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Sources on Timurid History and Art A Century of Princes Sources on Timurid History-and Art -- -- -- --- ---- -- ---- - -- --------- -- -- -.: -=..::. ----- Selected and Translated by W. M. Thackston ------------ --- ~-=- ---=-=- A CENTURY OF PRINCES "Bibi Khanim" Mosque, Samarqand. Peter M. Brenner © 1988. A Century of Prince~/ Sources on Timurid History and Art Selected and Translated by w. M. Thackston * Published in Conjunction with the Exhibition "Timur and the Princely Vision," Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, 1989 * The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture Cambridge, Massachusetts 1989 · - n -_I ,I The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at HarvardUniversity and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Copyright © 1989 M.I.T. LIBRARIES ISBN 0-922673-11-X JUN 2 198~ RECEIVED as.=-- __ .\ Contents MAPS vii GENEALOGICAL CHARTS x INTRODUCTION 1 HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY History: Retrospective on the Timurid Years Mir Dawlatshah Samarqandi's Tadhkirat al-shu'ara ll Sharafuddin Ali Yazdi's Zafarnama 63 Khwandamir's Habib al-siyar l01 Synopsis of the House of Timur 237 Autobiography: From Within the Ruling House Babur Mirza's Baburnama: A Visit to Herat.. 247 Observations of the Outside Ghiyathuddin Naqqash's Report on a Timurid Mission to China 279 Kamaluddin Abdul-Razzaq Samarqandi's Mission to Calicut and Vijayanagar 299 THE ARTS Artistic Production Arzadasht 323 Miscellaneous Documents 329 Calligraphers and Artists -\ Dost-Muhammad's Introduction to the Bahram Mirza Album 335 Malik Daylami's Introduction to the Amir Husayn Beg Album 351 v CONTENTS Mir Sayyid-Ahmad's Introduction to the Amir Ghayb Beg Album 353 Mirza Muhammad-Haydar Dughlat's Tarikh-i Rashidi 357 Literary Conceits: Self-Images Sultan-Husayn Mirza's "Apologia" 363 Mir Ali-Sher Nawa'i's Preface to His First Divan .373 GLOSSARY OF TI1l.ES AND TERMS ..........................•....•......•....................................... 379 BIBLIOGRAPHy 389 VI .• . ? " '" ,J. z ~ « -c "'J: ? X :; Z .0 ..: 12 0 >:1 ~ a..J >< -e -z, 0 '" '" :t ~ .J -c" "t" .;, :; '" ~ go f.., ~ til ~ ~ w J: < o "? '"< ~ ~.; -c .. "' Jj"z- •" '" ..J • Q \\,\" '"" " ~ co: ~~ 1- '"~ :J "- ::; yo 1 :z: <I> ~ "' z :~ ~ c Jj~ j ~ s: ! "'"-'" "1- ~~---.._~yo - <I> '" < .... ~o z z ~~.,.J .... '" " " ':,0 :I:O~ '" o :< :::" z ~:gO n, '" "lJ -~~ .. o :t o (J -c z '" ....'" '" QI «"" <c.: I:': « AR A BA&ZER B A I JAN PERS ' CENTRALIAN IRAQ QARABAGH IRAN ' Adi~eVa/l 4,- Bitlis- ~.var Khcy e &() Vastane .Van M.r~dAZERBA ~~ o. IJ AN • Alinjaq Sard·oTabro Rud lZ Lake UrmG fa CASPIAN SEA Sultaniyya 0 Qazwin « "1' -: KURDISTAN A S "\ o U NTA DARGAZlN ·Damghan o Rayy eFirozkoh Hamadan e • Sawa PERSIAN oQum ARAB IRAQ o IRAQ "p • Khurramabad oJ<ashan o o [urbadiqan o Isfahan • Warzana o oYazd A- J' 0 Qasr-i Zard N o Shiraz PERSIAN GULF F ARS viii • Uzjand KHURASAN & TRANSOXIANA 1'1( F • Ghijduvan "l II{ S Bukhara e o Samarqand s X 1 J\ NA ;..0.' RiVer ~W~ ~h~Kish' "'-.., Hisar Nasa Abiward (Saward) Iajartne e Merv Khabushan e • Radkan Sultan Maydan • o Chanaran Sabzawar e Nishapur e o Mashhad o Balkh BALKH • Sar-i Pu1 TOKHARlSTAN 'I- Turshiz • BAQLAN o o Kabul Tabas e • Qayin • lsfizar Chaznin • FARAH • Kerman • Bam ix The Descendants of Umar-Shaykh x The Descendants of [ahangir xi The Descendants of Miranshah xu xiii The Descendants ofShahrukh xiv I CI) -I Cl ClI CI) l: ::::i III l: >- ClI III :::l :I: t: s "5 II (f) - J -g a. a. :i: '" :§:: c Q) o Cl .