Manuscript of the Tarikh-i-Wassaf, copied in Safavid Persia, 17th century

Wassaf or Vassaf ( fa, عبدالله ابن فضل‌الله شرف‌الدین شیرازی) Abdallah ibn Faḍlallah Sharaf al-Din Shīrāzī (''fl.'' 1265–1328) was a 14th-century Persian historian of the

Ilkhanate The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm ...

. Waṣṣāf, sometimes lengthened to Waṣṣāf al-Ḥaḍrat or Vassaf-e Hazrat ( fa, وصّافِ حضرت), is a title meaning "Court Panegyrist". A native of

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...

, Wassaf was a tax administrator in Fars during the reigns of Ghazan Mahmud and Öljaitü. A.K.S. Lambton, "Mongol Fiscal Administration in Persia" ''Studia Islamica'', no. 64 (1987): p. 80. He is the author of the historical work ''Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf'', also known as ''Tajziyat al-amṣār wa-tazjiyat al-a'ṣār'' (''The allocation of cities and the propulsion of epochs'').

Tarik-i Wassaf

His history, ''Tajziyat al-amṣār wa-tazjiyat al-a'ṣār'' (''The allocation of cities and the propulsion of epochs'') also called ''Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf'', was conceived as a continuation of Juwayni's '' Tārīkḣ-i Jahāngushāy'' whose account of the rise of the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...

ended in 1257. ''Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf'' consisted of an introduction and five volumes. The first volume (first part) only was edited and translated by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, published 1855., p. 148 (note 5 to p. 139). Wassaf's florid style of prose is not easily followed by modern readers, and an abridged version entitled the ''Taḥrīr-i Tārīkḣ-i Waṣṣāf'' (1346/1967) has been edited by ʿAbd al-Muḥammad Āyatī.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * ;Bibliography 14th-century Iranian historians 14th-century Persian-language writers Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Ilkhanate historians Officials of the Ilkhanate {{Iran-historian-stub