Mirror of Heritage
Year:2017 | Volume:15 | Issue:60|Papers Count:9

Jalal al-Din Mawlavi had learnt Khorasan’s language and literature, yet certain Turkish as well as Mogholi Turkish words are found in his language heritage. Besides, his years as a poet were spent in an area where the language of most people was Ottoman Turkish. Therefore, it is natural that Turkish words be seen in his poetry: both words used in Persian works written prior to his time and words found in Persian poetry and Mawlana’ own poems for the first time. A review of the way these Turkish words are employed indicates that they are predominantly taken from the colloquial language of the poet’s companions finding their way into his poetry in accordance with circumstances and as the comprehension of Mowlana’s Turkish speaking audience necessitated; thus no apparent personal proclivity had led him to employ such words.In the present article, we present all these words and several Turkish expressions and compound words that we have identified in Mawlana’s ghazals.

Copies of the Qur’an known as having been handwritten by the Shi’i Imams constitute a collection of the oldest manuscripts of the Qur’an in the Muslim world, especially in Iran. Most of these Qur’ans are now preserved primarily in Iran’s libraries and museums and, then, in Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, India, and several European countries such as Britain and Germany.This article sets to make an overall examination of the features of one of the Qur’ans ascribed to Imam Ali b. Musa al-Reza, no.1586, and demonstrate that fragments of this work, which had been transferred from Iraq to Iran years ago and donated to the Razavi Sanctuary (Astan-e Quds Library), have existed in another manuscript (no.4354) as well as in several private collections outside of Iran (presented at London auctions); these collections are complimentary to one another. There are obvious similarities between the signature affixed to this Qur’an and the tarqimeh (colophons) of the nine other Qur’anic manuscripts in Iran and other countries. The review of both manuscripts reveals that the scribe of the manuscript in question has transcribed the text of the Qur’an-probably in the latter half of the 2nd century or the first decades of the 3rd century A.H./8-9 A.D.- in accordance with the Basri School, as the examination of certain parts related to the table of the variant readings and the system of add al-ay (verse numbering) in this MS demonstrates its most resemblance to the Basri transcription style. This text, which was originally without diacritical marks, was later punctuated, and vocalized by others. This same punctuating has led to the emergence in the text of some reading errors and variant readings.

Foroozanfar's critical edition of Shams Tabrizi’s ghazal s, published in the course of 1957-1965, paved the way for a more in-depth reading of Mowlavi's theosophy, thought and poetic art. The earliest selection of Shams’s ghazal s based on Foroozanfar's edition was rendered by Shafi' ee Kadkani (1973), setting the stage for many people to strike up an acquaintance not only with Mowlavi, but with classical Persian literature. While fully acknowledging the great work undertaken by Foroozanfar, Shafi'ee believed that a fresh edition of Shams’s ghazal s was badly needed. After 26 years, when in 2008, a relatively substantial selection of the ghazal s was eventually produced by Shafi' ee, it turned out that, in terms of redaction, he had done nothing but give preference to certain variant spurious manuscripts and suggest a few analogical emendations. However, Shafi'ee has asserted that his glosses to the ghazals are the result of 35 years of persistent inquiry into the Persian and Islamic literature and mysticism. This article is an attempt to provide a reread of the version of Shams’s ghazal s as supported by Shafi'ee's annotations, presenting a few critical, enhancive, and supplemental notes on them.

Little research has been administered regarding the various aspects of Iran’s social history; one of the reasons being probably the scarcity of sources which has encouraged extremely few people to undertake investigation in this area. Although few sources exist on the topic of the social history of Iran, there has been no real hindrance to conducting research, because once proper information about social events has been drawn from political chronicles, supplemented by sources contemporaneously written (such as lexicons, literary and jurisprudential texts and even books on agriculture etc.) as well as travelogues and relevant documents, one can undertake desirable investigations in the domain of social history and its ancillary branches.By taking an analytical perspective toward the historical sources from the Safavid period, the present article intends to examine the rural sociography in these sources.

