local historiography in early medieval iran and the tārīkh-i bayhaq

International Society for Iranian Studies

Local Historiography in Early Medieval Iran and the Tārīkh-i BayhaqAuthor(s): Parvaneh PourshariatiSource: Iranian Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1/2 (Winter - Spring, 2000), pp. 133-164Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4311337 .

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Iranian Studies, volume 33, number 1-2, Winter/Spring 2000

Parvaneh Pourshariati

Local Historiography in Early Medieval Iran and the Tarikh-i Bayhaq*

Introduction

DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD IRAN PRODUCED ONE OF THE RICHEST REPER- toires of local histories in the Islamic world. Ibn Funduq, the author of the local history of Bayhaq studied here, enumerates 15 local histories of Khurasan alone. These include three local histories of Marv by al-cAbbas b. Muscab b. Bishr, Abu'l-Hasan Ahmad b. Sayyar (198-268/814-881), and Abu'l-cAbbas b. Sacid al-Macdani (d. 375/986). (al-Sakhawi calls Muscab b. Bishr's work a "history of (the city)."') To these Ibn Funduq adds two local histories of Herat by Abu Ishaq Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Yunis (?) al-Bazzaz and Abu Ishaq Ahlmad b. Muhammad b. Sacid al-Haddad. (Sakhawi, apparently confused, attributes both histories to Abu Ishaq Muhammad b. Yasin al-Harawi al-Haddad2); a Tiartkh-i Bukhazrai va Samarqand by Sacd b. Janah; two histories of Khwarazm by al-Sari b. Dalwiya and Abu cAbdallah Muhammad b. Sacid respectively; a history of Balkh by Abu cAbdallah Muhammad b. cAqil al-Faqih;3 four histories

Parvaneh Pourshariati is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University.

* I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Jurgen Paul for the kindness and care with which he read drafts of the present paper and for his valuable comments on it. I would also like to thank him for providing me with detailed information on the Russian works on the Tiirfkh-i Bukhara of Narshakhi-not included in the present article due to considerations of space. I am also indebted to Prof. Charles Melville for his kind comments on this article.

1. See Franz Rosenthal's translation of al-Sakhawi's al-lIclvn bi'l-tawbfkh li-man dhamma ahl al-tawarTkh in A History of Muslim Historiography (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968) (page 477 for al-Sakhawi's comment on Muscab's work). Rosenthal notes (168) that for "most of the older local histories down to the end of the tenth century, our information is insufficient. This applies, for instance, to the work of Ahmad b. Sayyar which, however, was called abbjr, and therefore, may not have contained alphabetically arranged biographies." We should note also that Rosenthal discusses Ahmad b. Sayyar's work in the context of local histories which he calls theological, i.e. non-secular, local historiography. Sacid al-Macdani's work is characterized in al-1clin as being alphabetically arranged (477).

2. Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography, 483, notes 4 & 5.

3. According to Rosenthal this Muhammad b. cAqil al-Faqih "can hardly be identical with cAli b. cAqil or cAli's grandfather Muhammad b. cAqil, but he could be Muhammad



134 Pourshariati

of Nishapur by Abu'l-Qasim al-Kacbi al-Balkhi ("the original of which was burnt in the Mosque of cUqayl"), al-Hakim Abu cAbdallah Muhammad b. cAbdallah b. Hamdawayh b. Nacim b. al-Hakam al-Hafiz (321-405/933-1015) (twelve volumes), the Siyiiq al-Ta3rtkh of Imam Abu'l-Hasan b. CAbd al-Ghafir al-Farisi (451-529/1059-1135) and a last, in Persian, by Ahmad al-Ghazi (two volumes); the Thrlkh-i Bayhaq of Imam cAli b. Abi Salih al-Khwari, and Abu Husayn cAli b. Ahmad as-Sallami (who lived around 950 and to whom Ibn Funduq attributes Ta'rrkh Khurasiin and Ta'rrkh Khwar).4 To these could be added the Tarrkh-i Abrvard o Nisa of Abivardi; Ta-rWkh Bukhara of Abu CAli Muhammad b. Sulayman Ghunjar; the Ta3rTkh Khwairazm of Muhammad b. Arsalan, and the Ta-rikh Marv of Mu'adhdhin Abi Salih al-Naysaburi.s Another history of Khurasan, "written not much later than as-Sallami, was the Farid at- taartb ft abbar juransatn by a certain AbQi 1-Hasan Muhammad b. Sulayman b. Muhammad."6

Most of these are no longer extant. Some might more properly belong to the genre of biographical dictionary. Yet if Wadad al-Qadi's recent definition of the biographical dictionary7 a definition that by exclusion helps delimit the works that fall outside the scope of Arabic biographical dictionaries-were to be taken as a measure for defining the nature and scope of local histories, then the quan- tity of local historiographical production in medieval Iran still remains very

8 impressive. A number of attempts have been made to survey a selective sample

b. cAqil al-Azhari al-Balbi who died in 316/928-29 and who, among other works, wrote a History." Muslim Historiography, 463, note 3.

4. See Abu'l-Hasan cAli b. Zayd Bayhaqi, Ibn Funduq, Tartkh-i Bayhaq, ed. Ahmad Bahmanyar, with an introduction by Muhammad Qazvini, (Tehran, 1361), 21.

5. See Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mucjam al-UdabM', Ihsan Abbas edited, 7 volumes, (Beirut, 1993), vol. 5, 2364 and 2349; vol. 1, p 359-360, respectively.

6. Rosenthal, 467.

7. al-Qadi defines the genre of biographical dictionaries as including two kinds of works: "general biographical dictionaries" which "include biographies of individuals from all walks of life" and "restricted biographical dictionaries" those whose subjects "share one common yet specific trait." What this definition excludes, she observes, "are works whose primary structure is not that of a series of biographies, in spite of the fact that they may contain a large number of biographies, and in fact, the biographies included in them may be an essential component of the book. . ." See Wadad al-Qadi, "Biographi- cal Dictionaries: Inner Structure and Cultural Significance," in The Book in the Islamic World: The Written Word and Communication in the Middle East, edited by George N. Atiyeh, (Albany: State University of New York, 1995), 93-123; here, 94-95, and 95-96.

8. Some of the most noteworthy of these which certainly fall outside the genre of biographical dictionaries, include: Tuirtkh-i Ststan, Anonym, (composed from 445 to 725/1053 to 1325), Malik al-Shucara Bahar edited, (Tehran, 1314); Farsnizmah of Ibn Balkhi (composed between 474-510/1082-1116), annotated by Mansur Rastgar Fasayi based on the edited text of Le Strange and Nicholson, (Tehran, 1374); TiTrikh-i Bukharii of Muhammad b. Jacfar al-Narshakhi (286-339/899-950), originally composed in Ara- bic; Tdrtkh-i Qum of Hasan b. Muhammad b. Hasan al-Qumi, (composed originally in Arabic in 378/988 and translated into Persian in 805-06/1403 by Hasan b. cAli b. Hasan b. CAbd al-Malik Qumi,) edited by Sayyid Jalal al-Din Tehrani, (Tehran, 1361). Among



Thrllkh-i Bayhaq 135

of local histories of Iran and define the nature and scope of these works and the world views enshrined in them.9 As Charles Melville argues in the introduction here, however, no consensus has thus far been reached in arriving at an inclusive definition of Persian local histories. Among the most recent of these surveys is one by Ann Lambton cited in note 9. One of her most relevant observations for the present introduction is her comment that there "has been a remarkable continuity in the writing of local history [in Iran] . . . Some towns and regions are particularly rich in this genre."'0 In the present state of scholarship on the local histories of Iran, an inclusive definition of what might potentially be called a genre is indeed premature. Yet a cursory examination of a selected sample of the local histories produced in Iran during the early medieval period highlights the fact that these works exhibit a great degree of thematic and structural affinity. A brief analysis of some of the more salient characteristics of these works will put the ensuing discussion of the Thrtkh-i Bayhaq in its proper context.

To begin with, many local histories devote a section to geographical information on their region, generally enumerating its villages and their delimitation and distances and the natural resources and terrain of the region, including a description of the artificial irrigation systems of the region especially that of its subterranean canals (qanat, kariz). The Thrrkh-i Qum, for instance, has an unus- ually long section on irrigation in which even the data on the watermills of the region and the names of most of their builders is included." In the Farsnamah of Ibn Balkhi a section is devoted to listing the fortresses (qildc) of the region.'2

Wonders (cajdtib) pertaining to the region's topography are often included in this category. The Tiirrkh-i STstiin, for example, describes a waterfall twelve

the sources used for the Tdrikh-i Qum, Hasan al-Qumi mentions the Kitab-i Jsfahan of Abu cAbdallah Hamza b. Isfahani (270-360/884-971), Kitab-i Hamadan of Abu cAli CAbd al-Rahman b. cIsa b. Hammad Hamadani, and finally Kitdb-i Rayy, all of which were evidently written prior to the production of the Thrikh-i Qum by al-Qumi in the tenth century. For information on the sources of Tdrrkh-i Qum see A. K. S. Lambton's "An Account of the Tarikhi Qumm," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, xii, 3 and 4, (1948): 586-96. MahMsin lsfahdn of Mufaddal al-Mafarrukhi (composed in Arabic in 421/1030), (Tehran 1312/1933); Mafatkhir Khurasan by the famous Muctazilite scholar Abu'l-Qasim al-Balkhi (d. 319/931), Ibn Isfandiyar's Tarrkh-i Tabaristdn (composed early in the seventh/thirteenth century), Abbas Iqbal edited, (Teh- ran, 1320/1942).

9. See, e.g., Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography, 160-162 and Ann K. Lambton "Per- sian Local Histories: The tradition behind them and the assumption of their authors," in Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti and Lucia Rostagno, eds., Yad-Nama in memoria di Ales- sandro Bausani, vol. 1: Islamistica, (Rome: Bardi Editore, 1991), 227-38.; R. Stephen Humphreys, Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry. Revised edition, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 128-36 and Julie Scott Meisami, Persian Historiogra- phy to the End of the Twelfth Century, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), 9-10.

10. Lambton, "Persian Local Histories," 227. 11. al-Qumi, Tdrrkh-i Qum, 52-56. 12. Ibn Balkhi, Farsndmah, 372-379.



136 Pourshariati

farsangs high,'3 as well as a great sand (rig) desert which, if defiled with pol- luted material, cries out with a sound like that of the thunder.14 In the case of Tazrkh-i Sistian, this, like the other wonders mentioned, is clearly connected with Zoroastrian myths prevalent in the region.'5 The story of the Zoroastrian cypress trees in the Thrfkh-i Bayhaq belongs to this same category of information, as we shall see. Other themes usually dealt with in these chapters are: the best agri- cultural products of the region, cultivation practices, specialized trades, and arti- facts, and the special character traits of the population. Included, sometimes, is the region's taxation at a given time. The Tarikh-i Srstian6, Thrlkh-i Bukharrk7, and Farsnamah,'8 all provide information of this kind. The Thrtkh-i Qum'9 gives extremely detailed information on taxation in Qum.20

Most local histories also include a section on the virtues (fada3il), or glories (mafiakhir) of the region. As their titles might indicate, these sections are meant to illustrate the religious prominence of the region, gauged, usually, in terms of the precedence of region in entering the Islamic fold. Here we get, for instance, information on the laudatory traditions purportedly told by the Prophet or the Companions (sahaba) about the region, or the alleged association of the Com- panions with the territory. Here is where the religious dimensions of a region's identity are articulated. This sort of informnation can generally be considered as topoi with very little of substance on the early Islamic history of the region.

Pre-Islamic or antiquarian themes abound in many of the local histories. Structurally, they occur mostly at well-defined junctures: when discussing the origins of a place, its founder, the etymology of its name, and the narrative of the Islamic conquest. Although disjointed, in almost all cases they follow the

13. Afarsang being four to six kilometers.

14. Tanrkh-i Srstan, 14, 15.

15. See Tartkh-i Sistan, 14, 15, where the re-emergence of a previously existing spring in the city (shMristdn) is promised at the coming of the millennium with reference to the Book of the Zoroastrians (kitab-i ibn dihishtt-i Gabrakan), i. e., Bundahishn, and another spring near Bust which contained gold, the former existence of which the author mentions by quoting the Book of the Zoroastrians. In both cases Abu'l Mu'ayyid Balkhi is also quoted as a source. This Abu'l Mu'ayyid Balkhi is the author of one of the first, but no longer extant, prose Shehhndmahs. He composed it at the beginning of the fourth/tenth century. See D. Safa, Hama-sa Sard'T dar Iran, (Tehran, 1324/1945), 93. The Garshdspndmah, cAja3ib al-Barr wa'i-Bahr and cAjajib al-Buldan are other works attributed to him. Tlrikh-i Sistdn, vav, zih.

