Abu Ali Bal'ami

He was born in Lashjerd in the district of Merv, then part of the Samanid Empire. He was the son of Abu'l-Fadl al-Bal'ami (also called Bal'ami-i Buzurg; "Bal'ami the Elder").^[1] Muhammad Bal'ami was appointed vizier late in the reign of Abd al-Malik I (r. 954-961) and kept holding the office under Abd al-Malik's successor, Mansur I (r. 961-976). According to Gardizi, Bal'ami died in March 974 while serving in office, but according to the Persian historian al-Utbi, he was later from removed the vizierate office, and was reappointed later as the vizier of Nuh II (r. 976-997), but chose to retire in 992, dying in an unknown date before 997.

Bal'ami most famous work is Tarikhnama, a historical text that spans a period beginning with the dawn of creation through to the Islamic age. The book was translated into Turkish and Arabic and remained in circulation for a thousand years. It is among the most influential books of Islamic historical literature and contains supplementary material, some of which is found nowhere else.^[2]

Though Bal'ami claims the Tarikhnama is a translation of al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings, it is actually an independent work.^[2][3] Bal'ami states several times in the book that he has corrected al-Tabari's version. Contrary to al-Tabari, Bal'ami's version is presented from a Persian (mainly Khorasanian) point of view.^[4] Having been written in 963, the Tarikh-i Bal'ami is the oldest New Persian prose work after the preface of the Shahnama-yi Abu MansuribyAbu Mansur Muhammad.^[5]

The 12th-century poet Nizami Aruzi makes mention of a book composed by Bal'ami named Tawqi'at, and two lines by Bal'ami are cited in the Farhang-e Jahangiri by Jamal al-Din Hosayn Enju Shirazi. However, it is not known if this refers to Bal'ami or his father, Bal'ami the Elder.^[5]

• Frye, R.N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R.N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.
• Khalegi-Motlagh, Dj. (1989). "AMĪRAK BALʿAMĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. I, Fasc. 9. pp. 971–972. Archived from the original on 2012-11-17. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
• Yarshater, Ehsan; Melville, Charles (2012). Persian Historiography: History of Persian Literature A. Vol. 10. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–400. ISBN 9780857721402.

• Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). "Iranian identity iii. Medieval Islamic period". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5. pp. 507–522.
• Peacock, A. C. S. (2007). Mediaeval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy: Balʿamī's Tārīkhnāma. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-40025-1.
• Zadeh, Travis (2016). "al-Balʿamī". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.

•   Media related to Muhammad Bal'ami at Wikimedia Commons