Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:04:50.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Battle of Chālderān: Official History and Popular Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Barry Wood
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines some manuscripts of the so-called “Anonymous Histories of Shah Esmāʿil” with a view to answering the question: How did people in post-1514 Iran remember the Battle of Chālderān? After a brief examination of these manuscripts, the article focuses on three moments of the battle—the Safavid council of war, Esmāʿil’s clash with Malquch-oghli, and the Ottoman cannonade—to explore the ways in which popular memory embellished and altered the events we know from the official histories. Such changes reveal that the loss at Chālderān may have marked the end of Shah Esmāʿil’s aura of invincibility, but not of his larger-than-life image in the minds of his countrymen.

Keywords

SafavidsShah Esmāʿil IChālderānHistoriographyPopular Literature
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 79 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 The International Society for Iranian Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anooshahr, Ali. “The Rise of the Safavids According to their Old Veterans: Amini Haravi’s Futuhat-e Shahi.” Iranian Studies 48, no. 2 (2015): 249–67. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.870839.Google Scholar
Arberry, A. J., Mujtaba Minovi, and E. Blochet. The Chester Beatty Library : A Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts and Miniatures. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1959.Google Scholar
Babaie, Sussan. “Shah ʿAbbas II, the Conquest of Qandahar, the Chihil Sutun, and Its Wall Paintings.” Muqarnas 11 (1994): 125–42. doi:10.2307/1523214.Google Scholar
Beveridge, H. “The Author of the Life of Shāh Esmāʿil Ṣafavī.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, October 1902: 889–95.Google Scholar
Calmard, Jean. “Popular Literature under the Safavids.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period, edited by Newman, Andrew J., 315–39. Leiden: Brill, 2003.Google Scholar
Eng, Robert. “Manuscript M.” Last updated August 10, 2013. http://persianpainting.net/MoinMsM/index.html.Google Scholar
Monshi, Eskandar. History of Shah ‘Abbas the Great (Tārīḵ-e ʿĀlamārā-ye ‘Abbāsī). Translated by Roger Savory. Persian Heritage Series No. 28. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1978.Google Scholar
Ethé, Hermann. Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the India Office Library. Authorised unaltered reprint in compact form. London: India Office Library & Records, 1980.Google Scholar
Farrokh, Kaveh and Khorasani, Manouchehr Moshtagh. “Die Schlacht von Tschaldiran am 23. August 1514: Hintergrund, Analyse und Konsequenzen [The Battle of Chālderān on 23 August 1514: Background, Analysis and Consequences].” Pallasch. Zeitschift für Militärgeschichte. Organ der Oesterreichischen Gesellschaft für Heereskunde 41 (2012): 47–71.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem M.Safavid Government Institutions. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 2001.Google Scholar
Genç, Vural, ed. İranlı tarihçilerin kaleminden Çaldıran (1514) [Chālderān According to Iranian Historians]. Translated by Vural Genç. İstanbul: Bengi Yayınları, 2011.Google Scholar
Hanaway, William L. “‘Amir Arsalān’ and the Question of Genre.” Iranian Studies 24, no. 1/4 (1991): 55–60. doi: 10.1080/00210869108701757CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanaway, William. “Iranian Identity.” Iranian Studies 26, no. 1/2 (1993): 147–150. doi: 10.1080/00210869308701793Google Scholar
Hanaway, William. “DĀSTĀN-SARĀʿĪ.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed January 21, 2016. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dastan-sarai.Google Scholar
Rumlu, Hasan. Şah İsmail Tarihi (Ahsenü’t Tevarih) [The History of Shah Esmāʿil (Ahsan al-Tavārikh)]. Translated by Cevat Cevan. Ankara: Ardıç Yayınları, 2004.Google Scholar
Khvāndamir, Ghiyās al-Din b. Humām al-Din. Habibu’s-Siyar, Tome Three. The Reign of the Mongol and the Turk. Translated by W. M. Thackston. Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures, 24. Cambridge, MA: Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 1994.Google Scholar
Leiser, Gary. “Malḳoč-Ogẖullarі.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/malkoc-oghullari-SIM_8813?s.num=0&.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=Malkoc.Google Scholar
Mahmud b. Khvāndamir, Amir. Irān dar ruzgār-e Shāh Esmāʿil va Shāh Tahmāsb-e Safavi [Iran in the Age of Shah Esmāʿil and Shah Tahmāsp]. Edited by Tabātabāʾi, Gholām Rezā. Tehran: Bonyād-e Mowqufāt-e Doktur Mahmud Afshār Yazdi, 1370.Google Scholar
Marzolph, Ulrich. “A Treasury of Formulaic Narrative: The Persian Popular Romance Hosein-e Kord.” Oral Tradition 14, no. 2 (1999): 279–303.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “GEORGIA vii. Georgians in the Safavid Administration.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed November 1, 2015. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/georgia-vii-.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaffrey, Michael J. “ČĀLDERĀN.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/calderan-battle.Google Scholar
