ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of some of the salient features of Safavid historiography as it evolved during the course of the Safavid dynasty, beginning with the period immediately prior to the Safavids and ending with the eighteenth century. Safavid historiography was not born in a vacuum. Rather, the earliest Safavid chroniclers drew upon, modified and expanded on models produced during the Timurid and even pre-Timurid periods. Two Timurid histories, in particular, served as important models: Mohammad b. Khvandshah b. Mahmud’s Rowzat al-safa and Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi’s Zafarnama. In addition to reproducing and modifying conventional elements of pre-Timurid and Timurid histories in their chronicles, the earliest Safavid historians sought to rewrite the Safavid pre-dynastic past when they were a Sufi order, so as to reconcile that past to their present, and further legitimize the reign of Shah Esma‘il. Ebrahim Amini’s account of Sheykh Safi’s dream demonstrates a continuity of historiographical practices from the Timurid into the Safavid period.
