Mirror of Heritage
Year:2012 | Volume:10 | Issue:1 (50)|Papers Count:12

Anis al-Aqelin, a work by Mulla Mir Qari Gilani, is an imitation of Golestan-e Sadi, dedicated to Mowlana Es-haq, in 1005 AH. In the introduction, the author calls his work as a description of the faithlessness of the decelerating life and a complaint of the cruelty of the ruined world.Anis al-Aqelin is a book of moral anecdotes in prose mixed with some poems by the author, Sadi, etc. The prose is in rhythmical style with rhymed words (مسجع), without verbal difficulties.The article tries to give a description of the book and its two manuscripts, one preserved in the Library of Astan-e Qods-e Razavi, and the other in the Library of Majles-e Shora-ye Eslami.

Dastoor al-Kateb fi Tayeen al-Maratebis one the most significant books on the subject of composition and correspondence, in the 8th AH century. The book was once published in 3 volumes, in Moscow, between the years 1964-1976. Recently, the first volume of this book was published again, relying on the previous edition and though the second editor collated it with only one later manuscript, it is reckoned as another critical text of the Dastoor al-Kateb fi Tayeen al-Marateb.The text suffers from the confusion produced by the unfamiliarity of the editor, hasty publishing, and incompetence with the art of text criticism. He makes more confusion by changing the original style of writing practiced by the author, and wished by the editor to retain it as his goal; by alteration of the prose style and the orthography; and by his un-uniformity with reading the variants.The article studies and provides a critical review of this edition.

Writing commentaries on the Mathnavi of Jalal al-Din Mohammad Mowalvi has a long history. But the important point in Mathnavi commentaries is their mystical nature in interpreting the contents of the verses. The interpretive method proposed in this article for the analysis of the Mathnavi, tries to reasonably confine itself to the meaning of the words used in each verse. In this method the literary rhetoric and lingual ornamentations are the bases of the meaning. This approach which the author calls an “outward interpretation” is used to challenge the presumption shared by the Mathnavi scholars regarding the word and form as discreditable, compared to the lofty thoughts of Mowlavi. In this method, the language of the Mathnavi and Mowlavi’s poetic talent are the primary standards of explaining the verses.

Lexicography has apparently a relative long background in the history of the Persian culture and literature. The existence of the two Avestan and Pahlavi lexicons, Oim-ewak and Pahlavig, indicates that this know-how had developed into some stages of its perfection in the Sasanid era. Though the lexicons probably reached their final compilation in the 3rd and 4th AH centuries, the origins of this knowledge trace back to more ancient periods. The Oim-ewak lexicon includes some Avestan words and sentences with their Middle Persian translations. In its modern format, this lexicon has an introduction and 27 chapters. The content of each chapter is often arranged on the basis of a specific subject and therefore, indicates that the author has seemingly been familiar with this method of lexicography. The subjects of some chapters are: numerals and adverbs; gender and number for nouns, adjectives and verbs; relative pronouns and time measuring.Moreover, the Oim-ewak lexicon is particularly significant regarding its inclusion of some linguistic terminologies, and words used in the Avestan texts of the Sasanid era, which are not accessible today.The article studies the methods of lexicography, on the basis of this lexicon.

The Qoran, the everlasting book of guidance for mankind, was descended in the language of revelation through the Holy Prophet Mohammad to the human community. The teachings and warnings of this celestial book were explained and interpreted in many books written by man. Among them, the Mathnavi by Mowlana Jalal al-Din is a unique one, and it is likely to say that it is the most responsible authorship in the promotion of the Qoranic and religious culture and teachings. As indicated by the great scholars of literature and mysticism, this valuable book should be somehow considered as a Qoranic mystical exegesis, since it bears the two basic Qoranic characteristics: first, like the Qoran, it has outward and multi-layer inward aspects: and second, following the example of the Holy Qoran, it uses stories and parables to elaborate the conceptions in order that everybody takes advantage of them according to his/her capacity.Since the time this valuable poem was composed, there have been many discussions and commentaries written on it. Each of them looked at it from a certain outlook and some of them paved the way to understanding it by solving the problems. One of these commentaries is written by Shah Mir Noor Allah Ahrari of Delhi.He explains many difficulties of the verses which appeared as questions to the students of the Mathnavi until his age, in addition to criticizing his predecessors and concentrating on them. Then, other commentators such as Vali Mohammad Akbar Abadi and Khwaja Ayyub Parsa, took advantage of his book.

