Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi's Rising of the Two Auspicious Stars
A Timurid history of 1304 to 1470 by a court historian who also travelled as an envoy.
Full title Rising of the Two Auspicious Stars and Junction of the Two Seas: Timurid history 1304-1470, Persian text (digital reissue of the Tehran edition, Ghaemiyeh, Isfahan)
مطلع سعدین و مجمع بحرین
Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi (1413-1482)
Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi (1413 to 1482) wrote this Persian history around 1467 to 1471. For 1304 to 1427 he draws on Hafiz-i Abru and others. For Shahrukh's later reign he writes from experience, including his own embassy to India in 1442 to 1445. It is the main Timurid source for the fifteenth-century Uzbek and Moghul steppe and for embassies to Ming China. The atlas does not hold the text: the corpus knows a modern digital retypesetting of the Tehran edition, and it keeps full text only for works published before 1929 or openly licensed.
- How they knew
- Part eyewitness
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The card lists Timurids, Uzbeks of Abu'l-Khayr, Moghuls and Ming China among the peoples.
- Why read it
- The chief Timurid source for the fifteenth-century steppe and for Shahrukh's embassies to Ming China.
- Watch out
- The digital text is a re-typesetting, not a scan of the printed edition, and readings should be checked against the printed volumes. 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
mixed Part firsthand observation, part drawn from other sources.
mixed: compilation of Hafiz-i Abru and others for 1304-1427; firsthand for Shahrukh's later reign and the author's own embassies (India 1442-1445)
Research notes
- A digital re-typesetting, not a scan of the printed edition; verify readings against Nava'i's printed volumes (Tehran 1372-1383 SH) or the Lahore 1941-49 edition.
Why it matters
Main Timurid source for the fifteenth-century Uzbek (Abu'l-Khayrid) and Moghul steppe, and for Shahrukh's embassies to Ming China; the source of the Quatremere and Major (India in the Fifteenth Century, W060) extracts.
Places named
Transoxiana; Khorasan; Iran; Moghulistan; Qipchaq steppe (Abu'l-Khayr Khan); India; China (embassies)
Peoples named
Timurids; Ilkhanids (opening); Uzbeks of Abu'l-Khayr; Moghuls; Qara Qoyunlu; Ming