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The Sikh Ẓafarnāma (Epistle of Victory) is a short Persian narrative poem (a ma ṡ nav ī) in epistolary form and Gurmukhi script that is included in the Dasam Granth (Book of the Tenth [Gurū]), a part of the Sikh canon, and can be found on pages 1,389-1,394 of the standard printed edition of 1,436 pages. This work is generally perceived to have been authored by the tenth Sikh gurū, Gurū Gobind Siṅgh (1666-1708), and is thus preceded by the standard formula sr ī mukh v āk pātiśā h ī dasv ī n (“uttered from the blessed mouth of the tenth lord”). By virtue of this authorship, the text is a…

d. 858 ah (1454 ad). Persia. Poet and historian, a native of the Muzaffarid capital of Yazd. Author of the Zafar-nāma [Book of Victory].Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī served under several Tīmūrid rulers and princes. He was a favourite of Shāh Rukh, who ruled over Persia and Transoxania (1405-47). During his service to the Tīmūrid prince Mīrzā Sultān Muḥammad he became involved in the 1447 rebellion of the prince, which almost cost him his life. After the death of Shāh Rukh he retired to Yazd.His Zafar-nāma on the legendary conqueror Tīmūr (known in the west as Tamerlane 1336-1405) is…

Mughal scholar chiefly famous for his alleged discovery of Malfūẓāt-e Tīmūrī or Wāqeʿāt-e Tīmūrī, an autobiographical account of Tīmūr from the 7th to the 74th year of his life. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 389 ABŪ ṬĀLEB ḤOSAYNĪ ʿARĪZĪ, Mughal scholar chiefly famous for his alleged discovery of Malfūẓāt-e Tīmūrī or Wāqeʿāt-e Tīmūrī, an autobiographical account of Tīmūr from the 7th to the 74th year of his life. It also contains an appendix, called Tūzok or Tūzokāt (“Institutes”). But the veracity of both texts is in doubt, since the o…

one of the finest collections of Near Eastern manuscripts, bequeathed to the Princeton University Library by Robert Garrett (1875-1961), a graduate and a trustee of the university. A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 3, pp. 318 GARRETT COLLECTION, one of the finest collections of Near Eastern manuscripts, bequeathed to the Princeton University Library by Robert Garrett (1875-1961), a graduate (1897) and a trustee of the University (1905-61). Although the collection contains mostly Arabic manuscripts, its Pe…

historian and geographer of the Il-khanid period (1281-1344), author of Tāriḵ-e gozida, Ẓafar-nāma, and Nozhat al-qolub. A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 6, pp. 631-634 ḤAMD-ALLĀH MOSTAWFI, historian and geographer of the Ilkhanid period (b. Qazvin, ca. 680/1281, d. ca. 744/1344). There is some disagreement over whether his name was Ḥamd or Ḥamd-Allāh (Navāʾi, intro. to Tāriḵ-e gozida, p. yā; Homāyun-Farroḵ refers to him as Ḥomad). His mausoleum still exists in Qazvin. Life. Mostawfi was descended from a family of Arab origin that had pr…

Ibrāhīm Sulṭān b. Shāh Rukh (796–838/1394–1435) was a Tīmūrid prince who served as governor of Fars under his father Shāh Rukh (r. 811–50/1409–47), son of the dynasty’s founder Tīmūr (Temür, Tamerlane, r. 771–807/1370–1405). Ibrāhīm Sulṭān was active in military affairs but is better remembered for his cultural patronage. At his birth, on 28 Shawwāl 796/26 August 1394, Ibrāhīm Sulṭān, like many grandsons of Tīmūr, was entrusted to Tīmūr’s wife Ṭūmān Āghā and educated in kingly culture (adab-i pādshāhī) at the central court. Judging from Tīmūr’s own patronage and the care…

author and translator in the reigns of Akbar and Jahāngīr. A version of this article is available in printVolume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 167 ʿABD-AL -SATTĀR B. QĀSEM LAHŪRĪ, author and translator in the reigns of Akbar and Jahāngīr. He was a pupil of the Jesuit missionary at the Mughal court, Father Jerome Xavier (q.v.; 1549-1617), and collaborated in the latter’s Merʾāt al-qods yaʿnī dāstān-e ḥażrat-e ʿĪsā, a life of Christ. The work’s preface gives a date of completion in 1602, and the translation may have been done during Akbar’s Deccan campaign of 1598-1601.Xavier’s assistants in transla…

