Jawami ul-Hikayat

Jawāmi ul-Hikāyāt wa Lawāmi' ul-Riwāyāt ("Collections of Stories and Illustrations of Histories", commonly known by the shorter title, Jawāmi ul-Hikāyāt, also transcribed Djami al-Hikayat and Jami al-Hikayat) (جوامع الحکایات و لوامع الروایات) is a famous collection of Persian anecdotes written in the early 13th century. It was written by Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi, who lived during the reign of Shamsuddin Iltutmish (Altamash) (r. 1211–1236) the third Muslim Turkic sultan of the Sultanate of Delhi, and the book is dedicated to his minister, Nizam al-Mulk Muhammad, son of Abu Sa'id Junaidi.[1]

The book was an encyclopaedia of anecdotage containing mines of interesting information, namely on historical information often not found elsewhere, from mythical times until the end of the rule of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir.

The entire text of this 2,500 page book is yet to be edited and printed. Currently, only abridged volumes have been published.

The oldest extant manuscript of this work exists in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, dated 1232.

  1. ^ Elliot, H. M. (Henry Miers), Sir; John Dowson (1871). "4. Jawami ul-Hikayat of Muhammad Ufi". The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period (Vol 2.). London : Trübner & Co. p. 155.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)