Abstract:
The historiography of the prefaces of Safavid era chronicles and the traditions governing them is a subject that Shule Quinn addresses in this research. This research has two main objectives: first, to change the researchers' perspective on the preface from a source for obtaining biographical information and examples of writing styles to a source for obtaining historiographical data; and second, to prove the historiographical aspect of the prefaces. To achieve these two goals, Dr. Quinn examines the prefaces of Rawdat al-Safa and Tarikh Habib al-Siyar—as model prefaces—along with Khulasat al-Tawarikh, Futuhat-i Humayun, Naqawat al-Athar fi Dhikr al-Akhyar, Tarikh-i Alam-ara-yi Abbasi, and Rawdat al-Safawiyya, and highlights the traditional elements of historiography present in the prefaces of these chronicles.
Machine summary:
Prefaces; the Roots of Traditional Structure Although in an initial examination of the prefaces it might be discovered by chance that many of these prefaces share similarities in content, form, and size, a precise study and comparison— The preface of the chronicles written before the reign of Shah Abbas reveals that many historians of the Safavid era used the preface of Habib al-Siyar by Khwandamir (429-488 AH / 1035-1090 AD) as a model for writing the prefaces of their own works.
1 The chronicles that follow the traditions established by these previous historians include Khulasat al-Tawarikh by Qazi Ahmad Qomi, Naqawat al-Athar by Mahmud bin Hidayatullah Afoushtayi Natanzi, and Rawdat al-Safawiyya by Mirza Beg Junabadi.
Hasan Beg Rumlu, in his own work titled Ahsan al-Tawarikh, also used both the Tarikh Habib al-Siyar by Khwandamir, who is a continuator of the Timurid tradition, and the Tarikh Alam Ara by Amini Fazlullah bin Ruzbahan Khanji Isfahani and a chronicle from the Aq Qoyunlu period, see: John.
The references of the Shah Abbas era go back to the previous works mentioned above; therefore, in order to delineate the main elements of the traditional framework of prefaces according to the usual order adopted by their authors, we will examine the prefaces of Rawdat al-Safa and Habib al-Siyar.
4 The preface of Siyaqi Nizam's work is the first example of prefaces related to the era of Shah Abbas that has been written based on the traditional framework of prefaces—just as presented in the preface of Tarikh-i Habib al-Siyar.
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