~ >- l'il W Q) ";:: CD ~ C iii iii CD E E Cl DO II xv -------- --- \,- 42a ----Alan -- Coa -------.I 1 I ,1 Bodanchar' , ~--------------~---------,,37a Buqa , Mongol-Tlmurld Genealogy , I ' as given In Istanbul, TSM, H.2152 : Tutum MlIrUln : 'iii; - - - - - - -- - -- - t --- ---- - --I Folios indicated by broken lines; :,1 Oaydu.Khan :• folio numbers in upper left corner. , Bay Sungghur I ~--------------1-----------------------, , 43b Tuminay . a.bu!Kh," I I BartanBaghatur Oachulay V.""';"'ha"" ~ Chlngglz Khan ~ 143'; - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I , Erdllmchi Barula , 1 [Jochi) Chaghatai I' ,I Sughuchllchlln Barula , , Batu I' , Jochi-oghlT Ogedei Khan OaracharNoyan , :3"6b -- -1-- ----- -- - ---- - - - ----- - ----j-----: : Toghan Batu-oghlT Echil , , MOngk~-Temor Tolui Khan I' : Toghan-oghlT Eillngir ' ~36;- - -/- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -,- - - - -1 ' Toghrncha BOrkOI , ' MOngkll-TemOr I I ' oghlT Taraghay , I Oubulai I, ", Ozbeg Khan TamOr' '38b: - Togoh~I~~ha- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -i - -133b ----~:ltg~n--- ~- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --,, \ . , ArTgh-BOke , , OJ~I ~eghlT HOlegOKhan 'Khan \ l Z_~~_I qL I__ ~._ ,: 1 T-mur I II I '38a Shllkllr-Beg Ahmad :h • Jahanshah Jahangir Miranshah Umar-Shaykh Shahrukh, l- __~~~~z~ ~h~n :n_ -: ~ KOr~glln I 1_ : ,32a sevi~-Beg '32b - - - - - - - - - - - - - -r ------------- - i , ShlIkllr-Beg Abaqa' [Khalil-Sultan) , I qTzT • Muhammad- Pir- at alii 1 ,I, ·, Sultan Muhammad 1, , Khalil-Sultan GlIykhatu ' at alii at alii at alii 1 , Sevin-Beg oghlT Khan • , , I , '-- ------ -,-- --- ----- --- -- ~ ---- ------ ------ ----- --- ---------- ',32b Arghun 1 ,I Khan .• : Gh~zan [Olj~itO) : I Khan Kharbanda , , Khan 1 , J I , Bu-Sa'id Khan , : KharbandaoghlT : L ~ xvi Introduction In the years between the death of the fined and lively literary and artistic pro- conqueror Amir Timur in 1405 to the duction. The artistic milieu that had been death of his great-great-grandson Sultan- created under the Ilkhans and their suc- Husayn Mirza in 1506 that comprised the cessors produced splendid examples of "century of princes," the vast territory the arts of the book, while in literature conquered by Timur, from Anatolia and there appeared the incomparable Persian Syria in the west to the Indus and Turk- poet Hafiz of Shiraz. istan in the east, underwent many and The Barlas, the Chaghatay Turkic tribe varied political changes, shifts, conquests to which Timur belonged, had long been and reconquests. Timur's empire was Islamicized and had adopted Sufi shaykhs weakened by the disunity of his suc- in place of their former Buddhist sha- cessors, who fought constantly with each mans; but apparently religion rested fairly other, until gradually the western portions lightly on them. Ambiguously situated of the realm were lost to the Turcomans between the Mongolian culture of eastern and the eastern and Central Asian por- Central Asia (Mughulistan) and the Is- tions fell to the Uzbeks. Ultimately central lamic culture of Persianized western Iran and the heart of the empire, Khura- Central Asia, the Chaghatayids nurtured san, fell to the Safavids, and the Timurids tribal memories of greatness under the lost power altogether. Throughout the Mongols. The the un-Islamicized Turks period, however, in the midst of the po- and Turco-Mongolians of Mughulistan, litical