Tuesday 15 November
Said Reza Huseini, University of Cambridge
A Sixteenth Century Mongol Observation of Tibet: Mirza Haidar Dughlat and his Tarikh-i Rashidi
In the summer of 1533, a small group of Turco-Mongolian forces led by Mirza Haidar Dughlat (d. 1551) invaded Tibet with the aim to capture its capital Lhasa. The invasion was justified in the name of Islam, but it was to expand Mongol control over the strategic regions between Tibet and Kashmir. This military expedition happened when the Safavids, the Mughals, and the Shaybanids have been recently established their empires in Iran, India and Central Asia. Mirza Haidar and his forces did not reach Lhasa and thus their military expedition was a failure. However, he recorded his observation of Tibet’s geography, climate, people, and cultural traditions which are immensely important. This presentation will discuss Mirza Haidar’s Tarikh-i Rashidi and his observation of sixteenth-century Tibet.