Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy: The Discourse of the Power of Genghiz

The Discourse of the power of Genghiz was formulated in a specific social and political context. Although it was well articulated in the seventh century AH, its roots go back even before its discursive life, that is, to the Seljuk period, especially to the attack of the "Ghoses" to Khorasan and the "Kharazmshahi" period. In this article, we examine the development and dominance of discourse of the power of Genghiz based on Ata-Malik Jovayni’s historical narrative in Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy. To this end and considering from among different approaches, Laclau and Mouffe’s discursive approach proved to be the most effective in examining the development and evolution of the discourse. The relationship between power holders and writers has always been central and Ata-malik Jovayni is no exception. In the position of an observer and historian, he recorded the adversities brought by the Mongols, while he remained loyal to the Mongol court. The point is that Jovayni adopted an approach different from other historians, especially Bayhaghi, in delineating the characteristics of Genghiz, the central figure of the text. The main task of the historian is to select a particular narrative from among available narratives. What is Jovayni’s method of narration for establishing the meaning of his text? What comes out of this history is the reverberation of Genghiz’s unparalleled power in the regions under his rule which is different from other voices narrating the horrible events in Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy. In the end, we conclude that, according to the aforementioned theory, the text of Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy has a consistent semantic system, and this ability helps to fixate the meaning of the text. This harmonious system functions to modify Genghiz’s image and justify his violence.