Architectural Concepts and Terms in Sadr-ed-Din ʿEyni’s Yād-dāsht-hā

The scope of the Iranian culture and language influence, and consequently the written sources of the Iranian architecture and art history is by far more expanded than its present political borders. The written sources for research on the history of the Iranian culture is also widespread throughout the said cultural realm. Yād-dāsht-hā (the Notes) by Sadr-ed-Din ʿEyni (1878-1954), from Bokhārā (Bukhara) are among those sources published in the middle of the twentieth century. In his notes, he has recorded social and political circumstances of his time. Thus, his notes compiled in the shape of a book is a rich source of live and documented explanations on every detail of people’s daily life in Bokhārā at that time. ʿEyni’s trustworthiness to quote sources and his criticism of dignitaries contemporary with him are among noticeable features of his book. ʿEyni’s descriptions of buildings and use of architectural words and terms have also turned his notes into a valuable source for an art researcher because either many of them could not be found in a glossary or dictionary or some of them have got a new different meaning or usage. ʿEyni has used these words and terms not for the purpose of preserving or recording them, but because of their prevailing usage among native speakers of his time. Although the language of people of Bokhārā has been exposed to changes, in many Persian literary texts, especially the works of distinguished literary figures of Great Khorāsān, there are many examples for most of these lexicons.