The Ismaili-Sufi Sage of Pamir: Mubarak-i Wakhani and the Esoteri ...

In order to compare the various copies of the manuscript in various parts of Pamir, I employed a different version of the Gawhar-Rīz found in the private collection of Nurmamad Rochibekov in the Yamg village of the Ishkāshim district. The main subject of this version is Nāir-i Khusraw’s missionary activities in various parts of Badakhshan and the Pamir principalities; it narrates stories about the spread of the Ismāīlī dawa in the region. This version is written vertically on the right hand side of another book called Dīvān-i NāirAlī. This is probably due to a lack of paper. The first page of the book is in a very poor condition, which makes it difficult to read. The year 1344 (1924) is shown as the date of copying. This version closely resembles a book called Bahr al-Akhbār, which was published in 1992 on the 990th anniversary of Nāir-i Khusraw’s birth. It is a small version of the Gawhar-Rīz. The editor claims that the author of the book is a native of Munjān, Sayyid Jalāl, and that he (i.e., the editor) obtained a copy of the manuscript written (kitabāt) by Shāhzāda-Muhammad.²³ However, there are no further comments about the authorship and date of the manuscript.

There are also two other local historico-hagiographic works with the same title Tārīkh-i Badakhshān (History of Badakhshan), which provide relatively descriptive surveys of the general issues relating to Badakhshan and Pamir’s politico-economic and dynastic history. The two copies of the first manuscript were found by Russian scholars in Farghāna and Andijān, cities of modern Uzbekistan. It was twice edited and translated into Russian by Boldirev; first in 1959 and again in 1997.²⁴ The main author is called Sang Muammad Badakhshī, who narrates the historical developments of Badakhshan from 1068 (1657) until 1223 (1809). However, the scribe, who is also the second author, Falalī Bek Surkhafsar, continues describing events up until the early twentieth century. The second book was written by two teachers from Khorog (the capital of Pamir), Ākhun Sulaymān and Sayyid Futur-Shāh, in the late 1930s.²⁵ This book, like its predecessor, describes the political and economic history (based on the oral tradition) of Pamir, mostly the Shughnān principality, from early times up until the advent of the Soviet government in Pamir.