{"id":273,"date":"2018-02-10T17:55:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T17:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehollyfest.org\/?page_id=273"},"modified":"2018-02-10T17:55:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T17:55:31","slug":"louise-marlow","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.thehollyfest.org\/index.php\/louise-marlow\/","title":{"rendered":"Louise Marlow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wisdom of Buzurgmihr in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em><\/h1>\n

The Persian T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, \u201cSelect History,\u201d of \u1e24amd All\u0101h Mustawf\u012b Qazv\u012bn\u012b (b. c<\/em>. 680\/1281-2, d. c<\/em>. 750\/1349) defies tidy generic classification.[1]<\/a> Comprising six parts, the work, composed in the late Ilkhanid period, treats a variety of subject matters: the prophets and other persons who strived for truth (dar k\u0101r-i \u1e25aqq<\/em>) from the time of Adam until the Prophet Mu\u1e25ammad; the pre-Islamic kings; the Prophet Mu\u1e25ammad, his Companions and descendants; the dynasties of the Islamic era; the biographies of eminent persons; and the city of Qazvin, the author\u2019s birthplace.[2]<\/a> Integrating into the framework of a single composition elements of the \u201cuniversal\u201d chronicle, the local history and the biographical dictionary, and combining historical, biographical and topographical modes of discourse, Mustawf\u012b\u2019s T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> provides a rich illustration of a text that, notwithstanding, in Jacques Derrida\u2019s terms, the \u201claw\u201d that \u201cgenres are not to be mixed,\u201d \u201cparticipates\u201d in several genres but \u201cbelongs\u201d to none of them.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

In this essay, I propose that Mustawf\u012b\u2019s unfettered approach to historiography, and especially his combination of narrative and didactic discourses, supports one of his central purposes in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> (730\/1329-30), namely, the bringing together of Persians and Mongols within the framework of a common identification with \u201cIran.\u201d I shall explore this purpose with reference to two aspects of Mustawf\u012b\u2019s text. Firstly, I shall discuss Mustawf\u012b\u2019s involvement with the text of Firdaws\u012b\u2019s Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> \u2013 the central focus of Olga Davidson\u2019s groundbreaking studies in Persian literature.[4]<\/a> The Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, for Mustawf\u012b as for many of his contemporaries, provided the principal point of reference for a renewed conceptualizing of \u201cIran.\u201d Secondly, I shall discuss Mustawf\u012b\u2019s representation in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> of Buzurgmihr, the figure depicted in the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> as the loyal vizier and sagacious counsellor to the Sasanian monarch Khusraw I An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n (r. 531-79).[5]<\/a> In T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, I contend, Mustawf\u012b deployed the figure of Buzurgmihr as an emblem of the inclusive Iranian identity he sought to project.<\/p>\n

\u1e24amd All\u0101h Mustawf\u012b Qazv\u012bn\u012b hailed from a Shi\u02bfi family with a long record of administrative experience. In the ninth and tenth centuries, his forbears had held the governorship of his native city, Qazvin, and they had borne the appellation \u201cMustawf\u012b\u201d since his great-grandfather\u2019s posting to the financial stewardship of Iraq. \u1e24amd All\u0101h Mustawf\u012b, in his turn, assumed the office of financial director of Qazvin and several surrounding districts, a post to which he was appointed by the vizier Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn Fa\u017cl All\u0101h, known as Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn \u1e6cab\u012bb, \u201cthe physician\u201d (executed in 718\/1318). Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn had entered the service of the Mongols under Abaqa (r. 663-80\/1265-82), had been appointed (associate) vizier in 697\/1298 under Ghazan Khan (r. 694-703\/1295-1304), and continued in office under Ghazan\u2019s successor \u00d6ljeit\u00fc (r. 703-16\/1304-16). His reputation rests equally, however, on his composition of the innovative universal history J\u0101mi\u02bf al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>. Mustawf\u012b emulated Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u2019s example in both his assumption of administrative responsibilities and his dedication to the writing of history. In the preface to T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b credits his initiation into historical study to the tutelage and inspiration of Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn.[6]<\/a> He dedicated this work, like his \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, to Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u2019s son, Ghiy\u0101th al-D\u012bn Mu\u1e25ammad (d. 736\/1336),[7]<\/a> who, notwithstanding his father\u2019s execution,[8]<\/a> held the post of chief vizier from 727-36\/1327-36, under Ab\u016b Sa\u02bf\u012bd (r. 716-36\/1316-35).<\/p>\n

Collectively Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and Ghiy\u0101th al-D\u012bn figured significantly in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s intellectual and literary formation and production. As viziers and men of learning, father and son sponsored intellectual and cultural activity, especially in the Rab\u02bf-i Rash\u012bd\u012b, the well-appointed quarter that Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn had constructed in Tabriz.[9]<\/a> After the execution of Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn, his family lost much of their property to confiscation and the Rab\u02bf-i Rash\u012bd\u012b was subjected to plunder. Following his appointment to the vizierate in 727\/1327, Ghiy\u0101th al-D\u012bn was able, to some extent, to rebuild the Rab\u02bf-i Rash\u012bd\u012b, and he earned a positive reputation for his generous patronage of historians, poets and scholars.[10]<\/a> There is considerable evidence \u2013 stylistic, iconographic and numismatic \u2013 to suggest that Ghiy\u0101th al-D\u012bn may have commissioned and supervised the production of the Great Mongol (\u201cDemotte\u201d) Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> in Tabriz between 736\/1336 and 737\/1336.[11]<\/a> In T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b praises Ghiy\u0101th al-D\u012bn\u2019s nobility of character and abundance of ability, and places considerable emphasis on his admirable and persistent clemency.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b and the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em><\/h2>\n

As Nasrin Askari has demonstrated, Firdaws\u012b\u2019s Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> imprinted subsequent Persian literature in numerous, implicit as well as explicit, ways.[13]<\/a> The poem\u2019s vast impact is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the Persian historiographical works of the Ilkhanid period.[14]<\/a> This corpus abounds in direct quotations from and allusions to the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>.[15]<\/a> The later Ilkhanid period also saw a proliferating production of new versified epics, which combined historical narrative with moral edification. The conscious modelling of these compositions on Firdaws\u012b\u2019s Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> is signalled in, among other characteristics, their adoption of the evocative metre of mutaq\u0101rib<\/em>. These Ilkhanid epics presented themselves as continuations of or supplements to Firdaws\u012b\u2019s poem, and in several cases, they evoked parallels between protagonists and episodes portrayed in the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> and contemporaneous figures and events.[16]<\/a> The period also saw the display of poetic inscriptions from the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> in the tile-work of Ilkhanid palaces.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b\u2019s oeuvre<\/em> provides an especially notable example of this late Ilkhanid engagement with Firdaws\u012b\u2019s Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>. Among his earliest intellectual projects was the production of an edition of the poem, a project that entailed six years of study and a close review of over fifty manuscripts.[18]<\/a> As Charles Melville and Stefan Kamola have demonstrated, the depth of Mustawf\u012b\u2019s involvement with the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> is particularly conspicuous in his \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> (\u201cBook of Victory,\u201d commenced c<\/em>. 720\/1320, completed 735\/1334-5), a versified chronicle that, like similar compositions, alludes to Firdaws\u012b\u2019s poem in its use of mutaq\u0101rib<\/em>.[19]<\/a> Significantly, Mustawf\u012b\u2019s title \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> recalls the P\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101mak<\/em> (\u201cBook of Victory\u201d) ascribed to Buzurgmihr.[20]<\/a> The association with Buzurgmihr, as Kamola has argued convincingly, contributed to one of Mustawf\u012b\u2019s principal objectives in his \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, namely the fashioning of a new and enduring image of the vizier Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn Fa\u017cl All\u0101h, to whom he ascribes a parallel pandn<\/em>\u0101<\/em>meh<\/em> (\u201cbook of advice\u201d) composed for the benefit of Ghazan.[21]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b appears to have begun writing his \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> in about 720\/1320, some two years after the death of Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn, and he completed it in about 735\/1334-5. Its composition therefore overlapped with that of T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> (730\/1330), which Mustawf\u012b seems to have begun later and completed sooner.[22]<\/a> Composed in prose, T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> constitutes a condensed counterpoint to Mustawf\u012b\u2019s 75,000-couplet-long chronicle; while interrelated, the two compositions differ somewhat in their points of emphasis and perhaps in their principal purposes. In T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b presents a \u201chistory\u201d that embraces the entirety of human experience from the time of Adam to the moment of his composition (az \u02bfahd-i \u0100dam \u02bfalayhi al-sal\u0101m t\u0101 zam\u0101n-i ta\u02bel\u012bf-i \u012bn mukhta\u1e63ar<\/em>), namely 730 [1329-30].[23]<\/a> The poetic narrative of the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> opens, as is well known, with the creation of the world and concludes with the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century. Mustawf\u012b commences his \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> at the point at which Firdaws\u012b concluded his Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, that is, at the beginning of the Islamic era, and continues his narration of Islamic and Iranian history up to the year 735\/1334-5, that is, virtually to the end of the Ilkhanid period. His T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> opens with the creation and concludes at the time of writing, namely 730\/1329-30, and covers, effectively, the temporal ranges of the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> and the \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> combined.<\/p>\n

