“Khātimih” of Rawḍat al-ṣafā: It’s Author and Content

Investigating and evaluating Islamic historical and geographical sources and determining their authenticity or imitation help the researchers for using those works. Such investigations of later works, which are assumed to be based on earlier works, are necessary. One of those sources is the khatimah (epilogue) of al-Rawza al-Safa, which researchers are at odds with each other over its author or authors. Authors of the paper after deep exploring of content of "Khātimah" and also applying comparative method have found out that "Khātimah" of Rawḍat al-ṣafā is in fact co-written by Mir-khand, author of Rawḍat al-ṣafā, and his grandchild Khand-Mir who made a final formulation for his grandfather's notes and also added some points on his his work. The study also showed that all data of "Khātimah" (about ninety percent) were borrowed from other writers, especially previous geographers, and only ten percent of its content is from its authors, Mir-Khand and Khand-Mir, and, obviously, this part is authentic and notable with the specific importance.