Latest folio

Folio 2: Two Brothers, One Throne

In the spring of 1030, the great Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni dies, and his empire is left to the wrong son. His elder son Masud is far away in Isfahan, and his younger son Muhammad is already on the throne. Over six tense months, letters fly, armies change sides, and a kingmaker learns the price of making kings. Beyhaqi, who knew these men, tells us how it really went.

Volume	1
Folio	2
Narrator	Mehdi Rahmani
Length	11 min
Published	03 November 2026
Source	Tarikh-e Beyhaqi, the surviving part of volume five: the letter from Tiginabad, the arrest of Hajib Ali in Herat, and Masud's arrival in Balkh (421 AH / 1030 CE)

"I write only what I saw with my own eyes, or heard from someone I trust."
in the spirit of Abolfazl Beyhaqi

All folios

• Folio 2

  Folio 2: Two Brothers, One Throne

  In the spring of 1030, the great Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni dies, and his empire is left to the wrong son. His elder son Masud is far away in Isfahan, and his younger son Muhammad is already on the throne. Over six tense months, letters fly, armies change sides, and a kingmaker learns the price of making kings. Beyhaqi, who knew these men, tells us how it really went.

• Folio 1

  Folio 1: The Vizier on the Gallows

  Ghazni, a thousand years ago. Sultan Mahmud is dead, his son Masud takes the throne, and the old vizier Hasanak is about to pay for one careless sentence. Beyhaqi, a young secretary at court, saw it all, and wrote it down years later in one of the most famous passages of Persian prose. A story about pride, revenge, a mother's dignity, and a historian who refused to lie.