If the imprint of the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> is especially pronounced in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, it is also evident, as the following section details, in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>.[24]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b\u2019s T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em><\/h2>\n

In the preface to T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b lists twenty-three formative texts, in Arabic and Persian, to which he had devoted particular study. Among these writings, Mustawf\u012b refers explicitly to tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>, historical writings, in which category he includes Firdaws\u012b\u2019s Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> and the Siyar al-mul\u016bk<\/em> of Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-Mulk (d. 485\/1092).[25]<\/a> Steeped in his studies of these texts, amplified by the documents and resources to which his administrative office and longstanding family experience gave him access, Mustawf\u012b produced, in his words, a \u201cconcise, composite compendium\u201d (mukhta\u1e63ar-i m\u016bjaz\u012b \u2026 mujmal<\/em>), an \u201cepitome\u201d (khul\u0101\u1e63eh<\/em>) suffused with a rich intertextuality.[26]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> would, in turn, take its place in this intellectual and literary repertoire current in the Persianate realms: Mu\u02bf\u012bn al-D\u012bn Na\u1e6danz\u012b drew on it in his Muntakhab al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh-i Mu\u02bf\u012bn\u012b<\/em>, and among the Mughal administrative \u00e9lites, it formed part of the Persian curriculum devoted to the study of history, particularly that of Islam, and of the Mongols and Turks in Iran and Central Asia.[27]<\/a><\/p>\n

Among the most striking references to Firdaws\u012b\u2019s Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> is Mustawf\u012b\u2019s concentration on \u201cIran\u201d and \u201c\u012ar\u0101n-zam\u012bn.\u201d[28]<\/a> The idea of \u201cIran,\u201d as a distinct and unified territorial and cultural entity, reappeared prominently in the historiography of the Ilkhanid period,[29]<\/a> when it played an important role in promoting the social integration of the Mongols into the Iranian environment. It provided, as George Lane has written, a vehicle for expressing the common interests among members of the Persian \u00e9lite and the Tolu\u02beid princes in an administration that brought together Persian and Mongol, Turk and Tajik at all levels.[30]<\/a> The term \u201cIran\u201d facilitated the projection of a continuous, rather than ruptured, history that associated the Ilkhanid present with figures and episodes of the Iranian heritage.[31]<\/a> In T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b repeatedly invokes \u201cIran\u201d as a distinct and cohesive territorial whole. In the twelve sections that comprise his fourth chapter, dedicated to the dynasties of the Islamic era (p\u0101dsh\u0101h\u0101n keh dar \u1e63adr-i Isl\u0101m b\u016bdand<\/em>), Mustawf\u012b\u2019s selected dynastic families represent an Iranian perspective.[32]<\/a> Having announced his concentration on the kings and viziers of \u012ar\u0101n-zam\u012bn, Mustawf\u012b distinguishes among dynasties that ruled in parts of Iran (ba\u02bf\u017c\u012b az \u012ar\u0101n<\/em>), such as the Saffarids; in most of Iran (akthar-i \u012ar\u0101n<\/em>), such as the early Ghaznavids; or all of Iran (tam\u0101mat-i \u012ar\u0101n<\/em>), such as the Great Seljuks. Accordingly, Mustawf\u012b devotes separate sections of his entry for the Seljuks to the branches that ruled in Kirman and Anatolia, and in treating the Isma\u02bfilis he discusses separately their polities in Egypt and North Africa on the one hand and in Iran on the other.[33]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b\u2019s following of Firdaws\u012b\u2019s perspective is similarly evident in his awareness of the instructive and edifying potential of history \u2013 an attestation of the \u201cethical-rhetorical\u201d approach identified by Julie Scott Meisami as a hallmark of much Persian historiography.[34]<\/a> In the preface to T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b describes the importance and functions of historical knowledge (\u02bfilm-i<\/em> tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>), \u201cthe benefits (fav\u0101\u02beid<\/em>) of which defy reckoning\u201d, for they include\u00a0reflection on the affairs of those who have passed, learning the lessons (i\u02bftib\u0101r<\/em>) of their conditions, of their experiences in the important matters and optimal interests (ma\u1e63\u0101li\u1e25<\/em>) of sovereignty; consideration of the abiding traces of every community or dynasty (\u1e6d\u0101\u02beifeh<\/em>)\u2019s turn in power, the causes of each people (qawm<\/em>)\u2019s fall (nakbat<\/em>), the practical education of the self (tamarrun-i nafs<\/em>) in the vicissitudes of the world illustrated in the experiences of past ages and bygone nations, and other matters, beyond calculation.[35]<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition, Mustawf\u012b, throughout his oeuvre<\/em>, drew on the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>\u2019s ample repertoire of materials in order to evoke parallels with contemporaneous figures and circumstances. Among the figures whom Mustawf\u012b adduced in both the \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> and T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> is, as previously mentioned, Buzurgmihr, the sagacious vizier-counsellor of the Sasanian King An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n \u201cthe Just\u201d and exponent of numerous wise aphorisms. Dick Davis has suggested that Firdaws\u012b, acutely sensitive to the abuses of sovereign power and displays of royal ingratitude relayed in the narratives from which he composed his Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, conveyed an implicit dissent from the glorification of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n by elevating the figure of Buzurgmihr, on whose wisdom the king\u2019s claim to wisdom wholly depended, and who, still answering the king\u2019s questions, was subjected to his monarch\u2019s wholly unjustified punishment.[36]<\/a> The pairing of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n and Buzurgmihr exemplified, at its best, the optimal relationship between the just, prudent ruler and his wise counsellor, but equally, the relationship\u2019s unravelling presaged the peril that attended royal service.<\/p>\n

