Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy: Balamis

Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy Tārīkhnāma is the earliest work of Persian prose and one of the most influential works of Islamic historical writing, subsequently being translated into Arabic and Turkish and remaining in circulation for a thousand years. Although it purports to be a Persian translation of al-Tabari’s famous Arabic universal history, in fact it is an independent work, presenting the history of the world from Creation down to Islamic times. A.C.S.Peacock’s new book, Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy: Tārīkhnāma is the first research monograph on this major historical work and shows how its composition and reception were influenced by political circumstances. Commissioned by the ruler of one of the largest and most powerful Muslim states of the tenth century, the Samanid dynasty of Central Asia, and composed by his vizier, the Tārīkhnāma tells us much about the politics and ideology of the Samanid state, which remains comparatively unstudied despite its importance in Islamic history. Future generations continued to adapt the text in accordance with their own political concerns, meaning its manuscripts vary immensely from one another. Using newly discovered manuscripts, this study sheds much new light, not just on mediaeval Islamic history and the development of Islamic historiography, but also on problems in manuscripts and the transmission of their texts. Dr Andrew Peacock was educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and is a research associate at the University of Cambridge. He specializes in the history of Anatolia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and is the author of several articles on aspects of mediaeval Islamic history and historiography. Routledge Studies in the History of Iran and Turkey Edited by Carole Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh This series publishes important studies dealing with the history of Iran and Turkey in the period 1000–1700 AD. This period is significant because it heralds the advent of large numbers of nomadic Turks from Central Asia into the Islamic world. Their influence was felt particularly strongly in Iran and Turkey, territories which they permanently transformed. The series presents translations of medieval Arabic and Persian texts which chronicle the history of the medieval Turks and Persians, and also publishes scholarly monographs which handle themes of medieval Turkish and Iranian history such as historiography, nomadization and folk Islam. History of the Seljuq Turks The Saljuq-nama of Zahir al-Din Nishapuri Translated by Kenneth Allin Luther Edited by Edmund Bosworth The Annals of the Saljuq Turks Selections from al-Kamil of Ibn al-Athir D.S.Richards Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth Century Iran A Persian Renaissance George Lane Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy Tārīkhnāma A.C.S.Peacock Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy Tārīkhnāma A.C.S.Peacock LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square Milton Park Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2007 A.C.S.Peacock All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Peacock, A.C.S. (Andrew C.S.) Mediaeval Islamic historiography and political legitimacy: Tārīkhnāma/A.C.S.Peacock. p. cm.—(Studies in the history of Iran and Turkey) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. fl. 946–973. 2. 838?–923. 3. Islamic Empire—History—Historiography. I. Title. DS38.2.T325173 2007 907.2–dc22 2006028990 ISBN 0-203-96422-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10: 0-415-40025-2 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-96422-5 (Print Edition) (ebk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-40025-1 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-96422-4 (Print Edition) (ebk) To my parents Contents List of Figures and Tables viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 1 Politics, religion and culture in the late Sāmānid state 14 2 The transmission of the Tārīkhnāma’s text 48 3 reshaping of History 73 4 103 The contents and purpose of alterations to History 5 The Tārīkhnāma after 137 6 General conclusions 161 Appendix I: Comparison of postulated redactions of the Tārīkhnāma 168 Appendix Comparison of the Arabic translation of the Tārīkhnāma and the 171 II: Persian text Appendix Addenda and corrigenda to Daniel’s ‘An Annotated Inventory of 175 III: Manuscripts’ Bibliography 180 Subject index 193 Manuscript index 206 Figures and Tables Figure 2.1 The colophon of Cambridge University Library, MS 8360 66 Tables 3.1 Proportion of text devoted to pre-Islamic history in selected 94 manuscripts of the Tārīkhnāma 3.2 Proportion of text of the pre-Islamic sections of the Tārīkhnāma 95 devoted to Iranian history (up to the Genealogy of ) 3.3 Proportion of the total text of selected manuscripts of the 101 Tārīkhnāma devoted to events occurring after the death of Marwān in 132/750 Preface Historical writing and prose literature in New Persian1 both begin with the History (Tārīkhnāma) of Abu 2 composed in Central Asia in the fourth/tenth century. Before the Arab conquest of Iran in the first/seventh century, the Persians of the Sāsānian Empire had a historiographical tradition of their own, written in Pahlavī or Middle Persian, a language similar to New Persian in grammar and syntax, but different in script and lacking the many Arabic works the Persians adopted into their language on conversion to Islam. However, much of this tradition is lost to us, surviving mainly in later New Persian works such as the great early poet Firdawsī’s monumental verse Shāhnāma (‘Book of Kings’). In contrast, Tārīkhnāma marks the beginning of a long and influential historiographical tradition in Persian based on Arabic, Islamic models rather than Sāsānian ones. The Tārīkhnāma is a large work, occupying five substantial volumes in the most recent edition, and covers history from Creation down to Muslim times. It became extremely popular—indeed, it was by far the most widely read work of Persian historiography, and was translated into other Islamic languages such as Arabic, Ottoman and Chaghatay Turkish, and Urdu. Manuscripts of it continued to be copied, and later printed, until the beginning of the twentieth century. No other historical work in Persian, and few in Arabic, approaches the scale or the longevity of the Tārīkhnāma’s popularity. The mere fact that it was the principal source of knowledge about the past in the eastern Islamic world for nearly a thousand years makes it worthy of attention. The great influence it had over countless Muslims is reflected in the vast number of manuscripts of it that survive and its frequent citation in other works. Yet, as I hope to demonstrate in the course of this book, the Tārīkhnāma is of much interest in its own right. The Tārīkhnāma is also significant because it seems to have possessed great political importance at the time it was composed. It was commissioned by the amir who was ruler of much of Central Asia and parts of Iran. The dynasty to which belonged, the Sāmānids, are today best known for their role in reviving the Persian literary language after its eclipse by Arabic in the wake of the Muslim conquests. Their court in Bukhārā became famous as a cultural centre where both 1 New Persian is written in the Arabic script and developed in the centuries after the Arab conquests. Except where confusion with other varieties of Persian, such as Middle Persian/ Pahlavī, is likely, I shall refer to it simply as Persian. 2 work is referred to by different names in the manuscripts, usually as the the or the In this book, I shall call it the Tārīkhnāma to avoid confusion with the numerous other Arabic and Persian works that have the title Tārīkh. Arabic and Persian literature flourished. However, from the perspective of the fourth/ tenth century, the Sāmānids’ fame was based less on their patronage of literature than on their role as rulers of one of the largest and most powerful states in the Islamic world. Yet it seems that the production of this historical work was a matter of great importance to the Sāmānids, for its composition was entrusted to none other than the state’s wazīr or chief minister, Thus the study of the Tārīkhnāma offers the opportunity of deepening our understanding not just of the fourth/tenth century renaissance of Persian literature and the birth of Persian historiography, but also the political preoccupations of the Sāmānids. Despite this dynasty’s great political and cultural importance, many elements of their history remain obscure. The reasons for studying Tārīkhnāma are, as I have outlined, varied, and its interest is considerable from the points of view of both cultural and political history. However, it has attracted very little scholarly attention to date. In part, this is because the numerous surviving manuscripts of the Tārīkhnāma present formidable textual problems that need to be resolved before the work can be studied adequately. However, the most important reason for this neglect is unquestionably the traditional identification of the Tārīkhnāma as a translation of a famous Arabic book, the or ‘History of Prophets and Kings’ composed in Baghdad earlier in the fourth/tenth century by the famed scholar and jurist (d.

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