16. Tdrtkh-i Sistan, 30-33.

17. "On the taxation of Bukhara and its suburbs." Narshakhi, Tartkh-i Bukhara, ed. Mudarris Razavi, (Tehran, 1984), 46.

18. "The Taxation Regulation of Pars," Farsndmah, 398-401.

19. Tirikh-i Qum, 122.

20. In the table of contents of the Tiirtkh-i Qum, where one gets a sense of the no- longer-extant sections of the work, there is a promise of even more information on the taxation practices of Qum in the eleventh, fourteenth, and fifteenth chapters. Chapter nineteen is also said to have had information on the taxes imposed on the Jews and Zoro- astrians of Qum. Tiirikh-i Qum, 17-18.



Tainkh-i Bayhaq 137

linear conceptualization of a "proto-national" Iranian history, from the first man- king Kayumarth to the last Sasanid king, Yazdgird b. Shahriyar. Pre-Islamic themes occur in the legendary story of the building of the citadel at Bukhara,21 the narrative of the migration of the idol-worshipping tradesmen of Bukhara out of the region after the Arab conquest,22 and in the theme of the settlement and "division of Transoxiana between the Arabs and the cAjam."23

Ibn Isfandiyar's TarFkh-i Tabaristan includes substantial sections on pre- Islamic themes. The historical memory in the chapter on the "beginnings of Tabaristan," is legendary; Tabaristan is inhabited by drvs until Jamshid, the fourth Pishdadi king, uses the divs to clear the mountains, fill up the seas, create meadows (sahdrt) and fortresses, and then brings artisans and workers to inhabit the region.24 The Fairsnaimah of Ibn Balkhi, containing a meticulous enumeration of the traditional order of the kings of the four dynasties of Pishdadiyan, Kayaniyan, Ashkaniyan and the Sasanids, reads like a monograph

25 on the pre-Islamic kings of Iran. Foundation myths, found in many local histories, are almost invariably taken from pre-Islamic Iranian history. Likewise for narratives that detail the etymology of the name of a particular territory.

A detailed narrative of the Arab conquest of the region is usually found in the local histories. Together with a discussion of the first mosques constructed after the conquest, these narratives betray, especially in the earlier local histories, the continued significance in the production of local histories of the memo- ries of the conquest and the regions' early Islamic history. Substantial information on the conquest and its immediate aftermath can be found, for example, in the Thrrkh-i Qum, Thrfkh-i Bukhazrai, and the Thrfkh-i Sistin. The Thrrkh-i Qum reflects an obsessive preoccupation with the period of the conquest wherein we are given a wealth of extremely detailed and interesting information dealing predominantly with the social and economic effects of Arab settlement in Qum. The topics range from cultivation practices in the pre- and post-concuest pen-

'26to7 ods, to the division of water resources between cAjam and cArab, and the 28 - settlement of Arabs in the territory. A substantial section of the Tairikh-i

Bukharai, likewise, is devoted to the theme of conquest and its effects on the native population. 29The existence of biographical material in most of these local histories, and the ramification of this for the perception of "parochial" commu- nities of their own identity and their function in the greater Islamic community,

21. Thrrkh-i Bukhiiri, 32.

22. Thrikh-i Bukhifra, 42.

23. Tartlkh-i Bukhiira, 61-65.

24. Thrikh-i Tabaristan, 57.

25. Farsnamah, xi-xiii.

26. Thrtkh-i Qum, 48.

27. Thrtkh-i Qum, 48-49.

28. Thrlkh-i Qum, 23, 33-35, 41, 48-49, 242-265.

29. Thrtkh-i Bukhiira, 12-16, 42, 61-65, 67-73, 73-81.



138 Pourshariati

has been frequently observed and commented upon.30 What can be postulated as a preliminary assessment of the earlier local histories of Iran is that religious concerns seem not to be a primary determinant of identity, although, and this can not be emphasized enough, they were evidently written in a milieu infused with Islamic culture.

In broad outline, these are some of the general themes found in earlier local histories. As we shall see presently, Ibn Funduq's Tiirrkh-i Bayhaq shares, in many respects, the thematic and structural characteristics of these regional histories, although, in other respects, it parts company from them.

Franz Rosenthal has termed some of the works belonging to this category as "secular local historiography." "The Iranian east" he observed, "possessed a flourishing secular local historiography," characterizing the whole enterprise as "an impressive monument to Iranian patriotism."31 Whether one would agree with Rosenthal's assessment or not, there is no arguing that at least a sizeable proportion of the local historiographical productions of Iran-in spite of their structural variety and their potential affinity with other historiographical trends32-betrays very similar concerns and exhibits characteristics unique to them.

Some of the questions that should be addressed in any study of the genre are: What particular societal forces were at work that stimulated the production of local histories? What world views are enshrined in them and why do some regions in Iran assume such a disproportionate share of the production of these works? Further there is the need to explain the growth in production of such literature in Iran from the standpoint of period. That is, why did the production of local histories undergo such disproportionate growth in the first half of the second millennium? The contention that the growth of local historiographical production in Iran coincides with the disintegration of the Caliphate and the rise of local dynasties in the region33 provides only a partial answer to this question. The sort of vitality and systematic production that we witness in Iran seems not to exist in other parts of the Caliphate which were similarly affected by disintegrating forces. Further, if we accept H. A. R Gibb's "truism" that "every

30. See for example, A. K. S. Lambton, "Persian Biographical Literature," in Bernard Lewis and P. M. Holt, eds., Historians of the Middle East (London, 1962), 141-51.

31. F. Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography, 160.

32. According to Meisami, the terms "local or regional history" are "slightly mislead- ing" for "many such works, both in Arabic and later in Persian, while devoting much space to description of their respective regions, are chiefly concerned with the history of the rulers of those regions." (Julie Scott Meisami, Persian Historiography, 9.) Whatever the terminology, it is clear that we cannot characterize such important local histories as Tarrkh-i Ststdn, Thrfkh-i Qum, ThrTkh-i Bukhlura, i Fiirsnamah, and TiLrikh-i Tabaristain, and others which seem to have followed the format of these (see note 8 above), as histories "chiefly concerned with the history of rulers," of these regions. We must further acknowledge the paradigmatic shift of the local histories away from a "universalistic" conception and towards more localized concerns.

33. al-Qadi, "Biographical Dictionaries," 107-108; Lambton, "Persian Local Histories, 228-29.



Thrikh-i Bayhaq 139

kind of literary production which is regularly cultivated in a society expresses some enduring element in both the conscious motivations and unconscious orientations of the society as a whole or of its public exponent"34 then, Gibb's anti-Iranian bias notwithstanding,35 the task before us is not only to delimit the "corporate" nature of the Persian local historiographical genre in its broad outlines, but also, to ascertain its relationship to other historiographical production in the medieval Islamic world.

In a seminal article,36 Roy Mottahedeh reexamined the shu cabiya controversy of the third/ninth through the fifth/eleventh centuries through Qur3anic commentary, and postulated a dimension to the controversy not noticed by prior scholarship.37. He argued that a "dispute over the nature of the shu Cab constitu- ted one of the fundamental issues dividing the shu dbls and their opponents, an issue that has somehow gone unnoticed by modem historians.,38 At issue was the meaning of the term shaCb in verse 13 of sura 49 (al-hujurat) of the Qur'an39-the term which gave its name to the controversy. Mottahedeh argued that for those who opposed the shuCabr "49:13 by itself sanctioned only genea- logrcal divisions of society, and therefore only larger groupings based on genealogy."40 A second interpretation of the term shaCb, however, "an interpretation frequently mentioned in the Quraan commentaries and ... of deep importance to the shuCabiyah,''4l followed the definition given by the "Cambridge Taf- sir,"42-the early Persian Qur3an commentary written, probably, by a

34. H. A. R. Gibb, "Islamic Biographical Literature," in Historians of the Middle East, 54-58.

35. H. A. R. Gibb, "Tarikh" in Stanford Shaw and William Polk, eds., Studies on the Civilization of Islam, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 108-37.

36. Roy P. Mottahedeh, "The Shuc0biyah and the social history of early Islamic Iran," International Journal of Middle East 7 (1976): 161-82.

37. Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies, (London, 1967), 137-197. H. A. R. Gibb, "The Social Significance of the Shu'ubiya," Studies on the Civilization of Islam (Boston, 1962), 62-73. For a recent work dealing with the controversy see Louise Marlow, Hier- archy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

38. Mottahedeh, "The Shuc0biyah," 165.

39. "Oh men, We have created you from a male and a female and We have made you into groups (shua'b) and tribes (qaba"il) that you may come to know one another; truly, the noblest (akram) among you before God is the most righteous (atqa) among you: Truly God is All knowing, All-seeing," as quoted in Mottahedeh, "The Shucufbiyah," 164.

40. Mottahedeh, "The Shuciibiyah," 166. My italics.

41. Mottahedeh, "The ShuclThbyah,'' 168.

42. "Oh men, know that We have created you all, white and black, rich and poor, great and small, Arab and client (mauld) from one man and one woman. We have made you one city (shahr) after another and one tribe after another so that when you asked "do you know each other?" - so that people may know where you are from - you say "such- and-such city from such-and-such village (dih) of such-and-such locality (mahallat)" and of such-and-such tribe, son of so-and-so," so that you may know each other. It is for this reason that we have given names (ndm-hd) designating relationships, not so that you



140 Pourshariati

Khurasanid author living in the first half of the fifth/eleventh century. In these commentaries, Mottahedeh argues "a distinction is made between shaCb understood as a people related by a common place of residence or birth, and qabilah understood as a people related through a common ancestor. The residential or territorial concept is specifically associated with the cAjam, the non-Arabs, while the genealogical concept is associated with the Arabs."43

Pending research that would place, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the production of secular local histories in Iran in the larger context of the production of this genre in other Islamic regions such as Egypt and Yemen, it might be plausible to argue that their proliferation in Iran during the medieval period can be considered as an expression of the territorial dimension of identity for Irani- ans. The significance of the Khurasanid origin of the author of the "Cambridge Tafsir" notwithstanding, it is important to realize here that in fact the central and overarching characteristic of the local historiographical genre in Iran was its definition of identity in regional terms. It could be tentatively argued, further- more, that some of the earliest local histories of Iran were produced in the heat of the shuciubTya debate.44 To what extent the cultural heritage of shuCabrya might have actually stimulated the growth of secular local historiographical production in Iran remains a hypothesis for future research.

The Tarikh- Bayhaq: Its Author and his Milieu

The author of the Thrrkh-i Bayhaq, Abu'l-Hasan cAli b. Abi'l-Qasim Zayd b. Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Bayhaqi,45 known as Ibn Funduq and Farid-i Khurasan,46 was an historian among many other things. Born in 490/1097 in the village (qasaba) of Shishtmadh in Bayhaq, his education was multi-faceted and a testimony to his wide-ranging schooling and subsequent interests. Besides the traditional subjects of Qur'an and Qurzanic exegesis, tradition, and law, he pur-

should assert pride in this respect over one another." Anon., Tafsir-i Qur3iin-i Majid, ed. Jalal Matini, (Tehran, 1349/1970), quoted from Mottahedeh, "The Shuc"bfyah," 167.

43. Mottahedeh, "The Shucfbf'yah,'' 169-70. My emphasis. "I think, therefore, it is fair to say that we have an interpretation which was favored by one group of Iranians (and especially Khurasanian) commentators... The shucfibis ... found in the Qur'an itself a warrant for the nontribal and nongeneological organization of the societies to which they belonged. They did so by interpreting shaCb as a people united by a territorial principal, and it is largely for this reason that their movement continued to be called after shu Cib, a single word in 49:13." Mottahedeh, 170-71.