As this essay will show, Mustawf\u012b, in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, placed less emphasis on Buzurgmihr\u2019s function as vizier and concentrated instead on his stature as the quintessential Iranian \u1e25ak\u012bm<\/em>, or wise philosopher. Despite Mustawf\u012b\u2019s relative lack of attention to Buzurgmihr\u2019s relationship with An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n, it seems possible, perhaps likely, that his audience might have inferred contemporary analogies for both the exemplary and the cautionary aspects of the Sasanian figure. If, for example, they were familiar with the report of Buzurgmihr\u2019s conversion to Christianity, they perhaps imagined a potential parallel with Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u2019s conversion (from Judaism) to Islam.[37]<\/a> Similarly, while Mustawf\u012b does not mention Buzurgmihr\u2019s incarceration, he refers repeatedly to Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn as al-waz\u012br \u2026 al-sa<\/em>\u02bf\u012b<\/em>d al-shah\u012bd<\/em>,[38]<\/a> an allusion to the fate that overtook his first master, who, like Buzurgmihr, suffered the cruel enactment of his monarch\u2019s displeasure. In T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> Mustawf\u012b does not, however, draw explicit analogies between Buzurgmihr and contemporary figures; it is in the \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> that he develops a clear parallel between Buzurgmihr and Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn.[39]<\/a> In T\u0304\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, it is Buzurgmihr the surpassing sage of Iran whom Mustawf\u012b presents to his audience.<\/p>\n

Buzurgmihr in Arabic and Persian literature<\/h2>\n

Buzurgmihr appears in Arabic and Pahlavi writings of the ninth and tenth centuries,[40]<\/a> and from this period onwards, the figure recurs in a variety of Arabic and New Persian writings, both as a protagonist in historiographical and narrative contexts, and as the exponent of wise sayings, sometimes adduced singly, sometimes in extended sequences.[41]<\/a><\/p>\n

The name Buzurgmihr appears in connection with a cluster of narratives, which, in combination, provided Buzurgmihr with what Davidson has usefully termed a vita<\/em>.[42]<\/a> Usually presented separately rather than in the form of an interlinked narrative, these elements adhered to a composite persona developed in a manner that was neither linear nor continuous. In one narrative tradition, Buzurgmihr first encounters An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n when, after all the established authorities, including his own teacher \u0100z\u0101dsarv, have failed to interpret the king\u2019s dream, Buzurgmihr alone is able to interpret it. In another account, Buzurgmihr, having distinguished himself as the sole philosopher able to discern the significance of the game of chess introduced to the Iranian court by an Indian delegation, responded to the challenge by devising the game of backgammon, which confounded the Indian philosophers and demonstrated his (and Iran\u2019s) superior ingenuity. A further sequence of narratives relates An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s imprisonment of Buzurgmihr; in this account, Buzurgmihr continues to respond to the king\u2019s questions during his custody.[43]<\/a> Among the most notable narrators of the accounts of Buzurgmihr, Firdaws\u012b and al-Tha\u02bf\u0101lib\u012b (350-429\/961-1038) relate versions of all three of these episodes in their accounts of the reign of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n.[44]<\/a><\/p>\n

Closely linked with Buzurgmihr are numbers of maxims (variously referred to as his amth\u0101l<\/em>, \u1e25ikam<\/em>, \u0101th\u0101r<\/em> or \u0101d\u0101b<\/em>) that attest his proverbial wisdom. Maxims played a prominent and important role in the literary cultures of Arabic and Persian.[45]<\/a> At least from the time of litt\u00e9rateur and polymath al-J\u0101\u1e25i\u1e93 (c<\/em>. 160-255\/776-868), who specifically mentions the amth\u0101l<\/em> (proverbial sayings) of Buzurgmihr, a familiarity with wisdom literature, often relayed in the form of aphorisms, was a requirement for the k\u0101tib<\/em> or secretary.[46]<\/a><\/p>\n

Firdaws\u012b included a separate section comprised of Buzurgmihr\u2019s wise utterances in his account of the reign of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n.[47]<\/a> Other authors omit or abbreviate drastically the narrative content of Buzurgmihr\u2019s vita<\/em>, and record his maxims in collections of proverbial materials. Miskawayh (d. 421\/1030), for example, included a long section headed \u201cWhat I have selected from the \u0101d\u0101b<\/em> of Buzurgmihr,\u201d followed by a section headed, \u201cFurther sayings of Buzurgmihr,\u201d in his collection of the wise sayings of various peoples, J\u0101v\u012bd\u0101n khirad<\/em>.[48]<\/a> Various sources refer to or record collections of Buzurgmihr\u2019s written wisdom under the rubrics pandn\u0101meh<\/em>,[49]<\/a> kalim\u0101t<\/em>[50]<\/a> and p\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101mak<\/em> or, in its New Persian rendering, \u1e93afarn\u0101meh<\/em>.[51]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b\u2019s Buzurgmihr in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em><\/h2>\n

Mustawf\u012b\u2019s main entry for Buzurgmihr appears not in connection with the reign of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n, but in a separate section of the T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>. This entry forms a conspicuous part of Mustawf\u012b\u2019s first chapter, which consists of two sections (sg. fa\u1e63l<\/em>), devoted to (i) prophets and (ii) philosopher-sages (\u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>), persons who, though not prophets, strived in the cause of truth, from the time of Adam until the era of Mu\u1e25ammad. Mustawf\u012b subdivides each of these sections into two further parts. He subdivides his first section, devoted to prophets, into categories devoted to (a) rusul<\/em>, \u201csent prophets\u201d (payghambar\u0101n-i mursal<\/em>) and bearers of a religious law and (b) anbiy\u0101<\/em>, prophets whose mission did not include the bringing of law (anbiy\u0101<\/em>). He divides his second sub-section, devoted to philosopher-sages, into categories concerned with (a) philosopher-sages (\u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>), the great philosophers of former times, and (b) non-prophetic figures who exerted themselves in the cause of religion (mujtahid\u016bn<\/em>). Buzurgmihr appears last in the section devoted to \u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>, individuals devoted to the pursuit of truth not by prophetic guidance but by \u1e25ikmat<\/em>, which equipped them to formulate laws and counsels, mav\u0101\u017ci\u02bf<\/em> and na\u1e63\u0101\u02bei\u1e25<\/em>, for the benefit of humanity.[52]<\/a> Mustawf\u012b\u2019s Buzurgmihr, then, is first and foremost a purveyor of ancient wisdom, his standing equal to or surpassing the stature of the venerated philosophers of antiquity.[53]<\/a><\/p>\n

In contrast to the predominance of Buzurgmihr in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s presentation of ancient philosophers, the figure features only fleetingly in his account of the reign of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n. This account occurs in the second chapter of T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, devoted to the pre-Islamic (Iranian) kings, whom Mustawf\u012b, following the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh,<\/em> presents in four groups, the P\u012bshd\u0101d\u012by\u0101n, the Kay\u0101n\u012by\u0101n, the mul\u016bk al-\u1e6dav\u0101\u02beif<\/em> and lastly the Sasanians. In his entry for An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n, whose \u201ccounsels of the crown\u201d he also records,[54]<\/a> Mustawf\u012b mentions Buzurgmihr, \u201chis vizier,\u201d once only, and reduces the narrative element of his entry to the brief observation that Buzurgmihr responded to the introduction of chess from India by devising the game of backgammon.[55]<\/a><\/p>\n

