Timurnama
| Timurnama | |
|---|---|
| by Hatefi | |
| File:Pir 'Ali al-Jami - Double-page Illuminated Frontispiece - Walters W6484B - Full Page.jpg | |
| Language | Persian |
| Subject | Timur |
| Form | Part of a Khamsa |
The Timurnama (Book of Timur) or Zafarnama (Book of Victory) is a poem by the Persian poet Hatefi about the life of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (1336–1405). It was written between 1492 and 1498 and is often viewed as the most important work by Hatefi.
The Timurnama is the fourth part of Hatefi's Khamsa, a quintet of five long Persian poems, and has been published in India in 1869 and 1958.
Author
[edit | edit source]The Timurnama was written by the Persian poet Hatefi (c. 1454–1521), a nephew of Jami, who in turn was a prolific scholar and writer of mystical Sufi literature.[2] Hatefi was born in Khar Gerd, which lies in today's Razavi Khorasan province of Iran and during the author's lifetime was part of the declining Timurid Empire (1370–1507) and later Safavid Iran (1501–1736).
Hatefi served at the shrine for the Sufi mystic Qasim Anvar.[2]
History
[edit | edit source]In the tradition of the Khamsa of Nizami and that of Amir Khusrau, Hatefi also aspired to write a Khamsa.[3] Nizami's and Amir Khusrau's fourth poems both retell the Alexander Romance, an account of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great.[3] Hatefi substituted this narration of the life of Alexander with an epic about Timur.[3] The scholar Carles Melville argues that Hatefi thereby "implicitly identify[ed] Timur as another Alexander."[3] Hatefi, however, did not model his work on Nizami or Amir Khusrau, but after Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.[2][4]
The Timurnama was written between 1492 and 1498.[2][5] Hatefi's main source of information on the life of Timur was the Zafarnama of Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi (d. 1454).[6] He wrote his poem for the court of Badi' al-Zaman Mirza.[7]
The number of manuscripts of the Timurnama which have been preserved suggest that the work was highly regarded.[8] The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that it is "certainly the most famous of Hātefi's poems".[9]
Content
[edit | edit source]
The content of the poem cannot be deemed to be a historical account of the life of Timur. The scholar Bernardini argues that it is a "literary effort to confer an aura of superhumanity over trivial historical facts".[7]
Manuscripts and publications
[edit | edit source]Manuscripts
[edit | edit source]Many manuscripts of the Timurnama have survived; Bernardini lists 141 manuscripts of the poem in his provisional list.[10] Notable ones include the following:
- Ms Persan 357 in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France by Sulṭān-ʿAlī al-Qāʾinī al-Sultānī.[10] The manuscript has been digitized.[11]
- Ms Barb.or.104 in the Vatican Apostolic Library by Mu˙sin b. Lu†fullàh Ma'àd Óusaynì Sabzavàrì.[12] The manuscript has been digitized.[13]
- Object 2014.392 in the Harvard Art Museums by Mahmud ibn Ishaq Siyavushani.[14] The 1520 manuscript has been digitized.[15]
- Ms 2102 in the Abu Rayhan Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan dated 1568 by ʿAli Riza al-Katib.[16]
- Ms 22703 in the British Library is an incomplete excerpt of the original and has no colophon. It was made between the 1540s and 1570s in Bukhara.[17]
-
Frontispiece of the manuscript (folios 105r–106v.).[18]
Publications
[edit | edit source]The Timurnama has been published in 1869 and 1958 in India.[9] However, no critical edition of the text has been produced. The 1958 edition is based on "two manuscripts available in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras" and is "both erroneous and defective at a number of places".[20]
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See also
[edit | edit source]- Zafarnama (Yazdi biography) – Book of victories, one of the best-known sources of Timur's life
- Khamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or. 12208) – Mughal illuminated manuscript
References
[edit | edit source]Citations
[edit | edit source]- ^ Melville 2021, pp. 1125–1126.
- ^ a b c d Melville 2021, p. 1123.
- ^ a b c d Melville 2021, p. 1124.
- ^ Bernardini 2003a, p. 4.
- ^ Bernardini 2003a, p. 3.
- ^ Melville 2018, pp. 56–57.
- ^ a b Bernardini 2003a, p. 8.
- ^ Bernardini 2003a, p. 7.
- ^ a b Bernardini 2003.
- ^ a b Bernardini 2003a, pp. 10–17.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Bernardini 2003a, p. 6.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Melville 2021, pp. 1128–1129.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Comstock-Skipp 2024, pp. 279–282.
- ^ Comstock-Skipp 2024, pp. 282–288.
- ^ Comstock-Skipp 2024, pp. 284–285.
- ^ Comstock-Skipp 2024, p. 280.
- ^ Melville 2018, pp. 57–58.
Sources
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Further reading
[edit | edit source]- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
