Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy

Peacock, Andrew A.C.S.

doi:10.4324/9780203964224

Cited by 42 publications

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“…It is also safe t say that the current study of Islamic historiography remains Arabic-centric, as studying other languages is rarely founded. So far, Andrew Peacock is one of the representative scholars in this issue who has studied the historiographical literature in Persian (Peacock, 2007). However, exploring non-Arabic languages remains open for researchers, including Islamic historiography written in Southeast Asian languages, mainly Indonesian.…”

Section: More Lacunas In Post-classical Is-lamic Historiography and B...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Some Important Aspects of Post-Classical Islamic Historiography Based on the Existing Western Scholarship

Safari

2023

Hist Stud J

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Most existing studies on Islamic historiography are dominated by the study of the classical-formative period (7th-9th Centuries AD). In contrast, the works in the later/post-classical period still need to be studied so that it becomes an important issue to be addressed. This paper seeks to review the existing scholarship on Islamic historiography in the context of the post-classical period (9th century onwards). This research addresses the discourse developed in studying Islamic historiography during this period by examining the historiographical characteristics and historical context. The findings in this article are based on library research that examines existing studies on Islamic historiography in Western scholarship with intellectual history as the theoretical framework for analyzing the data. The results of this study show that the existing studies, since H.A.R. Gibb, Franz Rosenthal, to Tarif Khalidi, have successfully established the classical period of Islamic historiography. In contrast, the study on “the later period” still needs attention. Chase F. Robinson is the most recent scholar who began paying attention to this period. His initial investigations showed the specific characteristics of this period: the distancing from traditionalist culture, the elimination of the use of isnad in writing history, the three main formats in historical writing (chronography, biography, and prosopography), and the emergence of a critical historical school that made history an independent official discipline. This article will conclude, in the end, with a reflection on some of the remaining lacunas in this area of research, along with a brief note on the Indonesian context, both as part of the analytical category in the study and concerning the analysis of Islamic history in that country. Keywords: Islamic Historiography, Western Scholarship, The Post-Classical PeriodMayoritas kajian dalam historiografi Islam yang ada didominasi oleh telaah di masa klasik-formatif (7th-9th Centuries AD) dan khazanah setelahnya mayoritas masih belum dikaji, sehingga menjadi isu yang penting untuk diperhatikan. Tulisan ini berupaya untuk mereviu perkembangan kesarjanaan historiografi Islam di Barat dalam konteks pasca klasik (Abad ke-9 dan seterusnya). Temuan dalam artikel ini didasarkan kepada penelitian kepustakaan yang menelaah kajian-kajian yang ada tentang historiografi Islam di kesarjanaan barat dengan lensa sejarah intelektual sebagia acuan analisis data. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kajian yang ada saat ini, sejak H.A.R. Gibb, Franz Rosenthal, hingga Tarif Khalidi, telah berhasil memetakan periode klasik historiografi Islam. Adapun kajian terhadap period berikutnya masih perlu mendapatkan perhatian. Chase F. Robinson adalah sarjana terkini yang mulai melakukan telaah atas periode tersebut. studi awal yang ia lakukan menunjukkan adanya karakteristik khusus di periode ini; penarikan jarak dari kultur tradisionalis, eliminasi penggunaan isnād dalam menulis sejarah, tiga format utama dalam tulisan sejarah (kronografi, biografi, dan prosopografi) serta munculnya aliran sejarah kritis yang menjadikan sejarah sebagai disiplin resmi yang independen. Artikel ini akan diakhiri dengan refleksi terkait beberapa lacunas yang masih tersisa dalam area riset ini, berikut catatan singkat terkait konteks Indonesia, baik sebagai kategori analitis dalam kerja riset dan catatan atas fenomena riset sejarah Islam di negara ini. Kata kunci: Historiografi Islam, Kesarjanaan Barat, Periode Pasca Klasik

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Section: More Lacunas In Post-classical Is-lamic Historiography and B...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Some Important Aspects of Post-Classical Islamic Historiography Based on the Existing Western Scholarship

Safari

2023

Hist Stud J

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“…This must also have been roughly the date the Abu Mansur preface was composed, given its references to Hamza, although elsewhere the compilation of the Abu Mansur materials is dated to 346/957. 68 However, given the numerous interpolations into Bal'ami's text, which cannot be certainly reconstructed in its tenth century form or forms, 69 it is equally, if not more likely, that these texts were inserted later, just as, for example, variant texts of Bal'ami offer alternative accounts of Yazdagird's end. 70 Without getting too bogged down in an intractable discussion as to who borrowed what from where, which may never be proved owing to the absence of contemporary manuscripts of any of these works and the extensive interpolations to which Bal'ami and Firdawsi's works can be clearly demonstrated to have been subjected, one key point stands out.…”