The structure of Mustawf\u012b\u2019s entries throughout Chapter One of T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> \u2013 embracing prophets and non-prophetic purveyors of universal wisdom \u2013 is consistent. Each section is arranged roughly chronologically, so that fathers precede the mention of their sons, and teachers precede the mention of their students. Mustawf\u012b treats prophets and other individuals esteemed in the Qur\u02bean, such as Luqm\u0101n and the Companions of the Cave, before figures who lacked such sanction. His entries for the prophets and philosopher-sages follow a regular pattern, comprising, firstly, a biographical report, and secondly, examples of the individual\u2019s transmitted teachings. The first, biographical component consists of, in some cases, a single identifying word, and in other cases an extensive biographical narrative, which often foregrounds ethical and instructive elements: for example, Solomon prays for pand<\/em> and finds its quintessence in two divinely inspired na\u1e63\u012b\u1e25at<\/em>, and Jesus delivers a series of pandh\u0101<\/em>.[56]<\/a><\/p>\n

Luqm\u0101n, the Arabian sage, and Buzurgmihr, the first and last figures respectively in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s sequence of philosopher-sages, constitute a frame for a series of otherwise almost exclusively Greek and Hellenistic figures (J\u0101m\u0101sp is the only other \u2013 like Buzurgmihr, Iranian \u2013 exception). As Mustawf\u012b moves through this sequence of figures, he traces affinities from one \u1e25ak\u012bm<\/em> to the next, and integrates Qur\u02beanic, Greek and Iranian traditions. Pythagoras, for example, is identified as a disciple of Luqm\u0101n, and thereby acquires an indirect Qur\u02beanic association; he is further identified as a contemporary of Gusht\u0101sp. J\u0101m\u0101sp is described as the brother of Gusht\u0101sp and as a disciple of Luqm\u0101n; Buqr\u0101\u1e6d (Hippocrates) is designated a \u1e25ak\u012bm<\/em> (physician), identified as a disciple of Pythagoras, and as a contemporary of Bahman. Afl\u0101\u1e6d\u016bn (Plato) is identified as a \u1e25ak\u012bm<\/em> (philosopher), as a disciple of Socrates, and as a contemporary of D\u0101r\u0101b; and Aris\u1e6d\u0101\u1e6d\u0101l\u012bs (Aristotle) is described as a \u1e25ak\u012bm<\/em> (philosopher), a disciple of Plato, and as the counsellor-vizier (dast\u016br<\/em>) of Alexander.[57]<\/a> By highlighting the multiple cultural and intellectual connections of these emblematic figures, Mustawf\u012b\u2019s presentation supports his integrating approach towards the diverse populations brought together in the society that he inhabited. Aristotle, the penultimate individual treated in this sequence, epitomized the figure of the philosopher-counsellor-vizier, and led Mustawf\u012b, by way of association, to the last, and culminating, individual in his category of \u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>, namely the equally paradigmatic philosopher-counsellor-vizier, Buzurgmihr.<\/p>\n

His entry for Buzurgmihr is not only the final, but also by far the longest entry in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s section devoted to \u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>. Here, Mustawf\u012b limits his biographical introduction of Buzurgmihr to the terse but critical information that Buzurgmihr was the \u201cvizier of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n the Just\u201d and that he was \u201cof Marvaz\u012b stock.\u201d[58]<\/a> Unlike several of the figures invoked earlier in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s treatment of \u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>, then, Buzurgmihr appears in an exclusively Iranian context, signalled by his relationship to the Sasanian dynasty on the one hand and his linkage with the territorial notion of Iran on the other. The expressly Iranian nature of Mustawf\u012b\u2019s Buzurgmihr accords with the centrality of the concept of Iran in the Ilkhanid realm and in the T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>. The positioning of Buzurgmihr as the last and culminating figure in this diverse and interrelated series of philosophers supports Mustawf\u012b\u2019s projection of Iran as an identification that encompassed multiple constituencies.<\/p>\n

Following his brief identification of Buzurgmihr\u2019s profession and geographical background, Mustawf\u012b devotes by far the larger part of his entry to the sage\u2019s sukhan\u0101n<\/em>, a term used of Buzurgmihr\u2019s wise utterances in the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> as well.[59]<\/a> Mustawf\u012b begins his recitation of Buzurgmihr\u2019s sayings with five statements, each structured on the number five. For example, he lists five things that derive solely from decree and destiny, and to attain which the servant\u2019s efforts will be to no avail; five things that are attainable by the servant\u2019s earnest striving and effort; five things that are innate; five things that are habitual, or formed by habit; and five things that are hereditary.[60]<\/a> After these pronouncements, Mustawf\u012b turns to an extended sequence of questions and answers, presented as Buzurgmihr\u2019s reported questions to his (unidentified) teacher (ust\u0101d<\/em>) and his teacher\u2019s responses.[61]<\/a><\/p>\n

Mustawf\u012b does not ascribe a \u201ctitle\u201d to his collection of Buzurgmihr\u2019s sukhan\u0101n<\/em>, which resemble and often replicate the sententiae<\/em> presented elsewhere as the previously mentioned P\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101meh<\/em> or \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> (\u201cBook of Victory\u201d) of Buzurgmihr. This text, reputedly rendered from Pahlavi into Persian by Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b Ibn S\u012bn\u0101 (d. 428\/1037) at the behest of the Samanid N\u016b\u1e25 b. Man\u1e63\u016br (r. 365-87\/976-97),[62]<\/a> presents its counsels as Buzurgmihr\u2019s reply to An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s request that he compile \u201csome useful (muf\u012bd<\/em>) utterances, short in words but ample in meaning \u2026 beneficial (s\u016bdmand<\/em>) in this world and the next.\u201d The text\u2019s preface reports that Buzurgmihr requested a year\u2019s grace to compile the collection. It reports further that An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n, delighted with the composition, added a city (shahr<\/em>) to Buzurgmihr\u2019s estates (aq\u1e6d\u0101\u02bf<\/em>), decreed that his words should be inscribed in golden ink and preserved in perpetuity, and often perused the written text. At the beginning of his text, Buzurgmihr acknowledges his debt to the answers of his teacher (ust\u0101d<\/em>), and proceeds to relay these answers.[63]<\/a> In this last feature and in much of its contents, Mustawf\u012b\u2019s rendering of Buzurgmihr\u2019s sayings resembles Ibn S\u012bn\u0101\u2019s version, shorn of the latter\u2019s preliminary elements, namely its praise of God and the Prophet (na\u02bft<\/em>), its amm\u0101 ba\u02bfdiyya<\/em>, which marks the beginning of substantive discourse, and its presentation of Buzurgmihr\u2019s opening words.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Buzurgmihr features in significant but contrasting ways in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s concurrently written \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> and T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>. In the \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, as Stefan Kamola has argued, Mustawf\u012b employed the figure of Buzurgmihr to evoke and fashion an image of Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn.[64]<\/a> In T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, this evocation of contemporary analogies remains implicit, dependent on the audience\u2019s prior familiarity with Buzurgmihr\u2019s vita<\/em>, to which, however, Mustawf\u012b devoted little explicit attention. Eschewing mention of most details of Buzurgmihr\u2019s vita<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b concentrated instead, and predominantly, on the vizier\u2019s status \u2013 in an explicitly Iranian context \u2013 as a purveyor of timeless wisdom. Positioning his entry for Buzurgmihr the wise philosopher immediately after his entry for the philosopher-counsellor-vizier Aristotle, Mustawf\u012b portrayed Buzurgmihr\u2019s proverbial wisdom as the Iranian culmination of an inter-cultural legacy, a use of \u201cIran\u201d that created commonality among the Mongol and Iranian communities of early fourteenth-century Iran. Throughout his T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b brought together Qur\u02beanic, Arabian and Iranian traditions, and evoked an \u201cIran\u201d that provided an integrative conceptual and imaginative framework within which to accommodate the multiple constituencies within the mixed \u00e9lites at the Ilkhanid court. Buzurgmihr furnished a rich example of the inclusive and unifying capacity of Iran.<\/p>\n