44. See note 8.

45. For information on his life and works see Q. S. Kalimullah Husaini's, "Life & Works of Zahir U'D-Din Al-Bayhaqi, the Author of Tarikh-i-Bayhaq," Islamic Culture 28 (1954): 297-318; "Contributions of Zahir U'D-Din al-Bayhaqi to Arabic and Persian Literature, Islamic Culture 34 (1960): 40-89; and "The Tarikh-i-Bayhaq of Zahir U'D- Din Abul Hasan cAli b. Abil Qasim Zayd al-Bayhaqi," Islamic Culture 28 (1959): 188-202; Dhabihullah Safa, Thrrkh-i Adabtya1t dar Iran (Tehran, 1371), 2:311; H. Halm, "al-Bayhaqi," EIr 2: 895-96; Meisami, Persian Historiography, 209, 217, 222, 228.

46. Safa, Tarrtkh-i Adabryat dar Iran, 2: 311-13.



Thrikh-i Bayhaq 141

sued among other topics, poetry and literature, logic, philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics.47 Ibn Funduq was extremely prolific. Yaqut attributes 74

48 Hka?th books to him. Among these were his Tatimmah of Siwan al-Hikma49-the biographical dictionary of Greek and Muslim philosophers-of the pseudo Abu Sulayman Muhammad b. Tahir b. Bahram al-Sijistani al-Mantiqi (d. 380/990), the Javiamic-i Ahkaim al-Nujuim in Persian in three volumes, Lubab al-Ansab,50 and Tafstr Nahj al-Baldgha. One of the most important of his books was a history of Iran, Mashairib al-Tajiarib wa Ghawiarib al-GharaJib, no longer extant, a continuation for the years 410/1019-560/1165 of CAbd al-Jabbar al- cUtbi's (350/961-427 or 31/1036 or 40) TiTrhkh-i Yaminr, covering the Ghaznavids, the Seljuqs and the first half of the Khwarazmshah era. Some of the information in this book can be reconstructed through the narratives given in Yaqut's (d. 626/1228) Muj7am al-Udaba&, Ibn al-Athir's (d. 630/1232) al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rrkh, Ibn Abi Usaybica's (d. 668/1270)cUyan al-Anba&' fi Tabaqait al- Atibb?1', Ata Malik Juvayni's Tuirrkh-i Jahangushia and Hamdullah Mustawfi's Thrllkh-i GuzTdah.5'

Ibn Funduq seems to have studied under some of the most distinguished 52 figures of his age in Khurasan. In his youth he is said to have impressed cUmar

Khayyam with his knowledge and erudition. Durinf his lifetime he seems to have "been considered an authority on astronomy,"5 and among his numerous books were commentaries on works of Avicenna and Farabi.s4 Together with the impressive list of his publications which covered a wide range of subjects, the list of the sources55 that he mentions in his history of Bayhaq, gives us a fairly

47. Husaini, "Life & Works of Zahir U'D-Din Al-Bayhaqi," 304.

48. Yaqut, Mu jam al-Udabd', 4: 1762-63.

49. There are a number of extant manuscripts of this work. A critical edition of it by Muhammad Shafic was published in 1351/1932-33 in Lahore. It was translated into Per- sian in the seventh/thirteenth century and titled Durrat al-Akhbar. (Safa, Tarrkh-i Adabtydt, 2: 312).

50. The editor of Tcrikh-i Bayhaq notes that a very defective copy of the Lubab al- Ansab, an extremely rare ms., was found in the library of the Madrasa-i Sipahsalar cata- logued under the title Nihayat al-Ansib. This copy was used by the editor in correcting, as far as was possible, some of the names in the present edition of the Tiarrkh-i Bayhaq. See the Thrtkh-i Bayhaq, 65, n. 1.

51. See Bahmanyar's introduction to Ta1rikh-i Bayhaq, yad-yat.

52. Husaini, "Life & Works of Zahir U'D-Din Al-Bayhaqi," 304-305. 53. Ibid., 305.

54. Ibid., 298.

55. Among these Ibn Funduq mentions the Mabadd al-Lugha when discussing the etymology of the nisba Fami, 127; the Maztd al-Tavirikh, which he cites in numerous instances for information on the elite families of Bayhaq, such as the Ziyadiyan, the Aw- lad-i Kama, and the Fuladvand family, 132, 133; the Dumyat al-Qasr of cAli b. al-Hasan al-Bakharzi, 196, 221, 228; Mi'atun Hijrithatun of Ahmad cUmayra, 197; the Lubab al- Albab of Yacqub, 209; the Ta&rtkh of Abu cAli Sallami, 228; the Qala'id al-Sharaf of Abu cAmir Jurjani, 228; the Mafakhir Ntshapiur of Abu'l-Qasim Kacbi (d. 317/929) 255; the Kitiab-i Qanun, 280; Thimar al-Qulib of Abu Mansur Thacalibi for the story of the



142 Pourshariati

accurate picture of the intellectual traditions to which he belonged. A scientist, an calim, a poet who composed in both Persian and Arabic, and finally an historian, his range of interests is in fact one of the primary indicators we have of the character of the author of Tiirikh-i Bayhaq.

Ibn Funduq was of Arab ancestry. He traced his genealogy to one of the Companions of the Prophet, Khuzayma b. Thabit [101], and through him to Biblical prophets. His ancestors came from what Jean Aubin has called the newly established families of the region, that is, that section of the elite population of Bayhaq that had migrated to the region in the late tenth, early eleventh centuries.56 His paternal ancestors, the families of Hakimiyan and Funduqiyan, seem to have originally come from Valishtan of Bust [1011. His great grandfather, from the Hakimiyan family, Hakim Imam Abu Sulayman Funduq (d. 419/1028]), was appointed to the judgeship of Nishapur by Sultan Mahmud, through his vizier Ahmad b. al-Hasan al-Maymandi. During this period Nisha- pur was firmly under the control of the Hanafite leadership, held in the Sacidi57 family, and from this and other facts of Ibn Fundu 's family history, we may assume that our author and his family were Hanafis.5 Later Abu Sulayman Fun- duq served as a deputy judge, before resigning his post, buying some land in Bayhaq and migrating there from Nishapur [102]. He divided the judgeship of Damghan and Bustam between two of his sons, Abu Sacd al-Hasan and Ahmad. His other son, al-Hakim al-Imam Abu cAli al-Husayn (d. 480/1087), also held the post of deputy judge of Nishapur and Bayhaq for a time [102].

Ibn Funduq's grandfather, Imam Shaykh al-Islam Amirak (d. 501/1107-8), was born in Nishapur and served for a while as preacher (khatrb) in the old Fri- day mosque, and later as deputy judge [103]. Ibn Funduq's father, Imam Sacid Shams al-Islam Abu'l-Qasim Zayd b. Muhammad (447/1055-517 or 6/1123 or 4), lived for more than twenty years in Bukhara where he is said to have studied.59 His biography, according to our author, was given in the Ta'rrkh Ntshapar of CAbd al-Ghafir al-Farisi and the TirTkh-i Bayhaq of cAli b. Abi Salih al-Khwari [107]. The Bayhaqiyun side of Ibn Funduq's family were large

sarv of Farivmad and Kashmar, 281; Mada'ini for information on the Muhallabids, 91; hikayas from the trustworthy men (thiqat), 128; from his jadd, 274; another hikiiya about the arrival of the "sultan of the Arab and the cAjam," Mascud b. Mahmud to the qasaba, 274.

56. Jean Aubin, "L'aristocratie urbaine dans l'Iran seldjukide: l'exemple de Sabzavar," in Melange offert a Rene Crozet, (Poitiers: Soci6td d'Etudes M6di6vales, 1966), 1: 325. Also see below. I would like to thank Charles Melville for bringing this article to my attention.

57. For the role of the Sacidi family in the socio-political history of Nishapur see R. Bulliet, "The political-religious History of Nishapur in the Eleventh Century," in D. S. Richards, ed., Islamic Civilisation 950-1150, (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1973), 75-83.

58. Husaini, "Life & Works of Zahir U'D-Din Al-Bayhaqi," 312.

59. His teachers included Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Ahmad b. al-FadI al-Farisi, Imam Abu cAbdallah al-Husayn b. Abi'l-Hasan al-Kashgari, Shams al-cUlama' Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Abi Sahl al-Sarakhsi, and Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad b. cAli b. al- Haydar al-Jacfari. Tahrkh-i Bayhaq, 106.



Thrrkh-i Bayhaq 143

land-holders, who, according to our author, owned most of the land in the rabc-i Zamij [107]. His maternal grandfather, Khwaja Abu'l-Qasim al-Husayn b. Abi al-Hasan al-Bayhaqi, who was murdered in 433/1042 by a mob during one of the numerous upheavals in Bayhaq, was born to the daughter of Abu Bakr al- Khwarazmi. Al-Khwarazmi was the son of the historian Jarir al-Tabari's sister. This, Ibn Funduq boasts, accounts for his own innate passion for writing history [108]. Khwaja Abu'l-Qasim seems to have had free access to the audience of the vizier Abu Nasr al-Kunduri, as well as to Nizam al-Mulk. He is said to have warned the former against injustice, the latter against debauchery and illicit temptations.60 The maternal side of Ibn Funduq's ancestry was also related to the Al-i Mikal (or the Mikalis), through whom the author also became related to the vizier, Hasanak. Through a distant ancestor, Ibn Funduq was also related to the Muhallabids, a point he belabors on at least one occasion [84].

During his youth Ibn Funduq is said to have studied in Nishapur and Marv. Some time during this period he seems to have taught in a high school (dabiristain) in Nishapur [77]. There, in 521/1117, he reportedly married the daughter of the governor of Rayy, Shihab al-Din Muhammad b. Mascud, in whose service he remained until the latter arranged for him the post of the judge of Bayhaq in 529/1135. He resigned from this post not long thereafter, moving back to Nishapur when he was not able to secure a position in Bayhaq. Like his ancestors he seems to have had connections with the ruling circles of his region, including the court of Sultan Sanjar.6'

The Tarikh-i Bayhaq: Structure and Content

The Thrrkh-i Bayhaq62-which is said to have been written during the rule of Mu&ayyid al-Dawla Ay Aba (d. 659/1174),who took control of Khurasan after Sanjar63 -has no dedicatee. In its introduction, the author claims to have been motivated by a desire to revive the sciences according to his own ability [3]. Other than his simple acknowledgment that his local history of Bayhaq ought to be considered among the ranks of other local histories hitherto written, no mention of any specific motive is given for writing.

A substantial section of the book can be considered a biographical dictionary of the leading men of Bayhaq. In the wealth of detailed and picturesque information that it provides on the socio-political history of Bayhaq, however,

60. He is said to have refused al-Kunduri's robe of honor (khalcat), requesting justice instead. "He said: I desire only public benefaction which is justice, not private reward. For private reward in times of injustice and disturbance is of no avail." (Thrtkh-i Bayhaq, 110-111.)

61. Husaini, "Life & Works," 310.

62. The version of Tdrikh-i Bayhaq on which the present study is based was edited by Ahmad Bahmanyar and includes an introduction by Muhammad Qazvini. It is based on two manuscripts: the earliest dates to 735/1334-35 and is in the British Museum while the other, a later copy, belongs to the public library of Berlin. (Tiartkh-i Bayhaq, dal, hih, vav.)

63. Thrtkh-i Bayhaq, yaj.



144 Pourshariati

the local history of Bayhaq is far more than a simple roster of the elite of the region.

The Thrrkh-i Bayhaq begins with a brief introduction in which the author, after setting out his detailed genealogy back to Sam b. Nuh [2], the second son of Adam, expresses despair about the period in which he is living and contrasts it unfavorably with the conditions under which the pursuit of knowledge was possible in former times. Many invaluable sciences, he laments, have been obliterated in Khurasan. Among these, Ibn Funduq gives primacy to the science of traditions, for nowadays "if someone writes ten isnads" few would be able to distinguish the false from the sound. And this is the cause of the greatest grief and calamity for in "a radius of 100farsangs" there are not even two calims who are authorities on the traditions of the Prophet [3].

