The Development and Educational Significance of Tazkira Traditions in Timurid Transoxiana and Khorasan

This article examines the development of tazkira writing in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Transoxiana and Khorasan and considers its relevance to contemporary education. It presents a critical comparative review of Dawlatshah Samarqandi's Tazkirat al-Shu'ara and Alisher Navoi's Majolis un-Nafois, drawing on published texts, textual scholarship, and historical studies. The comparison addresses language, organization, biographical selection, literary judgment, and representations of learning and conduct. Dawlatshah's work preserves a historically ordered account of Persian literary achievement, whereas Navoi's eight assemblies place greater emphasis on the author's literary community and distinguish different relationships between the compiler and the people described. Both works preserve cultural memory through selective biography and poetic examples, but their judgments require contextual interpretation rather than acceptance as neutral records. Their educational value lies in opportunities to investigate intellectual relationships, evaluate evidence, and discuss the interaction of literary skill and ethical reputation. The article proposes classroom activities combining biographical comparison, source criticism, and reflective writing for literature, history, and teacher education courses. These activities are recommendations derived from the review; their effects on student learning have not been tested. The study concludes that Timurid tazkiras can support the study of Central Asian educational heritage when historical context, textual variation, and the limits of biographical evidence remain explicit.

Original journal page: https://cajii.com/index.php/cajii/article/view/57