“Vaqfiya” by Navo’i as a Historical-Biografical Work

Abstract

The treatise was composed in Chaghatay Turkish in 886/1481–82 by the eminent political and literary figure and unsurpassed patron of Temurid period, Mir Ali Sher Navoi (844–906/1441–1501). It is entitled Vaqfiya, which received little scholarly attention despite its unique value as a sourse for the socioeconomic, cultural, and even political history of Khorasan in the late Temurid’s period in the author’s biography. One possible reason for the relative scholarly neglect of the Vaqfiya has been that prejudging its contents by its title, scholars tended to regard it only as a legal vaqf document (vaqfiya or vaqfnoma) relating to the endowments established by Navoi for the architectural complex centered in the Ihlasiya madrasa and Halosiya hanaqah ensemble that he built in the northern suburbs of the Temurid’s capital, Herat, in the last decades of the XV century. Although vaqf documents have long been recognized as a valuable source for social and economic history, it is only fairly recently that they have started to be exploited systematically in the study of medieval Iran and Central Asia. Earlier (until the 80s of the 20th century) scholars have led the way, generally focusing on the “Vaqfiya” as a source for the history of agrarian relations. More frequently, however, “Vaqfiya” has been viewed from an even more narrow perspective – as a source of information about the biography of the author, history, social life and topography of Temurid’s Herat.