KHWANDAMIR, GHIYAS AD-DIN MUHAMMAD

born c. 1475, , Herat, Khorasan [now in Afghanistan] died 1534/37, ; buried in Delhi, India Khwandamir also spelled Khondamir Persian historian, one of the greatest historians of his time. Grandson of the Persian historian Mirkhwand, Khwandamir entered the service of Badi' al-Zamin, the eldest son of the Timurid ruler of Herat, Husayn Baykara. Khwandamir was an ambassador to the Uzbek ruler Muhammad Shaybani when the latter captured the city of Herat in 1507; he also witnessed the Iranian monarch Shah Esma'il I Safavi take the city and defeat the Uzbek ruler in 1510. Khwandamir then retired temporarily and began writing. Except for a brief period spent with the eldest son of his former patron, Khw andamir seems to have settled in Herat until his departure for India in 1528. Reaching Agra, he entered the service of Babur, heir to the Timurid tradition and the first of the great Mughal rulers of India, and accompanied him on various missions. After Babur's death the historian served his son, Humayun. Returning from a march on Gujarat, Khwandamir fell ill and died. A prolific writer, Khwandamir's most outstanding works are Khulasat al-Akhbar (The Perfection of the Narratives), written in 14991500 for the Timurid minister and author Mir Ali Shir Navai; Habib al-Siyar (The Friend of Biographies), a general history finished in 1524, the most valuable sections of which deal with the reigns of Sultan Husayn Baykara and Shah Esma'il I Safavi; the seventh and final volume of the history Rowdat al-Safa' (The Garden of Purity) of his grandfather, Mirkhwand; and the Humayunname (The Book of Humayun), in which he describes the buildings and institutions of the great Mughal empire.