Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh[1][2] or Ghiyasu'd-Din Naqqah (fl. 1419-22; "Naqqah" in Timothy Brook's books is likely a typo for Naqqash) was an envoy of the Timurid ruler of Persia and Transoxania, Mirza Shahrukh (r. 1404–1447), to the court of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424) of the Ming Dynasty of China.[3][4]
Ghiyasu'd-Din Naqqash was the official diarist of the large embassy sent by Mirza Shahrukh, whose capital was in Herat, to the court of China's Yongle Emperor in 1419.[3] According to Vasily Bartold, he was a painter, as the moniker "Naqqash" indicated.[5]
From Shahrukh's capital Herat, the embassy, which included envoys from Shahrukh himself and from his son Bāysonḡor, first went to Samarqand, where they expected another group of envoys, sent by Shahrukh's viceroy of Transoxania, Ulugh Beg, to join them. However, it turned out that Ulugh Beg's delegation had left already, and Shahrukh's party had to proceed separately. They left Samarqand for China on February 25, 1420, along with Chinese envoys returning home.[5]
The embassy entered China at the western end of the Great Wall at Jiayuguan on August 29, 1420. From Xiaozhou, the first town after Jiayuguan (some 45 km after crossing the great wall), the embassy was transported on to Beijing by the Chinese courier service (yichuan), over the 99 courier stations along the 2900-km route. The embassy travelled via Ganzhou, Lanzhou (where they were impressed by the pontoon bridge over which they crossed the Yellow River), Xi'an (although the [extant part of] the diary does not cover this city), another Yellow River crossing at Tongguan (November 18), the capital of North Zhili Zhengding (December 3), and reached Beijing on December 14.[3]
The Persians spent 5 months at the court of the Yongle Emperor, and on May 18, 1421, left Beijing for their trip home. With several months' delays in Ganzhou and Xiaozhou due to Mongol incursions, they only were able to leave China, via the same Jiayuguan checkpoint on January 13, 1422. The names of all members of the party were checked by the border authorities against the register which recorded their original entry into the country, and once everything matched, they were allowed to leave.[3]
Ghiyasu'd-Din Naqqash kept a diary of his travels throughout China, where he wrote about China's wealthy economy and huge urban markets, its efficient courier system as compared to that in Persia, the hospitality of his hosts at the courier stations in providing comfortable lodging and food, and the fine luxurious goods and craftsmanship of the Chinese.[3]
Ghiyasu'd-Din's diary has not survived to our days; however, large excepts from it have been incorporated into a Persian chronicle (whose name is variously transcribed as Zobdat al-tawāriḵ-e Bāysonḡori or Zubdatu-t-tawārīḫ-i Bāysunġurī[6]) by Hafiz Abru.[3] This document is considered one of the most important and popular Muslim works on China,[5] and provides modern historians with important information on transportation and foreign relations of the early-Ming China.[3]
An English translation of Hafiz Abru's text by K.M. Maitra was published in Lahore in 1934 as "A Persian Embassy to China: Being an extract from Zubdatu't Ol Tawarikh of Hafiz Abrut", and later in New York in 1970.[7] A Russian translation of Ghiyasu'd-Din Naqqash's diary (as per Hafiz Abru) was published in Kazakhstan in 2009.[8]