History in the Making: Zayn Khwafi’s Tabaqat-i Baburi

In this paper, I will discuss Zayn al-Din Khwafi’s Tabaqat-i Baburi as an exceptional window into the historian’s craft as practiced in the late Timurid period. Sometimes billed as a partial translation of Babur’s personal memoir, this work was composed by a literateur, bureaucrat, and member of a famous Sufi family who accompanied Babur from Kabul to Hindustan in 1525 CE. Although the work does follow the narrative order of Babur’s work (and cites the original Chaghatay Turkic on occasion), it is not a straightforward translation. Shaykh Zayn was himself present at the events he describes spanning the period 1525-27 and the work adds to Babur’s representations. Moreover, the author was thoroughly familiar with the Timurid historiographic tradition and is self-conscious about incorporating passages from earlier works such as Sharaf al-Din Yazdi’s Zafarnama to justify Babur’s claims as well as show him as a hero who surpassed the accomplishments of his forebears. Overall, a close reading of this work provides us a condensed view into matters such as translation across languages, the role of literary and historiographic precedents in the production of chronicles, and conventions regarding the relationship between human experience and its narration. The work is a remarkable venue for observing the past being made into an object of knowledge in Persianate societies and can guide us in broader explorations involving the production of chronicles in the late medieval to early modern period.