Ḥamd-Allāh Mustawfī

Historian

Ḥamd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr Qazvīnī was born around the year 680/1281–2 in the town of Qazvīn. His great-grandfather served as the Auditor-General of Iraq and thus his family inherited the appellation “Mustawfī”. Ḥamd-Allāh himself began a career in accounting, having been appointed financial director of Qazvīn and other neighboring districts, before his interest in history took hold. He is mostly known for two historical works: Taʾrīḫ-i guzīdah and Nuzhat al-Qulūb, both considered valuable resources on account of the author’s description and commentary of his own times. Ḥamd-Allāh’s exact date of death is not known.