Sultanov T. A Manuscript of the Tārīkh-ī Narshakhī and an Anonymous Remark on the Harmfulness of Tobacco // Manuscripta Orientalia. Vol. 6, No 2, June 2000. P. 3-7.
This brief paper emerged from a short remark by an anonymous author in one of the Persian manuscripts in the rich collection of the St Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies. The manuscript itself (call number С 1841) is a collection which contains excerpts of varying length from certain chapters of the Persian translation of Tārīkh-ī Narshakhī, also known as Tārīkh-ī Bukhārā (fols. 27b—29a, 31a—35b, 59a—60b). The composition, written in Arabic in 332/943—44 by Abū Bakr Muhammad b. Ja'far al-Narshakhī is devoted to the Sāmānid Nūh b. Nasr (r. 331—343/943—954). Containing a history of the city of Bukhārā, this work is a first-class source of information about Bukhārā and its surroundings from antiquity. Narshakhī’s work was first translated into Persian in 522/1128 by Abu Nasr Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Nasr al-Qubāwī, who significantly reworked the text of the original. The writing enjoyed great popularity in Central Asia, and Bukhārā in particular, up until the beginning of the twentieth century…