Mustawfi's Delight of Hearts: a geography of Mongol Iran
A Persian tax official's gazetteer of the Ilkhanid realm and its neighbours, written in 1340.
Full title Delight of Hearts, geographical part: G. Le Strange’s English translation (Gibb Memorial XXIII, 2, 1919) and a seventeenth-century Persian manuscript (BULAC MS.PERS.84)
Hamdallah Mustawfi of Qazvin (d. after 1340) was a finance official of the Mongol Ilkhans of Iran. The geographical part of his Nuzhat al-Qulub (1339 to 1340) lists the provinces, towns and revenues of Iran, many of them rebuilt, founded or ruined under the Mongols, and closes with shorter notes on foreign lands copied from earlier geographers. The corpus holds G. Le Strange's English translation (Gibb Memorial XXIII, 2, Leiden and London 1919) in two scans, and a seventeenth-century Persian manuscript not read here.
How they knew
Part eyewitness
Who “Tartar” means here
Mustawfi writes of Mongols (Mughul), meaning the Ilkhans and their people settled in Iran. The word Tatar appears once, in a twelfth-century poem about Turkish slave soldiers, where Le Strange notes it is the name of a people. The steppe north of the Caspian is the Dasht-i Qipchaq.
Why read it
It shows Mongol rulers as city founders and builders in Iran (Sultaniyyah and its stone tomb), keeping Mongol burial custom, and it describes the Qipchaq steppe as a land of nomads with few towns.
Watch out
The Iranian entries rest on his own official knowledge; the foreign-lands chapters are compiled from Yaqut, Ibn Khurradadhbih and others. Le Strange's footnotes are his own.
Editorial contextMustawfi's short entry on the Dasht-i Qipchaq, the Golden Horde's steppe, says it has rich pasture but few houses, towns or villages, and that most people are nomads. He then lists its towns, including 'Saray Batu', the Horde capital on the Volga. Le Strange's footnote places the ruins of Saray above Astrakhan.
Dasht-i-Qipchaq. This is of the Sixth Clime, its plains bear excellent pasturage, stretching to the north of the Caspian Sea, but there are here few houses or towns or villages. Most of the inhabitants are nomads of the plain. Its most celebrated town is Khazar … then there is Burtas, also Suvar, Muhtal, Saray Batu and Sarir
Hamdallah Mustawfi (translated by G. Le Strange, 1919)
Editorial contextMustawfi credits the founding of Sultaniyyah to the Mongol Ilkhan Arghun and its completion to his son Uljaytu, who named it after himself. He gives the circuit of the walls built and planned, and describes a castle of cut stone at the centre that is Uljaytu's tomb. Elsewhere on the page he says the new capital drew settlers of all nations and that only Tabriz had as many great buildings.
The city was founded by Arghun Khan, grandson of Hulagu the Mongol, and his son Uljaytu Sultan completed it, naming it Sultaniyyah after himself … The walls which Arghun built were 12,000 paces in circuit … In the centre stands a Castle built of cut stone, which is the tomb of Uljaytu Sultan
Hamdallah Mustawfi (translated by G. Le Strange, 1919)
Editorial contextMustawfi records that the Ilkhan Arghun was buried on the mountain of Sujas and that, following Mongol custom, the grave was concealed and the whole mountain made a forbidden sanctuary (qurugh). His daughter later revealed the grave and founded a dervish lodge there, a Muslim practice laid over a steppe one.
The sepulchre of Arghun Khan was made in the mountain of Sujas, and according to Mongol custom, they concealed the place, making the whole mountain an inviolable Sanctuary (Qurugh), so that people could not without difficulty pass that way. Arghun's daughter, Uljay Khatun, however, made manifest her father's grave, founding a Darvish-house, and settling a community here.
Hamdallah Mustawfi (translated by G. Le Strange, 1919)
'Of the Tatar race': a poem about Turkish slave soldiers
Editorial contextListing places in the East, Mustawfi quotes a mocking poem about the Turkish pages of the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar, who fled before the Qara Khitay cavalry. The poet calls them swordsmen 'of the Tatar race'. Le Strange adds that Tatar is not a place-name but the name of a people. It is a glimpse of the word in Persian a century before the Mongol conquests.
Other places are Kasan, Tatar and Fay which a poet has mentioned in his verses on the Ghulams (Pages) of Sultan Sanjar, who had showed lack of bravery in their attack on the cavalry of the infidel Qara Khitay. He says: Bravo! O ye strong hearted Turkish swordsmen Of the Tatar race from Fay and Kasan
Hamdallah Mustawfi (translated by G. Le Strange, 1919), quoting a twelfth-century poem
About Turkish ghulams (slave soldiers) of Sultan Sanjar, called Tatars
Keep in mind
The poem is satire; Le Strange identifies the poet as Sharaf al-Din Kushkaki in his footnote.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier geographers with the author's Ilkhanid fiscal knowledge (he was a financial official); c.1340
Research notes
Mustawfi copies Yaqut and earlier sources for regions outside Iran; the BULAC catalogue tags the manuscript language 'Arabic' in error (the text is Persian).
Why it matters
Ilkhanid-era administrative geography of the Mongol domains in Iran with the standard Persian scheme of climes and routes; Le Strange's Persian text (GMS XXIII, 1, 1915) is the companion still to be located.