Recognizing " Nameh Nami", an Unknown Work by Khandmir

Epistolary or letter-writing is one of the important genres of prose literature which reached new glory in Safavid time and numerous works have been written about this. Amongst these، Nameh Nami by Khandmir is of much significance، though it has been discussed less than other epistolary texts. This work is a collection of letters and correspondences gathered from previous official and court letters and correspondences by Khandmir as an instruction of letter-writing for secretaries. He has written these letters during the years 925-926 (A. H) while he was 46 or 47 and resided in Hirat. This book consists of a preface and nine chapters each of which consists of some sections named as “Satr” or “Lafz”. This work is one of the historical texts of Timurid and early Safavid times and، in addition to literary aspect، is significant historically. The prose of this work is not uniform; it has a plain and simple prose in describing historical evens whereas in the preface of the work، the opening section of letters and eulogy of princes and senior figures all poetic and literary delicacies have been used and a beautiful example of rhythmic epistolary prose of Persian language has been created.