HAFIZ-I ABRU

in full 'abd Allah Ibn Lutf Allah Ibn 'abd Ar-rashid Al-bihdadini Hafiz-i Abru born , Herat, Khorasan [now in Afghanistan] died 1430, Zanjan, Azerbaijan Persian historian, and one of the most important historians of the Timurid period (13701506). Hafiz-i Abru was apparently educated in the city of Hamadan. Later he became an extensive traveler and went with the Turkic conqueror Timur on a number of campaigns, including those in the Middle East against Aleppo and Damascus in 140001. After the ruler's death, Hafiz-i Abru entered the service of Timur's son, Shah Rokh (140546), and his grandson, Prince Baysunqur (d. 1433), as court historian and thus settled in Herat. He died on the return from Shah Rokh's second campaign in Azerbaijan in 1430. Among his major works is the Majmu'a (Collected Work), which was commissioned by Shah Rokh; it is mainly a collection of three older well-known historical works with continuations and an introduction and index by Hafiz-i Abru. His Majma' al-tavarikh (The Compendium of History) is a world history divided into four volumes (arba', quarters) that cover the pre-Islamic prophets and ancient Iran, a history of Muhammad and the caliphate up to 1258, Iran during the Seljuq and the Mongol periods, and, finally, Iran under the Timurid rulers. The last section was dedicated to Prince Baysunqur and has a separate title, Zubdat at-tavarikh-i Baysunghuri (Baysunqur's Cream of History). He also translated a geographic work from Arabic, the Masalik al-mamalik wa suwar al-akalim (The Roads of the Kingdoms and the Forms of the Climes), in which he included historical sections on various provinces of Iran.