Three Empires and Persian Historiography The Thought of Muṣliḥ al-dīn Lārī

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Symbols and Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Lārī’s World: Exile, Empire, and History
1.1 Introduction

Chapter 2: Muṣliḥ al-Dīn Lārī: Education, Travels, and Career
2.1. Origins and Early Scholarly Development
2.2. A Forced Migration
2.3. At the Mughal Court
2.4. Arriving at the Ottoman Court

Chapter 3: The Persianate Lens: Lārī's Literary Contributions and Historical Vision
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Mir’ātü’l-Advār wa Mirḳātü’l-Aḫbār: An In-Depth Analysis
3.3. Exploring Features of Mir’ātü’l-Advār wa Mirḳātü’l-Aḫbār

Chapter 4: Selective Silence: Lārī's Portrayal of the Safavids
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Lārī's Reversal of Safavid Historiography
 4.2.1. Crafting the Safavid Universal History
 4.2.2. Biographies
 4.2.3. The Shah at the Core
 4.2.4. Prefaces
 4.2.5. The Ancient Stories
4.3. Safavid Rule in Question
4.4. Safavid Scholars in Lārī's Taẕkira
4.5. Conclusion

Chapter 5: The Heroic Legacy: Tīmūr's Glorious Portrayal
5.1. Introduction
5.2. A Heroic Narrative
 5.2.1. Tracing the Lineage of Tīmūr
 5.2.2. The Leadership Triad: Strategy, Skills, and Character in Action
 5.2.3. The Faithful Conqueror
 5.2.4. The Patron of Knowledge
5.3. Lārī's Tīmūr: A Strategic Hero in the Battle of Ankara
5.4. Timurid Mindscapes: The Intellectuals of the Timurid Era in Mir’ātü’l-Advār
 4.4.1. Mystics of the Naḳshbandīs
 5.4.2. Mystics Beyond the Naḳshbandī Sufi Tradition
 5.4.3. Scholars in the Era of Tīmūr
5.5. Conclusion

Chapter 6: Empire in Outline: Lārī's Portrayal of the Ottoman Dynasty
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Lārī's Lens: Early Ottoman Origins and the Shaping of Power
6.3. Osmān I: The Struggle for Legitimacy in the Early Ottoman Empire
6.4. Beneath Tīmūr's Shadow: Lārī's Account of the Ottoman Interregnum
6.5. Conquering the World: Lārī's Depiction of Meḥmed II
 6.5.1. Conquering the World
6.6. Disclosing Hostility: Lārī's View on the Battle of Çaldıran
6.7. Divine Majesty: Sultan Süleymān in Lārī's Narrative
6.8. Conclusion

Chapter 7: A Mirror Fading: Lārī’s Historiographical Legacy
7.1 Conclusion

Appendices
Index

Biography

Nilab Saeedi is Research Associate at the Institute of Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences. She received her PhD in history in 2025 at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul, with a focus on Islamic intellectual history. Her dissertation was awarded the “Best Doctoral Thesis of the Year” at Ibn Haldun University. She also holds an MA in Turkish literature from Ondokuz Mayıs University and a BA in linguistics. Her research interests include early modern Ottoman history, Persian historiography, and Islamic intellectual history. She has taught courses on art and literature and worked as a translator in Turkish, English, and Persian. She is a contributing editor for the Journal of the History of Ideas, where she interviews scholars of intellectual history and reviews their work.