Mirror of Heritage
Year:2017 | Volume:14 | Issue:59|Papers Count:15

One of the oldest Persian texts is a manuscript of the versified commentary on the Khelafiyat, kept under No 819 in Fayzollah Afandi’s collection at the Mellat Library (Istanbul). The MS is dated 665 A.H. and contains 332 folios. The original poem Khelafiyat, was composed in 504/1110 by Najm al-Din Abu Hafs Omar b. Mohammad b. Ahmad Nasafi, and its Persian commentary was written by an anonymous author sometime between 504-655 A.H. According to bibliographies, this book is the oldest, and probably the sole known, Persian text about khelafiyat (one of the Islamic sciences that addresses the differences between various Jurisprudential Schools in Islam as well as the diverse theoretical standpoints among scholars adhering each individual School). Due to its relative antiquity and comprehensiveness in terms the subject it covers, this voluminous book has achieved a prominent standing.In this article, first the science of Khelaf is briefly introduced; then a little is said about Najmal-Din Omar, followed by a discussion on the didactic poems and the Al-Khelafiyat and its exegeses. Finally, the Persian commentary on the Khelafiyat is addressed.

In the history of Persian literature, the Tadhkera-ye Majales al-Oshshaq (Collection of the Lovers’ Discourses) has been commonly imputed to two individuals: Soltan Hoseyn Bayqara, and Kamal al-Din Hoseyn Gazargahi, one of the scholars at the Soltan Hoseyn’s court. Even though, in the text of the book itself, its author has patently been stated as Soltan Hoseyn, scholars consider Gazargahi as its real author.Having followed the traces of the author in the Majales al-Oshshaq and conducted some research about his historical personality, thepresent article concludes that this book has not been authored by Sultan Hoseyn. Nonetheless, it is not easy either to accept Babor and Khwandmir’s claim who attribute the book to Gazargahi. Consequently, one may well concede that the book has been written by an efficient literary narrator, possibly assisted by several others in collecting his material, because the gleaning of the enormous contents of the book on figurative love and so exactly exploring the detailed information about the lives and works of a good number of Persian speaking poets and writers seems to be way beyond the capacity of one single individual. The Majales al-Oshshaq was undertaken by order of the Herat royal court designed to justify pedophilia and legitimize love, generally, for beautiful young males.

The Shabrangnameh is an epic poem about Shabrang, son of the Deev-e Sepid (the White Demon) who, following the murder of his father by Rostam, resolved to take revenge on the Iranians for that. However, despite all his efforts, he failed and had to flee to Turan. We know nothing about the composer of the Shabrangnameh; nonetheless, certain stylistic features of the poem evince that it has possibly been composed before the Mogul invasion of Iran.Since this poem has not been redacted yet, it is little known to the researchers of epic literature. In the present article, we first address the view that Rostam’s fight with Shabrang has echoed in the books of Shahnameh narrating, and then we show its main mythological and literary characteristics.

The book Sha’eran-e bi divan (poets without divan) that contains a collection of scattered verses by a number of Persian speaking poets from the 3rd-5th/9th-11th centuries, if not the first of its kind, represents one of the finest and most comprehensive scholarly researches. Yet, since the publication of the book several decades have passed during which new sources, such as safinas and anthologies have come to light, and some of the sources consulted in the Sha’eran-e bi divan, have been through critical editions. Therefore, the necessity for a fresh review of the book is well recognized, as it would help its author to remove his editing errors, shortcomings, and lapses. He would also be able to add new verses and more accurate variants, and remove typos.Being aware of some of such weaknesses, the authors of this article have revealed a number of the shortcomings of the book and, by drawing on a few manuscripts as well as printed sources, have introduced several of the newly discovered verses of the old poets who have left behind no divans.

Under what conditions and how is it possible to redact literary texts with the help of other texts? If there is only a limited degree of intertextual relation between two texts, can we utilize part of one in redacting a section of another? While there are many other differences between texts semantically and in terms of key words and in their totality, are we still justified to employ one or two aspects of a text in editing another, disregarding all other aspects? Is it permissible to make use of only the outward appearance of words and idiomatic expressions in the emendation of some other text.

Madayeh-e Mo’ayediyah attributed to Shams al-Ma’ali Eshaq b. Ahmad of Shiraz has reached us as an exquisite manuscript kept under No 2637 in the Central Library and the Documents Centre, Tehran University. This work, which comprises verses in honour of Tahmasb Mirza Mo’ayed al-Dowleh, has many literary and historical benefits one of which is that it contains names of the poets and samples of their poetry not mentioned in other memoirs of poets. In the Madayeh there are qasida s (odes) that though composed by Ahmad Veqar of Shiraz and Sorush od Esfahan, have not entered their printed collections of poetry (Divan). One great advantage of the Madayeh is that it helps emend Ahmad Veqar’s verses not properly recorded in his printed Divan.

This article addresses the way that historical texts and monsha’at (formal written material) are reflected in the 12th/18th-century manuscript collections, kept in the Islamic Assembly Library, written by Mir Jamal al-Din Mohammad Hoseyni Qaderi of Jam. A mystic, Mir Jamal al-Din was in the entourage of the Timurid prince Mohammad Akbar Awrangzib. A review of the collection reveals the special interest of its Sufi compiler and scribe in the local histories of Khorasan as well as historical texts and the Safavid and Timurid monsha’at.

Manouchehri-e Damghani’s Divan has up until now been published several times, the most recent of them being that edited by Barat Zanjani. In his introduction to the Divan, Zanjani states that Dabirsiyaqi’s edition that had appeared before his, “has not been administered in a scientific fashion”. Therefore, he has redacted the Divan again based on seven manuscripts. In addition, he has also defined certain words and explained certain verses.However, there can still be seen lapses and shortcomings in his revision and in the interpretation of some of the verses; so the present article intends to examine this recent edition of Manuchehri’s Divan under four sub-headings: the redaction of the verses; the explanation of the verses; the correction and elucidation of the verses; and prosodic flaws. Attempts are also made to compare this edition with that of Dabirsiyaqi’s.

