Study of Function of Destiny in Tarikh-i Beyhaqi ( Beyhaqi History')

Destinism is a belief that has begun in the Zoroastrian Period in the pre-Islamic era. In the post-Islamic era, this belief developed with a little difference but with the same nature. The influence of this thought is seen in our historic works like Tarikh-i Beyhaqi. This paper aims at studying the role of destiny in the discourse of Tarikh-i Beyhaqi and the role of this thought in the contradictions existed in this book. The paper then deals with the depiction of this book based on the religious personality of Beyhaqi, the way of Islamic history writing, censorship and linguistic freedom of Beyhaqi.In Tarikh-i Beyhaqi, destiny has diverse religious, reasonable, psychological and political functions. The focus of discussion is on the political function of destiny. The result shows how destinism led to disintegration of mechanism of rationality and consequently the mental and political backwardness in the countries influenced by this thought.