He asserts that the "noble science" of genealogy is likewise neglected. This science is particular to the Arabs; each "region" (vilayat) possesses its own particular science-the Byzantines have the science of medicine; the Greeks that of wisdom, medicine, and logic; India, astronomy and mathematics; the Persians, ethics; the Turks, horsemanship and warfare; the Chinese, the arts (sanayic); and the Arabs, "who are the most noble" people on account of the Prophet, the science of genealogy and proverbs.

A third neglected science, according to Ibn Funduq, is that of history, for the age of historians has become extinct. Yet there are numerous benefits in knowing and writing history. In the next chapter64 Ibn Funduq offers a long disquisition on the relation of history to the acquisition of knowledge as well as the benefits of history. Here he articulates not only his philosophy of history, but also his thoughts on the nature of history:

The science of history (cilm-i taviarfkh) has two branches: the science of religions (cilm-i adyin) and the science of the material world (cilm-i abdan). That which pertains to religion is the knowledge of [the march of history from the] beginning of creation from Adam-Peace be upon him-to that of the other prophets and messengers-Peace be upon them-as well as the history of the caliphs and the rulers; that which has come in the books on prophets (kutub-i anbiy&), the caliphs and the rulers . . . [History of religion also includes] the explications of sects and religions, that which has transpired in the era of the Prophet Muhammad, the opposition to him as well as his followers, and the miracles of prophets and the likes of these. The primary utility of [a history ofl the material world (anchih tacalluq bih masiilih-i abdan ddrad) is that there is no event, propitious or inauspicious (khayr va sharr) which transpires, the likes of which, or close to it, has not happened in past ages. As physicians make the cure of diseases by former doctors of medicine a canon [for their own practices], so what has proved propitious in past events, must be acknowledged, and that which has been avoided must be evaded [7-8].

64. Introduced under three separate chapter (fasl) headings. (TWrtkh-i Bayhaq, 7-17.)



Tiirrkh-i Bayhaq 145

Here Ibn Funduq begins his discourse on the relationship of history to human knowledge. Intellect (caql) is the faculty of knowledge (shin?akhtan) and feeling (hiss); observation (mushaihada) and audition (masma cat) are the means of the senses. But the knowledge of the affairs of the world cannot be obtained through intellect. These cannot be observed through one individual's life span. So the path to the knowledge of the world is through history. History is also a delightful science rarely occasioning boredom [8], for the state of the sense of audition upon hearing news and stories is comparable to that of the sense of perception upon seeing objects of beauty. Obtaining news and transmitting it is in the nature of humans. Is it not true that once one has received some news, it is difficult for one to withhold it? And is it not on account of this that keeping secrets is a commendable trait not possessed by everyone? [91 History, then, according to Ibn Funduq, is normative and utilitarian. It is didactic [13] and entertaining and, being based on strict memorization-which is then reinforced through its association with current affairs-it lends itself best to learning, unlike jurisprudence, mathematics, grammar, and other sciences [9-10].

Experience (tajribat) can be obtained by three means: personal knowledge, the experience of one's contemporaries, and finally through history [12]. One who ponders history becomes the conduit of the sum total of the experiences of all the wise men of the world. This route to knowledge is more salutary than consultation with contemporaries, for in former times the elite and the gentility had their own interests foremost in mind, while nowadays, they maintain those of the others. And one is more truthful in attending to one's own interests than to those of the others [13]. No-one is more needy of this science than the rulers and governors, for the welfare of the whole world is contingent upon their ideas and sentiments [151.

Ibn Funduq continues to elaborate on the parameters of historical knowledge. The comments that he presently makes are corroborated-in spite of his otherwise conservative attitudes-by the malleability with which he treats the historicity of his material: if one suspects that some histories comprise only falsehoods and legends which ought not be trusted, for [in these] truth and untruth and the salutary and the perfidious (savab va khata) have been com- pounded, and the possibility of distinguishing between these would be arduous, he must be told that whatever accrues benefit must not be reprehended. All that obstructs ignorance is propitious: The tales that have been put in the mouths of animals in Kalila wa Dimna are matters intended for experience and utility, all beneficent and sound [16]. Ibn Funduq's long discourse on the nature of history and historical knowledge, and his careful expose of the normative and utilitarian values of history seem to be unique, making the Tarikh-i Bayhaq exceptional in this regard among other local histories.65

Although Ibn Funduq's long discourse on his philosophy of history seems to be unparalleled, the Tarrkh-i Bayhaq nonetheless incorporates many of the themes touched upon in the brief survey of the thematic concerns of medieval

65. Although Julie Scott Meisami has observed that in this Ibn Funduq seems to be following the ideas expounded by Abu' I-Fadi Bayhaqi and Miskawayh. Meisami, Per- sian Historiography, 211.



146 Pourshariati

local histories of Iran enumerated above. A short chapter on regions (vilyat) 66

where he lists 50 separate regions, both within Iran and outside it, like India and Sind, Africa, Yemen, Khazar, Byzantium, Rus and Alan, and China, testifies to his awareness of the more global dimensions of the world in which he was living and producing his parochial history. There follow two chapters identifying previously composed histories. It is important to note here that Ibn Funduq divides these into two distinct categories. In the chapter entitled "On a number of famous histories," he mentions what he consider the most important universal and dynastic histories as well as maghdzi, and biographical dictionaries.67 In a separate chapter immediately following entitled "On the histories of cities and regions and their authors,"68 he lists the aforementioned fifteen local histories of Khurasan and adds that he has gathered the information in his own local history of Bayhaq from the history of Nishapur "which is more complete," the Tarikh-i Bayhaq of Abi Salih al-Khwari, as well as other books and that he has added some of the genealogies of the old families of Bayhaq in order to make it more complete [21].

Ibn Funduq's division of histories into two distinct categories supports the hypothesis that the production of local history in Iran was a self-conscious enterprise.69 While he puts his Tzrrkh-i Bayhaq squarely in the corpus of local historiography known to him, he assigns his dynastic history, Mashdrib al-Tajarib wa Ghawarib al-GharVJib, to the category of the universal history. By the time Ibn Funduq was writing, a normative structural paradigm for local historiographical writing seems to have already come into existence. The author emphasizes his emulation of the "classical" style in a section on the rulers of Bayhaq where he notes that he is including such a section because "it has become habitual in local histories to mention the genealogies and histories of the rulers of the region. And as the habit of the masters of this art (sancat) has been to follow this model

66. Thrrkh-i Bayhaq, 17-19.

67. Here he mentions the Maghdzi of Muhammad b. Ishaq, Kitilb al-Mubtada' of Wahb b. Munabbih, the "tdrrkh-i kabrr" of Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, Futuh of Ibn Actham, Tawirikh al-Muluk of Ibn al-Muqaffac, the Tahdhib al-Ta'rikh and Tajdrib al- Umam of Ibn Miskawayh, the histories of the Buyids of "Sabi and others," Kitab-i Yamfni "from the end of which to the present, I have made a history entitled Masharib al- Tajdrib wa Ghawiirib al-Ghara'ib," Maztd al-Tavdrikh from Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad b. Sulayman, composed during the period of Sultan Mahmud, al-Tadhkira wa'1-Tabsira of Ibn Tabataba al-cAlawi in history and genealogy, and finally Tartkh-i Al-i Mahmud of Abu'l-Fadl al-Bayhaqi. (Ibn Funduq, Thrrkh-i Bayhaq, 17-19.)

68. Tarlkh-i Bayhaq, 20-22. The list of local histories starts with Ta)rTkh Baghdad "in ten volumes" (Tdrikh-i Bayhaq, 20).

69. The author of Tiirtkh-i Qum also points out that one of the three stimuli that encouraged him to write a history of Qum was the fact that Hamza Isfahani had composed the Tarrkh-i Isfahdn but had not mentioned any of the stories (qisas) and traditions (akhbiir) of Qum (al-Qumi, Tdrtkh-i Qum, 11). Similarly, the author of the Tdrikh-i Jadid-i Yazd, Husayn cAli Katib, felt that Jacfari who had written the TiirTkh-i Yazd shortly before him "had not performed this task adequately, since chand fasl tahqtq ndkarda nivishta bud, and [he] intended to do a better job." (See Miller, "Local History in Ninth/Fifteenth Century Yazd," Iran 27 (1989): 75.



Tuirikh-i Bayhaq 147

(nasq), it is felicitous for the follower (muta'akhkhir) to imitate the pioneer (mutaqqadim) [651."

The next two chapters70 on the virtues of Bayhaq and the Companions (sahaba) who have visited Bayhaq, can at best be considered as a reconstructed topos. In the first, which begins with a tradition from the Prophet on the bless- ings that accrue to regions which have Companions associated with them [221, Ibn Funduq claims that some of the sahaba reached Bayhaq and took up residence there. He then lists ten persons, only two of whom can be connected with Bayhaq with any degree of certainty.7' In this respect, the treatment of Tarfkh-i Bayhaq of the sahiaba is not only similar to other local histories of Khurasan, but also seems to be similar to the Islamic historiographical corpus in general: the theme of the sahiaba should be mostly considered as a topos, where the information can rarely be used for reconstructing early Islamic history. Elsewhere, I have argued that Ibn Funduq' s inordinate emphasis on the association of the sahiiba with Bayhaq can, in fact, be used, together with other data, to establish the dearth of an Arab presence in Bayhaq during the first post- conquest century. This argument assumes a greater degree of plausibility if one compares the silence of the Tirukh-i Bayhaq about this period of its history to other local histories, such as the Tirfkh-i Bukhara, Thrtkh-i Qum, and the Ta'rikh Jurjan or Kitiab Macrifa CUlamia3 Ahl-i Jurjain of Abu'l-Qasim Hamza b.

72 - Yusuf b. Ibrahim al-Sahmi (d. 1036), and finally the anonymous Tiirtkh-i STstsn in all of which substantial information is provided about the period of conquest and the first Islamic century.

The short chapter that follows on the conquest of Bayhaq has two points of interest. First, while it introduces the topic by claiming that the population of Bayhaq, like that of Nishapur, "did not wage war against cAbdallah b. cAmir and the army of Islam," it proceeds to tell us that, after an initial peaceful encounter, both Nishapur and Bayhaq were taken by force after all.73 The most

70. "Chapter on the virtues of Bayhaq," 22 and "On those Companions, May God be pleased with them, who have been in Bayhaq," 23-28.

71. For a detailed examination of this and its significance in establishing early Arab settlement in Bayhaq, see, Parvaneh Pourshariati, "Local Histories of Khurasan and the Pattern of Arab Settlement," Studia Iranica, 27 (1998): 41-81.

72. Abu'l-Qasim Hamza b. Yusuf b. Ibrahim al-Sahmi, Ta'rikh Jurjiin aw Kitiab Macrifa CUlama'j Ahl Jurjan, ed. Muhammad Abd al-CAmid Khan (Haydarabad, 1387/1967).

73. Ibn Funduq, Tiirtkh-i Bayhaq, 23-25. The accounts of conquest in both the Tiartkh- i Bayhaq and the Ta'rtkh Ntshapir make it clear that neither of the regions submitted peacefully to the cArab army. See also Abu cAbdallah Hakim Nishapuri's Ta'rtkh Nishipiir, ed. Muhammad Rida Shafici Kadkani (Tehran, 1375), 202-207. Although Hakim claims that the soundest traditions corroborate Nishapur's peaceful submission (206-207), the actual narratives of the conquest which he provides prove otherwise. See Parvaneh Pourshariati, "Iranian Tradition in T-Us and the Arab Presence in Khurasan," Chapter 1, and idem, "Local Histories," 76.



148 Pourshariati

interesting data in this chapter, however, appear at the end of the narrative of the conquest of Bayhaq, where we are told that two years prior to this event Yazdgird b. Shahriyar, the last of the cAjam kings (muluk-i Cajam), came to Bayhaq and set up his tent at the entrance of the rusta. The dihqan of Bayhaq went to him and Yazdgird gave him a robe of honor (khalcat). Ibn Funduq describes Yazdgird's physical features here. He was handsome in appearance. He was a youth with tanned (gandumgun) complexion, connected eyebrows (pay- vastah abra) and curly hair (jaCd muiy) and pleasant lips and teeth (shirrn lab o dandan). He was of soft speech (latff sukhan) and magisterial mien (bai mahabat). "Whoever set eyes on him detected the signs of royalty from him." The last king of cAjam, we are told, was the choicest (nas(b-tartn) of Iranian kings [26].