Section: Shahnamamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…68 However, given the numerous interpolations into Bal'ami's text, which cannot be certainly reconstructed in its tenth century form or forms, 69 it is equally, if not more likely, that these texts were inserted later, just as, for example, variant texts of Bal'ami offer alternative accounts of Yazdagird's end. 70 Without getting too bogged down in an intractable discussion as to who borrowed what from where, which may never be proved owing to the absence of contemporary manuscripts of any of these works and the extensive interpolations to which Bal'ami and Firdawsi's works can be clearly demonstrated to have been subjected, one key point stands out. Material from the Abu Mansur Shahnama tradition, which itself drew on Hamza as a source (although, in fairness, we cannot know for sure precisely for which passages it used Hamza), was considered suitable for incorporation into Bal'ami's synthesis of Iranian and Islamic history.…”

Section: Shahnamamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Al-Tabari was freely adapted by Bal'ami, but if anything it was to diminish the Persian role in history rather than to enhance it: the evidence of extant manuscripts of Bal'ami suggests he devoted if anything less space to Iranian history than al-Tabari had. 73 In all likelihood it simply did not seem very important to the translators of these works that were meant to inculcate Islamic piety, not Persian national feeling. Thus merely the fact of Firdawsi writing in Persian does not imply he had any special access to written Persian language accounts of Iranian national history handed down from posterity.…”

Section: Shahnamamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, as I have argued elsewhere, the Persian translation of al-Tabari's famous history made for the Samanid dynasty in the mid tenth century by the vizier Bal'ami was designed to serve a contemporary political agenda, even though it does not once mention the Samanids, by promoting the same kind of piety-minded Islam that the dynasty supported. 28 The contemporary relevance of the Shahnama, has, however, remained poorly understood, beyond the fact that it was evidently intended in part to impart ethical advice. 29 In this paper, I wish to consider the Shahnama in its contemporary environment.…”

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Firdawsi’sShahnamain its Ghaznavid Context

Peacock

2018

Iran

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Firdawsi's Shahnama, the completion of which is traditionally to around 400/1010, is generally thought to have been a failure at first. It is said by both traditional accounts and much modern scholarship to have been rejected by its dedicatee Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, and its contents of ancient Iranian legends, transmitted from earlier sources, are widely considered to have been out of step with the literary tastes of the Ghaznavid period. This article reassesses the reception of the Shahnama in the Ghaznavid period, arguing that evidence suggests neither its style nor contents were outdated, and that its tales of ancient Iranian heores had a great contemporary relevance in the context of the Ghaznavid court's identification of the dynasty as the heir to ancient Iran. The extent to which Firdawsi can be shown to have relied on pre-Islamic sources is also reevaluated Key words Firdawsi-Shahnama-Ghaznavids-pre-Islamic Iran-Persian poetry The reception history of few books can be as well-known as the Shahnama: the allegedly cool reaction of sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (d. 421/1030) when presented with the work around the year 400/1010, and the biting satire on the ruler Firdawsi is claimed to have penned in response, together form part of the Shahnama legend. 2 Firdawsi's hostile reception by the rival poets of Ghazna, for instance, became a topic of miniature painting in manuscripts of the poem, 3 and lines such as the satire were interpolated to underline the point. 4 Today, the poem's initial flop is usually taken for granted, and has been attributed to both its form and its contents, which are assumed to be purely antiquarian, 5 bereft of any contemporary relevance. Ghazzal Dabiri, for instance, has compared the Shahnama with other roughly contemporaneous histories, especially that of Bal'ami, and poetry. She concludes that Firdawsi's concentration on Iranian material without any Islamic leavening must have seemed rather dated. Dabiri writes that, "The Shahnama was not initially well received in general because, as a history, it differs in aim, 2 content, and execution from the histories that preceded it and immediately succeeded it in the Samanid and Ghaznavid courts respectively," while as poetry its form was completely unlike the qasidas favoured by the Ghaznavid court. 6 Even Julie Scott Meisami, who agrees with Rypka-in my view rightly-in arguing that Firdawsi saw in Mahmud the legendary King from the East prophesied to restore Iran's greatness, still regards the poem as "definitely outmoded...something of an anomaly: not quite literature and not quite history". The deliberate archaisms of the Shahnama's language are seen as further evidence for the anachronistic nature of the work. 7 Rypka, meanwhile, connects the rejection of the Shahnama to the adoption of Arabic as the Ghaznavid chancery language in place of Persian in 401/1010-11, the year after the conventional date for the completion of the work. 8 Yet there are ample reasons to doubt that the Shahnama was really considered quite as odd and old fashioned...

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The Past in the Early and Medieval Islamic Middle East (circa 750–circa 1250)

Marsham¹

2013

Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World

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Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy

Cited by 42 publications

References 0 publications

Some Important Aspects of Post-Classical Islamic Historiography Based on the Existing Western Scholarship

Some Important Aspects of Post-Classical Islamic Historiography Based on the Existing Western Scholarship

Firdawsi’sShahnamain its Ghaznavid Context

The Past in the Early and Medieval Islamic Middle East (circa 750–circa 1250)

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