JĀMEʿ AL-TAVĀRIḴ-E ḤASANI

 

JĀMEʿ AL-TAVĀRIḴ-E ḤASANI, a Timurid universal chronicle written by Tāj-al-din Ḥasan b. Šahāb b. Ḥoseyn b. Tāj-al-din Yazdi (fl. 1453), who is also known as Ebn-e Šahāb-e Yazdi. It covers the history of the world from its creation until December 1451-January 1452, and includes a most valuable final section pertaining to the events in Kerman up to 1453. 

The information on Ebn-e Šahāb-e Yazdi’s life is almost entirely based on the references found in his own chronicle (Yazdi, Introduction, pp. 13-15; Aubin, pp. 17-19; Manz, p. 53). Yazdi refers to himself as both a poet and an astrologer. He was born either in 1388-89 or in 1390-91. When he was twenty-four years old, Yazdi functioned as the military inspector (tovāči) of the troops from Yazd in the retinue of Ḵvāja Ḡiāṯ-al-din Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Rāzi, the vizier of Mirzā Eskandar b. ʿOmar-Šeyḵ in Fars. In this capacity he attended the joint ʿOmar-Šeyḵid campaign in support of ʿOmar-Šeyḵ b. Mirānšāh against Abu Bakr b. Mirānšāh in 1406. After the unsuccessful battle near Dargazin on 20 April 1406, Yazdi returned to Yazd after a difficult journey (Yazdi, pp. 28-31; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, III, pp. 74-77). He also participated in Mirzā Eskandar’s siege of Qom in 1412-13 and was sent as an ambassador to Ḵvāja Moḥammad Qomi in order to negotiate the terms of surrender (Yazdi, p. 36). He appears to have kept this position even after Mirzā Eskandar was defeated by Šāhroḵ in 1414, as he led the troops of Yazd and Abarquh in Šāhroḵ’s invasion of Kerman in 1416 (Yazdi, p. 42). In all likelihood, he did not return from Kerman and stayed there in the service of Amir Ḡiāṯ-al-din Ḡonāširin, who was appointed to the governorship of the region in 1417 (Manz, p. 37).

However, the real patron of Ebn-e Šahāb Yazdi appears to be the son of Amir Ḡiāṯ-al-din Ḡonaširin, Šams-al-din Ḥāji Moḥammad, who was killed on 2 Rabiʿ I 852/6 May 1448. Ebn-e Šahāb Yazdi tells us that he served him for fourteen years in the capacity of the superintendent of the religious endowments in Kerman (Yazdi, p. 50). He kept the same position until 1452-53, when he lost his privileges and 600 dinār-e Köpeki worth of allowance, probably due to some rumors related to his son Seyyedi ʿAli’s involvement in Solṭān-Moḥammad b. Bāysonḡor’s rebellion in 1446-47, which had reached the ears of Seyyed Mirak-e Šervāni, the dāruḡa of Kermān (Yazdi, pp. 99-100). We have no information on his later life, but, given the fact that he was already an elderly statesman in the 1440s, it is plausible to suggest that he passed away soon after completing his work. 

Ebn-e Šahāb-e Yazdi says that he started composing his work after the death of his patron Šams-al-din Ḥāji Moḥammad b. Amir Ḡonāširin in 1448. On 25 Moḥarram 855/8 March 1451, he presented an initial rescension of Jameʿ al-tavāriḵ-e Ḥasani to Solṭan-Moḥammad b. Bāysonḡor, the ruler of the provinces of ʿErāq-e ʿajam and Fars and a leading pretender to Šāhroḵ’s throne, during his short stay in Kerman between 24 Moḥarram 855/7 March 1451 and 18 Ṣafar 855/1 March 1451 (Yazdi, pp. 2-5; Ṭehrāni, II, p. 323). However, after the death of Solṭān-Moḥammad on 15 Ḏo’l-ḥejja 855/17 January 1452 in a battle against his brother Mirzā Abo’l-Qāsem Bābor b. Bāysonḡor, he presented an expanded version of Jāmeʿ al-tavārīḵ-e Ḥasanī to Abo’l-Qāsem Bābor. In this second version, there is a long appendix on Kerman, in which the historical narrative reaches the end of Ramadan 857/13 October 1453, and the final date mentioned in the appendix on Kerman is 8 Ḏo’l-qaʿda 857/19 November 1453. At the end of the book he says that he presented his book to Abo’l-Qāsem Bābor in order to attract his attention to the destitution caused by the recent events in Kerman (Yazdi, pp. 12, 146, 175-76). 

