Perso Indica

‘Abd Allāh ibn Luṭf Allāh ibn ‘Abd al-Rašīd al-Bihdādīnī (d. 833/1430), commonly known as Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū, was a prominent historian belonging to the court of Tīmūrid ruler Šāh-Ruḫ (r. 1409-47), who had his capital in Herat. Under the patronage of Šāh-Ruḫ and his son, Bāysunġur (d. 837/1433), Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū wrote Persian historical works. Felix Tauer ascribes the following six works to Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū: (i) Ḏayl-i jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, (ii) Ḏayl-i ẓafar-nāma-yi Šāmī, (iii) Tārīḫ-i Šāh-Ruḫ, (iv) Tārīḫ (Juġrāfiyā), (v) Majmū‘a, and (vi) Majma‘ al-tawārīḫ (Tauer 1965, pp. 53-57; Tauer 1971, pp. 57b-58a). This list of works has generally been accepted by scholars who came after Tauer (e.g., Woods 1987, pp. 96-97; Subtelny - Melville 2003, pp. 507b-509a; Ghiasian 2018, pp. 48-49). Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū also rewrote for Šāh-Ruḫ the second volume of Rašīd al-Dīn Hamadānī’s (d. 718/1318), Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, a text which deals with the history of the peoples of the world, including the history of India. However, previous studies have confused this text and Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s Majma‘ al-tawārīḫ. Tauer did not consult all of the existing manuscripts of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s works, and in particular, he omitted the Istanbul manuscript (Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Hazine 1653), which earlier scholars have often identified as the autographed version of the Majma‘ al-tawārīḫ (e.g. Bregel 1972, p. 346).

The Istanbul manuscript consists of the first volume of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s Majma‘ al-tawārīḫ, which relates the history of pre-Islamic prophets and rulers, and a lengthy portion of the second volume of Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, which includes a chapter on India. The Istanbul manuscript was restored by Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū in ša‘bān 829/June-July 1426. The manuscript explains that Šāh-Ruḫ ordered Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū to restore an old manuscript (copied in late jumādā al-ṯānī 714/October 1314) of the second volume of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, as approximately half of the old manuscript from the beginning and last parts had been lost. Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū suggested that he not only restore it, but also supplement this text with additional historical information taken from another work (Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Hazine 1653, ff. 3b, 421b). This manuscript has henceforth been considered the “replacement volume” of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ (Ettinghausen 1955, p. 43; Soudavar 1992, pp. 64a-66b; Blair 1995, pp. 27-28) and should be regarded as Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s seventh historical work (Otsuka 2015, pp. 272-274). Mohamad Reza Ghiasian recently referred to this text as “Majma‘–Jāmi‘ al-Tawārīkh” (Ghiasian 2018, p. 58). By placing the first part of the second volume of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ which had been lost with the first volume of his work Majma‘ al-tawārīḫ, Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū produced a composite manuscript. He also rewrote the last part of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, including the history of the Indian people to replace the sections that had been lost. Its contents are as follows: (i) Preface written by Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū; (ii) a history of pre-Islamic prophets and rulers taken from the first volume of Majma‘ al-tawārīḫ; (iii) a history of prophet Muḥammad and the caliphates along with a history of the Muslim dynasties (beginning from the Ghaznavids and ending with the Ismā‘īlī rulers); and (iv) a history of the peoples of the world, including Oġuz Turks, Chinese, Franks and Indians (kitāb-i tārīḫ-i Hind wa Sind wa Kašmīr, “Book on the history of India, Sind and Kashmir”), which was taken from the second volume of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ (for further details, see Otsuka 2015, pp. 263-264, 280-281; Ghiasian 2018, pp. 283-310).

The history of India as recounted in Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s replacement volume is very similar to that of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ. However, some sections from the latter have been omitted. It is not clear if Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū intentionally abridged the text or if he had referred to an earlier abridged version of Rašīd al-Dīn’s text. The fact that copies of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s Majmū‘a, which is a “collection” of historical works, preserves the longer version of the history of the Indians from Rašīd al-Dīn’s Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ suggests that Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū was aware of the longer version (Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū, Majmū‘a, Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Bağdad Köšk 282, ff. 640b-652a; Ms. Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, Dāmād Ibrāhīm Paša 919, ff. 679b-700b). In the Istanbul manuscript, the chapter on India consists of a brief introduction (Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Hazine 1653, f. 422b) and two subchapters (qism): the first subchapter, composed of ten sections (faṣl), discusses the geography and history of India (ff. 422b-432a) and the second subchapter, is composed of fourteen sections, and discusses the life of the Buddha (ff. 432b-435b). It is notable that the Istanbul manuscript includes a map of India which divides the country into nine small squares. This map resembles the map in the Kitāb al-tafhīm, a book on astrology by Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (d. after 442/1050) (Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Hazine 1653, f. 423b; see Bīrūnī 1386š/2007-08, p. 197). This map is not included in the oldest Persian manuscript copy of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, which was copied in 717/1317 (Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Hazine 1654, f. 332b, see article on Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, q.v.). The Istanbul manuscript of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s replacement volume also includes two miniatures depicting: (i) monkeys in the mountains and (ii) the court of an Indian king (Ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, Hazine 1653, ff. 425b, 429b).

Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s rewriting of the second volume of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ undoubtedly contributed to the circulation of the text among Persian speaking readers. The production history of the manuscript copies also supports this hypothesis. Currently, twenty manuscript copies of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s replacement volume have been identified and twelve of these copies include the chapter on the history of India (Otsuka 2016, pp. 79-80; for the details of nineteen manuscripts, see Otsuka 2015, pp. 278-279; another copy has recently been found in Mashhad, Ms. Mashhad, Āstān-i Quds Library, 18112, ff. 415a-429b). In addition, numerous fragments and loose pages from another lost manuscript copy of the replacement volume exist (Soudavar 1992, pp. 64a-66b; Ghiasian 2015, pp. 896-903; 2018, pp. 89-91, 100-103). Similar to the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīḫ, Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s replacement volume likely played a significant role in providing information to Persianate societies on the history of the India and its people.