Religious Scholar/Political Writer
Fażl-Allāh al-Amīn ibn Rūzbihān Ḫunjī (known as Ḫujjah Mullā) was educated in the religious sciences and Sufism and studied political thought under the great Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Asʿad Ṣiddīqī Davvānī (see Davvānī). He began his career in the late 9th/15th century as a kātib in the dīvān of Aq Qoyunlu ruler Yaʿqūb b. Uzun Ḥasan (The Aq Qoyunlu was “a federation of Turkmen tribes active in 14th century post-Mongol times until the rise of the Saffavids” in 1501/907). It was during this time that he composed his Tārīḫ-i ʿĀlam-ārā-yi Amīnī, a history of the Aq Qoyunlu.
With the rise of the Saffavids (r. 907/1501 to 1135/1722) and their support of Shīʿism, Ḫunjī (himself a staunch Sunni) fled eastward. For the next decade, Ḫunjī focused on writing tracts in defense of Sunnism and combating the Shīʿī “heresy” and propaganda of the Safavids. He eventually arrived at the court of the Muslim Uzbeks where under the patronage of ruler Shaybānī Ḫān he composed the Mihmān-nāma. While the work contains both autobiographical sketches and scenic descriptions of the Turkestan landscape, “the impelling idea of the Mihmān-nāma was the effort to drive Shaybānī Ḫān into attacking and exterminating the Shīʿī heresy from Iran and reviving the legal order of sunna in Iranian homeland”. Shaybānī Ḫān appears to have heeded Ḫunjī’s advice, however, it cost the Uzbek leader his life: he was killed in a battle against the Safavids in 916/1510. The Uzbek defeat not only sent Ḫunjī into hiding for a couple years but also led him to temper his attacks against Shīʿism and the Safavids. Yet, with the political success of Shaybānī Ḫān’s successor, ʿUbayd Allāh, Ḫunjī once again attached himself to the Uzbek court. At ʿUbayd Allāh’s insistence, he composed Sulūk al-mulūk, a manual of government for the “righteous Sunni leader”. Ḫunjī died in 927/1521.
Tārīḫ-i ʿĀlam-ārā-yi Amīnī(completed ca. 896/1490-897/1491)
Tārīḫ-i ʿĀlam-ārā-yi Amīnī is a “florid history of the Ak Koyunlu,” and considered to be one of the most important works on the history of that tribe.