The anecdotal nature of this piece of information suggests that Ibn Funduq's source was the local lore of his time. A number of other significant narratives about Bayhaq's pre-Islamic history seem to stem from this same fount of local historical memory. In this respect too the Tairkh-i Bayhaq is comparable to other local histories74 in which we find both a more direct correspondence between local historiographical writing and popular historical memory and signs of the existence of non-Islamic oral sources in the production of local histories.S

The Tarrkh-i Bayhaq continues with five chapters on: the weather of Bayhaq; characteristics peculiar to various regions; blights and diseases peculiar to each region, including Bayhaq the "Mother of regions;" and finally another chapter on the reliance on the weather of various cities irrespective (dun-i) of other elements.76 In the chapter on the characteristics of each region the author presents the truisms in circulation about various regions. The secretaries (dabtrs) of Baghdad, the philosophers of Greece, the painters of China, the paper manufacturers (kilghadhiyan) of Samarqand, and the sufis of Dinawar, have their less sublime counterparts in the Cayyirs of Tus, the sorcerers and magicians (jaduvan o mushaCbadan-i Hind) of India, and the thieves and vagabonds (duzdan o mutavdriydn) of the environs of Rayy. Bayhaq, of course, is known for its learned men (adtbs) [28]. In the section on the reliance on weather [32-33], Ibn Funduq offers an elaborate argument justifying the omission of fire from the four elements necessary for determining the suitability of a region for habitation. While people say that the soil, climate, and water of this city is better than those of other cities, "they never say that the fire of this city is warmer or more incendiary and fiery" [32] than that of other cities. This apologia for the primacy of other elements to fire for determining the conditions of habitability is curious. Was Ibn Funduq writing this with a Zoroastrian audience in mind? His

74. Such as the Thrikh-i Qum, Thrfkh-i Tabaristazn, Farsnamah, and the Tizrrkh-i Bukhiara.

75. P. Pourshariati, "Antiquarian themes in Persian local histories," a talk presented at the Second Biennial International Conference of the Society for Iranian Studies, May 1998, in Bethesda, Maryland.

76. "Bab dar dhikr-i havay-i Bayhaq, " 26-28, "Fasi dar dhikr-i mudaf o mans(b bih har shahri)," 28-29; "Fasl dar dhikr-i afat va amrad.-i vilayat," 29-32; "Dhikr-i ummahat- i vilayat," 32; "Fasl dar bayan-i ictib5r bih havay-i shahr-ha duln-i digar candsir," 32-33.



Tarlkh-i Bayhaq 149

preoccupation with the topographical qualities of various regions seems to bespeak a concern with precarious natural conditions and recurrent plagues and highlights the tremendous dependency of medieval man on his natural environ- ment. Ibn Funduq's exact calculations for deciphering the best possible posi- tioning of regions vis-a-vis mountains, seas, winds, and deserts; his detailed exposition of plagues afflicting various regions, such as typhoid in Egypt, lep- rosy in Baghdad and Basra, and pestilence in Syria; and his meticulous lists of the venomous reptiles and arachnids of various regions, especially that of Iran and Transoxiana, all underscore this preoccupation.

The next subject for the Tartkh-i Bayhaq is the etymology of the name of Bayhaq and the boundaries of the region. Here, once again, like other local histories, there is the ring of the folkloric in the discussion. The first proposition (qawl-i avval) on the etymology of the name is that it derives from Bthah, the original Persian (pdrsi-yi aslh) of which is Bthrn (or Bayhfn), meaning the best (bihtardn) region (nahiya) of Nishapur. The next is Payhah, that is, it has been measured with paces (pay). The third possible etymology comes from a pre- Islamic folkloric tale. Some (qawmr) have said that in the days of Bahman al- Mulk there was a man called Brha who built a village which they named Bayhaq after him. And this was the first construction that took place in this region [34]. After describing the taxation of the region during Tahirid rule [34], Ibn Funduq gives the names of various districts (rabe) of Bayhaq and the villages included in them. He reminds the reader that Bayhaq, based on the re-districting made during cAbdallah b. Tahir's rule, is divided into twelve sections, the correct pronunciation of which is rabc, the terminology used by the cAjam, and not rubc [i.e. quarter] as is used by the Arabs, for otherwise the twelve-fold division would not pertain [34-35]. In this section Ibn Funduq deals with the water resources, especially the number of aqueducts (kdrrz), of various parts of Bay- haq. A pre-occupation with water is also evident in the last section of Thrfkh-i Bayhaq in a chapter on the peculiarities unique to Bayhaq.77Under his description of the city (qasaba) of Sabzivar, he remarks that in all of Khurasan and Iraq one cannot find a region with as many underground water channels (kiarfz) endowed with water of such good quality for in the one farsang between Sabzivar-the capital of Bayhaq-and Khusrawjird, there are more than ten kariz, the water of which, if gathered in one place, would require a ship to cross [35].

One of the most interesting sections here is Ibn Funduq's description of the rabc-i Zamij because of his reliance on pre-Islamic lore. Zamij, which in Persian (bih lughat-i parst) means fertile land (zamtn-i bar dahandah), that is, fields of cereal grains, derives its name from the time when Bahram b. Yazdgird, that is, Bahram-i Gur, arrived there and ordered the cultivation of grain and cotton. For Shishtmadh, a village of Zamij, Ibn Funduq maintains that madh is frequent in Pahlavi words (lughat-i pahlavi) such as Barghmadh, Farivmadh, and Anju- madh. It is also used in the names of months such as Isfandmadh, for example.

77. "On the extraordinary things that come from Bayhaq that make it unique (dar ghara'ib-i chTz-ha kih az Bayhaq khizad kih bidan munfarid ast)," 276-281, especially pages 277, 278, and 280.



150 Pourshariati

In the Persian language (zaban-i farsT) they say radh o madh, radh meaning learned (danc) and wise (bikhrad). Here he quotes a verse from Firdawsi [37] where radh is appropriately used. It should be pointed out that Ibn Funduq's quotation of a couplet attributed to Firdawsi makes the Tanrkh-i Bayhaq one of the first medieval texts to mention the poet and cite one of his verses. Ibn Fun- duq concludes that radh is said in praise of people and madh in praise of shrines (biqdc) and homelands (mavatin). We are also informed here that the village of Ushtur was the ribat for the camels of Bahram [38]. Other pre-Islamic lore associated with Bayhaq are that the war between Manuchihr and Afrasiyab took place in the region of Bust (or Pusht), and that Bilash b. Firuz, who built the Bilash Abad of Bayhaq, also fought his brother Qubad b. Firuz, the father of Nushirvan, in his own territory. These appear in the last section of work [264].

In the next section of Tadrkh-i Bayhaq, we get the fascinating narrative of Banu Sasan,79 the source of which, undoubtedly, is again pre-Islamic lore current in Bayhaq. Structurally, it appears at one of most the important junctures of the book, when Ibn Funduq discusses the circumstances surrounding the construction of Bayhaq and significant events that have transpired in the region. Like most other Persian local histories,80 there is a connection here between the popular conceptualizations of the origins of the territory, posited in the pre- Islamic Iranian history, and the region's contemporary construction of at least parts of its identity. He opens this account with a description of the kingship of Bahman al-Mulk. Bahman al-Mulk, the son of Isfandiyar, was a "great king" who ruled for one hundred and twelve years over the breadth of the region (bar basUt-i zamrn). "His nature was the letter of diplomacy and the tally of

,,81 generosity. Ibn Funduq gives the genealogy of Bahman which is taken to Nowdhar b. Manuchihr [39-40], after which a defective version of his purported Biblical lineage through his mother is given, versions of which are also given by Tabari, Ibn Athir and Mascudi. The Bahman Abad of Bayhaq, which during Bahman's times was a great city, our author informs us, was built by him.

Ibn Funduq then provides the fascinating story of Banu Sasan: This Bahman had a son named Sasan and a daughter called Humay. He married his daughter, as is permitted among the Zoroastrians (millat-i maju4s), and she became preg- nant by him. The pregnancy had not yet reached term (muddat-i haml bih niha1yat-i vaqt narasidah bud) when his own death approached. So Bahman put the crown on his daughter's belly and declared the fetus the crown prince, with the proviso that until s/he was born, Humay would be in charge of affairs of state. Here, Ibn Funduq inserts three couplets of Persian verse that, in the spirit

78. yak! anjuman sMkht bikhradhin / hashiv5r o kar izmiudah radhan He assembled with the sages, the quick-witted and skillful leamed ones

79. For further information on the Banu Sasan see, C. E. Bosworth, "Baniu Sasan," in Elr. 2: 721-22; idem, The Medieval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1976).

80. See the introduction.

81. zat-i u sahifah-i siyasat va fihris-i sakhavat bud (Ta rTkh-i Bayhaq, 39).

82. Ibn Funduq, Tarikh-i Bayhaq, see editor's note, 297.



Ti1rikh-i Bayhaq 151

of the shuCibiya debate over pedigree, belittles the importance of lineage-appropriate here in the context of the Iranian claims to it.83 When Sasan saw that his father had preferred a fetus over him, he bought some sheep and went to Bayhaq, and in "Sasan Qariz, which is written as Sasqanrz, he ordered a kiirrz to be built." A poetic interpolation here follows with a couplet on the mer- its of hard work.84

Sasan brought the sheep to the village (qasaba) of Sasan Abad, which is today written as Sabzivar, and constructed this fortress, and made the kiartz run through the city [401.85 Once again a poem, put in the mouth of Sasan, decries the lengthy tale that is his story and laments that the ravens-the popular meta- phor for the Arabs-have sat instead of Huma, the fabulous bird and symbol of pre-Islamic Iranian monarchy. Then Sasan set out for the environs of the Yuz- kand of Turkistan and in the place which they call Uzjand, he constructed a village (drht) which they call Sabzar and which is today inhabited and cultivated (macmar). He also constructed two other villages next to Sasan Abad, one of which he called Raz and the other Izi, as he had done in Bayhaq.6 Ibn Funduq then describes the details of Sasan's building up of the region on the model of an army [411.

Later, "people started blaming Sasan, and discoursed at length on the base- ness of his resolve (dina'at-i himmat-i u-ri sharh dadan dirCiz kardand)." His

87 father had "perceptively" recognized that he was not fit for kingship. And up

83. gawhar-i asl rah nanmayad / gawhar-i tan hami bi-kar ayad kih az an mard surkh ruy shavad / namburdar o namjiiy shavad har kuja ja-yi garm o sard buvad / pisar-i nik pusht-i mard buvad

The matter of pedigree will not lay open the path/It is the essence of the person that will prove expedient, Through it man acquires honor, fame, and repute In all climes be they warm or cold / A good son comes after his father Tuzrikh-i Bayhaq, 40. I would like to thank Mr. Habib Borjian for confirming my

reading of "pusht-i mard" in this context.

84. har chih asan shavad bi-hasil-i kar / bashad aghaz-ha-yi vay dushvar That which becomes facile at its conclusion, has generally an arduous inception.

85. agar chih ma-ra qadr az in bar-tar ast / kih gardiin-i girdan ma-ra kihtar ast hadithi-st in-rn diraza diraz / dilam par zi dard ast o garm o niyaz nah rah ast payda o nah rahnumay / nishastand zaghan bi-ja-yi humay While my worth is greater than this, for the revolving wheel of fortune itself is

lowlier than I There is a long long tale to this, my heart is full of chagrin, want and anguish Neither is the path clear, nor is there a guide, the ravens have sat in the place of

Huma.

86. Ibn Funduq later informs us that some of the men of learning (danishmandan) of these villages, who were on their way to pilgrimage of the Kacba, had come to him and read tafsirs for him and obtained ijaza for quoting traditions from him. (Tiiarkh-i Bayhaq, 41.)

