Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia. It has been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others and praised by William Jones, Tagore, E. M. Forster and many more. Yet although in the past few years the poems of Rumi have attracted the kind of popular attention enjoyed by Omar Khayyam in the 19th century, Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves.

A History of Persian Literature answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This 18-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian experience.Prominent scholars in the field bring a fresh critical approach to bear on this important topic and each volume includes representative samples of this literature.

In this volume, the Editors offer an indispensable overview of Persian literature’s long and rich historiography. Highlighting the central themes and ideas which inform historical writing, this book traces the development of writing about history as a literary form from its origins with the Ferdowsi Shahnameh and its evolution under the Safavids, through the twilight of the Court Chronicle Tradition and simultaneous emergence of a national historiography during the 18th century and up to the Pahlavi Era. This volume also offers a comprehensive and invaluable examination of the concurrent developments within historiography in Central Asia and Afghanistan, examining themes and subjects that are common to many fields of Persian literary study. Persian Historiography will be an indispensable source for the historiographical traditions of Iran and the essential guide to the subject.

Charles Melville is Professor of Persian History and Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches Persian language and literature and medieval Middle Eastern history. His particular research interests include the history and historiography of Mongol and Safavid Iran and illustrated manuscripts.Among his numerous publications he is the editor of Safavid Persia and joint editor of the Cambridge History of Iran, vol. VII. He is also Director of the AHRC Cambridge Shahnameh Project.