BIOGRAPHY OF HAJEB BARAQ IN THE WORK OF NASIR AD-DIN MUNSHI KERMANI

Abstract

The history of hajeb Barak, the founder of the local dynasty of Kutlug Khans, and his reign in Kerman (Iran), was reflected in numerous Muslim historical works written in the 13th century, as well as in later monuments. Such interest in this person should be explained, first, by the events of the era of the Mongol invasion, in which Barak took a direct part, and since he managed not only to seize the lands of Kerman, but also to maintain power over them and pass it on to his descendants. Within the framework of this article, we would like to draw attention to the work of Nasir ad-Din Munshi Kermani, relatively poorly studied by researchers, in which a separate section looks into the story of the biography of hajeb Barak. This work from the first half of the 14th century is important both in itself and in connection with the information from earlier monuments, on which this Muslim historian undoubtedly relied. In addition, this source influenced certain later historical writings, which, in turn, allows us to cautiously declare the existence of the so-called late Kara-Chinese historiography, the beginning of which should be attributed precisely to Nasir ad-Din Munshi Kermani’s work. A lot of work surely remains to be done to prove the very fact of this phenomenon’s existence in the Muslim historical writings of the 13th–15th centuries, and this paper could be the first step in this direction. In it, the author analyzes only the features of Hajeb Barak’s biography through Nasir al-Din Munshi Kermani’s narration. In subsequent works we will return to this source in order to highlight its possible connections with earlier and, most importantly, later Muslim historical writings. We hope that our study will be useful to specialists in the history of Iran during the Mongol invasion.