Mirror of Heritage
Year:2020 | Volume:17 | Issue:65|Papers Count:12

Naqsh-e hajar is the most important existing document left of the Deed of Endowment of the Shahcheraq Mausoleum. The document was issued in the month of Ramadan 947 H. / January 1541 by Amir Mohebb al-Din Mirza Habibollah b. Mortaza Sharifi, the great grandfather of the house of Sharifi Hosseini, its original version having been once carved on a stone and set on the northern entrance of the Shahcheraq tomb. The Endowment Deed provides useful information regarding the endowments of the Shrine. Besides, it presents noteworthy notes about the architectural developments of this religious building from the Safavid time. This Endowment document has been used as a point of reference up until the contemporary era in disputations respecting the endowment issues and the custodianship of the Shahcheraq Mausoleum. The stone bearing the Endowment Deed has perished but copies of the document are available. These very copies form the basis of the redaction and presentation of the amended text of the Endowment Deed set forth in the present article. Further, by making use of certain evidences and credible sources, the contents of the Endowment Deed are examined, and the features of the official listings and records related to the document are revealed as much as possible.

Fakhr al-Din Ahmad At’ ema of Shiraz (d. 850 H. /1446), one of the imitators of Bushā q-e At’ ema, by using names of foods and drinks and kitchen terminology, have composed poetry in the manner of Bushaq’ s parodies. Due to the similarity of name and literary style, these two poets were until recently taken as one and the same poet, this leading to a whole variety of arguments. With respect to a newfound manuscript of Ahmad At’ ema’ s poetry (at the National Library, N. 38894) our findings presented in this article leave no doubt whatsoever that there existed two poets in the 9th century Shiraz. This manuscript contains over 400 distiches of Ahmad At’ ema in which some important information can be obtained regarding the life story and poetry of several of Ahmad At’ ema’ s contemporaries and the persons he eulogized; information not referred to in other sources. The newly discovered MS also includes the introduction to Ahmad’ s Divan, written by Mohammad Qā ri, Za’ farā ni. The text of this introduction will be presented at the end of this article.

The manuscript N. 209 at the Topkapi Sarai Library, Istanbul, (scribed in 455 H. /1063) is a copy of the Haddadi Commentary and one of the few Persian manuscripts in which words are diacritically transcribed. Since there are generally no rhythmic restrictions in prose texts, the pronunciations of lexical items therein are commonly more precise and well-founded than those in poetry books. Previously, Ali Safari Aq Qaleh and Neda Heidarpour Najafabadi (Tafsir-e Surabadi, 1396 S. ); Ali Ashraf Sadeqi (Al-Abniya, 1389 S. ); and particularly, Jalal Matini (Hedayat al-Mota’ allemin, 1344 S., Tafsiri bar oshri… , 1352 S. Ekhtiarat-e manzum, 1353 S. ), have reported pronunciations and phonetic features in such books. The present article sets forth a list of nearly forty rare recorded pronunciations in the Topkapi MS, which differ from their recorded forms in dictionaries; thus, they have to receive proper attention.

One of the interesting topics in studying the life-story of Rustam, son of Zā l, is his multi-marriages in Iran or in foreign lands. An important account regarding his marriage is his matrimonial relation with a girl from a royal Kianid house, briefly mentioned in certain historical sources. Of this marriage, two separate versions have been reported in Iran’ s epic literature. One is the story of Rustam marrying Kay Qubā d’ s sister extensively depicted in some of the narrational scrolls of the Shahnameh. The other version, receiving little attention, is the hero’ s marriage with Kā vus’ s sister. The latter account has been versified by an anonymous poet in an unspecified period and scribed in one of the manuscripts of the Shahnameh. In the present article, we first recount the versified report of how the marriage of Rustam with Kay Kā vus’ s sister took place, and then we examine it.

Mazamir-e Davud (Tehillim) has an outstanding place in the spiritual life of those with sacred books and is known in the Muslim world as Zaboor. What has attracted public attention during the recent years are the Arabic translations of this book the beginning parts of which are a rendering of Tehillim, but the ensuing portion (especially from the third Psalm on) constitutes a composed-concocted text with an approach of homily and sermon nature. These texts are technically referred to as Pseudo-Psalms. The present article examines one of these texts (scribed in 706 H. /1307) kept at Namazi Library in Khoi. In its preface, it is claimed that this translation was undertaken by order of Ma’ mun and endorsed by Imam Reza (Peace be upon him). This article looks at the manner of reading the Psalms by a 7th/13th-century Muslim, in four stages, 1. How the Khoi manuscript compares in contents with the original Psalms (Tehillim); 2. The traces of the contents of the Khoi MS in the old Islamic sources; 3. The echoing of some of the moral-social difficulties of the society at the time of the writing of this manuscript; 4. Kalā mi-theological discourses reflected in the Khoi MS.

The Ā stan-e Qods-e Razavi (organization in charge of Imam Reza’ z Mausoleum) is one of the world’ s greatest waqf establishments. The foundation of this administration-endowment body is grounded on its enormously extensive documents, especially waqfi texts: unique documents through which the decisive role of the Organization in Iran’ s historical, economic, political and cultural changes during the past centuries is revealed. These documents dating especially from the Safavid, Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar periods, comprise original vaqfnā mehs (deeds of endowments) as well as their copies, settlement contracts, transactions contracts, eqrarnā mehs (confession letters), leasing letters, lists of raf’ va bakhsh (annual revenues and expenditures), pages of accounting books etc. Considering the extensivity of available information in these documents, especially linguistic data, the rereading and surveying of this invaluable legacy is of immense necessity. In this article, being the first of its kind on the documents mentioned above, the dialectal and technical terms used in them, but not to be found in Persian dictionaries, have been revisited.

