Shikārnāmeh-ye Malikshāhī and its importance in Historigraphy of Science

Shikārnāmeh-ye Malikshāhī (The Malikshāhī Book of Hunting) which is also known as Shikārnāmeh-ye Khusrawī، is a book prepared in the 5th AH/11th AD century by Malikshāh’s order and Niẓām al-Mulk’s patronage. The book’s actual redaction is due to abū al-Ḥassan Niyshābūrī. This book refers to many other books on Falconry and Hunting (Bāznāmeh and Shikārnāmeh) especially the translation of the “Shīkārnāmeh-ye Anūshīrawānī”. It includes an introduction on the history of the writings about hunting in Iran till the 5th century and two part about training and treatment of birds of prey and other hunting animals. Unfortunately، due to some mistakes in manuscripts catalogues، this work، which is one of the most important scientific texts of the Seljuk period، remains unpublished. In this paper، we make a survey of different aspects of this work and introduce three manuscripts which exist in Iranian libraries.