Shahrukh

Hazine 1653 is in part the oldest surviving Persian copy of the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh. It was produced in the scriptorium of its author in 714/1314. It contains the second part of the second volume of the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh, which covers the events from the time of creation up to the extinction of the ʿAbbasid dynasty and a section on the history of the non-Mongol peoples of Eurasia. In the subsequent century, Hafiz-i Abru, who was charged by the Timurid ruler Shahrukh to complete the manuscript, replaced the pre-Islamic section of the book with the first volume of his own Majmaʿ al-Tawarikh. The pre-Islamic section of the book, which is an autograph of its author, is again the oldest dated copy of the first volume of the Majmaʿ al-Tawarikh. In its current state, Hazine 1653 consists of 435 folios, of which 143 are illustrated. It is for the first time that one of the earliest copies of the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh has been published in its entirety.
To order the book, please contact the publisher: info@mirasmaktoob.ir

This article continues the series of works dedicated to the numismatic findings discovered at the archaeological site of Dev-Kesken-Qala (the historical region of Khwarezm). The work considers 75 copper and silver coins of amir Timur and other Timurids. The study of these coins conducted after their chronological classification demonstrated that 60 % of the coins correspond to the period of Shahrukh, and 29.4 % to the period of Timur. Nearly half of the coins were produced at the Khwarezm mint, and another 24 % at the mint of Samarqand. The circulation of copper coins is characterized by a certain degree of regionality – they are the products of the local mint, and are rarely discovered outside of the region of their coinage. The situation with the silver coins is totally opposite. Khwarezm silver coins have been discovered in the central part of the Timurid state. The authors registered silver coins with a small denomination of one-sixth of a tanga. By the end of Shahrukh reign the retail trade in the area of Dev-Kesken-Qala began to decline, and probably ceased after a cetrain period of time.

At the end of the first third of the 15th century, a prominent representative of the Muslim elite, a sayyid and theologian from Yemen, Ahmad al-Yamani (died in 1450), arrived in Dagestan and stopped in Kumukh, one of the major political centers of Mountainous Dagestan. He devoted the last two decades of his life to the spread and strengthening of Islam among the highlanders. Since that time, Kumukh turned into a large Muslim center and the “internal” Islamization of the mountain tribes began. The result of all this activity in Kumukh was that almost all of Dagestan was islamized by the end of 16th century. Researchers have presented different versions of Ahmad al-Yamani’s arrival in Dagestan. The version that he arrived in Dagestan on behalf of the Abbasid  Caliph  in  Cairo  to  Islamize  the  non-Muslim  peoples  of  Dagestan  was  considered  the  most widespread in the academic environment. A unique manuscript of the 15th century, which was  recently  discovered,  belonging  to  the  pen  of  al-Yamani,  called  “At-Tuhfa  al-Ulugbekiyya  / Ulugbek’s gift”, contains new valuable material about the life of al-Yamani. He wrote it as a gift for Ulugbek (the ruler of Maverannahr and Shahrukh’s son), while he was in the Timurid emirate. The manuscript’s material was translated by the author and introduced into scientific use for the first time. The studied material, as well as other Arabic-language sources of the 15th — 19thcenturies,  allow  us  to  assert  that  al-Yamani’s  arrival  was  inspired  by  Shahrukh,  and  the  mission was not only islamization, but also strengthening and extending Timurids’ positions in the Western Caspian region, which was one of the political and military interests of the Timurids’ opponents — the Kara-Koyunlu Turkoman confederation.

В конце первой трети XV в. на территорию Дагестана прибывает видный представитель мусульманской элиты, сейид и богослов из Йемена Ахмад ал-Йамани (ум. 1450). Ахмад ал-Йамани останавливается в Кумухе, в одном из крупных политических центров Нагорного Дагестана. Последние два десятка лет своей жизни ал-Йамани посвящает распространению и усилению позиций ислама среди горцев. С того времени Кумух превращается в крупный мусульманский центр, и начинается активная фаза «внутренней» исламизации горских народов. Результатом такой энергичной религиозной деятельности Кумуха стало то, что уже к концу XVI в. большая часть Дагестана была исламизирована. Исследователи излагали разные версии приезда ал-Йамани в Дагестан. Наиболее распространенной в академической среде считалась версия, согласно которой ал-Йамани прибыл в Дагестан по поручению аббасидского халифа в Каире для исламизации немусульманских народов Дагестана. Недавно обнаруженная уникальная рукопись XV в. «Ат-Тухфа ал-Улугбекийа» («Улугбеков подарок»), принадлежащая перу ал-Йамани, содержит ценный материал, который помог открыть новые страницы его биографии. Ахмад ал-Йамани написал это сочинение в качестве подарка для Улуг-бека (1409–1449) — правителя Мавераннахра и сына Шахруха (1409–1447) — во время пребывания в Тимуридском эмирате. Материал, содержащийся в рукописи, переведен автором и впервые вводится в научный оборот. Исследуемая материал рукописи, а также иные арабоязычные источники XV–XIX вв. позволяют утверждать, что приезд ал-Йамани был инспирирован Шахрухом, а миссия заключалась не только в исламизации горских народов, но и в укреплении и расширении позиций тимуридов в Западном Прикаспии, который в первой половине XV в. вошел в сферу политических и военных интересов противников тимуридов — туркоманской конфедерации Кара-Коюнлу.