TheKhuzistan Chronicle is an anonymous 7th-centuryNestorian Christian chronicle. Written inSyriac inEast Syrian circles, it covers the period from ca. 590–660,[1] from the end of reign of theSasanian rulerHormizd IV (r. 579–590) to the aftermath of thefall of the Sasanian Empire (652). The work was a work of contemporary accounts and combines material from written sources and oral accounts.[1] The chronicle was discovered by the Italian orientalistIgnazio Guidi (1844–1935), and is also known asGuidi's Chronicle or theGuidi Anonymous. It is an important source on theArab conquests.
TheChronicle describes itself as "some episodes from theEcclesiastica, that is, church histories, and from theCosmotica, that is, secular histories, from the death of Hormizd son of Khusrau to the end of the Persian kingdom." The first part is a chronological outline of Sasanian and Nestorian history by the reigns of the Sasanian rulers from Hormizd IV toYazdgerd III (r. 632–652) and the Nestorian patriarchs down toMaremmeh (r. 646–649). The second part of the work is an account of the conversion of someTurks by Elias of Merv, the third a list of towns founded bySeleucus I and the legendary rulersSemiramis andNinus and the fourth a brief outline of thegeography of Arabia. Between the third and fourth parts there is a brief continuation of the first part detailing the fall ofSusa andShushtar to theArabs.[2]
Some geographical details suggest that the chronicle was written inKhuzistan, hence its conventional name. The latest datable event mentioned took place in 652, and theChronicle must have been composed no later than the 660s. It is incomplete as it stands, having lost its beginning. Despite the reference to written sources, it is clear that the chronicler relied heavily on oral reports. He frequently employs phrases like "it is said that" and similar.[2]
Guidi presented theChronicle at the 8thInternational Congress of Orientalists in 1889, and it was published with a Latin translation in 1903.[3]Pierre Nautin has been tentatively suggestedElias of Merv as the volume's author, though this "remains far from certain".[3]
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