[Ḥāfiz-i Abrū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lutf Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Bihdādīnī] d. 833 ah (1430 ad). Persia. Hāfiz-i Abrū  took part in several campaigns of Shāh Rukh (ruler over Persia and Transoxania between 1405 and 1447), whose service he entered after the death of Tīmūr (known in the west as Tamerlane 1336-1405). He wrote several historical works and also a geographical work in Persian.Hāfiz-i Abrū 's three early historical works were: the Dhayl-i Djāmiʿ al-tawārikh, dealing with the reigns of Uldjaytū and Abū Saʿīd. A continuation of the work of Rashīd al-Dīn (d. 1318 ad); the Dhayl-i Zafar…

late 8th or early 9th century ah (14th-15th century ad). Persia. The first Timurid chronicler and the author of the only known history of Tīmūr composed during the lifetime of this conqueror.Nizām ad-Dīn Shāmī lived in Baghdad when Tīmūr (known in the west as Tamerlane 1336-1405) occupied the city in 795 (1392-93). Tīmūr invited him to his court and instructed him to write the history of his rule and of his victories. He asked for the work to be written clearly, without rhetorical excesses, so that it could be understandable for all reade…

a prolific writer active in Central Asia during the second half of the 16th century; he was closely linked with the eminent Juybāri shaikhs of Boḵārā. A version of this article is available in print Volume XVI, Fascicle 1, pp. 80-83 KAŠMIRI, BADR-AL-DIN, a prolific writer active in Central Asia during the second half of the 16th century; he was closely linked with the eminent Juybāri shaikhs of Boḵārā, Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Eslām (d. 1563) and his son Ḵᵛāja Saʿd (d. 1589), and with their patron, ʿAbd-Allāh Khan b. Eskandar (r. 1583-98). His ex…

(d. 1430), author of many historical and historico-geographical works in Persian, which were commissioned by Šāhroḵ, the Timurid ruler of Herat during the first decades of the 15th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 5, pp. 507-509 ḤĀFEẒ-E ABRU, Timurid historian known by this laqab, whose full name was ʿAbd-Allāh (or Nur-Allāh) b. Loṭf-Allāh b. ʿAbd-al-Rašid Behdādini (also Ḵᵛāfi or Haravi; d. Šawwāl 833/June 1430). He was the author of many historical and historico-geographical works in Persian, which w…

ʿAbd al-Sattār b. Qāsim Lāhawrī (d. after 1028/1619) was a courtier and scholar who flourished under the Mughal emperors Akbar (r. 963–1014/1556–1605) and Jahāngīr (r. 1014–37/1605–27). He is best known for his role as cultural broker at the royal court in the late tenth/sixteenth and early eleventh/seventeenth centuries. Under the instructions of Akbar, he associated with Jerónimo Xavier (d. 1617), the head of the third Jesuit mission to Mughal India (1595–1615), in order to constitute a translatio…

(1394-35), b. Šāhroḵ, Timurid prince, ruler of Shiraz, military commander, and renowned calligrapher. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 76-78 EBRĀHĪM SOLṬĀN b. Šāhroḵ, Timurid prince, ruler of Shiraz, military commander, and renowned calligrapher (796-838/1394-35). At his instigation and with his assistance Šaraf-al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī wrote his biography of Tīmūr (Tamerlane), the Ẓafar-nāma. Ebrāhīm himself achieved renown as calligrapher, particularly in the ṯolṯ script, which he employed in both Koranic manuscripts and arch…