The article attempts to respond a criticism written by Saeed Mahdavifar, titled “Guzari Bar Tuhfat al-Araqayn-e Khaqani-ye Shervani, ed. by Ali Safari Aq-Qale,” which was published in the Ayene-ye Miras, no 49. The article deals with the critic’s errors and the wrong method he follows.

By the term “recently found” in this article, the author means the poems found in some sources under the name of Kamal Esmail which do not appear in his only authoritative edition of his Divan edited by the Late Bahr al-Olumi. Exceptions are the poems allegedly seen in the Divan by the editors of these collections (like Nezhat al-Majales).There is no need to make a second list of them here. Beforehand, some of these poems were identified by Hassan Atefi, though we do not believe that all of them are authentically by Kamal.However, these poems should be included in the next edition of his Divan. Most of them are in the form of Rubaee (رباعی). The article does not include all the poems attributed to him and probably, there are other poems by him in other sources. We hope that these poems would shed more light on the portrait of Kamal Esmail.

The present article deals with some old and significant manuscripts of the Sharh-e Esharat- e Khwaja Nasir al-Din-e Tusi, some of which written during his life time. Through analyzing some of their characteristics, such as the location of what Toosi had later inserted in the book, regarding the story of Salaman va Absal, the article tries to determine the relation of these manuscripts with the author’s copy and its later copies. It also discusses some points on the tradition of teaching and learning the Sharh-e Esharat.

The Persian physician and philosopher, Mohammad b. Zakariya Razi is an influential figure in the history of sciences. Much research has been done on his works and thoughts since his time.The article analyzes and compares the studies on Razi in the Islamic Iran and in the West, in terms of the methods and orientations. Consequently, the article proposes four categories in this realm: the traditional Razi studies in Iranian civilization from the time of Mohammad b. Zakariya Razi until Fakhr al-Din Razi; Razi studies in the western civilization in the middle Ages; the modern western studies on Razi; and finally, the studies done by the contemporary Iranians on his thoughts and ideas.

Salman-e Savaji (d. 778 AH) is one of the great poets of the 8th century AH. His Divan has been reprinted several times; the last one is Kolliyyat-e Salman-e Savaji, ed. Dr. Abbas Ali Vafaee (Tehran: 1st edition 1376/1997; 2nd edition 1389/2010). Although there are old and relatively reliable manuscripts of the Divan-e Salman-e Savaji in the libraries of Iran and other countries, the critical editing of his Divan is not accomplished so far.The article contains23 rubaees by Salman-e Savaji not included in the present and previous editions of his Divan. The sources of these rubaees are the two manuscripts belonging to the Library of Noor Uthmaniyya in Turkey (dated 844 AH) and the Library of Tehran University (dated 859 AH). It is worthy of notice that the manuscript of the Library of Noor Uthmaniyya was among the sources used by Dr. Vafaee. In addition to presenting these 23 rubaees, the article provides a list of various corrected misreadings found in the edition or gives the prior variants in the manuscripts, resulted from a comparative study.

The treasure of Persian literature is full of bright pearls of which only a few are accessible to the lovers of literature. Athir al-Din-e Owmani is one of the forgotten shining stars in the sky of Persian literature who is known as one of the able and famous poets of his age. His Divan is significant for his masterly poems and the original old words of the Persian language, on the one hand; and, for the many historical advantages it has, on the other. However, it has not been published so far.The article aims at identifying the poet while introducing the manuscripts of his Divan for the first time. Also, explaining the recently found manuscripts, it emphasizes the publishing of the critical edition of the text of this poet’s Divan.