Muhammad Bal'ami


Abu Ali Muhammad Bal'ami, also called Amirak Bal'ami and Bal'ami-i Kuchak, was a Persian historian, writer, and vizier to the Samanids. He was from the influential Bal'ami family.

Biography

He was born in Lashjerd in the district of Merv, then part of the Samanid Empire. He was the son of Abu'l-Fadl al-Bal'ami. Muhammad Bal'ami was appointed vizier during the late reign of Abd al-Malik I and kept holding the office under Abd al-Malik's successor Mansur I. According to Gardizi, Bal'ami died in March 974 while serving in office, but according to the Persian historian al-Utbi, he was later from removed the vizierate office, and was reappointed later as the vizier of Nuh II, but chose to retire in 992, dying in an unknown date before 997.

Work

Bal'ami most famous work is Tarikh-i Bal'ami, which is a Persian translation and alteration of al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings; it contains supplementary material, some of which is found nowhere else. Bal'ami himself states several times in the book that he has corrected al-Tabari's version. Contrary to al-Tabari, Bal'ami's version is presented from a Persian point of view. Having been written in 963, the Tarikh-i Bal'ami is the oldest New Persian prose work after the preface of the Shahnama-yi Abu Mansuri by Abu Mansur Muhammad.
The 12th-century poet Nizami Aruzi makes mention of a book composed by Bal'ami named Tawqi'at, and two lines by Bal'ami are cited in the Farhang-e Jahangiri by Jamal al-Din Hosayn Enju Shirazi. However, it is not known if this refers to Bal'ami or his father, Bal'ami the Elder.