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Raf\u012b\u02bf, \u02bfAbd al-Raf\u012b\u02bf \u1e24aq\u012bqat (1374 [1995]). Vaz\u012br\u0101n-i \u012br\u0101n\u012b az Buzurgmihr t\u0101 Am\u012br Kab\u012br: D\u014d haz\u0101r s\u0101l-i viz\u0101rat<\/em>. Tehran: K\u016bmis.<\/p>\n

Rajav\u012b, K\u0101\u1e93im (1333 [1951]). P\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101meh mans\u016bb bi-Buzurgmihr-i Bukhtag\u0101n Tarjameh-yi Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b-yi S\u012bn\u0101<\/em>. Tehran: Ibn S\u012bn\u0101.<\/p>\n

\u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, Ghul\u0101m-\u1e24usayn (1383 [2004]). \u1e92afarn\u0101meh mans\u016bb bi-Shaykh-i Ra\u02be\u012bs-i Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b S\u012bn\u0101<\/em>. Hamadan: D\u0101nishg\u0101h-i B\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b S\u012bn\u0101.<\/p>\n

Sela, Ron (2013). \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u2019s Historiographical Legacy in the Muslim World.\u201d In Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn. Agent and Mediator of Cultural Exchanges in Ilkhanid Iran<\/em>, ed. Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. London \u2013 Turin: The Warburg Institute \u2013 Nino Aragno Editore, 213-22.<\/p>\n

Soudavar, Abolala (2006). \u201cThe Han-Lin Academy and the Persian Royal Library-Atelier.\u201d In History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods<\/em>, ed. Judith Pfeiffer and Sholeh A. Quinn in Collaboration with Ernest Tucker. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 467-84.<\/p>\n

al-Tha\u02bf\u0101lib\u012b, Ab\u016b Man\u1e63\u016br (1900). Ghurar akhb\u0101r mul\u016bk al-furs wa-siyarihim<\/em> (= Histoire des rois des Perses<\/em>), ed. H. Zotenberg. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.<\/p>\n

Waldman, Marilyn R. (1980). Toward a Theory of Historical Narrative: A Case Study in Perso-Islamicate Historiography<\/em>. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press.<\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/h2>\n

