Tehran Times 16 October, 2004 Iranian scholar Mohammad-Ebrahim Bastani Parizi has said that a manuscript recently discovered in Iran will shed light on the dark corners of the last part of the Safavid era.
The manuscript entitled “Sahifat-ul-Ershad” was authored by Mullah Mohammad Chatrudi during the last years of the Safavid era (1501-1722) and was written in shekasteh-nasta’liq (a style of Iranian calligraphy).
Bastani Parizi discussed the manuscript at a seminar entitled Safavids in the Arena of Iranian History held in Tabriz last week.
He said the book has no end, which may be due to the sudden death of its author.
“Books were written at the behest of kings or wealthy people at that time. The Safavids had become weak during the last years of their reign and spent less on commissioning books. That’s why there are few documents and records for these years. This manuscript will help historians and researchers discover information on this corner of Iranian history,” Bastani Parizi stated.
Yahya Kalantari, another speaker at the seminar, said that he has discovered a document in the library of the Turkish Foreign Ministry which reveals some details about the Safavid princes who escaped to the Ottoman Empire after the Safavids were defeated by Nadir Shah in the eighteenth century.
The document, which was written in the nineteenth century, describes the descendents of the Safavid royal family, who were well respected in Anatolia and supported by the Ottoman Empire, he added.
At the end of the seminar, a number of scholars and historians urged Iranian officials to promote and support research on documents related to Iranian history and culture which are in the collections of foreign libraries.
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