Akhbar Salajiqa al-Rum = Mukhtasar Saljuqnama
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- National Center for Translation
Mukhtasar Saljuqnama (comp. 7th century AH / 13th century CE), also known in Arabic translation as Akhbar Salajiqa al-Rum ("Chronicles of the Seljuks of Rum"), is an anonymous Persian historical treatise abridging Ibn Bibi's chronicle al-Awamir al-'Ala'iyya fi al-Umur al-'Ala'iyya on the history of the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia.
Background and Composition
The source work, al-Awamir al-'Ala'iyya fi al-Umur al-'Ala'iyya, was composed in Persian by Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Ja'fari al-Raghadi, known as Ibn Bibi, at the request of the Ilkhanid governor of Iraq, Sahib 'Ala' al-Din 'Ata-Malik al-Juwayni (d. 681 AH / 1281 CE). Ibn Bibi drew upon official court documents and eyewitness reports from his position in the Seljuk chancery. However, his text was characterized by heavy rhetorical embellishment, ornate rhymed prose, and numerous poetic citations, which made it voluminous and difficult to read.
An anonymous author living during Ibn Bibi's era undertook the task of summarizing the work after readers complained of its length and complex style. The abridger stripped away the excessive figures of speech, prolix descriptions, and rhetorical padding, entitling the condensed text Mukhtasar Saljuqnama ("Abridgment of the Book of the Seljuks").
Scope and Contents
The work chronicles the political, military, and administrative history of the Seljuks of Rum from 588 AH (1192 CE) to 679 AH (1280–1281 CE). In his introduction, the author notes that the earliest era of the dynasty—under its founder Sulayman ibn Qutalmish and contemporaneous emirs such as Danishmand, Artuq, and Mengujek—was not covered in detail because verified written sources were unavailable and oral legends were deemed unreliable. Consequently, the narrative opens with the late reign of Sultan Qilij Arslan II and the accession of Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Kaykhusraw I, and continues down to the beginning of the reign of Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Mas'ud II.
A central focus of the chronicle is the reign of Sultan 'Ala' al-Din Kayqubad I, recording his campaigns, such as the expedition of Husam al-Din Chuban against Sudak (al-Sughdaq), civil projects like the construction and fortification of city walls around Konya and Sivas in 618 AH, court diplomacy, and the subsequent political developments under his successors amidst Mongol incursions.
Method and Structure
The abridger adhered closely to the structure and thematic sequence of the original text, preserving Ibn Bibi's phrasing while discarding rhetorical digressions. Chapters composed in verse in the original—particularly those recounting Kayqubad I's military expeditions—were rendered into straightforward prose. Through these reductions, the text was condensed to less than half the size of the parent chronicle, spanning 337 medium-sized pages in Persian manuscripts.
Editions and Translations
The Persian text was edited by the Dutch orientalist M. Th. Houtsma and published in Leiden in 1902 as part of his series of texts on Seljuk history. It was later published in Tehran with an introduction by Mohammad Javad Mashkur.
An Arabic translation titled Akhbar Salajiqa al-Rum was produced by Muhammad Sa'id Jamal al-Din and published in Cairo by the National Center for Translation. In preparing the translation, the translator collated Houtsma's edition against manuscript facsimiles of Ibn Bibi's unabridged al-Awamir al-'Ala'iyya to correct textual corruptions and lacunae.
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