87. nigah kun tu an shakh o an bikh-ra / nigah dar an Cahd o t&rikh-ra pidar guft Sasan zi man dulr bash / hamishah siyah ruy o ranjar bash digar gunah shud ruz o bar gasht kar / siyah gasht bar vay hamah ruzgar



152 Pourshariati

until now whenever people admonish and reprimand the unworthy, they call them sizsi. And they call the beggars sasi and sasdnT.88 From the progeny of this Sasan came the kings of the cAjam. Other kings reproached these and called them the children of Sasan the Shepherd. It is no wonder that in these ages the face of the felicity (dawlat) of Sasan has been metamorphosed and people have obliterated their virtues. The Sasanids (akiasira) were all oppressors except for Nawshirvan. And in their times no peasant had the nerve to cook a delicious meal or sew a clean garment or teach his children the sciences and literature or maintain an expensive steed (sutirt). But they liked developing the world (cjmdrat-i calam) [43]. It is interesting to note here in passing that in the Fiirsndmah of Ibn Balkhi the ancestors of the Ismacili clan of the Shabankarah Kurds-the genealogy of whom is taken back to descendants of Manuchihr, "who did not rule, but were among the military governors (ispahbadhs),"-are also said to have resorted to vagabondage and shepherding after the Arab conquest of Fars.89 Ibn Funduq's dwelling on the inequities of Sasanid rule and his occasional charged discourse on hasab and nasab [114, 187, 211, 253] indicate the persistence of the cultural heritage of the shuCabtya-in his case the anti- shucabiya in the author's world-view.

In the passage just discussed, he mocks the genealogical pretensions to kingship of the Sasanids, exalts the virtues of good works, here, undertaken unsuccessfully by Sasan, and passes a clear judgment on the injustice of all the Sasanids except Nushirvan. Bahman, nevertheless, stands together with Yazdgird in the ranks of benevolent Sasanid kings.

Ibn Funduq's long narrative on the Banu Sasan betrays the continued rele- vance of pre-Islamic Iranian traditions and the contentious claims based on these, in the author's cultural milieu. Also significant is the nomenclature given to beggars and ignobles as seasfs. Whether this appellation betrays Ibn Funduq

jahan yaksarah bar dilash sard shud / wa zin h&l janash pur az dard shud kunuln man jahan-ra 'im5rat kunam / bar in gulsfandan imarat kunam chinin ast rasm-i sara-yi fari-b / kih dArad pas-i har farazi nashib umid-i man az mulk bar bad shud / kuja dushman az hil-i man shad shud agar marg biidi bar asiudami / az in ranj-i bisyir bar suldami

Look at the branches and at the roots, preserve that age and its history Father said: Sasan stay away from me, May you remain forever ashamed and

aggrieved Times altered and affairs changed, his fortunes became bleak His world became dreary, his heart woeful from this state I will begin rendering this world habitable, he said, I will command this sheep? Such is the way of this abode of deceit, that a dip follows each ascent I've lost all hope of a kingdom, the foe rejoices at my condition If death were to come, I could have rested, I would have unwound from this dire

affliction (Tarikh-i Bayhaq, 42).

88. sizad ar gum shavad dar itash o khak / an pisar kaz pidar nadarad bik It is befitting if he were to be lost in fire and earth, the son who does not dread his

sire (Tarikh-i Bayhaq, 42).

89. Ibn Balkhi, Fairsnamah, 388-89.



Tiarrkh-i Bayhaq 153

and some of his contemporaries' Arabo-Islamic elitist prejudices, or, in fact, reflects the existence of the Banu Sasan in Bayhaqi society is a matter for further research.

It is not only the story of the Banu Sasan that reflects Ibn Funduq's sporadic incorporation of local pre-Islamic lore in his history. His work also includes the history of the sacred Zoroastrian cypress trees, the Sarv-i Farivmad and Sarv-i Kashmar, which he introduces in the final sections of his book. The Farivmad and Kashmar cypresses are said to have been planted by Zoroaster, the leader of the Magians (sahib al-majas)90: one in the village of Kashmar of Taritith and one in the village of Farivmad. The Zoroastrians (gabrikian) are said to have offered 50,000 dirhams to prevent the destruction of the thousand-year-old sarv- i Kashmar by the order of the caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861). At its destruction, there is said to have been an earthquake which destroyed many kiartzs and buildings, and at the night prayer so many birds gathered, lamenting and wail- ing, that people were bewildered. All who had had a hand in the tree's destruction, including al-Mutawakkil, are said to have died "and this is one of the wondrous events" [282]. The Farivmad cypress survived longer, until 537/1143; its life span was 1,691 years.9' Amir Isfahsalar Yinaltakin b. Khwarazmshah ordered it burned. While al-Mutawakkil was murdered by one of his pages the night when the tree was brought to one day's distance from Baghdad, no harm befell Amir Isfahsalar Yinaltakin and his entourage, for the latter had destroyed the cypress tree by fire. Since the tree was planted by the fire-worshipping Zoro- aster it was possible that some peculiar event might have transpired if they had destroyed it by some other means. One of the wonders of the Farivmad cypress was the fact that any king who set eyes on it would suffer a misfortune within the year, and this experience had been repeated through time [2831. The legendary nature of the wondrous events ascribed to Bayhaq are similar to those found in other local histories such as the Tiirfkh-i SRstdn. It is significant that in the Ta3rtkh Nishapar a similar story, in a much less embellished form, is told of an almond tree planted by the Imam Rida and destroyed by a tyrannical ruler, who, together with others involved in the destruction of the tree, died as a result of this deed. 92

It is interesting to note that after the story of Banu Sasan, the chapter on the great events that have transpired in Bayhaq, turns-after a short narrative on the conquest of Bayhaq by cAbdallah b. Amir-to a detailed account of the conquest of the region by Hamza b. Adharak-i Khariji from Sistan. The author here admonishes Hamza for his foolish indulgence in joviality, Satan's mastery over his judgment, his ethical deviance, and finally his evil innovations (bidac) [44]. The destruction wrought by Hamza on Bayhaq, including his clogging of the kairiz of Shishtmadh and his slaughter of the male population, including children

90. Here Ibn Funduq mentions that according to Thacalibi in Thimar al-Qulab it was King Gushtasb who ordered the planting of the trees. Tdrtkh-i Bayhaq, 281.

91. See Bahmanyar's note on this dating. Tdrtkh-i Bayhaq, 324.

92. Ta3rrkh Nishapar, 209-10.



154 Pourshariati

(Ibn Funduq puts the total number at 30,000) are recounted in solemn detail [45].

In the last section of the book-"On the significant incidents which have happened in this region"-where some of the previous information in this chapter is reiterated, we are offered more information on Hamza's revolt and his Zoroastrian background is highlighted. They say that an astrologer from Herat (munajjimr Haravf) came to the territory (rustaq) of Sijistan. A farmer named Adharak was cultivating there. Adhar means fire (atash). Someone came and gave him the good tidings of the birth of a son. The astrologer cast his horoscope and said that this son would be a commander (lashkarkash) and a tyrant (safJa-k). This boy was Hamza-i Adharak and he caused much bloodshed [266-67]. The Tarfkh-i Bayhaq, is so far as I know, one of the few sources that provides us with information on Hamza's revolt. The diverse nature of information on Hamza in the first and last section of the book might reflect Ibn Fun- duq's use of different sources. The only other of our sources with such detailed knowledge of Hamza's revolt is the anonymous Tcirrkh-i Srstiin.94

The passage on Yahya b. Zayd b. Zayn al-cAbidin and Muhammad b. cAli b. Musa al-Rida [461-who came to Khurasan through Tabas-i Masina, for "in those days the Qumis road was not open"95-and finally Harun and Ma&mun who stayed for a while in Bayhaq and decreased the taxes (khariij) of the territory [49] concludes the narrative of the important events that transpired in Bay- haq. A separate chapter (fasl) discusses the Friday mosque of Sabzivar in which we are provided with graphic anecdotal information on the initial rebuilding of the Friday mosque, after its destruction at the hands of Hamza, by a wealthy woman of Bayhaq [ 49].%

Here begins the chapter on the sayyids (sa1dat) [54-65], and rulers (mulak) of Bayhaq. The section on the sadat begins with the observation that the sayyids did not originally come from Bayhaq, but that they had migrated to the territory from Nishapur and other regions. It is here that we learn that most of this migration seems to have taken place in what Ibn Funduq terms the first fitrat [64]. This section comprises, for the most part, a list of the various sayyid families of Bayhaq with detailed genealogies. As a list of the shartjfs, Ibn Funduq points out, has been given in his Lubab al-Ansiab wa Alqaib al-Acqdb, he has not repeated these here [54]. At the time that Ibn Funduq was writing, Bayhaq, especially its capital of Sabzivar, was a stronghold of Shicism.97 This was not so much on account of the numerical superiority of the Shicis in Bayhaq, or for that matter in

93. "zikr-i vaqRyic-i cuzz&m kih dar in nahiyat uftadah ast," Tairikh-i Bayhaq, 266-67.

94. Thrtkh-i Ststa1n, 170.

95. The editor of Tarikh-i Bayhaq notes that the factuality of Muhammad b. cAli b. Musa al-Rida's travel to Khurasan might be suspect for this information is found in no other source. See Ibn Funduq, Tdrikh-i Bayhaq, 298-99.

96. For the significance of mosque narratives in Persian local histories see P. Poursha- riati, "Local Histories of Khurasan." See also below, the hadTth on women.

97. See C. E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran: 994-1040, 2nd edition, (Beirut, 1973), 194-99.



Thrikh-i Bayhaq 155

Khurasan, but rather, it seems, due to what Aubin calls the dynamism of the sayyid families.98 The power and the status of the cAlids in Bayhaq comes across very clearly in Ibn Funduq's work. He devotes a section to the cAlids and includes a chapter on the sayyids of Bayhaq, as well as a long narrative on the Zubara family, the leader of the cAlids in Khurasan and apparently connected to the Tahirid dynasty through marriage [55].

In the following chapter which is on the rulers of Bayhaq, Ibn Funduq reminds his readers that although no kings have come from Bayhaq, and the region can only claim army commanders (umarii-i lashkarkish), still, following precedence, he will enumerate the rulers of the region for it is "customary in the histories of regions to give a history of its sovereigns" [65]. A list of the Tahirids is then followed by an anecdotal narrative on the Saffarids most of which deals with the revolt of Ahmad b. cAbdallah al-Khujistani [66-68].99 One of the most interesting details that Ibn Funduq provides of the revolt is the fact that during Khujistani's seven-year rule, he is said to have killed many of the culamd of Nishapur. '??

The narrative on the Samanids briefly covers their origins, the war between Ismacil b. Ahmad and Nasr b. Ahmad, an anecdote that is meant to highlight the justice of Isma'il and finally a narrative on the struggles of Ismacil b. Nuh in regaining the lost Samanid throne [69-70]. The space allocated to the Ghaznavids, or the Mahmudiyan, as the author calls them, only allows the author to list the rulers of this dynasty in order with the explanation that a history of them had already been given in detail in his Mashiirib al-Tajiirib. We are also reminded that Sultan Mahmud passed through Bayhaq-when he went to Rayy and obtained control of the region from Majd al-Dawla Abu Talib and his mother Sayyida-but that no great justice or beneficent trace was left by him in the region. Finally, the injustice of Mahmud is contrasted with the justice of Mascud who, on his way back from Isfahan, passed through the region spreading justice [71]. The final chapter on the rulers of Bayhaq, that of the Seljuqs [71-731, is likewise limited to a roster of the rulers.

The chapters that follow and comprise a large portion of Tiarikh-i Bayhaq [73-137], give vivid narratives about the local families (khandan) of Bayhaq. The detailed information that Ibn Funduq provides here indicates his conception of legitimate authority in local politics. Families such as Nizam al-Mulk [73-83] and the Muhallabids [83-93] get extensive coverage. The detailed information that is given on the Hakimiyan and Funduqiyan [101-107] and the Bayhaqiyun [107-13]-both of which begin with the author's stating that these were his

98. Aubin, "L'aristocratie urbaine," 326.

99. According to Thrfkh-i Sistan when Yacqub Layth was contending for power against the last Tahirid, Muhammad b. Tahir, around 875, a group of sacliuks of the region joined him. One of them was Ahmad b. cAbdallah Khujistani. Later, however, Khujistani rebelled in Khurasan. While the extent of his rebellion is not clear from ThrTkh-i Sistean, it was not until 882 that Khujistani died and a stop was put to his insurgency. See TCirTkh-i Sistlan, 224-39; Nizami Arudi, Chahar Maqiila, (Leiden), 36.

