58 A FOUNDATION FOR HISTORY
accounts in Jawami Hikayat, which incorporated stories from Gujarat,
Uch, and Multan alongside accounts from Baghdad, Mecca, Medina,
and Nishapur. In these two texts, 'Awfi links Arabic literary tradition
to the Persian one, noting the intimacy of this act for his audiehce.
Muhammad 'Awfi also dedicates a text to a patron of Arab descent
to mark his support of Persian arts and cultures. In Lubabul albab,
'Awfi genealogically canonizes the Persian-language poets in the Per-
sian cosmopolis. He asserts that poetry itself was created by Adam, in
Arabic letters, and later moved into the prose of different languages.^20
This origin story of language dovetailed with 'Awfi's assertion that he
wanted to compose a genealogy of Persian poets because such a text
existed only for poets of Arabic. This lineage has a parallel in 'Awfi's
recognition of the biological claims of his benefactors. He dedicates his
text to Qabacha's minister, 'Ain ul Mulk Husain ibn Abi-Bakr ibn Mu-
hammad Ash'ari, and provides a detailed summary of that noble's ge-
nealogy back to the Prophet. A text that documents the poetical works
of poets of Persian in India, dedicated to a noble claiming Arab lineage,
demonstrates clearly the multiple sites of cultural prestige and poly-
glot literary cultures.
Let me turn to a contemporaneous text that enjoys political status
similar to that of Chachnama. Juzjani drew upon both Mudabbir and
'Awfi to write his history of 1:he period, Tabaqat-i Nasiri (c9mpleted
1260). In this work he also details his family's connection to the Pro-
phetic past. He mentions that along with biological descent from the
family of the Prophet, his grandfather was the recipient of several edicts
from the court of the 'Abbasid caliph Mustadi (r. u70-u80) and a robe
of honor when he visited Baghdad after performing the Hajj.^21 Juzjani
'presents short anecdotal summaries of all of the prophets, the Persian
kings, and the rulers in Central Asia, India, and Yemen until the reigns
of Iltutmish and his descendants whom Juzjani served. The earlier ta-
baqat (stages Dr generations) are cited from various historical sources,
while the later ones reflect his own testimony.
Throughout the text, Juzjani presents a paean to the elite and also
highlights the governance of the political realm in which he partici-
pated. Kazlak Khan, for instance, is the first noble Juzjani describes in
his section on nobility, After Uch's surrender, Iltutmish had appointed
Kazlak Khan as the ruler over Uch, and Juzjani describes how he