Sayyed Hasan of Ghazne's qasideh in Sana i's Divan

The attribution of a poem (qasideh, ghazal, and …) to two or several poets is fairly widespread in the history of Persian literature. In order to ascertain the accuracy or inaccuracy of such attribution, our scholars have usually applied certain techniques that are based on their own personal taste, having devised in this respect no practical and acceptable guidelines. Nowadays, the expansion of stylistic and linguistic sciences provides us with cognitive means with the help of which old texts can be satisfactorily assessed and the true author be identified. One of the qasidehs attributed to two contemporary poets and fellowcitizens is the one appearing both in Sana’i’s and Sayyed Hasan of Ghazne’s Divans. In the present article, by identifying and introducing the causes of such confusion and erroneous attribution, the qaside in question has been examined from a codicological and stylistic perspective, and its ascription to Sayyed Hasan has bee shown. In the end, by presenting a new version of the qasideh, its errors in the poet’s printed Divan have been demonstrated.