Mediaeval Islamic historiography and political legitimacy
Subtitle: Balʻamī's Tārīkhnāma
By: A.C.S Peacock.
Series: Routledge studies in the history of Iran and Turkey
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2007
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9780415400251; 9780203964224
Subjects: Balʻamī, Abū ʻAlī Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, -- fl. 946-973; Ṭabarī, -- 838?-923; Islamic Empire -- Historiography
Description: "A.C.S. Peacock's book, Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy: Bal'ami's Tarikhnama is the first research monograph on this major historical work and shows how its composition and reception were influenced by political circumstances. Commissioned by the ruler of one of the largest and most powerful Muslims states of the tenth century, the Samanid dynasty of Central Asia, and composed by his vizier, the Tarikhnama tells us much about the politics and ideology of the Samanid state, which remains comparatively unstudied despite its importance in Islamic history. Future generations continued to adapt the text in accordance with their own political concerns, meaning its manuscripts vary immensely from one another." "Using newly discovered manuscripts, this study sheds much new light, not just on mediaeval Islamic history and the development of Islamic historiography, but also on problems in manuscripts and the transmission of their texts."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-202) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Acknowledgements; title: Abbreviations; title: Introduction; title: Politics, religion and culture in the late Sāmānid state; title: The transmission of the Tārīkhnāma's text; title: Balʻamī's reshaping of Ṭabarī's history; title: The contents and purpose of Balʻamī's alterations to Ṭabarī's History; title: The Tārīkhnāma after Balʻamī; title: General conclusions; title: Comparison of postulated redactions of the Tārīkhnāma; title: Comparison of the Arabic translation of the Tārīkhnāma and the Persian text; title: Addenda and corrigenda to Daniel's "An annotated inventory of Balʻamī's manuscripts"; title: Bibliography; title: Subject index; title: Manuscript index.