Paper abstract:

This paper will examine several stories that revolve around the renowned Tīmūrid prince Ulugh Beg as recounted in the Badāyi‘ al-vaqāyi‘ of Zayn al-Dīn Maḥmūd Vāṣifī, a work which was completed in Tashkent and dedicated to Abū’l-Muẓaffar Hasan Sulṭān b. Kīldī Muḥammad Sulṭān in 1538-39. The Badāyi‘ al-vaqāyi‘ itself defies easy classification or categorization: While it is first and foremost a memoir, similar in many respects to the work of Ẓahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur, and is thus possessed of autobiographical elements, the Badāyi‘ al-vaqāyi‘ may also be considered a history written from Vāṣifī’s unique perspective that provides the reader with a rare glimpse into the lives of the author and his contemporaries, neglected actors in the history of late fifteenth and early sixteenth century Central Asia. Whereas the commissioned histories of Tīmūrids and both contemporary and later dynasties focused their attention on regional power struggles and members of the ruling aristocracies, the narrative of Vāṣifī recounts historical events great and small to which he may or may not have been tangentially related. Thus, while the Badāyi‘ al-vaqāyi‘ does not provide an account of how Ulugh Beg came to govern Samarqand, his military exploits or achievements in the field of astronomy, what it does provide are popular stories about Ulugh Beg that Vāṣifī heard growing up or that were circulating in the literary soirees that he attended. In addition to this, the Badāyi‘ al-vaqāyi‘ covers a range of topics and events and serves as an excellent source for reconstructing the social history of Islamic Central Asia in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. This paper is based upon the author’s translation from Persian to English and analysis of relevant portions of the Badāyi‘ al-vaqāyi‘ and supporting primary and secondary sources.