George Lane - The Mongols in Iran: Qutb Al-Din Shirazis Akhbar-i Moghulan

First published 2018

by Routledge

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2018 George Lane

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lane, George, 1952 author.

Title: The Mongols in Iran : Qub Al-Dn Shrzs Akhbr-i Moghuln- /

George Lane.

Other titles: Routledge studies in the history of Iran and Turkey.

Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2018. | Series:

Routledge studies in the history of Iran and Turkey

Identifiers: LCCN 2018006779 | ISBN 9781138500525 (hbk) |

ISBN 9781315143828 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Qub al-Shrz, Mamd ibn Mascd, 1236 or

12371310 or 1311Criticism and interpretation. | Ilkhanid dynasty. |

IranHistory12561500. | IranKings and rulers.

Classification: LCC DS289 .L37 2018 | DDC 955/.026dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006779

ISBN: 978-1-138-50052-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-14382-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

After centuries of gathering dust, lost in a large pile of disparate manuscripts, the late Iraj Afshar chanced upon this collection of historical notes penned though not necessarily authored by the polymath, Qub al-Dn Shrz. The jumbled pages of often scrawled script were hidden amongst other papers on a variety of subjects and by a variety of authors including the Jewish theosopher, Ibn Kammna, his colleague Nar al-Dn s, the Islamic commentator, Shahrestn, the poet, Sad, and many other poets, thinkers, and writers from the mediaeval world. Iraj Afshar managed to sort the pages of historical observations and anecdotes into some kind of order and transcribe Shrzs not easily decipherable script into an edited, legible text. His edited edition appeared in the holy city of Qum, central Iran, in 2009 along with the facsimile of the original and detailed notes and technical details about the original manuscripts including the order in which they had been found. From Afshars notes it is clear that a number of pages have gone missing and that the manuscript as it stands was not a finished product. It seems more to have been a collection of notes and observations to aid later researchers and historians compile their histories and chronicles. Some of the folios from which Afshar worked were stamped with the seal of Rashd al-Dns academy in Tabriz and indeed some of the incidents recorded in Shirazis work appear verbatim in the Jma al-Tavrkh .

Unfortunately, a great deal of the material from the great libraries of mediaeval Iran has been lost over the years as Persian capitals moved, were attacked or were ransacked and their priceless collections lost and scattered. Extant chronicles frequently mention tomes no longer available and quote works otherwise unknown. Rashd al-Dn detailed the extreme measures that he went to ensure that his own great chronicles would survive and yet despite such care and determination most of the original copies of his great work, painstakingly produced in all Irans major urban centres, have disappeared. However, the recent discovery of not only Shirazis little gem but of the substantial work of Majd al-Dn Tabrizi, the Safna-ye Tabrz , brings hope for the future. Tabrizis Safna is a complete library of literary works including poetry, philosophy, history, theology, and scientific works, all meticulously copied out by a local man of means, Majd al-Dn, in the 1320s. Tehran University has now reproduced a facsimile edition of the work which provides a unique insight into the intellectual milieu of the later Ilkhanate. However, more than this, the appearance of both these two works provides hope that in the future more such discoveries will be made and more of those very many missing tomes will eventually reappear for the edification of some very source-hungry scholars.