Nizam al-Din Shami's Book of Victory (Zafarnama)
The earliest surviving history of Timur's campaigns, written at his command, 1401 to 1404.
Full title Book of Victory (Zafarnama), critical edition with additions from Hafiz-i Abru’s Zubdat al-tawarikh-i Baysunghuri (Monografie Archivu orientalniho V)
ظفرنامه
Nizam al-Din Shami (fl. 1400-1404); Felix Tauer (editor)
Nizam al-Din Shami wrote this Persian history at Timur's command in 1401 to 1404, partly from his own presence at court and partly from campaign registers. It covers 1370 to 1404, including Timur's wars against Toqtamish of the Golden Horde on the Qipchaq steppe (1391 and 1395). The atlas does not hold the text: the editions listed (Tauer, Prague 1937 and 1956, and a Tehran reprint of 1984) are modern, and the corpus keeps full text only for works published before 1929 or openly licensed.
- How they knew
- Official record
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The card names the Golden Horde under Toqtamish, the Chaghatay ulus and the Moghuls as the steppe powers in play, and the atlas has not checked which names Shami uses for them.
- Why read it
- The Timurid court's own account, written within the lifetime of the events, of Timur's campaigns into the Golden Horde and the Volga-Ural steppe.
- Watch out
- Shami's plain style was commissioned by Timur, and Tauer's text mixes in additions from Hafiz-i Abru. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
official or contemporary record An official document or a record made at the time.
official record commissioned by Timur in 1401-1404, partly from the author's own presence at court and from campaign registers; earliest surviving Timurid history
Research notes
- Shami's plain style was commissioned by Timur; Yazdi's later Zafarnama (W095) reworks it. Tauer's text interpolates Hafiz-i Abru's additions, marked in the apparatus.
Why it matters
Primary Timurid account of Timur's campaigns into the Golden Horde and Moghulistan, the 'Dasht-i Qipchaq' and the Volga-Ural steppe, written within the lifetime of the events.
Places named
Transoxiana; Khorezm; Qipchaq steppe (Toqtamish campaigns 1391, 1395); Iran; Caucasus; India; Anatolia; Moghulistan
Peoples named
Timurids; Chaghatay ulus; Golden Horde (Toqtamish); Moghuls; Ottomans