Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi (or Narshaki) (ca. 899–959), aSogdian[1] scholar from the village of Narshak in theBukhara oasis is the first known historian inCentral Asia. His uniqueHistory of Bukhara (Tarikh-i Bukhara) was written in Arabic and presented to theSamanid emperorNuh I either in 943 or 944. The book provides important information on Bukhara that cannot be found in other contemporary sources. Nothing is known about Narshakhi except his authorship of this one book.[2]
Narshakhi was a Sogdian.[1][3] Even though the Sogdian language had been mostly supplanted by Persian language in densely populated places ofSogdia in his day, it is likely that Narshakhi still spoke Sogdian very well.[4]
HisHistory of Bukhara (Tarikh-i Bukhara) was composed for a patron who supportedSunni Islam againstIsma'ilism. ThroughDa'i missionaries engaged in theda'wah the Isma'ili sect ofShi'ism had spread and was regarded as a threat by the Sunni. It was written in a time of upheaval for the Samanids.Nasr II had converted to Isma'ili Shi'ism, and his son,Nuh ibn Nasr was confronted with a political turmoil that saw his vizier and other members of his court killed. Nuh purged the da'is and killed Isma'ili converts in an attempt to undo their encroaching influence, but the situation in the court remained tense. The Samanids, whose roots lay inSogdia, had assumed the role of guardians of Sunni law, in opposition to theSaffarids inSistan and the Samanids. They commissioned the translation of Arabic works like theHistory of Prophets and Kings intoPersian. These texts were altered in translation;Tarikh-i Bukhara, translated by Abu Nasr Ahmad al-Qubavi, expanded the text to cover a longer period of time, but this Persian translation was later abridged by Muhammad ibn Zufar ibn 'Umar in the 12th century.[5]
In 1128 or 1129, Abu Nasr Ahmad al-Qubavi translated Narshakhi's original Arabic text intoPersian, with abridgments and additional content to extend the history to 975.[2]
Charles-Henri-Auguste Schefer published an abridged French translation in 1892.[6]
In 1954, historianRichard N. Frye translated the Persian abridgment of the book into English.[7]
Narshakhi, a tenth-century Sogdian historian, states that al-Moqanna' used mirrors to direct sunlight
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