Iskandar Beg Munshi

Iskandar Beg Munshi , a.k.a. Iskandar Beg Turkoman^[1] (ca. 1560 - ca. 1632)^[2] — was a Persian^[3] or Turkoman historian,^[4] the court historian of the Safavid emperor Shah Abbas I. Iskandar Beg began as an accountant in the bureaucracy, but later became a privileged secretary of the Shahs.^[5] He wrote one of the greatest works of Persian historiography, Tārīk̲h̲-i ʿĀlam-ārā-yi ʿAbbāsī (Alamara-i Abbasi). The work begins with the origins of the Safavids and continues through the reign of Shah Abbas I.

References

1. "HISTORIOGRAPHY vi. SAFAVID PERIOD" Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 30 May 2015
3. Paulina Kewes, Ian W. Archer, Felicity Heal. The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed's Chronicles. — Oxford University Press, 2013. — P. 256."Iskandar Beg's work is regarded as one of the finest works of Persian historiography, notable for both its literary quality and its author's Thucydidean claim to rely only on his own knowledge or that of direct participants in events."
4. The Oxford History of Historical Writing, Volume 3: 1400-1800. Oxford University Press. 2012. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-19-921917-9.
5. Savoury, R. M. "Iskandar Beg Munshi." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.