A Note on the Āl-i Burhān of Bukhara and the Author of the Laṭāʾif al-aḏkār

• Published in: Iranian studies pp. 1 - 6
• Main Author: Qaemmaqami, Seyed Ahmadreza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 04-11-2024
• ISSN: 0021-0862; 1475-4819
• DOI: 10.1017/irn.2024.22

The Āl-i Burhān, who held the religious leadership ( ṣadāra ) of Bukhara from the end of the fifth to the middle of the seventh century A.H. (eleventh to thirteenth century CE) and were the religious and secular leaders of the city, are known to us through a number of studies by Bartold, Qazvīnī, and Pritsak. 1 However, at least two other pieces of information about this family's background are available in two recently published books that were not available to these scholars. The first book is al-Qand fī ḏikr ʿulamāʾ Samarqand (henceforth al-Qand ) by ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Nasafī (461‒537 A.H./1069‒1142 CE), and the other is Laṭāʾif al-aḏkār li-l-ḥużżār wa-l-suffār fī al-manāsik wa-l-ādāb ( henceforth Laṭāʾif) by Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (511–566 A.H./1117‒1170 CE), the greatest religious leader ( ṣadr ) of this family in the sixth century A.H. (twelfth century CE). 2 The latter, precisely because it was written by the greatest and most powerful member of the family, contains some firsthand information about the family itself and the scholars of Bukhara that appears to be unique, and the former provides the most detailed extant information about the scholars who lived in Samarqand or visited that city until the mid-sixth century A.H. (twelfth century CE). Al-Qand also incidentally contains some information about the first ṣadr of the Burhān family, which has neither been seen elsewhere nor noticed by scholars since the publication of the text in 1999.