A FOUNDATION FOR HISTORYmeans of a history and advice manual, couching his own work in the
prestige economy of Arab descent.^36
If we take Baladhuri's Futuh Buldan as typical conquest narrative,
divided into regions, then years, then participants, with each evbnt nar-
rated through textual or oral citation, Chachnama's structure, by com-
parison, is markedly different. Chachnama begins in city states and
focuses entirely on personages (Chach bin Sila'ij, the queen, their son
Dahar). It highlights the condition of Aror prior to Chach's arrival at
the capital; Chach's employment as a scribe for the king's chief min-
ister; the manner in which the young queen falls in love with him and
schemes to place him upon the throne after the death of the king;
Chach's reconquest of "the four quarters" of the kingdom; his treat-
ment of civilians and cities; Chach's two sons' tussle for the throne
after Chach's death; the treacherous way in which Dahar takes over
Aror; and finally the set piece: the marriage of Dahar to his own
sister. All of this, constituting the first third of Chachnama, has three
overarching themes: the ruler's basis of legitimacy, the good counsel
of the advisor, and the immorality of treachery. 'Ali Kufi attributes
information from this section to various sources: the tellers of tradi-
tion and authors of histories, the author of this romance and the
writer of this bouquet, writers of the story of this conquest, and so
forth. There is no attention to the citation precedence that was ob-
served by Baladhuri.
The next portion of the text dealing with the Muslim, campaigns is
introduced under the heading "A History from the Righteously Guided
Caliphs to Walid.^11 This chapter heading is quite similar to the chapter
headings of any annalistic history (such as Tabari's). Yet even the epi-
sodes in this section are attributed to the generic "tellers of traditions,"
with an odd mention of Mada'ini. Unlike Baladhuri's work, however,
Chachnama focuses on the inner turmoil, deliberations, doubts, and
planning of the campaigns. A typical conquest narrative would not
refer to earlier episodes in the text, but Chachnama deliberately mir-
rors the campaigns of the Muslim Qasim with those of the Brahmin
Chach. Qasim even plants a Muslim standard at the very spot where
Chach marked the extent of his kingdom with a tree. Chachnama's
Muslim kingdom of faith explicitly restrains itself within the previous
political boundaries of an Indic polity.