ABSTRACT

OF the writing of history in Persian there is no end. In a general survey of Persian literature it is not possible to attempt more than a glance at the most significant authors —significant, that is, from the literary standpoint-and many otherwise important names must be passed over in silence. Thus it is regrettably necessary to neglect such interesting

works as the F#rs-n#ma of Ibn al-Balkh", the of R!vand", the T#j

of that valuable collection of official

correspondence entitled al-Tawassul il# the al-taw#r!kh of the

famous exegete and theologian and many others duly listed in C.A.Storey’s admirable and exhaustive Persian Literature: a Bio-Bibliographical Survey. The thirteenth century, with its crowded years of falling and rising empires, produced a rich crop of historical writings, and some account will now be given of the most noteworthy of these.