One of the most attractive themes in historiographical studies has always been the historical narrative’s legitimizing function. Here, the present paper purported to examine this subject as reflected in a historical text belonging to 15/9th century, i.e. the Hasht Behesht of Sharaf ad-Din Edrīs Badlīsī. The last part of the text is selected to be analyzed for this purpose. The study’s main concern is Badlisi’s primary purpose of writing this text, if it has been merely narrating historical events or there also might trace a legitimizing plot? The study’s approach is discursive analyze and it aims to apply the appropriate methodology efficiently. Moreover, some relevant concepts for discursive analyze and contextual studies such as “otherness”, “marginalization” and “intertextuality” are called for. As the results of the study show, Badlīsī through giving a central status to Jihād, consciously did his best to legitimize his Ottoman masters’ new shaped government. The chronological base of his narrative is the political events under sultan Mohammed the conqueror. His narrative, by centralizing the religious concept of Jihād, treat some secular concepts as ethnicity, native country, and the Farrah –e Izadī (divine favor) as marginal and so, his text might be recognized as an efficient tool for legitimizing the new-shaped Ottoman government.
Badlisi, sultan Mohammed the Conqueror, Discourse, Otherness, Intertextuality, Legitimacy, Jihad
Ghazvini Haeri Y. Legitimacy Discourse as Reflected in Historical Texts: the Case of Badlīsī’s Hasht Behesht
. مطالعات تاریخ اسلام 2010; 2 (5) :107-128 URL: http://journal.pte.ac.ir/article-1-136-en.html