100. Ibn Funduq, Tdrikh-i Bayhaq, 68.



156 Pourshariati

ancestors [101, 107]-as well as other elite of Bayhaq,10' puts the author of TarTkh-i Bayhaq squarely within-to borrow a term from Richard Bulliet-the patrician class of Bayhaq. It is through these narratives that the connection of dynastic rulers to Bayhaq's local elite is elucidated. Aubin has observed that, with rare exception, the ruling oligarchy of Bayhaq did not descend from ancient noble families of the region, but established itself in Bayhaq only during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, or had recently risen from the propertied classes in the villages. 102Nevertheless, it is the narratives of these families that animates Tarikh-i Bayhaq, providing information on the social and economic backgrounds of the elite of Bayhaq, the network of alliances within which they functioned, and their involvement in local and regional politics.

The Thrikh-i Bayhaq now provides what is a substantial section of the work, a biographical dictionary of more than 150 of the Culamd, imams and learned (afa@il) men of Bayhaq. The citations for the culama usually mention their birth place, the teachers under whom they studied, or their colleagues, their publications where applicable, the date of their death and a sample tradition transmitted through these with an abbreviated chain of transmission. The range of the activities of some of the men listed in this section is reflected in these biographies. Some of the Culama composed poetry, in which case, at times, a specimen of their poetry is included. Information on their wealth, their travels [141, 192], their construction activities, anecdotes about their physical beauty [195], their problematic marital life [167], on some who were drunkards and spent their life imbibing [212], on the gh?izT background of others [193, 220, 224], are some of the more colorful dimensions of the biographies included in this section. Secretaries (dabtrs), rulers (amtrs), judges (qdzrs), cAlid syndics (naqibs), scientists and philosophers (hakTms), chiefs (rucasd) sayyids (sadat), and some sufis [217, 248, 253] are all included here. A close study of these biographies, together with the sections on the sayyids of Bayhaq and its leading families, might enable us to fill in the gaps in the contemporary, or near contemporary history of Bayhaq, in particular, and Khurasan in general, including reconstructing the local dimensions of dynastic rule over the territory. The sections thus contain valuable information for reconstructing the social and political dimensions of elite activity of Bayhaq. Some scholars have already made use of the information contained in the Thrtkh-i Bayhaq in a number of significant studies.'03 Needless to say that the book lends itself very well to

101. Other families of Bayhaq include the Fuladvand's 93-101, Abi Nacim Mukhtar 113-16, Dariyan 116-17, Mikaliyan 117, Mustawfiyan 118, cAziziyan 119, cAnbariyan 119-22, Hatamiyan 122-24, Salariyan 124, CImariyan 124-25, Shaddadiyan 125, Inmati- yan 125-126, Muhimmiyan? 126, Awlad al-Turk? 126, Zakki 126-27, Qadiyan 127-28, Bazzazan 128, Dalqandiyan 128-29, Ziyadiyan 129-32, Awlad-i Kama 132-33, Badili- yan 135-36 and finally cAmidiyan 136-37.


103. Aubin, "L'aristocratie urbaine"; Bosworth, The Ghaznavids; and Julie Meisami, Persian Historiography, 209-29.



Thrrkh-i Bayhaq 157

prosopographical research of the type undertaken by Bulliet on the Ta'rTkh NIshapar. "

A chapter on the Persian poets of the region [255-62]-one of whom is said to have composed a poem in the Bayhaqi "language" (bih zaban-i BayhaqW-in which samples of some of their poetry is provided, and another on the learned men of Bayhaq who were bilingual [262-64] concludes the Thrtkh-i Bayhaq. From these, as well as the author's recurrent habit of including Arabic phrases throughout the text and his frequent quotations of Arabic poetry, it is clear that Ibn Funduq addressed his own book to a bilingual audience with a high degree of literacy. The four short final sections of the book,'05 include many interesting narratives including a narrative on attendance at the Friday mosque of Nishapur during the rule of Yazid b. Muhallab [2641, the story of Hamza-i Adharak's Zoroastrian pedigree [266-67], the oppressive tax policies of the Seljuqs at the beginning of Sanjar's reign [269], the attack of drunken youths on the cAlid Abu'l-Qasim-i Farivmadi [269] and his purported protection of Bayhaq against the cayyiprs [274-75] and finally the stories of the Zoroastrian cypress trees [281-83]. Otherwise, however, these sections function somewhat as an index. A good proportion of the information mentioned in brief in these sections has already been treated in extenso. Its style is also somewhat different,06 briefly citing various events under the headings "event" (vaqica) or, where individuals are concerned, by "other" (digar)-most of which, the author reminds us "have already been mentioned." It is possible that these sections were written with a different project in mind. The final section-on political events contemporane- ous with the completion of the book-are given in a non-chronological format. 107

Popular Dimensions of Bayhaq's History

The Thrrkh-i Bayhaq also contains much valuable information on popular aspects of Bayhaq's history. The information that it provides on the periods of fitrat (cahd- i fitrat)-the first of which occurred after the death of Malikshah in 485/1092 [59] and the second in the period between 513-549/1119-1154 [2021-is suffused with data on the social upheavals that affected the region. It is here that Ibn Funduq provides very interesting information on the rise of the cayyirs in Tus and their pre-eminence in Bayhaq and possibly Nishapur. After the death of Malikshah in 485/1092 the region seems to have come under the control of the cayyars [1151, whom Ibn Funduq terms the seditious (mufsidan)

104. Richard Bulliet, The Patricians of Nishapur, (Cambridge, Mass., 1972).

105. On "the elite who have risen from Bayhaq," 264-266; the "mention of the great events that have transpired in this region," 266-270; "the events that have transpired in ancient times," 270-276; "the wondrous things that have emanated from Bayhaq for which it is unique," 276-284.

106. I would like to thank Richard Bulliet for highlighting this aspect of the text to me in a personal conversation.

107. Thrikh-i Bayhaq, 284-85 (editor's note).



158 Pourshariati

elements of society [59]. It is to this period that Ibn Funduq ascribes the migra- tions of a number of important families of sayyids to Bayhaq from Nishapur and comments that "the group who migrated here in the period of fitrat and settled is large" [64]. The stronghold of the ayyairs seems to have been the region of Tus. In fact so connected do the Cayyars seem to have been to the region that, as we have seen in the chapter on the attributes of each city, Ibn Funduq singles them as the distinguishing feature of Tus.108

Typical of the type of information found in Tartkh-i Bayhaq on the social dimensions of the instability that engulfed the region is the following story: After Malikshah's death in 1092 the cayyjars gained control of the qasaba (citadel) of Bayhaq [59]. The task of repelling the attackers and protecting the city was taken up then by none other than Fakhr al-Din Abu'l-Qasim Farivmadi, the syndic (naqtb) of cAlids from the famous Zubara family whose father, Sayyid-i Ajall Abu cAli Farivmadi, was known for his great erudition and intellectual activity [186]. At this point Sayyid Abu al-Qasim came from Farivmad and, together with his cavalry and infantry retainers (ahl-i silaih va chakirian-i saviirah va ptyadah), began guarding the environs of Bayhaq so that none of the swindlers and the profane (mutaghallib va na-pak) could violate the wealth and sanctuaries (haram) of the Muslims. He supported his army from his own wealth [275].

After Malikshah's death we witness, simultaneously, not only the rise of the Cayyars in Tus and Bayhaq, but also the revival of the Karramiya in Nishapur. As Bulliet has argued, during this period there was a growing discontent arising perhaps from deteriorating economic conditions in the region. In Nishapur "the Karramiya revived once again as a spearhead of that discontent."109 The turmoil, which created unprecedented havoc, seems to have continued during Malik Arslan Arghun's unsuccessful bid for power between 1092 and 1096. According to Bulliet "the severity of this revolt and its lower class basis can be judged by the fact . . ." that in Nishapur the age-old factional enemies, the Hanafis and the Ashcari-Shaficis joined forces against an even older mutual enemy, the Karramiya, under the leadership of Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Mahmashad."0 According to Ibn Funduq, the turmoil spread to Bayhaq and inflicted

108. Thrikh-i Bayhaq, 28. The history of cayyirs and cayydrl is yet to be fully investi- gated. There seems little doubt, however, that infused within the cayydrr tradition of the medieval Islamic world was a strong current of pre-Islamic Iranian tradition. As Claude Cahen maintains, there "can be little doubt as to its pre-Islamic Iranian origin not only because in later times they were said to have certain distinctly Iranian costumes, but above all because in the Islamic period up to the Mongol invasion they were only to be found in territories which had once belonged to the Sasanian empire." Claude Cahen, 6"Ayy5r," Elr 3:159-61. Here, likewise, there seems to be a correlation between the pre- ponderance of cayyd,rs and their activity, and the areas in which Iranian cultural traditions seem to have been particularly strong, in this case, the region of Tus. For the continuity of Iranian tradition in Tus see, P. Pourshariati, "Iranian Tradition in TUs and the Arab Presence in Khurasan."

109. Bulliet, "Nishapur in the Eleventh Century," 88-89.

110. Bulliet, "Nishapur," 88.



Thrtkh-i Bayhaq 159

tremendous harm on the region [269]. It is in this same context of what clearly seems to have been a popular uprising that the attack on the chief cAlid syndic, Fakhr al-Din Abu'l-Qasim Farivmadi took place. In 490/1097, when he was on his way from Bayhaq to Farivmad, he is said to have been assaulted by a number of "drunken youths" (javaint chand mast) in Khusrawjird. It should be pointed out that the cAlid sayyids, coming for the most part from the merchant and other well-off classes, with a quietist policy of supporting the status quo,"' had their own ax to grind with the Karramiya. 2 At any rate according to Ibn Funduq, the sayyid does not seem to have lost any time. The day after the attack, together with his son, Sayyid Ra&is clzzaddin Zayd, and other sayyids, he is said to have gathered his supporters (hashar), gone back to Khusrawjird, attacked it, and set fire to its gate. As has been observed elsewhere, the inability of Arslan Arghun to control the politics of the cities of Khurasan"3 in his bid for power is reflected in the Thrrkh-i Bayhaq's narrative of his attack on Sabzivar, when he is said to have plundered one of its quarters and destroyed its walls and fortress in 1097 [2691. The destruction of the synagogue of Marv by Arghun harks back to this same period.

Ibn Funduq exhibits great sensitivity to what seems to have been signs of acute antipathy between the elite and the general populace of Bayhaq, at least in times of trouble. Numerous are the instances where mobs, variously referred to as runud [285], ghawghaz, [274-75], and javaznan-i rustia [272] are blamed for the murder of various elite. For example, a certain Abu Sacidak, from the village (qasaba) of Mazinan, who had been appointed tax collector (Cimil) of Bayhaq by the Samanid, Nuh b. Nasr (331-43/943-54) and had greatly oppressed the people of the region, is said to have been murdered in his sleep (shabrkhan kardand) by youths of the village (javiiniin-i ruistii [272]. A group of rogues (runuid) are held responsible for the murder of Sayyid al-Husayn b. Muhammad b. al-Husayn b. cIsa b. Zayd b. cAli b. Husayn b. cAli b. Abi Talib who was on his way to Khusrawjird with a group of young merchants [285]. The elite (mashazyikh va aCyan) and the culamd of Khusrawjird are said to have forced the governor (vd1T) to exact vengeance (qisas) on these rogues. The tomb of this sayyid was then turned into a shrine [285].

There are other instances where the socio-political upheavals in the region seem to have provided the population at large with occasions for wreaking vengeance. In 432/1041 there was the attack of the K-f-j, "whom they call Qufs," on Bayhaq. The Qufs, the literal translation of whose name means mountaineers,"4 inhabited the south-east of Iran, in the Kirman-Baluchistan region. Medieval Islamic sources depict the Qufs of the tenth and the eleventh

Ill. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids, 194-200; Aubin, "L'aristocratie urbaine," 327.



114. From the old Persian kawfa = mountain. See "Kufs," by C. E. Bosworth, in Ef2 5: 352-53. For an excellent detailed article on the Qufs see C. E. Bosworth, "The Kiifichis or Qufs in Persian history," in Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 14 (1976): 9-17.



