Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T09:30:24.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Mirrors, Memorials, and Blended Genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2020

Sholeh A. Quinn
Affiliation:
University of California, Merced
Get access

Summary

The chapter argues for the importance of being familiar two literary traditions that made their way into Persianate histories. The first tradition is Mirrors for Princes. The chapter demonstrates that it is possible to view certain portions of Persian histories as “responses” to “mirrors for princes.” Several Persian histories contain a conventional element that describes the qualities of a particular king.This section demonstrates how narratives on the “qualities” of the Safavid king ‘Abbas and the Mughal king Akbar reflect the same ideal qualities that a king is supposed to possess, as indicated in the mirrors for princes literatures.The second tradition explored is the tazkirah, or biographical dictionary.Like the mirrors for princes literatures, the tazkirah is a genre in its own right that flourished during the Timurid era. Some Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal histories contain their own “mini-tazkirah” sections.The chapters trace the historiographical influences on the mini-tazkirahs, and show just how influential Mirkhvand and Khvandamir were for chroniclers writing under the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. The chapter also explains how the chroniclers’ political agendas were reflected in how they used tazkirah to highlight the royal courts where many of them wrote.

Type
Chapter
Information
Persian Historiography across Empires
The Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals
, pp. 155 - 201
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×