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.
Works
Completed 740/1339-40.
Nuzhat al-qulūb is an essentially cosmographical and geographical work, which is considered close to the “only source for the whole human geography of the last period of the Ilkhan Empire”.
Completed 730/1329-30.
Taʾrīḫ-i guzīdah is a general history that extends to 730/1329-30. Its topics include the early Prophets, Muḥammad and the Caliphs, and Islamic Dynasties, among others.