Iskandar Beg Munshi

Iskandar Beg Munshi
Manuscript of the Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasi by Iskandar Beg Munshi. Created in Qajar Iran, dated July 1812
Born	1561/62
Died	1633/34 (aged 71–73)
Occupation	Court scribe, chronicler
Notable works	Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasi
Relatives	Faraj Beg (brother)

Iskandar Beg Munshi (Persian: اسکندر بیگ منشی; 1561/62 – 1633/34) was an Iranian court scribe and chronicler, who is principally known for his historical book of Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasi ("The world-adorning history of Abbas"), which focuses on early Safavid history, especially the reign of Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629).^[1]

Life

Iskandar Beg was born in 1561 or 1562.^[1] He was a native speaker of Azerbaijani Turkish^[2] and belonged to a Turkoman clan which was part of the Qizilbash, a militant Shia group that had helped the Safavids establish their rule. Even though Iskandar Beg came from a Qizilbash family and was affiliated with the military elite of the Safavids, both he and his elder brother Faraj (Farrukh?) Beg joined the bureaucracy instead. Iskandar Beg served as Mirza Ata-Allah Isfahani's pupil scribe during the later rule of Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576).^[1]

Iskandar Beg died in 1633 or 1634.^[1]

Work

Iskandar Beg's Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasi (abbreviated as TAAA^[3]) is considered the most significant piece of Iranian historiography written about Safavid Iran.^[4][5] The book was influenced by the Mughal chronicle Akbarnama of Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (died 1602).^[6]

References

1. Ghereghlou 2018.
2. Floor & Javadi 2013, p. 6.
3. Sadan 2022, p. 41.
4. Moreen 2010.
5. Quinn 2008.
6. Sadan 2022, p. 47.

Sources

• Floor, Willem; Javadi, Hasan (2013). "The Role of Azerbaijani Turkish in Safavid Iran". Iranian Studies. 46 (4): 569–581. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.784516. S2CID 161700244.
• Ghereghlou, Kioumars (2018). "Iskandar Beg Munshī". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Moreen, Vera B. (2010). "ʽĀlamārā-yi Ἁbbāsi, Tārīkh-i". In Norman A. Stillman (ed.). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Brill Online.
• Quinn, Sholeh A. (2008). "ʿĀlam ārā- yi ʿAbbāsī". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Sadan, A. (2022). "The Nature of Legitimacy: Representations of the Natural World in Iskandar Beg Munshi's Tārīkh-e ʿĀlam-ārā-ye ʿAbbāsī". Iranian Studies. 54 (1–2). Cambridge University Press: 41–65. doi:10.1080/00210862.2019.1647095. S2CID 211677412.
• Savory, Roger M. (1985). "ʿĀlamārā-ye ʿAbbāsī". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. I/8: Alafrank–Alp Arslan. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 796. ISBN 978-0-71009-097-3.
• Savory, Roger M. (1998). "Eskandar Beg Torkamān Monšī". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VIII/6: Eršād al-zerāʿa–Eʿteżād-al-Salṭana. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 602–603. ISBN 978-1-56859-055-4.

Further reading

• Ashraf, Assef (2021). "Safavid Nostalgia in Early Qajar Chronicles". In Melville, Charles Melville (ed.). The Contest for Rule in Eighteenth-Century Iran: Idea of Iran Vol. 11. I.B.Tauris. pp. 81–102. ISBN 978-0755645992.
• Melville, Charles (2012). Persian Historiography: A History of Persian Literature. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1845119119.
• Quinn, Sholeh (2004). "Historiography vi. Safavid period". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XII/4: Historiography III–Homosexuality III. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 363–367. ISBN 978-0-933273-78-8.