Wassaf

Wassaf

Wassaf

14th-century Persian historian

Wassaf or Vassaf (Persian: عبدالله ابن فضل‌الله شرف‌الدین شیرازی) Abdallah ibn Faḍlallah Sharaf al-Din Shīrāzī (fl. 1265–1328) was a 14th-century Persian historian of the Ilkhanate. Waṣṣāf, sometimes lengthened to Waṣṣāf al-Ḥaḍrat or Vassaf-e Hazrat (Persian: وصّافِ حضرت), is a title meaning "Court Panegyrist".[1][2]

Copy of Wassaf's Tarikh-i Wassaf, created in 17th-century Safavid Iran

A native of Shiraz, Wassaf was a tax administrator in Fars during the reigns of Ghazan Mahmud and Öljaitü.[3]

He is the author of the historical work Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf, also known as Tajziyat al-amṣār wa-tazjiyat al-a'ṣār (The allocation of cities and the propulsion of epochs).

Tarikh-i Wassaf

His history, Tajziyat al-amṣār wa-tazjiyat al-a'ṣār (The allocation of cities and the propulsion of epochs)[4] also called Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf,[5] was conceived as a continuation of Juwayni's Tārīkḣ-i Jahāngushāy[6][7] whose account of the rise of the Mongol Empire ended in 1257.

Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf consisted of an introduction and five volumes.[6] The first volume (first part) only was edited and translated by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, published 1855.[6][8]

Wassaf's florid style of prose is not easily followed by modern readers, and an abridged version entitled the Taḥrīr-i Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf (1346/1967) has been edited by ʿAbd al-Muḥammad Āyatī.[8]

References

Citations
  1. [1]
    Huart, Cl., "Waṣṣāf", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936), Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann.
  2. [2]
    Blair, Sheila S. (1986). "The Mongol Capital of Sulṭāniyya, "The Imperial"". Iran. 24: 139–151. doi:10.2307/4299771. JSTOR 4299771. JSTOR 4299771
  3. [3]
    A.K.S. Lambton, "Mongol Fiscal Administration in Persia" Studia Islamica, no. 64 (1987): p. 80.
  4. [4]
    Feldherr, Andrew et al., (2012), The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 2: 400-1400, p. 269
  5. [5]
    Āyatī (2013), p. 149.
  6. [6]
    Āyatī (2013), p. 150.
  7. [7]
    Jackson, Peter (2003). The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0521543290.
  8. [8]
    Blair (1986), p. 148 (note 5 to p. 139).
Bibliography
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