Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah Abbas: Ideology, Imitation, and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles

How was history was written during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I (r. 1587-1629)? The question is critical for advancing current understanding of an important period in Iranian and Islamic history, since court chronicles are the chief sources for interpretation of all social, cultural, and political elements of the Safavid Period. Sholeh Quinn demonstrates that far from composing arbitrary and haphazard compositions, the court historians adhered to specific conventions and metholodogies in their texts. In the course of unveiling Safavid historiographic conventions, Quinn also shows that the chronicles were highly imitative in portions. When narrating the past, for instance, Safavid historians usually chose one model that they repeated, often word-for-word, while introducing specific changes to make the earlier text reflect changing notions of political legitimacy and to establish Safavid connections to earlier dynasties. Because these techniques were not unique to the Safavids, this study has implications for many other periods of Iranian history and provides a new approach to Persian chronicles.