TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF PERSIAN LITERATURE (RESEARCHES ON PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE)
Year:2013 | Volume:49 | Issue:2 (18)|Papers Count:7

Mathnavi Ganjineh al-Asrar by Amman Samani is one of the masterpieces of mystical literature in the field of ‘ashuraie literature. This great Mathnavi, consisted of more than 800 verses in the form of hexameter, versifies mystically the events of Karbala. On the other hand, Mathnavi Zobdeh al-Asrar by Safi Alishah Isfahani which has 4500 verses and the same theme and rhythm, has been composed a little earlier than that work. Since Zobdeh al-Asrar was created earlier than Ganjineh al-Asrar and the latter is more valuable and permanent than all the other works of ‘ashuraie mysticism before and after its creation, by comparing the mystical view and thought of these two poets about the same subject, this article tries to prove that Amman Samani has been under the influence of Safi Alishah's Zobdeh al-Asrar in creating his unique work. In representing each ‘ashuraie character he borrowed the general meaning from Safi Alishah and recreated it with a new language and the words which have a sense of elegy. This research also uses the evidence to show that Amman Samani, while narrating each character, cites directly the subject, verses or mystical thoughts present in Zobdeh al-Asrar and uses both form and meaning of Safi Alishah's poems and thoughts.

One of the unknown heroic poems is Zarrin Qaba Nameh versified by an unknown poet probably in Safavid period. This poem has 23533 couplets and its stories happen in the age of Keyxosrow's kingdom and Solomon's prophecy. Zarrin Qaba Nameh has three manuscripts and there are thirty words in them not found in Persian dictionaries and texts or their meanings are special for Zarrin Qaba Nameh. Some of these words exist in some dictionaries without any example. In this article, these words are studied.

Form past to the present, understanding of Hafiz has been the preoccupation of many researchers of Persian language and literature and the issue of “Predestination and Free Will” has a special status in this regard. Many believe that Hafiz is a fatalist whereas a few insist that he is a volitionist and some think that he is both fatalist and volitionist. But which one is true? And is it possible to achieve a definite idea about such matter? This research aims to provide a proper answer to such questions and find out the ground of this statement by Hafiz: “there is neither Predestination nor Free Will, but something in the middle”. For avoiding any presupposition and probable misunderstandings, first, the ideas of forty five Hafiz researchers are explored. Among them, twenty five ones believe in Hafiz's fatalism; fourteen researchers do not reject this idea explicitly and the remainder, however with some differences, think that he is a volitionist.Based on textual implications and following hermeneutic principles, it is tried to figure out Hafiz's ideas just on the basis of the text. Of course, passing through various theosophical ideas which have been ascribed to him and some textual evidence has been proposed for proving them is not an easy task. But, by exact stating of those ideas and textual evidence which opposed them semantically, it is tried to offer a methodological criticism and finally, as stated before, a coherent theory is achieved which collects all textual evidence without being incongruent with the text itself.

Bahar-e Danesh by Enayatollah Kanbuh Lahouri is a work of Persian literature in India and among the mostly-read literary works of which more than three hundred manuscripts and some commentaries and dictionaries are available. There are few books which have this number of manuscripts. There in not yet an authentic textual criticism of this book in Iran. This book has been an example for secretaries and a textbook in schools and for learners of Persian in India which represents the style of story-in-story in Indian story writing. The style of this work is embellished and the writer has been mainly concerned with decorating the words and sentences in it. The primary aim of the writer is decoration of discourse rather than fictionalization. Motifs of the stories are various and a mixture of Persian and Indian stories. This book is among the books of female tricks and it can be investigated sociologically beside similar works in Persian literature. More than such points, it is also one of the texts of folk literature. Compared to other works in this field, the language of this work is more difficult and embellished. This article aims to provide a textual criticism of this significant literary text which has taught Persian language to a large group of Indian fans for many years. Besides introducing the text and its literary and stylistic values, the fictional characteristics and motifs of this text are also introduced.

In fifth century, simultaneous with the flourishing of mystical issues and prevalence of various writings in the field of Islamic mysticism, via his deep understanding of mystical thoughts, Abulqasem Qusheiri created a work which had a high status from the beginning and was translated into Persian shortly after. Ascribed to Abu Ali Othmani, the translation of this work was corrected and published by Forouzanfar for the first time almost fifty years ago. Regarding the preface and annotations of Forouzanfar, this work has many advantages but there are also a number of shortcomings in the text and its annotations and, given time, the need for an authentic text of Risaleh Qushirie translation for teaching in postgraduate courses, necessitates the re-correction of this translation. Recently, a new correction by Mehdi Mohabati has been published which raised a number of questions like: Does this new translation come up to expectations of readers for an authentic text or it still repeats the very shortcomings of the previous correction? This article aims to answer such questions.

Veterinary in Iran has a long history. The writing of zoological books after Islam besides translation of Aristotle's works like Ajza’ al-Heivan and Taba’ al-Heivan, and also using verses and hadiths of the Prophet of Islam and his family (P.B.U.T) in which the relation between man and animals and the rules for preying and sacrificing them are explained, have travelled a long way to the extent that the number of existent veterinary and zoological books is said to be three hundred. Among these, Damiri's Hayat al-Heivan has a privileged status and after him various translations of this book into Persian and Turkish have been done some of which are still unknown and there is no complete correction of any of them. This article aims to explore the abridged versions and translations of Damiri's Hayat al-Heivan into different languages, in general, and into Persian, in particular.

The battle of Rustam and White Div is the last stage among seven stages of Rustam's going to Mazandaran. This article consists of two sections. In the first section or introduction, the problem and questions of research are presented. The second section consists of six subsections. In the first subsection, the plot of this battle is studied and the events influential in the structure of this tale are proposed. Characterization is explored in the second subsection. In this part, primary and secondary characters are introduced completely and their characteristics are stated. In the third subsection, the method of Ferdowsi for describing the events of story is presented. By combining various methods of description like description through actions, direct explanation and description through dialogue, he designs a direct and animate setting for the reader. Point of view is explored in the fourth subsection. Although Ferdowsi leads the characters externally, in some scenes he shifts the view point from omniscient to first and second person. Using this method, he can visualize the events in an animate atmosphere. In the fifth part, the method of imagery used by Ferdowsi is studied and finally the findings and conclusion of this research are proposed in the sixth subsection.