McChesney, R. “ʿĀLAMĀRĀ-YE ŠĀH ESMĀʿĪL.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed November 1, 2015. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/alamara-ye-sah-esmail-an-anonymous-narrative-of-the-life-of-shah-esmail-r.Google Scholar
Membré, Michele. Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (1539-1542). Translated by A. H. Morton. Warminster: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1999.Google Scholar
Morton, A. H. “The Date and Attribution of the Ross Anonymous. Notes on a Persian History of Shah Esmāʿil I.” In History and Literature in Iran: Persian and Islamic Studies in Honour of P. W. Avery, edited by Melville, Charles, 179–212. Pembroke Papers 1. New York: I. B. Tauris, 1990.Google Scholar
Morton, A. H. “The Early Years of Shah Ismaʿil in the Afżal al-tavārīkh and Elsewhere.” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society, edited by Charles Melville, 27–51. Pembroke Papers 4. New York: I. B. Tauris, 1996.Google Scholar
Montazer Sāheb, Asghar. ʿĀlamāra-ye Shāh Esmāʿil. Majmuʿeh-ye motun-e fārsi, 43. Tehran: BTNK, 1349.Google Scholar
Musalı, Namiq. I Şah İsmayılın hakimiyyäti: “Tarix-i alämara-yi Şah İsmayıl” äsäri äsasında [The Reign of Shah Esmāʿil I According to the “Tārikh-e ʿĀlamārā -ye Shah Esmāʿil”]. Baku: Elm vä Tähsil, 2011.Google Scholar
Musalı, Namiq. “Safevî Dönemine Ait ‘Târîh-i ʿÂlemârâ-yi Şah İsmaʿîl’ İsimli Farsça Eserde Türkçe Kelimeler [Turkish words in the Safavid-era Persian work “Tārikh-e ʿĀlamārā -ye Shah Esmāʿil”].” Paper presented at I. Uluslararası Türk-İran Dil ve Edebiyat İlişkileri Sempozyumu, Istanbul, May 15–17, 2012.Google Scholar
Muztar, A. D.Jahāngoshā-ye Khāqān (Tārikh-e Shāh Esmāʿil). Islamabad: Markaz-e Tahqiqāt-e Fārsi-e Irān va Pākistān, 1984.Google Scholar
Page, Mary Ellen. “Naqqāli and Ferdowsi : Creativity in the Iranian National Tradition.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1977.Google Scholar
Page, Mary Ellen. “Professional Storytelling in Iran: Transmission and Practice.” Iranian Studies 12, no. 3/4 (1979): 195–215. doi: 10.1080/00210867908701555CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qazvini, Yahyā b.ʿAbd al-Latif. Kitāb Lubb al-Tavārikh. Tehran: Enteshārāt-e Bonyād va Guyā, 1984.Google Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh A. “Rewriting Niʿmatullāhi History in Safavid Chronicles.” In The Heritage of Sufism: vol. III: Late Classical Persianate Sufism (1501-175), edited by Lewisohn, Leonard and Morgan, David, 201–22. Oxford: OneWorld, 1999, 201–24.Google Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh A.Historical Writing during the Reign of Shah ʿAbbas: Ideology, Imitation, and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh. “HISTORIOGRAPHY vi. SAFAVID PERIOD.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed January 22, 2016. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/historiography-vi.Google Scholar
Ross, E. Denison. “The Early Years of Shāh Ismaʿīl, Founder of the Ṣafavi Dynasty.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1896, 249–340. doi: 10.1017/S0035869X00023698Google Scholar
Rota, Giorgio. “Three Little-Known Persian Sources of the Seventeenth Century.” Iranian Studies 31, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 159–76. doi: 10.1080/00210869808701903CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarwar, Ghulām. History of Shāh Ismāʿīl Ṣafawī. New York: AMS Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Shirāzi, ‘Abdi Beg. Takmilat al-Akhbār [Historical Supplement]. Edited by Navāʾi, ʿAbd al-Hoseyn. Tehran: Nashr-e Ney, 1369.Google Scholar
Shokri, Yad Allah. ʿĀlamārā-ye Safavi. Tehran: Bonyād-e Farhang-e Irān, 1350.Google Scholar
Sims, Eleanor. “A Dispersed Late-Safavid Copy of the Tārīkh-i Jahāngushā-yi Khāqān Sāhibqirān.” In Safavid Art and Architecture, edited by Canby, Sheila R., 54–57. London: British Museum Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Tahmāsp I Shah of Iran. Tazkireh-ye Shāh Tahmāsp: sharh-e vaqāyiʿ va ahvālāt-e zendegāni-ye Shāh Tahmāsp-e Safavi ba-qalam-e khvodesh [The Memoir of Shah Tahmāsp: Exposition of the events in the life of Shah Tahmāsp the Safavid written by himself]. Berlin: Kaviani, 1343.Google Scholar
Walsh, J.R.. “Čāldirān.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.seyhan.library.boun.edu.tr/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/caldiran-SIM_1587?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=Caldiran.Google Scholar
Wood, Barry D.“The Shāhnāma-i Ismāʿīl: Art and Cultural Memory in Sixteenth-Century Iran.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 2002.Google Scholar
Wood, Barry D. “The Tārikh-i Jahānārā in the Chester Beatty Library: An Illustrated Manuscript of the ‘Anonymous Histories of Shah Ismaʿil.’” Iranian Studies 37, no. 1 (March 2004): 89–107. doi: 10.1080/0021086042000232956CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamamoto, Kumiko. The Oral Background of Persian Epics: Storytelling and Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2003.Google Scholar