160 Pourshariati

century as a fierce marauding people who were only nominally Muslim, and obtained their livelihood from raiding travelers and others in the region."5 The Buyids were forced to undertake extensive campaigns against them and the Seljuqs were finally able to reduce their power substantially. The attack of the Qufs on Bayhaq in 1041 was undertaken prior to this latter development. During this incident, a group of peasants (jamicatr az ristW'1yan) is said to have seized the occasion to murder Khwaja Abu'l-Qasim b. Abi'l-Hasan al-Bayhaqi. In retribution for what was determined to be a "premeditated and not unintended" murder (qatl-i Camd bad na qatl-i khata), seventy five of the accomplices to his murder are said to have been slain (bih qisais-i khun-i u) [108].

Nowhere, perhaps, is the general antipathy of Ibn Funduq towards the masses more clear than in the following elaborate narrative:

All the errors in this world have stemmed from the reluctance of the ignorant (jiahil) to admit to his feeblemindedness (jahl) and [from the fact that he] has spoken about religion out of ignorance. There have been those, pious in appearance, [but] illiterate, whose piety has deceived the masses (avamm), from whom they have requested knowledge [143]. It has been a habit of the multitude, ever since God almighty created the world, that wherever there existed a pious, open-handed and humble illiterate (nadanishmand), they would become his disciples, and would accept his words readily and consider it praiseworthy. It is difficult to cleanse the multitude from this affliction. The culama have been incapable of invalidating that which the populace has accepted from the ignorant devout and they have been apprehensive from the sedition (fitna) of the masses and the harm that these can inflict on them. At times, when they set out to invalidate the verdicts of these, the affairs of the ignorant pious [man] (piirsa-t br cilm) has become even more elevated and the multitude have flocked to these even more [144].

Meisami aptly notes that "this anecdote must certainly relate to the Karramiyya . . ." and-insofar as it also relates to Ibn Funduq's warnings against exhibitions of false piety in the conclusion of his book-that it must also be referring to the Shafici-Ashcarite pietists and perhaps the sufis.'16 However, it must also be born in mind that, as has been argued, infused within the factional strife that had engulfed Khurasan during this period was a clear strand of social antipathy between the haves and the have-nots."7 Ibn Funduq's elitist outlook and his antipathy against "the multitude" is here born out in his critique of the pietists. This sentiment permeates the author's outlook throughout his work.

115. Bosworth, "Kufs," El2 4: 353. 116. Meisami, Persian Historiography, 227-228.

117. The social constituency of the Karramiya in Khurasan, for example, came from the ranks of the peasantry, weavers, and what Bosworth calls the "depressed classes." See Bosworth, The Ghaznavids, 185-89.



Thrikh-i Bayhaq 161

Women in Thrikh- i Bayhaq

Also scattered through the Tcarrkh-i Bayhaq is information on women. To begin with, it is interesting to note that most of the traditions (hadUth) quoted by Ibn Funduq are about women [24, 206, 207] a frequent designation for whom is "covered" (puishtdah) [219, 251]. From the hadrth that describes the Prophet reprimanding one of his wives on her display of jealousy towards another (while in fact she seems to have been safeguarding her privileges vis-a-vis his polyga- mous marital life) to the hadUth that sanctions women's segregation and seclu- sion, [206] to the author's unequivocal statement that the chastity (Ciffiat) and propriety (salah) of women are cardinal qualities, all others being secondary, [144] Ibn Funduq articulates the normative values upheld by the educated elite of Bayhaq in his time.

However, in tracing how these theoretical injunctions could have actually been implemented in practice, the Tartkh-i Bayhaq seems to give us a different story. Here, in snapshot form, we get the possible contours of women's participation in social life. Women's involvement in demonstrations of social and political discontent are sketched in the story of CAmr b. Layth, the Saffarid, who, upon being captured by the Samanid king, Ismacil b. Ahmad, and brought to the bazaar of Sabzivar in a cage, is said to have been peppered by sheep dung (pishk-i gulsfand) thrown by women [67]. So marked does the activity of women in social uprisings seem to have been that some of their stories seem to have traveled through the region. In the upheavals that attended the murder of Nizam al-Mulk by the Ismacilis when the latter, according to Ibn Funduq, were engaged in killing and setting the region ablaze, a certain Imam Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Macmuri al-Faylasuf, is said to have joined Taj al-Mulk in Isfahan. Having cast his horoscope and found his lodging there unsafe, he went into hiding at a friend's house. The mob (ghawgha) was killing the "fortress holders" (ashab-i qildC), the Ismacilis. Women had gone up on their roofs to watch and were running to and fro. One of them noticed through an opening Imam Macmuri who was hiding (mutavirP) and yelled that one of the Ismacilis is in such-and-such a house, "for in those days it was the habit of this tribe to flee and hide." So the mob assaulted and killed him [233-34]. The CulamaJ of Isfahan then gathered and organized funeral prayers for him. Retribution (qisas), however, was not possible as it was a mob that was involved. It is indicative of Ibn Funduq's explicit association of women with mob behavior that in two significant narratives in Thrtkh-i Bayhaq the two are juxtaposed in no uncertain terms. In fact, immediately after this story of an unfortunate mistake in identity, the culprit being a woman, Ibn Funduq reminds us that wounds inflicted by illiterate women118 are fatal and mobs kill prophets and are the mines of sedition. If they congregate, they overcome. But when they disperse they become anonymous.'19

118. al-cajamn9, the feminine form of a 7jam, a woman who speaks incorrectly.

119. "jurh al-cajama' jabbar-wa ghawgha qatalat al-canbiyd' va macadin al-fitan bashand, idha ijtamaCi aghlabu wa idha taffaraqgu lam yucrafu-." Tadrkh-i Bayhaq, 234.



162 Pourshariati

Ibn Funduq's own father is said to have been treated by an old woman, "whom you would have said was one of the witches of the tribe of CAd" (az cajIaiz-i qawm-i Cad ast), and who had made a name for herself as an optome- trist (bih kahhuili khishtan mashhuir gardunfdah). She prescribed a remedy which was not based on the principles of knowledge in the treatment of eyes and as a result his sight was ruined. 20 The woman escaped at night (shabgrr kard va bugrtkht) and those who went after her could not find her [106].

Uncompromising women, while perhaps a rarity, a threat to the traditionalist structures of family life, and chastised for their behavior, nevertheless did exist. Abu cAbdallah Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Jabir al-Bayhaqi, for example, is said to have been stuck (dar mandah) with an insolent, indolent, and unreasonable wife (ba zant diraz zaban-i kuhil-i mahal talab darmanndah bud). So he divorced her despite remonstrance from one of her kin [167]. Another old woman is said to have been fined three dirhams by the Ghaznavid general, Begtoghdi Hajib, on account of her fight with one of her female neighbors with whom things had escalated to ripping the other's clothes (jumah chiik kardan). She, in turn, is said to have complained to Mascud about the general's behavior at which point she is said to have gotten her money back and to have been the cause of MasCud's execution of Begtoghdi [274].

There is finally the narrative of the wealthy woman (mastura-i mutamaw- wala) of the qasaba of Sabzivar to whom, after Hamza b. Adharak al-Khariji's destruction of the Friday mosque, the population turned for financial assistance to build another mosque. The woman is said to have instructed them to take from her own property the land necessary for the construction of a mosque. She then made the land into an endowment (waqf). She is also said to have instructed them to cut some of the trees on her property to build the roof of the mosque and to have paid the salaries of the workers and the contractors (muzd-i ujarai' o Camala) out of her own pocket. Asked, after such an exhibition of power and piety, why she was still spending her days spindling (duk ristan) [49], she is said to have replied with a prophetic hadith.121 Ibn Funduq confirms the woman's response, stating that the greatest virtue of women is for them to be seated and that no other occupation is better defined by this than spindling. 122

Ibn Funduq's traditionalist injunctions notwithstanding, it is clear that wealth and status were two mechanisms through which the constraints of a patriarchal society could have been mitigated for women. In one of his numerous remarks on one of his favorite topics, genealogy (nasab), Ibn Funduq argues that in tracing ancestry one must give precedence to that branch of the family

This is one of the numerous instances where Ibn Funduq combines, as Bahmanyar observes, Arabic expressions within a Persian syntax. Tartkh-i Bayhaq, dal.

120. CalJji nasavab, bi macrifat-i ustil dar mudavat-i chashm bijay avard . . . chinankih chashm-i u tab5h shud. Tarlkh-i Bayhaq, 106.

121. Ibn Funduq reminds us that he has already mentioned this hadUth from Muhallab b. Abi Sufra at the beginning of the book. Thrikh-i Bayhaq, 50.

122. "ghayat-i salIa-i zanan nishistan ast va hich kar nabuvad kih mucayyan buvad bar nishistan illa ghazal." ThrTkh-i Bayhaq, 50.



Thrikh-i Bayhaq 163

which has the most distinguished line, whether from the female line of descent or the male. In order to justify his claim, he cites the assertion of experts in genealogy (culamd-yi ansaib) who maintain that "from the mother and father's [line of descent] that which is the most noble (sharij), accrues to the child." 123 In fact tracing descent from the mother's side seems to have been a prevalent practice during his time. This is confirmed by numerous citations in the biographies of the Thrrkh-i Bayhaq. Al-Shaykh al-RaDis Abu'l-Qasim al-Husayn b. cAmr, one of the rich men of Bayhaq, for example, was from the Mikali family on his mother's side, "and defined himself through that line" [1941. The information that Ibn Funduq provides on some of the social dimensions of women's activity-such as their participation, even if indirectly, in social upheavals-might contain spurious elements that would potentially render each individual narrative as "factually" unreliable. It must be admitted, nevertheless, that the general tenor of all of these is such as to make the charge of their fabrication highly unlikely. That women exhibited their disgruntlement with cAmr b. Layth on his capture might be questioned. That women of middle and lower classes might have participated in exhibitions of social unrest, on the other hand-as Ibn Fun- duq's narratives indicate-is very probable. We have evidence at any rate that women did, in fact, participate in the socio-economic life of Bayhaq. Yaqut mentions in the Mucjam, for example, that in the territory of Biyar, between Bustam and Bayhaq, the bizdrfs were women and their stores were their houses. 124

Conclusion

As Aubin observed, Ibn Funduq has next to nothing to say about the economic life of Bahyaq in the period that he covers.125 It is as if commerce, textile production, and the bazaars did not exist in Bayhaq in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This, of course, is far from the truth126 and stands in contrast to Ibn

127 Funduq's preoccupation with matters of wealth, especially landed property. The dearth of substantial information on the economic history of Bayhaq in the Tiirlkh-i Bayhaq also compares unfavorably with some other local histories of Iran such as the ThrTkh-i Bukhiira or Thrtkh-i Qum, for example, where we are provided with a wealth of detail on the bazaars of the region in the former and taxation and cultivation in the latter. The Thrtkh-i Bayhaq shares numerous affi- nities with other early local histories of Iran in its regional outlook, in the ways in which one comes into a more intimate contact with the geographical, social and political dimensions of the region's history, and finally in its incorporation

123. "an sharaf ghalabah girad bar farzand." ThrTkh-i Bayhaq, 194.

124. Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mu jam al-Buldan, ed. F. Wustenfeld, (Leipzig, 1866), 1: 772. TdrTkh-i Bayhaq, 330 (editor's note).



127. See especially the author's remarks to this effect when discussing his own family (107) or the families of Zakki (126), Bazzazan (128), Awlad-i Kama (132), etc.



164 Pourshariati

of antiquarian popular lore in circulation in the region. The Tiirikh-i Bayhaq also betrays, however, the author's elevated self-perception. Ibn Funduq was writing as an adtb-assimilated in the Iranian milieu, yet conscious of his Arab ancestry-for other udaba' and those social groupings who patronized and provided an audience for the udaba'. His world view pervades the structure as well the content of the book. It is nevertheless a testimony to the author's historiographical methodology, as well as the sense of temporal and spatial proximity that is conveyed through local historiographical production, that one is left with a sense of immediacy in reading the Tartkh-i Bayhaq. The muted women and the silent "multitude" become palpable, even if ephemerally. The multi-talented and eru- dite author of Tiirtkh-i Bayhaq has left us with a fascinating text. In spite of his elitist vista, or rather through it, we are left with a privileged dimension of the social history of Khurasan and Bayhaq during the early medieval period.



local historiography in early medieval iran and the tārīkh-i bayhaq

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