Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mitra Golchin ¹
• Amir Hossein Hashemi ²

¹ Assistant Professor in Persian Language and Literature, University of Tehran

² M.A. Candidate in Persian Language and Literature, University of Tehran

Abstract

The deeper we go into the history of architecture, the less physical evidences are found; ceilings are collapsed, walls are fallen and the foundations are faded out over the time. However, there is no trace of some of these buildings, but they are not completely destroyed and they have been surviving in written documentations. The period of Ghaznavid Empire (997-11860) encompasses one of the most prominent parts of the history of Iranian architecture from which few traces have remained; of course, there are many written documentation, such as the poets' divans, travelogues and historiographies, which can compensate the lack of physical documents.  Among these, the history book of Abolfazl Beyhaqi (995-1077) known as the  History of Beyhaqi holds a great importance due to its unique manner of historiography, and also, to its valuable literary features.
Considering the architectural monuments have remained from the periods before and after Ghaznavids, the key question would be why the architectural monuments of this outstanding historical period are totally disappeared? It has been tried, in present essay, to answer whether it is possible to find documents in the History of Beyhaqi to justify the factors made the monuments faded out, studying the linguistic and literary points of the book and comparing them with similar applications in modern Persian.

Keywords

• the History of Beyhaqi
• architecture
• Temporary Architecture
• Ghaznavids era
• Fatalism