Ebn-e Šahāb-e Yazdi says that he planned his work in twenty chapters, but the current organization of the work is in the following order: (1) Preface; (2) Creation and the story of Adam and Eve; (3) the Prophet and his successors; (4) the Umayyads; (5) the Abbasids and other dynasties who ruled in their time, including the Seljuqs; (6) the dynasties which came after the Seljuqs—the Buyids, the Ḵvārazmšāhs, the Salḡorids, the Qarāḵetāys, the Możaffarids, Genghis Khan and the Il-Khanids, and Teymur; (7) the history of the Timurids after Teymur’s death, which includes the history of Abo’l-Qāsem Bābor, the advent of Seyyed Mirak-e Šervāni, a section on the endowments in Kerman, an appendix on the events in Kerman, a section on the administration of Mirak-e Šervāni and his companions, biographical notes on the notables of Kerman, an account on the Širin household, that is the descendants of the Timurid governor-general of Kerman, Ḡiāṯ-al-din Ḡonāširin, two sections on the events in the provinces of Fars and ʿErāq-e ʿajam and Kerman, and an account on civil and financial (molki o māli) administration of Kerman.

The sources of the Jameʿ al-tavāriḵ-e Ḥasani have only partially been investigated. Mahdi Bayāni demonstrated that Ebn-e Šahāb-e Yazdi relied extensively on Afżal-al-din Kermāni’s Badāyeʿ al-azmān fi waqāyeʿ-e Kerman in the section dealing with the Seljuqs (Kermāni, pp. iv–xx). Yazdi also openly expressed his debt to the Il-Khanid historian Rašid-al-din Fażlollāh (Ms. Fatih 4307, ff. 217a, 305a). The section on Teymur is a near-verbatim copy of Šaraf-al-din ʿAli Yazdi’s Ẓafarnāmeh. In the text even the original colophon of the Ẓafarnāmeh was preserved (Ms. Fatih 4307, f. 411b).

The Jāmeʿ al-tavāriḵ-e Ḥasani has come down to us in two imperfect manuscripts, one of which is preserved in the National Library in Tehran (Ms. 1330) and one in the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul (Ms. Fatih 4307). The latter was copied in 880/147-76. The Fatih manuscript is usually dated to 859/1454-55, but this date is conspicuously found at the end of the abovementioned colophon of Yazdi’s Ẓafarnāmeh as well (Ms. Fatih 4307, f. 411b). Therefore, it is also possible that this is the date of the Ẓafarnāmeh manuscript copied into the Jāmeʿ al-tavāriḵ-e Ḥasani. So far only those sections of the book that deal with the descendants of Teymur and the history of Kerman have been edited by Ḥoseyn Modarresi Ṭabāṭabāʾi and Iraj Afšār, but the remainder of the text certainly also deserves to be edited properly. 

 

Bibliography:            

Sources.

Hāfeẓ-e Abru, Zobdat al-tavāriḵ, ed. K. Ḥaj Seyyed-Javādi, 4 vols., Tehran, 2001.

Tāj-al-din Ḥasan Ebn-e Šahāb-e Yazdi, Jāmeʿ al-tavāriḵ-e Ḥasani (Baḵš-e Teymuriān pas az Teymur), ed. Ḥ. M. Ṭabāṭabāʾi and I. Afšār, Karachi, 1987; Istanbul Süleymaniye Library Ms. Fatih 4307.

Afżal-al-din Kermāni, Badāyeʿ al-azmān fi vaqāyeʿ-e Kermān, ed. M. Bayāni, Tehran, 1947.

Abū Bakr Ṭehrāni, Ketāb-e Diyārbakriyyeh, ed. N. Lugal and F. Sümer, 2 vols., Ankara, 1964.

Studies.

J. Aubin, Deux sayyids de Bam au XVe siècle: Contribution à l’histoire de l’Iran timouride, Wiesbaden, 1956.

B. F. Manz, Power, Politics, and Religion in Timurid Iran, Cambridge, 2007.

 

 

 

(İlker Evrim Binbaş)

Originally Published: January 1, 2000

Last Updated: April 2, 2014