In 1339 Sh. /1960, a book titled Koliyat-e Shahname-ye Hakim Abulqasem Ferdowsi (Collection of Hakim Abulqasem Ferdowsi’s Book of Kings) in Turkish prose, was published in Tabriz. Despite its Persian title, the book is neither a translation nor a rewriting of the Shahname. In fact, it is a scroll of storytelling (naqqali) of which two stories were compiled or written in Persian, 1039 A.H./1726, and translated into Turkish in 1164 A.H./1751. Evidence indicates that the transference and compilation of a portion of the accounts in this book dates back to the Safavid and Afsharid periods. The narrative contents of this scroll comprise Gayumart up to the Arscacid time with two stories from the Sassanian era. Since the scroll has addressed Alexander’s accounts in relatively extensive detail, it is already the most comprehensive scroll ever known. In the text of this Turkish scroll, certain lexical points and narrative matters can be seen. In the present article, the lexical questions of the scroll are examined and its narratory considerations will be dealt with in a separate study.

In none of the commentaries on the Bustan, there is any reference to the man intended by Sa’di in the following couplet: عزیزی در اقصای تبریز بود که همواره بیدار و شب خیز بود (there was a dear man in Tabriz / who was always wakeful and vigilant)Based on the existing evidence, the author of Rowzat al-Jenan wa Jannat al-Janan, quoting his teacher Badr al-Din Ahmad Lalehei, for the first time declares the person referred to by Sa’di as being Sheikh Abubakr b. Solleh-baf of Tabriz, an unidentified mystic of the late 6th/12 century and beginning of the 7th/13 century, Shams-e Tabrizi’s mentor. Apart from one or two scattered pieces of information, nothing is known about him. The main sources of this small information, are Maqalat-e Shams (Shams’s Discourses) and The Manaqeb al-Arefin (Virtues of the Mystics). Even though Ustad Foroozanfar expresses, in a gloss in his Mawlana’s Biography, that Ferydun Sepahsalar has made a reference to Sheikh Abubakr, no mention of such a person is made in the Resale-ye Sepahsalar.In the present article, the writers have first tracked Sheikh Abubakr Solleh-baf in the sources of that period. Then, by matching Sheikh Abubakr’s mystical states against the contents of the story related in the Bustan, and considering other indications, they have concluded that the person (aziz) referred to by Sa’di is this same Sheikh Abubakr to whom Sa’di apparently paid a visit on his return journey from Mecca to Tabriz.

Since a silver payzeh belonging to Iran’s National Museum was introduced in an article by Abdollah Quchani, no other example has been identified in Iran. Another example of payzeh from the Ilkhanid era, kept at the Museum of the Bonyad-e Mostaz’afan (The Foundation of the Oppressed), bears certain resemblances with and differences from that in the National Museum. Given the fact that in this kind of cases, comparative studies can be effective in the correct reading of inscriptions, manner of making and using the state documents of the Mughal times, in the present study attempts have been made to ascertain the date, make-up, and application of the payzeh in question by reading the inscription on it and making use of relevant texts. Based on the descriptions made by Rashid al-Din Fazlollah Hamadani about payzeh s, this question is addressed that of what significance and value were these documents in the running of the state apparatus at the time. The most important questions in this research are as follows: to what period does the payzeh at the Bonyad-e Mostaz’afan Museum belong? What do the text and designs on it point out? What was its use and status in terms of its importance and value in the government set-up? Finally, can it be utilized in better understanding other payzehs?

Little research has been done on the science of estifa (State Accounting Office). According to historical evidence, Iranian Isma’ilis are among the people who have investigated into this science. In the present review, several scholars of the Islamic times are addressed each having some kind of connection with the Isma’ilis; they have either written books on estifa or been acquainted with the topic.

The Zoroastrian MSS and written heritage are of particular significance in the history of Islamic culture. Due to the scattering of this heritage, lack of a single centre for collecting and preserving it, the specific nature of Zoroastrian texts and unfamiliarity of researches and cataloguers with them, this heritage has not been sufficiently identified and introduced. What has by now been dealt with, including the work done by the hard-working cataloguers at great MS libraries, are often marred by defects and shortcomings.Iran’s Islamic Assembly Library is possessed of an invaluable treasure of Zoroastrian manuscripts in Avestan, Middle Persian and Farsi. The 3 manuscripts of this library (nos.13522, 12604 and 13589) represent examples of insufficient introduction and uninformed repairment in this respect.