An illustrated MS of a work by Rashid al-Din and Hafez Abru at the Library of the Topcapi Palace (Hazine 1653)

The MS Hazine 1653 is one of the few extant manuscripts of Rashid al-Din Fazl Allah’s Jāme’ al-Tavārikh that was transcribed under the author’s personal auspices at the Rab’-e Rashidi. It was transferred to Herat during Shahrokh’s reign. As some parts of the MS were missing, it was completed and repaired on Shahrokh’s order. The person in charge of the restoration was the renowned historian of the Timurid time, Hafez Abru. The latter made a number of changes in the manuscript the most important of which was the replacement of its pre-Islamic period with the first volume of his Majma’ al-Tavārikh. This article deals with the codicological aspect of this very involved work. The importance of this MS is worth mentioning from several viewpoints: first, it is one of the three surviving dated MSS of the Jame’al-Tavārikh transcribed at the Rab’-e Rashidi’; second, it is the only extant manuscript of Hafez Abru’s Majma’ al-Tavārikh that has been transcribed by the author himself; third, numerous copies have been directly or indirectly reproduced from it, this misleading some of the contemporary scholars in identifying the texts of those copies.