Public-Domain Beyhaqi: Historical Prose | Farsi Grammar

Before narrating vizier Hasanak’s execution, Beyhaqi dates the account, identifies survivors, acknowledges disliking Bowsahl Zowzani, and pledges accuracy. The text follows Tarikh-e Beyhaqi, volume 6, section 26 on Ganjoor.

The transcription preserves نبشت، شست، اندرین، طعنی and سخنی نرانم. We normalize only Persian ک/ی, spacing, ZWNJ, and punctuation. Commas and dashes are modern reading aids, not manuscript punctuation.

The verified passage

فصلی خواهم نبشت در ابتدای این، حال بردار کردن این مرد، و پس به شرح قصه شد. امروز که من این قصه آغاز می‌کنم، در ذی‌الحجه سنه خمسین و اربعمائه، در فرخ روزگار سلطان معظم ابوشجاع فرخ‌زاد ابن ناصر دین‌الله، اطال‌الله بقاءه، از این قوم که من سخن خواهم راند یک دو تن زنده‌اند، در گوشه‌ای افتاده، و خواجه بوسهل زوزنی چند سال است تا گذشته شده است و به پاسخ آن که از وی رفت گرفتار، و ما را با آن کار نیست ـ هرچند مرا از وی بد آمد ـ به هیچ حال، چه عمر من به شست و پنج آمده و بر اثر وی می‌بباید رفت.
و در تاریخی که می‌کنم سخنی نرانم که آن به تعصبی و تزیدی کشد و خوانندگان این تصنیف گویند: «شرم باد این پیر را»، بلکه آن گویم که تا خوانندگان با من اندرین موافقت کنند و طعنی نزنند.
این بوسهل مردی امام‌زاده و محتشم و فاضل و ادیب بود، اما شرارت و زعارتی در طبع وی مؤکد شده.

This eleventh-century (classical historical prose) accumulates temporal frames, relatives, parenthetical judgment, and coordinated predicates before closure.

Announcing the narrative

فصلی خواهم نبشت در ابتدای این، حال بردار کردن این مرد، و پس به شرح قصه شد.

fasli khâham nebesht dar ebtedâ-ye in, hâl-e bar-dâr kardan-e in mard, va pas be sharh-e qesse shod.

I shall write a chapter here at the outset on the circumstances of hanging this man, and then proceed to explain the story. (Beyhaqi; classical historical prose)

نبشت is the older form corresponding to modern نوشت. In حال بردار کردن, بر دار کردن means “to hang, execute on the gallows”; segmentation matters because modern بردار can look like an imperative “pick up.” The clause پس به شرح قصه شد is impersonal and compressed: the discourse will then move to a detailed account.

Modern prose would supply a first-person subject to both verbs, but doing so removes Beyhaqi’s shift from personal خواهم نبشت to impersonal شد.

A long temporal and courtly frame

امروز که من این قصه آغاز می‌کنم، در ذی‌الحجه‌ی سنه‌ی خمسین و اربعمائه است.

emruz ke man in qesse âghâz mi-konam, dar Zi-l-hejje-ye sane-ye khamsin va arba'eme'e ast.

Today, as I begin this account, it is Dhu al-Hijja of the year four hundred and fifty. (source wording with the implied copular relation made explicit)

The passage dates composition in Arabic number vocabulary: خمسین و اربعمائه, 450 AH. That wording is (historical documentary); modern Persian would say سال ۴۵۰ قمری. The relative که من این قصه آغاز می‌کنم anchors the writer’s present, not the narrated past.

در فرخ روزگار سلطان معظم ابوشجاع فرخ‌زاد

dar farrokh ruzegâr-e soltân-e mo'azzam Abushojâ' Farrokhzâd

in the auspicious reign of the exalted Sultan Abushuja Farrokhzad (Beyhaqi; courtly formula)

This long ezafe chain combines evaluation, title, honorific, and personal name. روزگار means reign or era in context. سلطان معظم and the following Arabic blessing elevate the reigning patron; they are not neutral identifiers.

Arabic اطال‌الله بقاءه is a courtly blessing embedded parenthetically in the Persian period, not its main predicate.

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When a period becomes crowded, bracket courtly titles and blessings as parenthetical material first. The Persian clause continues around them.

Tracking participants through clause chains

از این قوم که من سخن خواهم راند، یک دو تن زنده‌اند، در گوشه‌ای افتاده.

az in qowm ke man sokhan khâham rând, yek do tan zende-and, dar gushe-i oftâde.

Of the group about whom I shall speak, one or two are alive, withdrawn in some corner. (Beyhaqi; classical historical prose)

سخن راندن از means “to speak or write about.” The quantified subject یک دو تن follows the relative frame. Final participle افتاده shares the plural copula from زنده‌اند: “and [are] secluded.” The surface sequence is long, but agreement and semantics keep the human referent active.

خواجه بوسهل زوزنی چند سال است تا گذشته شده است.

khwâje Bu-Sahl-e Zuzani chand sâl ast tâ gozashte shode ast.

Khwaja Bowsahl Zowzani has been gone for several years. (Beyhaqi; classical euphemistic wording)

گذشته شده است is an older euphemism for having died. Duration frame چند سال است تا... differs from today’s more usual چند سال است که.... خواجه is a courtly/social title here, not the modern generic word for “master” in every context.

Parenthesis and the historian’s moral stance

و ما را با آن کار نیست، هرچند مرا از وی بد آمد، به هیچ حال.

va mâ râ bâ ân kâr nist, har-chand ma-râ az vey bad âmad, be hich hâl.