instability', the dominant Persian ate however, called them qaraunas, half- literary and artistic culture remained re- castes, for their adoption of non-Mon- markably stable, firmly ensconced, un- golian ways. Perhaps in compensation for challenged in its supremacy and unified in such denigration, when Timur sought to its development. legitimize his de facto rule over vast The Turco-Iranian synthesis of Persian newly conquered areas, he 'consciously cultural hegemony and Turco-Mongolian evoked the Mongol empire of Genghis political and military domination to which Khan. Never using a rank more preten- the Timurids fell heir had long been in the tious than "great commander" (amir making and had held sway throughout the kabir), Timur gloried in the Mongolian area of Iranian cultural influence since the title of "son-in-law" (karagan) he fourteenth-century successors to Genghis adopted when he married Saray Malik Khan and the Mongolian invasion of the Khanim, daughter of a Genghisid khan. previous century. The successors to the Timur's repeated patronage of Genghi- Mongolian Ilkhans, short-lived dynasties sids like Soyurghatmish Khan, his son conquered by Timur-the Jalayirids in Sultan-Mahmud Khan, and Toqtarmsh Baghdad and Azerbaijan, the Injus and Khan shows that for him legitimacy lay in Muzaffarids in Shiraz, the Karts in investiture by a Genghisid, not through Herat-maintained and sponsored a re- appeal to the Islamic allegiances of Per- 1 2 A CENTURY OF PRINCES sians, a race despised by steppe peoples crown him with the diadem of benefi- for being settled villagers and city- cence,"! dwellers yet ardently admired at the same Four of Shahrukh's sons well illustrate time for their cultural, literary and artistic the various paths open to Persianized superiority. For Timur, Genghis Khan's princes of the Timurid line. Ulughbeg tor« and yasa (codes) were of at least became the scholar-king, ruling in equal importance with the Islamic sha- Samarqand and not only patronizing but ri (a, for all the attempts by later historians actually contributing to a standard work of the dynasty to portray Timur as a on astronomy; Baysunghur became the model Muslim ruler. After Timur's death patron of the arts, sponsoring during his his youngest son Shahrukh eventually short lifetime the production of outstand- triumphed over his major rivals, Khalil- ing examples of the arts of the book; Sultan, who used his Genghisid descent Ibrahim-Sultan was the pious governor through his mother to gather support., who earned his livelihood by copying and Iskandar-Sultan, another grandson Korans; and Muhammad-Juki, insofar as who claimed designation by Timur. he is known for anything, gained a repu- Later dynastic historians portrayed tation as a warrior athlete. And if Shah- Shahrukh as a fully Islamicized, Per- rukh succeeded in gaining the general sianized monarch who justified his claim support of the religious elements in Per- to legitimate rule by appealing to the reli- sian society, his son Ulughbeg and his gious elements in society and resting his grandson Sultan-Muhammad did not al- claims upon a show of good works, piety ways enjoy such cordial relationships and dispensation of justice. The differ- with the religious hierarchy, as several ence in emphasis is quite clear in the titles incidents in history show (pp. 167-68, on the tombstones of Timur and Shah- 161). Even Shahrukh was not beyond a rukh in Samarqand.
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