Mirkhvand's brother was the sadr (head of religious fundings) of the Timurid crown prince Badi' al-Zaman Mirza (died 1514), the eldest son of the incumbent ruler Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r. 1469–1506).
Using the Timurid history book Maṭlaʿ al-saʿdayn of Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi (died 1482) as his cornerstone,[3] Mirkhvand started writing his Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ in 1474/5.
Towards the end of his life, he lived for a year at the shrine of the prominent Hanbali and Sufi scholar Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (died 1088), near Herat.
[2] Mirkhvand's daughter's son Khvandamir (died 1535/6), whom he had trained and handed over his patronage networks, wrote a concise version of his grandfathers work in 1500, the Khulāṣat al-akhbār fī bayān aḥwāl al-akhyār ("Summary reports on the affairs of those gone by").
[6] Mirkhvand's discussion on the advantages of studying history was copied and modified by three other distinguished historians; Qasim Beg Hayati Tabrizi's Tarikh (1554); Hossein Nishapuri Vuqu'i's Majma al-akhbar (1591/2); and Sharaf Khan Bidlisi's Sharafnama (1596).