Narshakhi


Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi , from the village of Narshak in the Bukhara oasis is the first known historian in Central Asia. His unique History of Bukhara was written in Arabic and presented to the Samanid emperor Nuh I either in 943 or 944. The book provides important information on Bukhara that cannot be found in other contemporary sources. Nothing is known about Narshakhi except his authorship of this one book.

Other translations of ''The History of Bukhara''

In 1128 or 1129, Abu Nasr Ahmad al-Qubavi translated Narshakhi's original Arabic text into Persian, with abridgments and additional content to extend the history to 975.
Charles-Henri-Auguste Schefer published an abridged French translation in 1892.
In 1954, historian Richard N. Frye translated the Persian abridgment of the book into English.