Hamdallah Mustawfi

Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini (Persian: حمدالله مستوفى قزوینی, romanized: Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī; 1281 – after 1339/40) was a Persian official, historian, geographer and poet. He lived during the last era of the Mongol Ilkhanate, and the interregnum that followed.

A native of Qazvin, Mustawfi belonged to family of mustawfis (financial accountants), thus his name. He was a close associate of the prominent vizier and historian Rashid al-Din Hamadani, who inspired him to write historical and geographical works. Mustawfi is the author of three works; Tarikh-i guzida ("Excerpt History"), Zafarnamah ("Book of Victory") and Nuzhat al-Qulub ("Hearts' Bliss"). A highly influential figure, Mustawfi's way of conceptualizing the history and geography of Iran has been emulated by other historians since the 13th century.

He is buried in a dome-shaped mausoleum in his native Qazvin, Iran.

Mustawfi was born in 1281 in the town of Qazvin, located in Persian Iraq (Irāq-i Ajam), a region corresponding to the western part of Iran. His family was descended from Arabs that had occupied the governorship of the town in the 9th and 10th-centuries, later to serve as mustawfis (high-ranking financial accountants) at the advent of the Ghaznavids. Mustawfi's great-grandfather Amin al-Din Nasr had served as the mustawfi of Iraq, which had since then been the moniker of the family. Amin al-Din Nasr, during his retirement, was killed in 1220 by raiding Mongols after the sack of Qazvin, during the Mongol invasion of Iran.

Regardless, Mustawfi's family still greatly served the Mongols and even rose to further prominence during this period; his older cousin Fakhr al-Din Mustawfi briefly served as vizier of the Ilkhanate, while his brother Zayn al-Din was an assistant of the prominent vizier and historian Rashid al-Din Hamadani. Mustawfi's family was thus amongst those many families from Persian Iraq who rose to prominence during the Mongol era. Rivalry soon arose between the Persian Iraqis and the already established Khurasanis, particularly between the Mustawfis and the Juvayni family, which is evident in Mustawfi's work, where mention of the Juvaynis are omitted in some cases. Mustawfi followed in the footsteps of his family, being in 1311 appointed as the financial accountant of his native Qazvin, as well as other neighbouring districts, including Abhar, Zanjan and Tarumayn.

He had been appointed to this post by Rashid al-Din, who made him gain an interest in history, inspiring him to start writing the Zafarnamah ("Book of Victory") in 1320, as a continuation of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh ("Book of Kings"). He completed the work in 1334, consisting of 75,000 verses, reporting the history of the Islamic era up until the Ilkhanate era. Before that, he had also written a similar chronicle; the Tarikh-i guzida ("Excerpt History") in 1330, which was his first work. The chronicle, made for Rashid al-Din's son Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, was a world history, narrating the events of the prophets, the pre-Islamic kings of Iran, and the Islamic world. Nothing is known of Mustawfi's life during the end of the Ilkhanate, except that he travelled between Tabriz and Baghdad.

In the summer of 1339, Mustawfi was at Sawa, working for Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad's son-in-law Hajji Shams al-Din Zakariya, who was the vizier of the Jalayirid ruler Hasan Buzurg (r. 1336–1356). There he tried to help with the management of the divan, but soon found himself unemployed after Hasan Buzurg's retreat to Baghdad due to a defeat by the Chobanid prince Hasan Kuchak. Mustawfi was ambivalent whether to return to his native Qazvin or flee to the much more secure southern Iran. He eventually choose to leave for the southern Iranian city of Shiraz to seek better fortunes, but was let down by the reception he received at the court of the Injuid ruler Amir Mas'ud Shah (r. 1338–1342).

Nevertheless, he remained there for ten months more, until he chose to leave due to the chaos that ensued during the Injuid dynastic struggle for the throne. He returned up north, where he was well received in Awa, Sawa, Kashan and Isfahan, finally returning to Qazvin at the end of 1340. He mentions the turmoil he went through during this period in several of his poems, and also went through illness (or possibly boredom), until he recouped after gaining sympathy from an unknown patron, possibly Hasan Buzurg. It was around this time that Mustawfi completed his cosmographical and geographical work Nuzhat al-Qulub ("Hearts' Bliss"). He died sometime after 1339/40 in Qazvin, where he was buried in a dome-shaped mausoleum.