Nagamine Hiroyuki 長峰博之
On the Tārīkh-i Khānī, a Uyghur Script Source of the Timurid Period
67th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Gotemba 2025
The Tārīkh-i Khānī, a Uyghur script source of the Timurid period, is mentioned in ‘Abd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alī Naṣr Allāhī’s Zubdat al-Āthār, the Shaybanid dynasty source (one of the Later Jochid states), but its existence cannot be confirmed at this time, and there is debate over its contents and historical genealogy. It was V. V. Bartolʹd who first drew attention to the Tārīkh-i Khānī, and since his pioneering work, it has been assumed that this was a verse chronicle of Timur’s expedition composed by “Uyghur bakhshīs” in Timur’s court or an anonymous Mongol history, and was the common source of the Timurid source Ẓafar-nāmai (muqaddima) of Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Alī Yazdī and the Timurid ruler Ulugh Beg’s (Tārīkh-i) Ulūs-i Arba‘a.
However, in the Zubdat al-Āthār and the Tavārīkh-i Guzīda(-yi) Nuṣrat-nāma, which is also a Shaybanid dynasty source, we can find statements that suggest the contents and historical genealogy of the Tārīkh-i Khānī. Sevim Erdem, who have recently published the transcription text of the Zubdat al-Āthār, and Hiroyuki Nagamine note the Zubdat al-Āthār’s statement regarding the Tārīkh-i Khānī that “the story of Chinggis Khan is written there”, and Devin DeWeese also states that “the “title” mentioned in the sixteenth-century Zubdat al-āthār, however, might be taken as suggesting a Chinggisid focus or Chinggisid patronage”.
In this presentation, I will present new findings on the Tārīkh-i Khānī revealed by focusing on the descriptions of the Tavārīkh-i Guzīda(-yi) Nuṣrat-nāma and the Zubdat al-Āthār, considering recent research on the Uyghur script tradition during the Timurid period. In addition, the Uyghur script tradition from the Timurid to the Later Jochid states (Shaybanid dynasty) will be discussed.