Persian historiography in India: The Case of Majma al-Tavarikh

Majma' al-Tavarikh, written in India in 1207 H/1792-93 AD, contains the history of the fall of safavids and a few decades after that event. Its last information entries are about the history of Iran in the early 13th century H/late 18th century AD, but it is mainly about the history of Marashi sayyids family and Iran in the years coincided with the fall of the safavids up to the beginning of the eighth decade of 12th century. Mirza Muhammad Khalil, the writer of Majma' al-Tavarikh, is a member of Marashi family, who emigrated from Iran to India. Therefore it should be viewed as a book written by an emigrant. In the present article Majma' al-Tavarikh has been approached from this viewpoint. This outlook provides us with two contexts, Indian and Iranian, of the book for explaining the various characteristics of it. In the previous researches, there has not been paid sufficient attention to the two-sided context of the book. As a result, some characteristics of the book such as its dual prose style and the writer of one of its important sources have not been identified. This article also tries to present a relatively complete image of the historiography of Majma' al-Tavarikh.