Narshakhi
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi (or Narshaki) (ca. 899–959), a
Bukhara oasis is the first known historian in Central Asia. His unique History of Bukhara (Tarikh-i Bukhara) was written in Arabic and presented to the Samanid emperor Nuh I either in 943 or 944. The book provides important information on Bukhara that cannot be found in other contemporary sources. Nothing is known about Narshakhi except his authorship of this one book.[2]
Biography
Narshakhi was a Sogdian.[1][3] Even though the Sogdian language had been mostly supplanted by Persian language in densely populated places of Sogdia in his day, it is likely that Narshakhi still spoke Sogdian very well.[4]
His History of Bukhara (Tarikh-i Bukhara) was composed for a patron who supported
History of Prophets and Kings into Persian. These texts were altered in translation; Tarikh-i Bukhara, translated by Abu Nasr Ahmad al-Qubavi, expanded the text to cover a longer period of time, but this Persian translation was later abridged by Muhammad ibn Zufar ibn 'Umar in the 12th century.[5]
Other translations of The History of Bukhara
In 1128 or 1129, Abu Nasr Ahmad al-Qubavi translated Narshakhi's original Arabic text into Persian, with abridgments and additional content to extend the history to 975.[2]
Charles-Henri-Auguste Schefer published an abridged French translation in 1892.[6]
In 1954, historian Richard N. Frye translated the Persian abridgment of the book into English.[7]
References
- ^ ISBN 9781780743097.
Narshakhi, a tenth-century Sogdian historian, states that al-Moqanna' used mirrors to direct sunlight
- ^ a b Narshakhī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Jaʻfar (1954). "Introduction". The History of Bukhara: Translated from a Persian Abridgment of the Arabic Original by Narshakhī. Translated by Frye, Richard Nelson. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mediaeval Academy of America. p. xii. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- ISBN 9780824876289.
- Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente via University of Michigan. p. 186.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ Mimi Hanaoka. Authority and Identity in Medieval Islamic Historiography: Persian Histories from the Peripheries. Cambridge University Press. pp. 46–7.
- ^ Nasiri-Moghaddam, Nader (2009). "Schefer, Charles-Henri-Auguste". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- ^ Yarshater, Ehsan (31 March 2014). "In Memory of Richard N. Frye, 1920-2014". Near Eastern Languages & Cultures - UCLA. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
Further reading
- Bosworth, C.E. (1993). "Nars̲h̲ak̲h̲ī". In ISBN 978-90-04-09419-2.
External links
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