Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ

Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ fī sīrat al-anbiyāʾ w-al-mulūk w-al-khulafāʾ (روضة الصفا في سیرة الانبياء والملوك والخلفاء, ‘The Gardens of purity in the biography of the prophets and kings and caliphs’) is a Persian history of the origins of Islam, early Islamic civilisation, and Persian history by Mīr-Kh^vānd. The text was originally completed in seven volumes in 1497 CE (836 AH). The work is very scholarly, Mīr-Kh^vānd used nineteen major Arabic histories and twenty-two major Persian ones as well as others which he occasionally quotes. His work was the basis for many subsequent histories including the works of Hajjī Khalfah.

He made little attempt at a critical examination of historical traditions, and wrote in a flowery and often bombastic style, but in spite of this drawback, Mīr-Khv^vānd's Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ remains one of the most marvelous achievements in literature. It comprises seven large volumes and a geographical appendix; but the seventh volume, the history of the sultan Ḥosayn, together with a short account of some later events down to 1523, cannot have been written by Mīr-Khv^vānd himself, who died in 1498. He may have compiled the preface, but it was his grandson, the historian Kh^vānd-Amīr (1475–1534), who continued the main portion of this volume and to whom also a part of the appendix must be ascribed.

There are various different Persian manuscripts in Iran, Vienna, Paris, London. A Persian edition was published in Paris in 1843 as Histoire des Samanides par Mirkhond. It was published fully in Persian in 1843 (Paris) and lithographed in Mumbai (1848 or 1852). The standard edition used in scholarship is the Persian edition Tarikh i Rawzat al-Safa (7 vols) by Abbad Parviz (Tehran, 1959).

Owing to its popularity, the Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ has undergone several editions and translations. Around 1596, Pedro Teixeira prepared a Spanish translation of the Rawżat aṣ-ṣafā̄ʾ. The book was partially translated into English in 1715, the Tahirid and Saffarid portions (of chapter 2.3-4) into Latin in 1782, and the Sassanid portion (of chapter 1.2) into French in 1793. A section was translated as Mirchondi Historia Seldschukidarum (1838) by Johann August Vullers.

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