[1]<\/a> Charles Melville, \u201cHistoriography,\u201d IV: Mongol Period, EIr<\/em>. The same defiance of generic classification characterizes Mustawf\u012b\u2019s \u201cgeography,\u201d Nuzhat al-qul\u016bb<\/em> (cf. Judith Pfeiffer, \u201cThe Canonization of Cultural Memory: Gh\u0101z\u0101n Khan, Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn, and the Construction of the Mongol Past,\u201d in Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn. Agent and Mediator of Cultural Exchanges in Ilkhanid Iran<\/em>, 57-70, 58, n. 7). I am grateful to Stefan Kamola for his very helpful comments on an earlier draft of this essay.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> For a detailed account of the structure and contents of T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, see E. G. Browne, \u201cBiographies of Persian Poets Contained in Ch. V, \u00a7 6, of the T\u00e1r\u00edkh-i-Guz\u00edda<\/em>, or \u201cSelect History,\u201d of \u1e24amdu\u2019ll\u00e1h Mustawf\u00ed of Qazw\u00edn,\u201d Part I, JRAS<\/em> (1900), 721-62, 723-5. In many respects, the structure of T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> recalls, as Stefan Kamola has pointed out, that of Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b\u2019s four-part Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em> (c<\/em>. 674\/1275), which Mustawf\u012b cites among the sources he consulted (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, ed. \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24usayn Nav\u0101\u02be\u012b, Tehran: Am\u012br Kab\u012br, 1362 [1983], 7) (Stefan T. Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History in Mongol Iran,\u201d Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, 2013, 259).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Jacques Derrida, \u201cThe Law of Genre,\u201d Trans. Avital Ronell, Glyph<\/em> 7 (1980), 202-32, 202, 206. See also G\u00e9rard Genette, \u201cGenres, \u00abtypes\u00ab, modes,\u201d Po\u00e9tique<\/em> 32 (November 1977), 389-421.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> See especially Olga M. Davidson, Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings<\/em> (Originally published: Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994; Third Edition, Boston, Massachusetts: Ilex Foundation and Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2013), and eadem<\/em>, Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetics<\/em> (Originally published: Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 2000; Second Edition, Boston, Massachusetts: Ilex Foundation and Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2013).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> The historicity and identity of the figure known as Buzurgmihr in the Arabic and Persian literary corpora remain matters of speculation. It has been proposed that the figure corresponds to Borzmihr, secretary to Khusraw I; the possibility of a relationship with the physician Burz\u016bya (Burz\u014d\u0113), similarly associated with Khusraw, has also been discussed (see Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh, \u201cBozorgmehr-e Bok<\/u>tag\u0101n,\u201d EIr<\/em>; F. R. C. Bagley, Ghaz\u0101l\u012b\u2019s Book of Counsel for Kings (Na\u1e63\u012b\u1e25at al-mul\u016bk)<\/em>, London: Oxford University Press, 1964, lxvi-lxx). As Abdallah Cheikh-Moussa has noted, Burz\u016bya (Barzawayh) and Buzurgmihr appear in Arabic writings as two differentiated masters of wisdom, both associated with An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n (\u201cDu discours autoris\u00e9 ou Comment s\u2019adresser au tyran?\u201d Arabica<\/em> 46 [1999], 139-75, 144; cf. 161).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 2-3, 7.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 4-5.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn was accused of having poisoned \u00d6ljeit\u00fc, Ab\u016b Sa\u02bf\u012bd\u2019s father (D. O. Morgan, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn \u1e6cab\u012bb,\u201d EI2<\/sup><\/em>).<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> For recent treatments of the Rab\u02bf-i Rash\u012bd\u012b and its production of manuscripts, see Birgitt Hoffmann, \u201cIn Pursuit of Memoria<\/em> and Salvation: Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and His Rab\u02bf-i Rash\u012bd\u012b,\u201d in Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th<\/sup>-15th<\/sup>-Century Tabriz<\/em>, ed. J. Pfeiffer, Leiden: Brill, 2014, pp. 171-85, and Nouane Ben Azzouna, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn Fa\u1e0dl All\u0101h al-Hamadh\u0101n\u012b\u2019s Manuscript Production Project in Tabriz Reconsidered,\u201d in Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th<\/sup>-15th<\/sup>-Century Tabriz<\/em>, ed. J. Pfeiffer, Leiden: Brill, 2014, pp. 187-200.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Peter Jackson and Charles Melville, \u201cG\u012b\u0101t<\/u>-al-D\u012bn Mo\u1e25ammad,\u201d EIr<\/em>; Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d 258.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> See Oleg Grabar and Sheila Blair, Epic Images and Contemporary History: The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Sh\u0101hnama<\/em>, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980, 48; Sheila Blair, \u201cPatterns of Patronage and Production in Ilkhanid Iran: The Case of Rashid al-Din,\u201d in In the Court of the Il-Khans, 1290-1340<\/em>, ed. Julian Raby and Theresa Fitzherbert (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 56; eadem<\/em>, \u201cThe Coins of the Later Ilkh\u0101nids: Mint Organization, Regionalization, and Urbanism,\u201d Museum Notes<\/em> 27 (1982), 211-30, 224-5; eadem<\/em>, \u201cRewriting the History of the Great Mongol Sh\u0101hnama<\/em>,\u201d in Sh\u0101hnama: The Visual Language of the Persian Book of Kings<\/em>, ed. Robert Hillenbrand (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 35-50, 40, 47-8. See further Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d 261-3.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 4-5, 621-2. Mustawf\u012b writes that \u201cclemency in conjunction with power is the utmost perfection of humanity\u201d (\u02bfafv bi-hing\u0101m-i qudrat gh\u0101yat-i kam\u0101l-i ins\u0101n\u012byat ast<\/em>) (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 621).<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Nasrin Askari, The Medieval Reception of the<\/em> Sh\u0101hn\u0101ma as a Mirror for Princes<\/em>, Leiden: Brill, 2016.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> It should be noted, however, that this impact is more or less manifest at different moments during the Ilkhanid period; the courts of Ghazan and \u00d6ljeit\u00fc appear to have shown little interest in the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, and Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn makes little reference to it. See Stefan Kamola, \u201cThe Fall and Rise of Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u201d (unpublished manuscript; I am deeply grateful to Dr Kamola for providing me with a draft of this part of his forthcoming monograph).<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> See, for example, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, \u201cBiography and the Image of a Medieval Historian: The T\u0101r\u012bkh-i jah\u0101n-gosh\u0101<\/em> of \u02bfA\u1e6d\u0101-Malek Jovayn\u012b,\u201d in The Rhetoric of Biography: Narrating Lives in Persianate Societies<\/em>, ed. L. Marlow, Boston: Ilex Foundation and Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2011, 21-40.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Melville, \u201cBetween Firdausi and Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u201d; idem<\/em>, \u201cGenealogy and Exemplary Rulership in the Tarikh-i Chingiz Khan<\/em>\u201d, in Living Islamic History: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand<\/em>, ed. Yasir Suleiman, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, 129-50, 132; Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d 260-1.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Bernard O\u2019Kane, \u201cPersian Poetry on Ilkhanid Art and Architecture,\u201d in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan<\/em>, ed. Linda Komaroff, Leiden: Brill, 2006, 346-54, 348-9; Sheila S. Blair, \u201cThe Ilkhanid Palace,\u201d Ars Orientalis<\/em> 23 (1993), 239-48, 242.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Abolala Soudavar, \u201cThe Han-Lin Academy and the Persian Royal Library-Atelier,\u201d in History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods<\/em>, ed. Judith Pfeiffer and Sholeh A. Quinn in Collaboration with Ernest Tucker, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006, 467-84, 474-5; Bert G. Fragner, \u201cIlkhanid Rule and Its Contributions to Iranian Political Culture,\u201d in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan<\/em>, 68-80, 74; Askari, Medieval Reception<\/em>, 37-9; Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d 261; idem<\/em>, \u201cFall and Rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Charles Melville, \u201cBetween Firdaus\u012b and Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn: Persian Verse Chronicles of the Mongol Period,\u201d Studia Islamica<\/em> 104-105 (2007): 45-65; Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d 260-8, and idem<\/em>, \u201cFall and Rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> See Ghul\u0101m-\u1e24usayn \u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, \u1e92afarn\u0101meh mans\u016bb bi-Shaykh-i Ra\u02be\u012bs-i Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b S\u012bn\u0101<\/em>, Hamadan: D\u0101nishg\u0101h-i B\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b S\u012bn\u0101, 1383 [2004], 9-11, on the relationship of the two texts and titles; for other uses of the title \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, see \u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, 11-15. On the P\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101mak<\/em>, see further below.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d esp. 257-79; idem<\/em>, \u201cFall and Rise.\u201d See also Melville, \u201cBetween Firdausi and Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn,\u201d 63, and Nasrin Askari, The Medieval Reception of the<\/em> Sh\u0101hn\u0101ma as a Mirror for Princes<\/em>, Leiden: Brill, 2016, 39.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> See Charles Melville, \u201c\u1e24amd All\u0101h Mustawf\u012b\u2019s \u1e92afarn\u0101mah<\/em> and the Historiography of the Late Ilkhanid Period,\u201d Iran and Iranian Studies<\/em> 1998, 1-12, 3.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 7. In the scope of his History<\/em>, Mustawf\u012b was indebted to the example of Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn, whose extraordinarily broad historical imagination is especially evident in the second volume of the J\u0101mi\u02bf al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em> (cf. Stefan Kamola, \u201cHistory and Legend in the J\u0101mi\u02bf al-taw\u0101rikh<\/em>: Abraham, Alexander, and Oghuz Khan,\u201d JRAS<\/em> Series 3, 25 [2015], 555-77, esp. 556).<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> Mustawf\u012b includes a brief entry for Firdaws\u012b in his section devoted to poets (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 743; Browne, \u201cBiographies of Persian Poets Contained in Ch. V, \u00a7 6, of the T\u00e1r\u00edkh-i-Guz\u00edda<\/em>, or \u201cSelect History,\u201d of \u1e24amdu\u2019ll\u00e1h Mustawf\u00ed of Qazw\u00edn,\u201d Part II (Continued from p. 762), JRAS<\/em> 1901, 1-32, 7-8), and refers to and cites him in his entries for Daq\u012bq\u012b (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 730; Browne, \u201cBiographies of Persian Poets,\u201d I: 730) and \u02bfUn\u1e63ur\u012b (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 738; Browne, \u201cBiographies of Persian Poets,\u201d I: 761). Mustawf\u012b further relates an episode in which the Caliph al-Q\u0101dir (r. 422-67\/1031-75) and Sultan Ma\u1e25m\u016bd (r. 388-421\/998-1030) corresponded over Firdaws\u012b (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 351).<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 6-7. Julie Scott Meisami draws attention to the breadth of Persianate conceptions of \u201chistoriography\u201d when she, like Mustawf\u012b, includes the Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em> and Siyar al-mul\u016bk<\/em> in her Persian Historiography to the End of the Twelfth Century<\/em> (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999, 37-45, 145-62).<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 6.<\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> Ron Sela, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn\u2019s Historiographical Legacy in the Muslim World,\u201d in Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn. Agent and Mediator of Cultural Exchanges in Ilkhanid Iran<\/em>, ed. Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, London \u2013 Turin: The Warburg Institute \u2013 Nino Aragno Editore, 2013, 213-22, 217; Muzaffar Alam, \u201cThe Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan,\u201d in Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia<\/em>, ed. Sheldon Pollock, University of California Press, 2003, 131-98, 163, 164; Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics<\/em>, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012, 316. Mustawf\u012b\u2019s T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> was not, however, universally well regarded; see Melville, \u201c\u1e24amd All\u0101h Mustawf\u012b\u2019s \u1e92afarn\u0101mah<\/em>,\u201d 9 and n. 32.<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> It should be pointed out that in this respect, Mustawf\u012b also followed the approach of Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b in his Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em> (see Charles Melville, \u201cFrom Adam to Abaqa: Q\u0101\u1e0d\u012b Bai\u1e0d\u0101w\u012b\u2019s Rearrangement of History,\u201d Studia Iranica<\/em> 30 [2001], 67-86).<\/p>\n

