The examination of the scribe’s interpolations in the text of the Ciro manuscript of the Shahnameh, dated 741 H./1340 (A case study of a Sufi copyist’s attempt to bring the text of the Shahnameh close to his own beliefs)

In this article -- which represents a search into the history of developments made in the texts of manuscripts -- first, based on the historical sources and another manuscript copied by the scribe of the Shahnameh, dated 741 H. (MS n.6006 at Cairo Dar al-kotob), it is made clear that this scribe is Shams al-Din Kishi’s grandson and hails from a Sufi knowledge- loving family. Then, by comparing this manuscript with two others and conducting a statistical examination of our findings, it becomes evident that the transcriber of the Cairo MS is inclined to manipulate the text of the MS in order to make it approximate his own religious convictions. In particular, he deletes verses that he recognizes as “non-Islamic”.Finally, it is argued that attempts to bring the Shahnameh in conformity with Islam have a long history among the Sufis and, thus, this scribe’s act can perhaps be explained in the context of those attempts.This study can serve as a rudimentary example for similar studies which would demonstrate how the text of Iran’s national epic has been understood during the long history of is being transcribed, read and handed down and what the medieval audience had expected of this work.