Document Type : Original Article
Author
Ph.D. student of Persian language and literature of Kharazmi University
Abstract
Although the historiography of the Mongol era is to some extent a continuation of the historiography tradition before it, this fruitful branch of Iranian history was different from the historiography tradition before it in terms of method and vision; because not only did the historians keep a recording of the events, but also mainly analyzed the events and presented different historical narratives of them once happened in a certain time and place, which is a kind of description of the past from the point of view of their calculative preoccupations. This study, with a descriptive-analytical method and relying on three narrative elements of narration, language, and emotion, examines different historical narratives of the event of "The Seizure of Bukhara" in five historical texts of the Mongol era, namely “Juvayni's History of The World Conqueror” (Tarikh Jahangashai Juvayni), " Minhaj-i-Siraj’s Tabaqat-i Nasiri", " Rashid al-Din Fazlullah's Compendium of Chronicles", "Tarikh Wassaf", and "Tarikh Banakati", and explains the historical, narratives, and literary value of each of these narratives. The findings of this research show that each of these five historians had a special style for narrating the event of "The Seizure of Bukhara". Jozjani's and Banakati’s narratives are very short and compact. Shirazi's and Hamedani's narrations, which are influenced by Juvayni's, are considered average, but Jovini's narration is relatively long. Short narratives are somewhat closer to the aforementioned historical event; because the historian has made less use of expressive and narrative techniques and emotional elements in his narration and has made the narration far from the mere report of the event.
Keywords
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