ГИБЕЛЬ МИРЗЫ ХАЙДАРА ДУГЛАТА: РУКОПИСЬ «СОБЫТИЯ КАШМИРА» И ПРОБЛЕМА ИСТОРИОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ РАСХОЖДЕНИЙ
THE DEATH OF MIRZA HAIDAR DUGHLAT: THE MANUSCRIPT EVENTS OF KASHMIR AND THE PROBLEM OF HISTORIOGRAPHICAL DISCREPANCIES

Summary/Abstract: The article presents a source study analysis of the Persian-language manuscript B 720, titled Events of Kashmir, authored by Muhammad Aʻzam Didamari and housed in the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The study focuses on the contradictory accounts within the manuscript concerning the death of Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a Mughal military commander and historian, known for his chronicle Tarikh-i Rashidi. The primary aim of the study is to assess the source value of the manuscript as a representative of the Kashmiri historiographical tradition and to explore the reasons behind discrepancies between different versions of the same historical event. The research draws on folios 91b–92a of the manuscript B720, alongside Kashmiri chronicles from the XVI to the XIX centuries, Mughal sources, and European Orientalist literature. Methodologically, the study uses a combination of comprehensive source criticism, comparative-historical analysis, and textological examination. The findings identify two main versions of the circumstances surrounding Mirza Haidar’s death: a dramatic narrative portraying his death at the hands of a Kashmiri butcher, and a neutral account describing it as an accident. Through comparison with Kashmiri sources (such as Haidar Malik Chadurah’s work and the anonymous Baharistan-i Shahichronicle), Mughal chronicles (by Abu’l-Fazl and Firishta), and European scholarly literature, the research demonstrates the mechanisms of formation of regional historiographical traditions. The studied manuscript is positioned as an example of a transitional phase in the eighteenth-century Kashmiri historiography – a work that recorded the coexistence of competing narratives about one of the events in regional history. The significance of this study lies in expanding the available source base on Kashmiri history, introducing a relatively understudied manuscript into scholarly discourse, and demonstrating an approach to handling contradictory evidence that can be applied to other Persian-language historical texts from the region.

• Details
• Contents