Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy ibn Żaḥḥāk ibn Maḥmūd Gardīzī (), better known as Gardizi (), was an 11th-century
Persian historian and official, who is notable for having written the ''Zayn al-akhbar'', one of the earliest history books written in
New Persian.
Little is known of Gardizi personally. He was probably from
Gardiz in the region of
Zamindawar, as his
nisba implies.
[; ] His father's name was Zahhak, a name that was seemingly popular in the region. Gardizi started his career as an official of the
Ghaznavid monarch
Mahmud of Ghazni (), and was an eyewitness to many of the events that occurred under the latter. In his ''Zayn al-akbar'', Gardizi took a dispassionate view of history which was fairly remarkable for its time. It consisted of a history of the pre-Islamic kings of Iran, Muhammad and the
Caliphs until the year 1032. Included is a history of the Arab conquest of
Khorasan, which it is believed Gardizi was using
al-Sallami as a source. His history concerning the Turks was written using
Ibn Khordadbeh,
Jayhani and
Ibn al-Muqaffa'
Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh Rūzbih ibn Dādūya (), born Rōzbih pūr-i Dādōē (), more commonly known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (; ), was a Persian translator, philosopher, author and thinker who wrote in the Arabic language. He bore the name Rōz ...
as sources.
[''Gardizi'', W. Barthold, ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Vol.II, p. 978.] He may have been a student of
al-Biruni, since the ''Zayn al-akbar'' contains information concerning Indian festivals.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardezi, Abu Said
Year of birth unknown
1061 deaths
Geographers of the medieval Islamic world
11th-century Iranian geographers
11th-century Iranian historians
11th-century Persian-language writers
Scholars from the Ghaznavid Empire