Persian poet in India in the second half of the 16th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 4, pp. 383 BADRĪ KAŠMĪRĪ, BADR-AL-DĪN ʿABD-AL-SALĀM B. EBRĀHĪM ḤOSAYNĪ, a Persian poet in India in the second half of the 10th/16th century. He was an adherent of the Naqšbandī order and a disciple of one of its masters, Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Eslām, at whose instance he composed most of his poems. In the ornate prose preface of his versified story of Alexander ( Qeṣṣa-ye Ḏu’l-qarnayn), he states that in the years 976/1568-988/1580 he had written maṯnawīs, qaṣīdas, ḡazals, …

(b. 1392-93, d. 1422-23?), a Timurid prince and grandson of Tīmūr, active in Fārs. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 2-3 BĀYQARĀ B. ʿOMAR ŠAYḴ (795/1392-93-826/1422-23?), a Timurid prince and grandson of Tīmūr. Although his age at the time of Tīmūr’s death in Šaʿbān, 807/February, 1405, is given as twelve years (Yazdī, II, p. 734; Faṣīḥ, I, p. 154), he was one of several grandsons of Tīmūr who were married at a great qorïltāy at Samarqand six months earlier (Mīrḵvānd [Tehran], VI, p. 477). He was the youngest son of ʿOmar Šayḵ, who ha…

(d. Ḵargerd, 1521) Persian poet and nephew of ʿAbd-al-Rahmān Jāmi. A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 1, pp. 55-57 HĀTEFI, ʿABD-ALLĀH, Persian poet (d. Ḵargerd, 927/1521) and nephew of ʿAbd-al-Rahmān Jāmi. Hātefi was born in around 858/1454 at Ḵargerd, a village on the outskirts of the Khorasanian town Jām, in present-day Afghanistan (Kāboli, fol. 167a; other dates are less believable and contradictory, cf. Haft Manẓar, ed. and tr. Bernardini, p. 11; Širin o Ḵosrow, ed. Asadulloev, pp. v-vi; Meyḵāna, pp. 115, 118). Hātefi spent his whole life i…

The Kazakh khānate was a Chinggisid nomadic state that dominated the eastern Kipchak Steppe (modern-day Kazakhstan) in the tenth/sixteenth and eleventh/seventeenth centuries. Along with the Shībānid Uzbek khānate and the Crimean khānate, it was a successor state to the Jochid ulus (Vásáry, Golden Horde), the western Mongol state ruled by the descendants of Jochi (622/1225 or 624/1227), the eldest son of Chinggis Khān (r. 602–24/1206–27). 1. Origins: the Eastern Wing of the Ulus of Jochi The eastern realm of the Jochid ulus, which corresponds roughly to modern-day Kazakhstan,…

in early medieval times the capital of the then still Iranian province of Farḡāna. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 729 AḴSĪKAṮ (AḴSĪKANT, later medieval form AḴSĪ), in early medieval times the capital of the then still Iranian province of Farḡāna; according to the Ḥodūd al-ʿālam (p. 112, tr. Minorsky, p. 116), it was “the residence of the amīr and his local representatives ( ʿommāl).” At the time of the Arab conquests in Central Asia, Farḡāna was an independent principality under a Sogdian local ruler (the name Aḵsīkaṯ must …

or BENĀKAṮ, the main town of the medieval Transoxanian province of Šāš or Čāč; it almost certainly had a pre-Islamic history as a center of the Sogdians. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 668-669 BANĀKAṮ, BENĀKAṮ (in Jovaynī, Fanākat), the main town of the medieval Transoxanian province of Šāš or Čāč, to be distinguished from the nearby town of Benkaṯ, another name of the town of Šāš, later Tashkent. Banākaṯ flourished in early Islamic times and almost certainly had a pre-Islamic history as a center of the Sogdians. According to Markwart, Wehrot und A…

(or ASBĪJĀB, ESBĪJĀB) a town and district of medieval Transoxania. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 749-750 ASFĪJĀB (or ASBĪJĀB, ESBĪJĀB) a town and district of medieval Transoxania, essentially comprising the basin of the Syr Darya’s right-bank affluent, the Ares (Russian Arys’) river. The town of Asfīǰāb lay upstream from Čemkant and corresponds to the 19th-century Sayrām (in the territory of the present Soviet Kazakhstan). The district lay beyond the Iranian heartlands of Tra…