, e.g. Tahrir-i tarikh-i Wassaf) and Qashani's Chronicle, especially referring to the historical background, personages and the official terms. According to the contemporary Persian historians' records, as well as widely comparing with the Chinese sources relating to the same event, author aims to provide a fresh perspective to observe the political process in the mid-Yuan Dynasty.

How widespread was authorship among rulers in the premodern Islamic world? The writings of different types of rulers in different regions and periods are analyzed in this book, from the early centuries in the central lands of Islam to 19th century Sudan. The composition of poetry appears as the most fertile area for authorship among rulers. Prose writings show a wide variety, from astrology to bookmaking, from autobiography to creeds. Some of the rulers made claims to special knowledge, but in all cases authorship played a special role in the construction of the rulers' authority and legitimacy.

Contributors: Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk, Sean W. Anthony, María Luisa Ávila†, Teresa Bernheimer, Philip Bockholt, Sonja Brentjes, Christiane Czygan, David Durand-Guédy, Anne-Marie Eddé, Sinem Eryılmaz, Maribel Fierro, Adam Gaiser, Angelika Hartmann†, Livnat Holtzman, Maher Jarrar, Robert S. Kramer, Christian Mauder, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Letizia Osti, Jürgen Paul, Petra Schmidl, Tilman Seidensticker.

Abstract:
Versified historiography as a style of historiography came to exist in 6th / 12th century Iran through imitating Ferdowsi’s Shahnamah and reached to its height in Mongol era. Consequently in less than a century more than ten versified histories were composed including one of the most famous one, Zafar-Namah of Hamd-Allah Mostofi. But it was Zojaji Tabrizi who composed the first versified history, Homayun-Namah, in early Ilkhanid period. These versified histories in general and Homayun-Namah in particular have been ignored mostly in Ilkhanid historiography and scholarship. Besides remaining unknown, there are some misunderstandings in few observations which have been done about Homayun-Namah, including its recent edition. This article begins with a brief introduction about the work and its composer, investigates some historical misunderstandings about it and throws light on its important in Persian literature and historiography.

Keywords: Zojaji, Homayun-Namah, Habibi, Pirnia, Versified Historiography, Persian Literature, Malek Sadr al-Din.

Hafez-e Abru, boon companion to Tamerlane and court historian to Shahrokh, famously wrote a continuation to Rashid al-Din's dynastic history of the Mongols and reconstructed a fragmentary copy of Rashid al-Din's world history.  He also produced his own version of a universal history that embedded Rashid al-Din's dynastic history into a larger historical chronology.  Beyond these works, however, his engagement with the works of Rashid al-Din was even more extensive than has previously been recognized.  In this paper, I examine the numerous ways that Hafez-e Abru collected, corrected, and updated manuscripts of Rashid al-Din's historical writing.  As a result of these activities, fully one third of the extant manuscripts of Rashid al-Din's work can be connected to Hafez-e Abru.  As Rashid al-Din's first editor, Hafez-e Abru shaped the modern reception of his predecessor's work in ways that have both facilitated and complicated our study of Mongol history.

In this paper, I present an overview of world histories written under the Ilkhans and Timurids, arguing that the most famous of these -- Rashīd al-Dīn's Jāmi` al-Tawārīkh, did not enjoy popularity in the pre-modern period because of certain structural incoherences within it.  Rashīd al-Dīn violated certain generic premises that had developed in world history since the time of Ṭabarī.  This was only fully put right under the Timurids with the work of Ḥāfiz-i Abrū and Khwāndamīr.

In this presentation, I offered some preliminary findings from my ongoing efforts to reconstruct the dispersed manuscript of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū's hybrid historical work.  Contrary to common assumption, this manuscripts was not copied from the autograph of the hybrid history (Istanbul TSM H.1643), but represents a parallel project, an independent completion of a separate fragmentary manuscript of Rashīd al-Dīn's Jāmi` al-tawārīkh.

In this article I will examine four historiographical sources originally written in Greek, Armenian, Arabic and Persian regarding Bahrām Cubin. Given that the sources represent four distinct historiographical traditions they will give light on their respective styles, tendencies and religious and historical affiliations.