[29]<\/a> Dorothea Krawulsky, The Mongol \u012alkh\u0101ns and their Vizier Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn<\/em>, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2011, 44.<\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> George Lane, \u201cPersian Notables and the Families Who Underpinned the Ilkhanate,\u201d in Nomads as Agents of Social Change: The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors<\/em>, ed. Reuven Amitai and Michael Biran, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2015, 182-213, 189.<\/p>\n

[31]<\/a> Cf. Lane, \u201cPersian Notables,\u201d 183, 188. See further Kamola, \u201cHistory and Legend,\u201d esp. 574; idem<\/em>, \u201cFall and Rise\u201d.<\/p>\n

[32]<\/a> See Mustawf\u012b\u2019s table of contents, T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 11-13, where he lists the Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Daylamis, Seljuks, Khv<\/sup>arazmshahs, the Atabegs of Diyarbakr and Fars, the Isma\u02bfilis, the Qarakhitay of Kirman, the Atabegs of Luristan, and the Mongol rulers of Iran (p\u0101dsh\u0101h\u0101n-i mughal [keh] bar \u012ar\u0101nzam\u012bn \u1e25ukm kardand<\/em>).<\/p>\n

[33]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 11-12.<\/p>\n

[34]<\/a> Meisami has observed that writers of histories in Persian were almost invariably court secretaries or officials, schooled in the strategies and subtleties of rhetoric and supremely conscious of the ethical lessons that history had to offer (J. S. Meisami, \u201cHistory as Literature,\u201d Iranian Studies<\/em> 33 [2000], 15-30, 18; eadem<\/em>, Persian Historiography<\/em>, 5-13, 283-6 and passim<\/em>).<\/p>\n

[35]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 2.<\/p>\n

[36]<\/a> Dick Davis, Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferdowsi\u2019s Shahnameh<\/em>, Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1999; Originally published Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1992, 75-7.<\/p>\n

[37]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i Bayhaq\u012b<\/em>, ed. Dr Ghan\u012b and Dr Fayy\u0101\u0307\u017c, Tehran: 1324 [1946], 333-6 = The History of Beyhaqi (The History of Sultan Mas\u02bfud of Ghazna, 1030-1041) by Abu\u2019l-Fa\u017cl Beyhaqi<\/em>, Trans. C. E. Bosworth and Revised Mohsen Ashtiany, Boston, Massachusetts: Ilex Foundation and Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2011, I: 444-7. On this episode, see also Marilyn R. Waldman, Toward a Theory of Historical Narrative: A Case Study in Perso-Islamicate Historiography<\/em>, Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1980, 103-4, 191-4; J. S. Meisami, \u201cThe Past in Service of the Present: Two Views of History in Medieval Persia,\u201d Poetics Today<\/em> 14 (1993), 247-75, 271; eadem<\/em>, Persian Historiography<\/em>, 107-8; Bosworth and Ashtiany, History of Beyhaqi<\/em>, I: 60-1, III: 197-9.<\/p>\n

[38]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 4, 604, 621.<\/p>\n

[39]<\/a> See above, n. 21.<\/p>\n

[40]<\/a> Khaleghi Motlagh, \u201cBozorgmihr-e Bok<\/u>tag\u0101n;\u201d Henri Mass\u00e9, \u201cBuzurjmihr,\u201d EI2<\/sup><\/em>; Bagley, Ghaz\u0101l\u012b\u2019s Book of Counsel for Kings<\/em>, lxvi-lxx.<\/p>\n

[41]<\/a> See \u02bfAbd al-Raf\u012b\u02bf \u1e24aq\u012bqat (Raf\u012b\u02bf), Vaz\u012br\u0101n-i \u012br\u0101n\u012b az Buzurgmihr t\u0101 Am\u012br Kab\u012br: D\u014d haz\u0101r s\u0101l-i viz\u0101rat<\/em>, Tehran: K\u016bmis, 1374 [1995], 31-51.<\/p>\n

[42]<\/a> For the use and significance of this term, see Olga M. Davidson, \u201cGenre and Occasion in the Rub\u0101\u02bfiyy\u0101t<\/em> of \u02bfUmar Khayy\u0101m: The Rub\u0101\u02bf\u012b<\/em>, Literary History, and Courtly Literature,\u201d in Writers and Rulers: Perspectives on Their Relationship from Abbasid to Safavid Times<\/em>, ed. Beatrice Gruendler and Louise Marlow (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2004), 133-47, 139.<\/p>\n

[43]<\/a> Arthur Christensen summarized this trio of narratives, which he attributed to different sources, in his article \u201cLa l\u00e9gende du sage Buzurjmihr\u201d (Acta Orientalia<\/em> 8 [1930], 81-128). See also Raf\u012b\u02bf, Vaz<\/em>\u012br\u0101n-i \u012br\u0101n\u012b<\/em>, 31-48.<\/p>\n

[44]<\/a> Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, ed. Jal\u0101l Kh\u0101liq\u012b Mu\u1e6dlaq and Ab\u016b l-Fa\u017cl Kha\u1e6d\u012bb\u012b (New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1384\/2007), VII: 167-219, 304-19, 374-81; Ab\u016b Man\u1e63\u016br al-Tha\u02bf\u0101lib\u012b, Ghurar akhb\u0101r mul\u016bk al-furs wa-siyarihim<\/em> (= Histoire des rois des Perses<\/em>), ed. H. Zotenberg (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1900), 619-25, 633-6.<\/p>\n

[45]<\/a> See Dimitri Gutas, \u201cClassical Arabic Wisdom Literature: Nature and Scope,\u201d JAOS<\/em> 101 (1981), 49-86; Lutz Berger, \u201cAphorism,\u201d EI Three<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[46]<\/a> Al-J\u0101\u1e25i\u1e93, Dhamm akhl\u0101q al-kutt\u0101b<\/em>, in Ras\u0101\u02beil al-J\u0101\u1e25i\u1e93,<\/em> ed. \u02bfAbd al-Sal\u0101m Mu\u1e25ammad H\u0101r\u016bn, Cairo: al-Kh\u0101nj\u012b, 1964-79, II: 191; cf. Gutas, \u201cClassical Arabic Wisdom Literature,\u201d 67.<\/p>\n

[47]<\/a> Firdaws\u012b, Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, VII: 286-303.<\/p>\n

[48]<\/a> Miskawayh, al-<\/em>\u1e24ikma al-kh\u0101lida<\/em> = J\u0101v\u012bd\u0101n khirad<\/em>, ed. \u02bfAbd al-Ra\u1e25m\u0101n Badaw\u012b (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nah\u1e0da al-Mi\u1e63riyya, 1952), 29-37, 37-41, where, despite similarities, few of the maxims adduced coincide exactly with the examples contained in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[49]<\/a> Firdaws\u012b, Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, VII: 286, n. 20; Khiradn\u0101meh<\/em>, ed. Man\u1e63\u016br Tharvat, Tehran: Am\u012br Kab\u012br, 1367 [1988], 54-6. The latter collection also includes a separate series of Buzurgmihr\u2019s responses to An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s questions (47-52), and a section that records Buzurgmihr\u2019s pronouncements on medicine (46-7). The Khiradn\u0101meh<\/em> is perhaps the oldest of the surviving transmissions; see further \u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, 34-6, 38-40.<\/p>\n

[50]<\/a> See G. van den Berg, \u201cWisdom Literature in the Saf\u012bna-yi Tabr\u012bz<\/em>: Notes on the Pandn\u0101ma-yi An\u016bshirv\u0101n<\/em>,\u201d in The Treasury of Tabriz: The Great Ilkhanid Compendium<\/em> (Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2007), 171-82, 171, 174.<\/p>\n

