Abdallah ibn Faḍlallah Sharaf al-Din Shīrāzī (Persian: عبدالله ابن فضلالله شرفالدین شیرازی; fl. 1265–1328), called Wassaf or Vassaf, was a 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".12
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 Jahāngushāy67 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 1855.68
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
References
- Citations
- Huart, Cl., "Waṣṣāf", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936), Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann.
- Blair, Sheila S. (1986). "The Mongol Capital of Sulṭāniyya, "The Imperial"". Iran. 24: 139–151. doi:10.2307/4299771. JSTOR 4299771. JSTOR 4299771
- A.K.S. Lambton, "Mongol Fiscal Administration in Persia" Studia Islamica, no. 64 (1987): p. 80.
- Feldherr, Andrew et al., (2012), The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 2: 400-1400, p. 269
- Āyatī (2013), p. 149.
- Āyatī (2013), p. 150.
- Jackson, Peter (2003). The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0521543290.
- Blair (1986), p. 148 (note 5 to p. 139).
- Bibliography
- Āyatī, ʿAbd al-Muḥammad (2013), "30. Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf", Historical Sources of the Islamic World: Selected Entries from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam, EWI Press, pp. 149–152, ISBN 9781908433114
- Jackson, Peter (2009). "Mongol Khans and Religious Allegiance: The Problems Confronting a Minister-Historian in Ilkhanid Iran". Iran. 47: 109–129. doi:10.1080/05786967.2009.11864762. JSTOR 25651467. S2CID 163667392. (registration required)