In Volume 1-1: Qurʾānic Literature, History, and Biography | Section 2, History, Biography, etc.

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§ 490. S̲h̲araf al-Dīn, afterwards S̲h̲araf K̲h̲ān, Bidlīsī was born in 949/1543 at Karahrūd (near Qumm), where his father, the Amīr S̲h̲ams al-Dīn, dispossessed of the princedom of Bidlīs, had settled. He was brought up with the sons of S̲h̲āh Ṭahmāsp, who appointed him to several important posts. In 975/1576–8 he was engaged in the subjugation of Gīlān, and he remained there for seven years. S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl ii on his accession in 984/1576 recalled him from S̲h̲īrwān, where he had been for eight months as governor (?), and appointed him Amīr al-umarāʾ of the Persian Kurds. Having come to doubt his loyalty, however, S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl sent him to Nak̲h̲c̲h̲uwān. In 986/1578 he made common cause with K̲h̲usrau Pās̲h̲ā, the Turkish invader of Persia, and Murād i conferred on him the title of S̲h̲araf K̲h̲ān and restored to him the princedom of Bidlīs, which he still held in 1005/1596.

S̲h̲araf-nāmah,¹ a history of the Kurds completed ah 1005/1596 and divided into a muqaddimah (on the origin of the Kurds and their customs), four ṣaḥīfahs ((1) Kurdish Sulṭāns (a) al-Jazīrah and Diyār Bakr, (b) Dīnawar and S̲h̲ahrazūl (Ḥasanwaihids), (c) Faḍlawaihids = Lur i Buzurg, (d) Lur i Kūc̲h̲ak, (e) Aiyūbids, (2) (a) Ardalān, (b) Hakkārī = S̲h̲anbū, (c) ʿImādīyah, (d) al-Jazīrah, (e) Ḥiṣn Kaifā, (3) other Kurdish rulers in three firqahs, (4) the rulers of Bidlīs, the author’s ancestors) and a k̲h̲ātimah (on the Ottoman Sulṭāns and contemporary rulers in Īrān ¶ and Tūrān): Ḥ.K̲h̲. ii p. 134 no. 2235 (Taʾrīk̲h̲ S̲h̲araf Khān), Bodleian 312 (Autograph. ah 1005/1597. 20 Pictures), 313 (ah 1015/1606. Copied from an autograph), 314, Dorn 306 (lacks six chapters in Ṣaḥīfah iii. ah 1007/1598, corrected by the author himself), Browne Coll. H. 10 (12) = Houtum-Schindler 33 (ah 1027/1618), Ḥālat Efendī = Tauer 473 (ah 1034/1624–5), Lālā Ismāʿīl = Tauer 474 (ah 1036/1626–7), Rieu i 208b (ah 1079/1669), 209b (lacunæ. ah 1055/1645), 210a (ah 1231/1816), 210a (after ad 1827), Suppt. 95 (19th cent.), 96 (ah 1251/1835), Blochet i 495 (ah 1083/1672), 496 (19th cent.), 497 (19th cent.), Princeton 428 (fragment. ah 1104/1693), r.a.s. P. 158 = Morley 159 (contains a continuation of the history of the Ardalān rulers from ah 1005/1596 to ah 1225/1810 by M. Ibrāhīm b. Mullā M. Ḥusain Ardalānī), Ckanykov 96, Dorn a.m. p. 283 (apparently complete), p. 661 (2 copies, one complete, the other a fragment (first 100 pp. and some more)), Adabīyāt Kutubk̲h̲ānah-sī 789 = Tauer 475 (ah 1279/1862–3).

Editions: (1) Scheref Nameh, ou Histoire des Kourdes par Scheref, Prince de Bidlis. Publiée … traduite [sic, but this translation never appeared] et annotée par V. Vélïaminof-Zernof. 2 vols. St. Petersburg 1860–2°.* (2) Cairo [1931*].

French translation: Chèref-Nâmeh ou Fastes de la Nation Kourde par Chèref-ou’ddîne … Traduits … et commentés par F.B. Charmoy. 2 vols. St. Petersburg 1868–75°.