The theory of Hudoos-e dahri (atemporal generation) is chiefly identified with Mir Damā d and recognized as his most essential philosophical innovation. By pointing out the failure of former philosophers in demonstrative explanation of the question of the creation of the world, Mir Damā d has regarded the terminology and contents of the theory of Hudoos-e dahri as his own innovation and the greatest fruit of the Yamani philosophy. Nonetheless, accepting the attribution to Jalal al-Din Davani of the Noor al-hedayah, and based on this very text, Mohammad Esma’ il Khwajuei has adapted Davā ni’ s perspective to the theory of Hudoos-e dahri, thus implicitly deciding that this theory has been adopted from Davā ni’ s works.

Akhlā q-e-Nā seri (Naserian Ethics) written by Naṣ ī r al-Dī n Ṭ ū sī (1201-1274 AD(, on Ethics, consists of three parts or Maqā lat, in this order: Tahzib-e-akhlā q (Refinement of character), Tadbir-e-manzel (Economics), and Siā ysat-e-modon (Politics). In the first part or discourse, Ṭ ū sī has primarily translated into Persian the topics dealt with in Miskawayh’ s (932-1030 AD) Tahdib al-akhlā q. However, it is not that he wanted to exactly repeat those topics in their original arrangement with no alterations. Rather, wherever he has found it necessary, Ṭ ū sī has added to Miskawayh’ s text items towards imparting and clarifying certain problems. In the present article, those added items are recounted and explained in some detail. The result of our research indicates that, in the first part, Ṭ ū sī has expounded his observations squarely based on Miskawayh’ s philosophical method staying in the framework in which the latter has defined his book.

Seraj al-Din Balkhi, is a 12th-century poet about whom some scattered inform! ation can be found in biographical sources. His name and a number of his verses appear in several anthologies (safinas). Forty-one unprinted couplets of his have been found in three poetry collections of common descent in Sulaymaniyah Library (Collection of Yahya Towfiq madrasa), N. 449/1741 (dated 754 H. / 1353 CE); Ganjbakhash Library, N. 14456; and the former Senate Library, N. 534. The poet has probably been mentioned in the Arafā t al-Asheqin under two names: Mo’ in al-Din Serā ji-e Balkhi and Serā j al-Din Alā Balkhi, and his poems have been mixed with those of Sayyed Seraj al-Din Khorasani. The present article addresses the poet’ s forty-one newly found verses appearing in the three-common-descent Safinas mentioned above.

The Kush Empire was one of the most effectual civilizations that was created in the southern region of Ancient Egypt in the first millennium BCE. Kush was a title applied to the rulers of the kingdom called Nubia. With respect to the studies conducted on the Nubian Empire, the present article addresses this hypothesis that the story of the battles of the Kush-e peel-dandā n in the West is a remnant of the memory of the Kush kings, echoed in the Kushnā meh. The indications supporting this hypothesis are as follows: likeness of the name of the hero in the Kushnā meh and the title of the Kushian kings; the mention of Nubia in the Kushnā meh and the existence of the Kushian Empire in the ancient Nubia; the significance of camel (feel) in the Kushian Empire and Kush being with camel’ s teeth, and so on. Through a comparative study of the contents of the Kushnā meh and the political and cultural setup of the Kushian Empire, some other issues are dealt with, including the hypotheses as to the Mazandaran’ s deevs (devils), the snakes grown on Zahhak’ s shoulders, the connection of the hero of the Kushnā meh with Kush b. Hā m, b. Nooh, and the preferred pronunciation of “ Kush” over “ Gush” .

Mir Mohammad Amin Shahrestani of Esfahan, with the nom de plume Ruh-al-Amin and known as Mir Jomleh is one of the 11th /17th-century poets. His poetic compositions consist of a Divan of ghazals (called Golestā n-e Nā z) and lyric collections in imitation of Nezami of Ganje. In early youth, like many of his contemporary poets, he travelled to India where he attained the position of premiership. After a few years, he went back to his hometown, Esfahan, and later again he set out for the Subcontinent where he lived until he died. Some of the sources that have recorded his life story and poetry have made mistakes regarding the poet’ s patrons eulogized by him, and his works. This article intends to point out these mistakes according to the evidences present in the poet’ s own poetry as well as what the credible historians have reported. It demonstrates, for example, that Mir Mohammad Amin failed to finish his Khamseh (quintuplet) managing to compose only four of them. The article also shows that the Javā hernā meh is not a separate composition of his.

The "Al-Kefā yah fi al-Fiqh" is a Persian text on Shā fi'i fiqh (jurisprudence), written by Hoseyn b. Mas'ud Farra’ Baghawi (d. 516 AH), a prominent jurist and commentator of the sixth century AH. In organizing the book into chapters and arranging its various topics, Baghavi has been inspired by similar Arabic texts. Apart from its interesting scholarly aspects, this work is also noteworthy for its inclusion of thousands of rare Persian simple as well as compound words. The author's inclination to use rare and old words and making use of beautiful Persian equivalents for jurisprudential terms, the use of charming and pleasant collocations, lucidity of expression, clarity of words and phrases, the authenticity and solidity of contents, are among the notable features of this book. Thanks to Baghavi's high academic standing and his jurisprudential precision, and due to the old prose style of the book, it has a special place among Persian speakers, especially Shā fi'is. This article is intended to study the stylistic features of the Al-Kifā yah from three viewpoints: linguistic, literary, and content wise.