''Tārīkh-i Bayhaqī'' ( fa, تاریخ بیهقی, italics=yes; ) is a history book written by

Abul-Fazl Bayhaqi Abūʾl-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Bayhaqī ( fa, ابوالفضل محمد بن حسین بیهقی; died September 21, 1077), better known as Abu'l-Faḍl Bayhaqi (; also spelled Beyhaqi), was a Persian secretary, historian and author. Educ ...

, in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, in the 11th century CE. Much of this voluminous work is lost, but its remains is the most important source on the history of the

Ghaznavid Empire The Ghaznavid dynasty ( fa, غزنویان ''Ġaznaviyān'') was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic peoples, Turkic ''mamluk'' origin, ruling, at its greatest extent, large parts of Persia, ...

. The work is more than a history book. Its detailed descriptions and unique style of narration of the historical events has made it similar to a "

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

" and one of the masterpieces of the

Persian literature Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...

. The work was written at the Ghaznavid chancellery in order to frame the Turkic-origin Ghaznavid rulers in line with

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

kings.

Names

The work has been published under multiple names: *''Tārīkh-i Bayhaqī'' (, ''Bayhaqi's History'') *''Tārīkh-i Nāsirī'' (, ''Nasiri's History'') *''Tārīkh-i Masʿūdī'' (, ''Mas'udi's History'') *''Tārīkh-i Āl-i Nāsir'' (, ''History of the House of Nasir'') *''Tārīkh-i Āl-i Sabuktagīn'' (, ''History of the House of Sabuktigin'') *''Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh'' (, ''Compendium of Chronicles'') *''Jāmiʿ fī Tārīkh-i Sabuktagīn'' (, ''Compendium on Chronicles of Sabuktigin'') *''Mujalladāt'' (, ''The Volumes'' or ''The Books'')

Content

''Tarikh-i Bayhaqi'' is believed to have consisted of thirty books, of which only six books remain. The main topic of the remaining books is the reign of Mas'ud I, sultan of the

. In addition to reporting political events, the work reports on geographical places and on the history of the

by mentioning notable writers and poets of the time. K. Allin Luther compared the

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

of Bayhaqi's ''History'' to later Seljuq historians and advises a

rhetorical Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

approach to the work. Marilyn Waldman also recommends a rhetorical approach through

speech act In the philosophy of language and linguistics, speech act is something expressed by an individual that not only presents information but performs an action as well. For example, the phrase "I would like the kimchi; could you please pass it to me?" ...

theory, yet does not give a comprehensive break down of the text. Julie Scott Meisami also points to the analytical nature of the work and places Bayhaqi among the historians of the

Islamic renaissance The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...

. Owing to his distinctive approach in the narration of historical accounts, the precision of Bayhaqi's work was unprecedented.BAYHAQĪ, ABU’L-FAŻL
in '' Iranica'' ''Tarikh-e Bayhaqi'' is well known for its rich use of language. Several features of the work has transformed it into literary prose, including the use of

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s, novel word combinations and

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

es, archaic words,

imagery Imagery is visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy. Forms There are five major types of sensory ima ...

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

ic verses and

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

poems, and various types of parallelism and

repetition Repetition may refer to: * Repetition (rhetorical device), repeating a word within a short space of words *Repetition (bodybuilding), a single cycle of lifting and lowering a weight in strength training *Working title for the 1985 slasher film '' ...

(including vowels, words, and syntaxes). The work has also been compared to a

References

Sources

* * * * *{{cite journal , last1=Mousavi , first1=Naiemeh , last2=Hajiaqababaei , first2=Mohammad Reza , title=Linguistic Foregrounding in Tarikh-e Beyhaqi based on Geoffrey Leech's Theory , journal=IQBQ , year=2020 , volume=11 , issue=1 , pages=163–192 , url=https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-28744-en.pdf , access-date=11 April 2020 Iranian books 11th-century history books Ghaznavid Empire History books about Iran

Names

Content

See also

References

Sources