And we have no business with that matter—even though I disliked him—in any case. (Beyhaqi; authorial aside)

The parenthesis is ethically important. Beyhaqi states personal antipathy, then limits its authority over the history. Classical experiencer مرا از وی بد آمد corresponds to modern من از او بدم می‌آمد. Plural ما can be authorial “we,” while مرا foregrounds the individual reaction.

چه عمر من به شست و پنج آمده و بر اثر وی می‌بباید رفت.

che omr-e man be shast va panj âmade va bar asar-e vey mi-bebâyad raft.

For I have reached sixty-five, and must soon follow after him. (Beyhaqi; classical reflection on mortality)

Here چه is causal, “for/because,” not interrogative. Historical spelling شست means modern شصت. Impersonal می‌بباید رفت expresses necessity without a nominative subject: “one must go.” بر اثر وی means after him, in death.

The pledge of impartial narration

در تاریخی که می‌کنم سخنی نرانم که آن به تعصبی و تزیدی کشد.

dar târikhi ke mi-konam sokhani narânam ke ân be ta'assobi va tazayyodi keshad.

In the history I am composing, I shall utter no statement that tends toward prejudice or embellishment. (Beyhaqi; historiographical pledge)

تاریخ کردن means composing history; سخن راندن means setting forth discourse. کشد به has result-direction force, “lead to.” تزیدی denotes adding or exaggerating beyond the truth. The subjunctive-looking کشد belongs inside the relative/result characterization of the statement he rejects.

خوانندگان این تصنیف گویند: شرم باد این پیر را.

khânandegân-e in tasnif guyand: sharm bâd in pir râ.

Lest the readers of this work say, ‘Shame on this old man.’ (Beyhaqi; literary optative)

باد is optative: “let there be / may there be.” Experiencer این پیر را makes the shame attach to “this old man.” Modern idiom is شرم بر این پیر باد or conversational این پیر باید خجالت بکشد, but neither is an exact quotation.

بلکه آن گویم که تا خوانندگان با من اندرین موافقت کنند و طعنی نزنند.

balke ân guyam ke tâ khânandegân bâ man andar-in movâfeqat konand va ta'ni nazanand.

Rather, I shall say what will make readers agree with me in this and not reproach me. (Beyhaqi; classical authorial stance)

Contracted اندرین is اندر این. طعن زدن is a light-verb expression “to reproach.” The stated ideal is persuasive credibility, not modern source-neutral historiography; the narrator remains visibly present.

Characterization after procedural caution

این بوسهل مردی امام‌زاده و محتشم و فاضل و ادیب بود، اما شرارت و زعارتی در طبع وی مؤکد شده.

in Bu-Sahl mardi emâm-zâde va mohtasham va fâzel va adib bud, ammâ sharârat va za'ârati dar tab'-e vey mo'akkad shode.

This Bowsahl was a man of distinguished lineage, standing, learning, and letters, but malice and harshness had become fixed in his nature. (Beyhaqi; evaluative historical prose)

The accumulation of positive predicates makes اما decisive. Rare زعارت means harshness or ill nature (classical). Beyhaqi’s pledge does not erase judgment; it frames judgment as something for which he accepts narratorial responsibility.

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Beyhaqi’s “objectivity” is rhetorical and explicit: he names his dislike, invokes age and mortality, and asks readers to judge his account. Translate that stance rather than flattening it into anonymous modern reportage.

Common Mistakes

1. Treating بردار as one modern word

⚠️ بردار کردن یعنی چیزی را از زمین بلند کردن.

bar-dâr kardan ya'ni chizi râ az zamin boland kardan.

Grammatical but contextually false: بر دار کردن is ‘to hang on the gallows,’ not modern برداشتن ‘pick up.’

✅ عنوان فصل از بر دار کردن حسنک سخن می‌گوید.

onvân-e fasl az bar dâr kardan-e Hasanak sokhan mi-guyad.

The chapter title concerns Hasanak’s execution by hanging.

2. Reading چه as a question word

⚠️ چه عمر من به شست و پنج آمده؟

che omr-e man be shast va panj âmade?

What, my age has reached sixty-five? (a possible modern surprised question, but not the source relation)

✅ در این جمله چه دلیل گفته‌ی پیشین را بیان می‌کند.

dar in jomle che dalil-e gofte-ye pishin râ bayân mi-konad.

In this sentence, che introduces the reason for the preceding statement.

3. Copying classical experiencer syntax into casual speech

⚠️ مرا از همکارم بد آمد.

ma-râ az hamkâr-am bad âmad.

I disliked my colleague. (intelligible literary pattern, unnatural as ordinary contemporary conversation)

✅ من از رفتار آن همکار خوشم نیامد.

man az raftâr-e ân hamkâr khosh-am nayâmad.

I did not like that colleague’s behavior. (neutral modern Persian)

4. Calling modern punctuation authorial

⚠️ بیهقی برای جدا کردن جمله معترضه دو خط تیره گذاشت.

Beyhaqi barâ-ye jodâ kardan-e jomle-ye mo'tareze do khatt-e tire gozâsht.

Beyhaqi put two dashes around the parenthesis. (anachronistic attribution of modern editorial punctuation)

✅ خط‌های تیره در این صفحه فقط راهنمای خواننده امروز است.

khatt-hâ-ye tire dar in safhe faqat râhnomâ-ye khânande-ye emruz ast.

The dashes on this page are only guides for today’s reader.

Key Takeaways

Separate temporal frames, courtly titles, blessings, and parenthetical stance before finding the main clause.
Recognize historical نبشت، شست، اندرین and impersonal می‌بباید رفت without copying them into neutral modern prose.
Track shared subjects and copulas across participles such as زنده‌اند، در گوشه‌ای افتاده.
Court vocabulary and honorifics locate the narrative inside Ghaznavid political culture.
Beyhaqi’s first person is evidence: he declares bias, mortality, and a standard of credible narration.

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