[51]<\/a> K\u0101\u1e93im Rajav\u012b, P\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101meh mans\u016bb bi-Buzurgmihr-i Bukhtag\u0101n Tarjameh-yi Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b-yi S\u012bn\u0101<\/em> (Tehran: Ibn S\u012bn\u0101, 1333\/1951), 54-63; \u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, 1-21 [Text], cf. 37-40, 50-60 [Editor\u2019s Introduction], on the differences among the various manuscripts. See further Raf\u012b\u02bf, Vaz\u012br\u0101n-i \u012br\u0101n\u012b<\/em>, 35, 48-9; Kamola, \u201cFall and Rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

[52]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 62. In dedicating his first chapter to prophets and sages, Mustawf\u012b reflects the example of Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b, whom he lists among his sources (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 7). Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b divided his Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em> into four sections, the first of which was dedicated to \u201cprophets and executors\u201d (anbiy\u0101 va-aw\u1e63iy\u0101<\/em>), a heading to which one manuscript adds \u201cscholars and sages\u201d (\u02bfulam\u0101 va-\u1e25ukam\u0101<\/em>; Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>, ed. M\u012br H\u0101shim Mu\u1e25addith, Tehran: Buny\u0101d-i Mawq\u016bf\u0101t-i Dukt\u016br Ma\u1e25m\u016bd Afsh\u0101r, 1382 [2003], 5, n. 1). Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b\u2019s first section runs from the time of Adam to that of Noah, and includes ten persons, whose collective dominion lasted 2,500 years (Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>, pp. 3, 5). Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b includes neither the Greek philosophers nor Buzurgmihr in this section; Mustawf\u012b\u2019s inclusion of these figures alongside the prophets of sacred history reflects the integrating intention of his History<\/em>. Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b does, however, mention Buzurgmihr\u2019s vizierate in his entry for Kisr\u0101 An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n. In this context, he stresses the king\u2019s consultation with Buzurgmihr and other mudabbir\u0101n<\/em> over Mazdak (Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>, 48). Bay\u017c\u0101v\u012b also mentions Buzurgmihr as the occupant of one of four golden seats constructed at An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s court (Ni\u1e93\u0101m al-tav\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>, 49). Mustawf\u012b does not mention these topics in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[53]<\/a> Ibn Isfandiy\u0101r, writing his T\u0101r\u012bkh-i \u1e6cabarist\u0101n<\/em> in 613\/1216-17, had also classified Buzurgmihr as a \u1e25ak\u012bm<\/em>, and discussed him in his section devoted to \u201cthe sages of Tabaristan\u201d (\u1e25ukam\u0101-yi \u1e6cabarist\u0101n<\/em>). After referring to Firdaws\u012b\u2019s account of Buzurgmihr\u2019s relationship with Sh\u0101h An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n, Ibn Isfandiy\u0101r relates that after the fall of the Sasanians, Buzurgmihr had travelled to Tabaristan, where he answered questions, in a series of maxims and pronouncements all recorded in Arabic (Ibn Isfandiy\u0101r, T\u0101r\u012bkh-i \u1e6cabarist\u0101n<\/em>, ed. A. Iqb\u0101l [Tehran: Majlis, 1941], 135-6).<\/p>\n

[54]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 117-20; cf. van den Berg, \u201cWisdom Literature,\u201d 180. Firdaws\u012b records numbers of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s maxims in his inaugural speech (Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, VII: 88-101, passim<\/em>; van den Berg, \u201cWisdom Literature,\u201d 176-7), and al-Tha\u02bf\u0101lib\u012b devotes a section of his account of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s reign to the monarch\u2019s sayings (ghurar wa-nukat min kal\u0101m An\u016bsh\u012brw\u0101n<\/em>) (Ghurar akhb\u0101r mul\u016bk al-furs wa-siyarihim<\/em>, 606-9).<\/p>\n

[55]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 117.<\/p>\n

[56]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 48-9, 57.<\/p>\n

[57]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh,<\/em> 62-7.<\/p>\n

[58]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 67.<\/p>\n

[59]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 67; Firdaws\u012b, Sh\u0101hn\u0101meh<\/em>, VII: 286-303. See also Raf\u012b\u02bf, Vaz\u012br\u0101n-i \u012br\u0101n\u012b<\/em>, 33, 34; Christensen, \u201cLa l\u00e9gende du sage,\u201d 118-21.<\/p>\n

[60]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 67.<\/p>\n

[61]<\/a> T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, 67. \u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b has discussed the various representations of the question and answer sequences associated with Buzurgmihr. In the Khiradn\u0101meh<\/em>, it is An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n who poses the questions and Buzurgmihr who responds; in T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em>, it is Buzurgmihr who poses questions to his teacher; in another manuscript, it is Buzurgmihr\u2019s teacher Aristotle who responds to his questions (\u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, 16-26).<\/p>\n

[62]<\/a> \u1e24\u0101jj\u012b Khal\u012bfa, in apparently the first attestation of the attribution, lists a \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> that consists of An\u016bsh\u012brv\u0101n\u2019s questions and Buzurgmihr\u2019s answers, translated on the command of N\u016b\u1e25 b. Man\u1e63\u016br by his vizier Ibn S\u012bn\u0101 from Pahlavi (lughat al-fahlaw\u012b<\/em>) into Persian (al-f\u0101risiyya<\/em>) (Kashf al-\u1e93un\u016bn \u02bfan as\u0101m\u012b l-kutub wa-l-fun\u016bn<\/em>, Tehran: Maktabat al-Isl\u0101miyya, 1378\/1967, II: 1120; cf. \u1e62ad\u012bq\u012b, \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em>, 26-7). The ascription of the \u201ctranslation\u201d of Buzurgmihr\u2019s wisdom to an illustrious vizier at the command of a Samanid ruler recalls other accounts of Samanid commissionings; see the insightful analysis of Olga M. Davidson, \u201cThe Testing of the Sh\u0101hn\u0101ma<\/em> in the \u201cLife of Ferdows\u012b\u201d Narratives,\u201d in The Rhetoric of Biography: Narrating Lives in Persianate Societies<\/em>, ed. L. Marlow (Boston: Ilex Foundation and Washington: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2011), 11-20.<\/p>\n

[63]<\/a> The text appears in Rajav\u012b, P\u012br\u016bz\u012bn\u0101meh<\/em>, 54-63. The preliminary sections of na\u02bft<\/em> and amm\u0101 ba\u02bfdiyya<\/em> cover pp. 54-5. The editor reproduces the \u1e92afarn\u0101meh<\/em> that appears in the T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh<\/em> in an excursus, pp. 64-71; cf. 42-4.<\/p>\n

[64]<\/a> Kamola, \u201cRash\u012bd al-D\u012bn and the Making of History,\u201d 260, 265, 268-70, 286; idem<\/em>, \u201cFall and Rise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wisdom of Buzurgmihr in Mustawf\u012b\u2019s T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh The Persian T\u0101r\u012bkh-i guz\u012bdeh, \u201cSelect History,\u201d of \u1e24amd All\u0101h Mustawf\u012b Qazv\u012bn\u012b (b. c. 680\/1281-2, d. c. 750\/1349) defies tidy generic classification.[1] Comprising six parts, the work, composed in the late Ilkhanid period, treats a variety of subject matters: the prophets and other persons who strived for truth … <\/p>\n

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