A Study on a Little-Known Chronicle of the Early Qajar Era (the History of Fat’h Ali Shah Qajar Written by Oorjani)

One of the chronicles of the late years of Fat’h Ali Shah Qajar’s reign – which has yet not been introduced, reviewed, and critically edited and has been left unknown and anonymous – is a manuscript titled (the History of Fat’h Ali Shah Qajar) by an author called Mohammad Hossein Badaye’ Negar Oorjani. The author has written this book by order of Fat’h Ali Shah in 1833 and only one copy of it exists which is kept at the Central Library of Tabriz. Oorjani was a traditional courtier and secretary in the early Qajar and wrote this book several years after Ma’aser-al-Soltanieh by Abolrazzaq Danbali and Tarikh-e Jahan-Ara by Mirza Mohammadsadeq Vaqaye’-Negar Marvazi and one year before Tarikh-e Zolqarnein by Mirza Fazlollah Khavari were written. Oorjani followed Abolfazl Abdollah Vassaf’s style in chronology and his reports of historical events were accompanied with complexities and tedious wording, and plenty of Arabic and Persian poems. The book content includes an introduction and a brief genealogy of Qajar up to the second wars of Iran and Russia. This article introduces this manuscript and its author, and critically analyses its content. It tries, for the first time, to introduce Oorjani’s writing style, method for writing history, his calquing and imitations and his position among the historians of the early Qajar Era by a comparative study.