TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF PERSIAN LITERATURE (RESEARCHES ON PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE)
Year:2015 | Volume:51 (NEW VOL. 7) | Issue:3 (27)|Papers Count:7

Nafseh al-Masdoor by Shahabedin Mohammad Zeidari Nasavi is one of the masterpieces of Persian elaborate prose. This book consists of the interior monologues and memoires of a sad writer who describes his self-exile and wanderings during the brutal intrusion of Mongols through an imagist language. The elaborate language of the writer which is full of images casts light on some dimensions of the history of Iran the best. The aim of this study is to investigate the place of imagery and its various dimensions in this work via descriptive-analytic method. Doing so, after a brief introduction on the background of the work and the aims of the study, the main issues of this research are discussed in the three categories of techniques of imagery, the functions of imagery and the kinds of images. The results of this study show that the author has created the images which either reflects his artistic experiences or provokes the sympathy and accompaniment of the addressee through forming special image centers besides dispersed images in the text, strengthening imagery by parts of speech and using linguistic and rhetorical capacities of the prose. These images are mostly formal, positive and congruent with the structure of the work and attitude of the author.

Al-Tadvin fi Zekr-e Ahlol’elm Beqazvin is a valuable and precious book by Imam al-Din Abdulkarim bin Mohammad bin Abdulkarim al-Rafe’ei. Unfortunately, this book has not attracted the attention of scholars and researchers as much as it deserves. The only corrected and printed version of this work has been published by Azizollah Atarodi and is available in the market. For the first time, he corrected and published this book in India’s Heidarabad in 1362. The newest imprint of this book has been published in 1391 by Atarod Publication. In spite of numerous imprints, unfortunately many mistakes such as misreading, omission of words or parts of sentences, writing errors, publishing mistakes, etc can still be seen in this book. On the other hand, the new imprint not only does not decrease the mistakes of previous imprints in many instances but, compared to early imprints, it has more mistakes. By the aid of authentic and available manuscripts of this work, this paper aims to reveal several problems and ambiguities of this text which are only explicable by the aid of its manuscript.

Nafayes al-Kalam va Arayes al-Aqlam treatise is one of the prose works of seventh century which has been written by Razi al-Din Khashaab -Ahmad bin Mahmoud Samarqandi- in 643 (A.H). According to the preface of this letter-like treatise, the author was the head of letter-writers in the very year and, obeying the command of Eftekhar Jahan (one of the leaders of Borhan dynasty), he composed this work in order to prevent the destruction of the remained works of this dynasty. This treatise is a collection of correspondences of Borhan dynasty which confirms the reappointment of their government, at least until this very year.In the text of this work, besides elaborate prose, other kinds of prose can also be identified (as one of the features of prose style in mid-seventh century) which, in general, places this work amongst the “not elaborate not simple” prose texts of this century.While introducing the author of Nafayes, this paper explains the relation between stylistic features of this treatise and the stylistic features of the seventh-century elaborate style, and also shows the place of this work amongst the works of equal grade and proves the historical significance of this book for introducing Borhan dynasty.

Islamic mysticism and Sufism is a fertile tree whose branches have been flourished in the form of valuable writings from the early post-Islamic centuries and they have delighted many people. These great works have constructed the theoretical and practical foundations of mysticism and lit the way of Wayfarers. In spite of paying much attention to the correction and offering of verse and prose mystical works, there are still several works which have not been corrected and published or studied and analyzed as much as they deserve. One of these works is “Latayef Ashrafi fi Bayan-e Tavayef sufi” by a little-known writer named Nezam Qarib Yamani. This book is amongst the books of saints in which the loyal disciples describe the life, states and miracles of their master. As the title of this work shows, it is about the life and miracles of Shiekh Ashrafodin Jahangir Semnani who lit the lamp of guidance in India. This book explores the mystical, religious and ethical basics and principles in sixty anecdotes and in detail. The extent and scope of the issues mentioned in this work are so much that it can be considered amongst the ancient encyclopedias. Some Persian scholars have doubted the authenticity of Ashrafi’s anecdotes but Nazir Ahmad emphasizes the originality of this work and offers some evidence. Focusing on this book and related sources, this paper aims to, first, provide a clear answer about the originality of this work and, then, through a codicological study of this text, offer a comprehensive analysis of it.

Showing the possible connections between Quranic texts and new scientific approaches in the today world is amongst the most important missions of Muslim scholars. This paper follows the same mission and the author studies the tale of Houd (PBUH) in the translation of Tabari’s commentary based on morphological theory of Vladimir Propp. The number of characters and their functions as well as the plot resulted from the sequence of functions in this story have close relationship with Propp’s theory. Regarding fictional movements, a new movement is seen in this story which is absent in Propp’s models and has fundamental differences with them. The theory of Propp originates from the study of Russian folk tales and its application for investigating religious tales is not without problems but since this theory pays attention to the structures not instances, it is very useful for studying religious tales. Finally, the author suggests that Iranian scholars should provide morphological analysis of other Quranic tales till the final structure of Quranic texts is obtained via comparing such analyses.

Jami’s Baharestan enjoys a prominent place amongst the works imitating Sa’di’s Guletan. The presence of prominent discoursal aspects in the narratives of Jami provides the ground for analyzing those narratives in terms of structuralist theories like Todorov’s theory in order to find out whether they have a proper narrative structure or not? And how much do they conform to the ideas of Todorov?Todorov considers three aspects for narratives: semantic, discoursal and syntactic. Due to loose plot and weak structure, most tales of Baharestan are so that other critical approaches cannot be used for analyzing them. However, in terms of discoursal aspect, especially the four elements of aspect, tense, viewpoint and tone can be interpreted via Todorov’s model and theory in this text.

“A Selection of Bidel’s Sonnets” by Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, the Afghan poet and scholar, is a valuable and notable work which shows his good grasp of the thoughts, ideas and poems of Bidel. However, sometimes the narrow view, the misreading of verses, superficial understanding and relying on not-so-acceptable premises make the criticism of this book inevitable. Among the points of criticism in this work are: not paying enough attention to imagery clusters or the network of images in Bidel’s poems, not considering the artistic dimensions of the words, lack of sufficient mastery over the meaning of words and idioms, not paying attention to lexical metalepsis and displacement of parts of speech, referring to non-scientific publications of Bidel’s sonnets, preferring weak and non-artistic variant readings to authentic and reliable ones and other points which necessitate the re-interpretation and reconsidering of several verses in this valuable work. Looking more deeply and precisely at the mentioned points, the authors of this article aim to provide more documented readings of these verses.