Editing Some Verses of Rashid-al-din Vatvat’s Divan

Saʿid Nafisi’s critical edition of Rashid-al-din Vatvat’s Divan is up-to-date and the only available edition of the poet’s Divan. It is also the only edition presented to academic assemblies. This book was published by Barani library in Tehran in 1960. This edition despite many advantages especially in terms of gathering almost all the poems attributed to Rashid-al-din Vatvat, contains plenty of errors and flaws and some inserted poems from other contemporary or subsequent poets to Rashid-al-din Vatvat. Some scholars have already pointed out some of these errors and deficiencies in their published research papers. These scholars have also stressed the need for a new critical edition of this precious heritage from 12th century AH based on newly-found sources and the poet’s style of poetry. This paper also highlights fourteen important errors in Sa’id Nafisi’s edition of Rashid-al-din Vatvat’s Divan based on eleven old manuscripts and handwritten anthologies from previous centuries. This study not only can collaborate and contribute to enriching studies related to Rashid-al-din Vatvat and Persian literary manuscript analysis, critical edition studies, and textual analysis but also can help scholars and researchers of Persian language and literature to solve other complexities in other Persian literary texts.