Nasir-i Khusraw's Life & Travels

Nasir-i Khusraw was an eleventh-century Persian poet and writer on religious subjects who also wrote an account of his seven years of travel to Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt. His poems and religious writings have remained influential, especially for adherents of Ismaili Islam in Central Asia and Iran. But Nasir's account of his travels, the Safarnama, was not translated into English in its entirety until 1986. The book provided little unique information but it offered a coherent, first-hand picture of the sights of Jerusalem, Mecca, and Cairo and interesting, if limited, insights into an eleventh-century personality. Recently, however, scholars have begun to connect the circumstances of Nasir's long journey and his unusual itinerary with the fact of his, perhaps well-established, conversion to Ismaili beliefs. Since Nasir's permanent contribution was to the furthering of Ismailism, studying the Safarnama as evidence of the author's growing commitment to Ismaili beliefs--including his adoption of a vow to serve the Ismaili Imam of Cairo and the dawa of the Ismailiyya--the significance of where he went, what he reported on (and did not report on), and the manner in which he represented what he saw take on even greater interest. A brief review of Nasir-i Khusraw's life, including his role in Ismailism, and the history of the Safarnama will be followed by analyses of portions of the text of his travel book.

Nasir-i Khusraw, whose full name was Abu Muin Nasir b. Khusraw b

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uch an adverse wind that the ship could not set out to sea, I therefore proceeded by land [and came to Ascalon where] I saw an old arch said to have been at one time part of a mosque. It was of stone so huge that it would have cost a great deal to pull it down. Translation into colloquial prose generally seems to be the aim of the two translators, but where Thackston resists the urge to adapt what is either the more convoluted syntax of the original to English or, as may be the case, to adopt an 'antique' tone, Le Strange is less reliable. Choices between "they told me" and "said to have been" were made on the basis of what might sound best to the contemporary ear. But the phrase "should any desire to throw it down" seems unnecessarily obscure given the fact that Thackston communicates the same idea without creating a sentence that might cause the reader to hesitate. But, largely because it is such a lucidly written text, no obvious disagreements about content or meaning emerge when the two translations are compared. The lucidity of the Safarnama certainly ensures that, at the very least, there is no debate about Nasir's itinerary. He is quite precise in supplying, dates, place names, and lengths of stay throughout the b

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