FAḴR-E MODABBER, pen-name of Moḥammad b. Manṣūr b. Saʿīd, entitled Mobārakšāh, author of two prose works in Persian written in India in the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th century, a book on genealogy with no formal title and the famous Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l-šajāʿa (q.v.). Most of the available information about Faḵr-e Modabber comes from remarks in his books where, unfortunately, he comments more often about his ancestors than about himself. He gives a detailed genealogy in both books (Šajara-ye ansāb, 1927, p. 62; Ādāb al-ḥarb, 1967, p. 15), and in each passage he describes himself as “a frail old man” (pīr-e żaʿīf). As internal evidence in the texts shows that the books were composed at different periods, this coincidence illustrates the complicated scribal history of the manuscripts and makes it difficult to use the statement as a basis for estimating the approximate date of the author’s death (pace Bosworth, EI2). However, since Faḵr-e Modabber appends the title Nāṣer Amīr-al-Moʾmenīn to the name of the ruler Šams-al-Dīn Ēltotmeš (r. 607-33/1211-36; q.v.) in his Ādāb al-ḥarb (p. 16), it does seem likely that the book was written after 626/1229, when the sultan received this title from the caliph (see Bazmee Ansari, p. 1155; Aḥmad, 1963, p. 346; Storey, I/2, p. 1165).
Faḵr-e Modabber’s book on genealogy, variously referred to as Šajara-ye ansāb-e Mobārakšāhī or Baḥr al-ansāb, was partially edited by Sir Edward Denison Ross, who erroneously attributed the work to another Mobārakšāh, the poet Faḵr-al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd Mobārakšāh b. Ḥosayn Marverūdī (on whom see ʿAwfī, Lobāb I, pp. 125-33; Ebn al-Aṯīr, XII, p. 242-43; and Storey/de Blois V/2, pp. 417-20). The extended preface, the only part of the unique manuscript edited by Denison Ross, contains a wealth of observations on diverse subjects, including the virtues of the Turks and historical anecdotes about the Ghurid ruler Moʿezz-al-Dīn Moḥammad (r. 569-602/1173-1206) and the Delhi sultans Qoṭb-al-Dīn Aybak (r. 602-7/1206-10; q.v.) and Šams-al-Dīn Ēltotmeš. Much of the preface, particularly the geographical sections, seems to have been culled from earlier sources (Validi).
The Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l-šajāʿa has been described in an earlier article (Bosworth, EIr I, p. 445); however, it should be noted that six additional chapters of this work, which are included in the manuscript of a slightly different redaction entitled Adāb al-molūk wa kefāyat al-mamlūk (Ethé, Catalogue I, col. 1493, no. 2767), have now been edited and published by Moḥammad Sarvar Mowlāʾī.
See also DELHI SULTANATE.
Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):
Editions and translations. Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l-šajāʿa, ed. A. Sohaylī Ḵᵛānsārī, Tehran, 1346 Š./1967; six additional chapters ed. M. Sarvar Mowlāʾī as Āʾīn-e kešvar-dārī (Šeš bāb-e bāzyāfta az Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l šajāʿa), Tehran, 1354 Š./1975.
Šajara-ye ansāb-e mobārakšāhī, ed. E. Denison Ross as Ta’ríkh-i Fakhru’d-Dín Mubáraksháh, Being the Historical Introduction to the Book of Genealogies of Fakhru’d-Dín Mubáraksháh Marvar-rúḍí Completed in A.D. 1206, London, l927; Arabic tr. and comm. by Ṯ. Moḥammad ʿAlī as Ṣafaḥāt maṭwīya men taʾrīḵ al-Eslām: taʾrīḵ Mobārakšāh fī aḥwāl al-Hend, Cairo, 1991.
Studies. N. Aḥmad, “Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l-šajāʿa,” Rāhnemā-ye ketāb 6, 1342 Š./1963, pp. 305-6, 346-47; repr. in Qand-e pārsī, ed. S. Ḥ. ʿAbbās, Tehran 1371 Š./1992, pp. 283-87.
Abdus-sattar Khan, “Fakhr-i-Mudabbir,” Islamic Culture 12, 1938, pp. 397-404. A. S. Bazmee Ansari, “Iltutmish,” in EI2 III, pp. 1155-56.
C. E. Bosworth, “Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l-šajāʿa,” in EIr. I, p. 445.
Idem,"Fakhr-i Mudabbir,” in EI2 suppl. fascs. 5-6, p. 284.
E. Denison Ross, “The Genealogies of Fakhr-ud-dín, Mubárak Sháh” in ʿAjab-nāma: A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to Edward G. Browne on His 60th Birthday, ed. T. W. Arnold and R. A. Nicholson, Cambridge, l922, pp. 392-413.
Ethé, Catalogue I, cols. 1493-96.
ʿA. Rewāqī, “Ādāb al-ḥarb wa’l-šajāʿa,” Soḵan 18, 1347 Š./1968 pp. 94-98.
Rieu, Persian Manuscripts II, pp. 487-88.
Ṣafā, Adabīyāt III/2, pp. 1167-70 (where Adāb al-molūk wa kefāyat al-mamlūk is classified wrongly as a third, independent work).
I. M. Shafi, “Fresh Light on the Ghaznavîds,” Islamic Culture 12, 1938, pp. 189-234.
Storey I/2, pp. 1644-67. Storey/de Blois V/2, p. 419.
A. Validi, “On Mubarakshah Ghuri,” BSO(A)S 6, 1930-32, pp. 847-58.
A. Zajaczkowski, Le traité iranien de l’art militaire Adāb al-ḥarb wa-æ-æağāʿa du xiii siècle, Warsaw, l969 (intro. and facsimile ed. of MS. London, British Library, Add. 16,853).
(EIr)
Originally Published: December 15, 1999
Last Updated: January 20, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. IX, Fasc. 2, p. 164