Turkish translations: (1) by Muḥammad [Bēg] b. Aḥmad [Bēg Mīrzā], written in 1078/1667–8: Rieu Turkish Cat. 70a (ah 1080/1699), 70b (early 19th cent.), Asʿad 2303 (see Babinger Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen pp. 223–4). (2) by “S̲h̲amʿī”, written [begun ?] in 1092/1681 (according to Babinger) but containing the date 1095/1684 in the translator’s additions (according to Rieu, who supposes the translation to have been written shortly after that date): Rieu Turkish Cat. 71a (cf. Babinger op. cit., p. 224).

Descriptions, summaries, translated extracts etc.: (1) Wolkov Notice sur l’ouvrage persan intitulé Scheref Namé … (in Journal asiatique, viii (1826), pp. 291–8). (2) H.A. Barb Ueber die unter dem Namen „Tarich el Akrad“ bekannte Kurden-Chronik von Scheref (= Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe, vol. x (Vienna 1853), pp. 258–76). (3) H.A. Barb Geschichtliche Skizze der 33 verschiedenen kurdischen Fürstengeschlechter (=Sitzungsberichte etc., vol. xxii (Vienna 1857), pp. 3–28). (4) H.A. Barb Geschichte von fünf Kurden-Dynastien (= Sitzungsberichte etc., vol. xxviii (Vienna 1858*), pp. 3–54). (5) H.A. Barb Geschichte von weiteren Kurden-Dynastien (= Sitzungsberichte etc., vol. xxx/1 (Vienna 1859)). (6) H.A. Barb Geschichte der kurdischen Fürstenherrschaft in Bidlis. Aus dem Scherefname, 4. Buch. ¶ (= Sitzungsberichte etc., vol. xxxii (Vienna 1859), pp. 145–250). (7) Morley pp. 146–50. (8) Ency. Isl. under Kurds: B. History (bibliography at end).

[S̲h̲araf-nāmah, d̲h̲ail to Ṣaḥīfah iv (cf. Rieu i 208–9); Wolkov Notice sur l’ouvrage persan intitulé Scheref Ñamé … (in Journal asiatique, viii (1826), pp. 291–8); H.A. Barb Ueber die unter dem Namen „Tarich el Akrad“ bekannte Kurden-Chronik von Scheref (see above under Descriptions, summaries etc.); Morley pp. 143–5; Scheref Nameh, ou Histoire des Kourdes … Publiée … par V. Vélïaminof-Zernof, preface; Ency. Isl. under Bidlīsī (Huart) and under Kurds (B. History. Group A. subsection Bidlīs (Minorsky), vol. ii p. 1144 in the English edition.)

§ 491. M. Ibrāhīm b. Mullā M. Ḥusain Ardalānī wrote

A history of the Ardalān rulers from ah 1005/1596 to ah 1225/1810, being a continuation of the chapter on these rulers in the S̲h̲araf-nāmah of S̲h̲araf K̲h̲ān Bidlīsī: Morley p. 147 (ah 1225/1810. Autograph ?).

§ 492. K̲h̲usrau b. M. b. Minūc̲h̲ihr wrote

A history of the Banū Ardalān to the time of Riḍā-Qulī K̲h̲ān b. K̲h̲usrau K̲h̲ān, who came to the throne in 1250/1834–5: Blochet i 498 (1st half of 19th cent.).

§ 493. S̲h̲arḥ i nasab i Ardalān, an account of Ardalān, the alleged ancestor of the wālīs, or governors, of Kurdistān: Browne Coll. i. 11 (13) (ah 1324/1906, with an English translation or abridgment by H.L. Rabino).

§ 494. For the Zubdat al-tawārīk̲h̲ i Sinandijī, a general history containing a chapter (xi) on the genealogy of the Kurds and of the rulers and governors of Ardalān, composed in 1215/1800–1 by M. S̲h̲arīf b. Mullā Muṣṭafā, Qāḍī of Ardalān, see p. 114 supra.

In the bibliographies to the articles Kurds and Senna in the Ency. Isl. some other Oriental histories are mentioned without specification of the language in which they are written.

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