To facilitate the process of teaching and committing lessons to memory, Muslim scholars have benefitted from the considerable effect of rhythm and music of speech and have therefore versified the rules and principles of certain sciences. These versified rules are referred to as “didactic poems“most of which are on Arabic grammar. They have been quite prevalent amongst Iranians.This article sets to introduce some of the Iranians’ rhymed books of grammar. Then it explores some classical books such as Jorjani’s Avamel, Zamakhshari’s Mofassal and Ibn al-Hajeb’s Kafiya. The authors of this kind of books have sometimes written their own independent books, for example, on the grammatical rules of Arabic, and sometimes have turned into verse books written by others in prose.

The Al-Abniya an haqayeq al-adviya authored by Abu Mansur Movaffaq b. Ali Heravi, is the oldest extant Persian book on pharmacology. One of its copies dated 447 A.H. and scribed by Asadi of Tus, is the oldest manuscript available and the first complete dated text ever in Persian. Abu Mansur wrote this book in Heravi dialect and Asadi transcribed it in Tusi dialect. By examining this book, we realize that the words in it and their pronunciations have remained still alive in the Khorasani dialects, and this is attested to by the fact that the manuscript is transcribed with diacritical marks.The present study has explored a number of words from the Al-Abniya, in Tusi dialect which has continued to stay in its only living continuation-namely, the Mashhad dialect; instances of their uses in other dialects of the greater Khorasan have also been presented.

Bidel-e Dehlavi, one of the outstanding poets and a follower of the School of Sabk-e Hendi (Indian Style) in the 12-13th/18-19th centuries, was also a competent versed prose writer. The Chahar Onsor (Four Elements) is his most extensive and most important prose work, which like his poetry, is oftentimes enigmatic, puzzling and full of fantastic imagery. This book was published in 1341/1962 (Kabul) and 1386/2007 (Tehran), both very disorderly and badly affected by various imperfections. In 1392/2013, Zia’ al-Din Shafi’ei edited and published this book again. Considering that his edition is marred by numerous distortions, orthographical errors and misreading, the present authors have tried to bring to light its deficiencies and flaws on the basis of four manuscripts of the Chahar Onsor and by comparing them with Shafi’ei’s edition and suggesting corrections.

Mofajja’-e Basri (d.327 /939) the prominent literary man, scribe, grammarian and philologist during the Abbasid Caliphate, but one of the obscure individuals in terms of writing Arabic poetry, haseulogized the Prophet’s household. One of his celebrated poems is his “Qasidat al-ashbah” (an ode on resemblances) in which the poet, with regard to the prophetic tradition“ ashbah” and other traditions, and based on the Qur’anic verses and the events in early Islamic era, has praised the merits and superb attributes of Imam Ali, stating his resemblances to the holy messengers.The present article seeks to introduce this Shi’i poet and the manuscript of the commentary on his literary masterpiece “Qasidat al-ashbah”.

Naser Khosro’s Khwan-e Ekhvan has been published twice: one in Egypt by Yahya al-Khashab and the other in Iran by Ali Akbar Qavim. The methods used in the redaction of both are very flawed, and this has been responsible not only for having no sound systematic edition of the Khwan-e Ekhvan available, but also for the imperfections in the studies that have drawn on it.This article while presenting a critical study of the methods used in the two existing editions of the Khwan-e Ekhvan, and an analysis of it in terms of language and content, it explores the effects of those editions on other researches in the Persian language and literature. The article also seeks to propound systematic approaches to editing in the domain of history of Persian language, stylistics, and vocabulary. Additionally, other shortcomings and weaknesses of the two editions of the Khwan-e Ekhvan have been identified, the conclusion being that most probably, the Qavim edition has been prepared based on the text provided by Yahya al-Khashab.

Saraj al-Din Hoseyni Owrangabadi, a 12th/18th century mystic and poet from Hyderabad, Deccan, has compiled a collection of 4322 select distiches by 704 Persian speaking poets, especially from among the followers of the School of Indian Style, variously designated as Montakhab-e Divanha (A selection from divan s), Majmu’e-ye sho’ara (A poets’ collection), and Majma’ al-sho’ara (Assembly of sho’ara). The sole manuscript of this work in Iran is accessible under No 86 at the Minovi Library, and its facsimile is kept under No 2800 in the Centre for the Revival of the Islamic Heritage. According to the late Minovi’s note at the beginning of the manuscript, he himself has dubbed it Safinat al-mofradat.The present study has introduced and expounded the manuscript. The results of the comparison of its distiches with those in the printed divans of their poets and in memoirs of poets prescribe a fresh redaction of the manuscript.

Resalatila al-Sufiya or Resale-ye Qoshairiye by Abu al-Qasem Qoshairi (d.465/1073), is one of the most important Arabic works in the domain of Islamic scholastic Sufism, written in the 5th/11th century.Shortly after its compilation, it was translated into Persian, thus enabling Persian speaking community often to learn about Qoshairi’s thoughts from an early time up until now.The authors of the present article have endeavored to assess the degree of precision and accuracy of this old translation by comparing it with its Arabic original. This assessment has been administered by a line-by-line comparison of the first chapter of the old translation against its Arabic original. The study concludes that the old translation suffers from very many imperfections, and that the scholars can hardly do without consulting the Arabic original of the Resaheh. Therefore, it all points to the necessity of correcting the old translation or doing a new rendering of the Resaleh-ye Qoshairiyeh.