Correction of the Word “عاطار” in One of the Ekhavniyat of Montajaboddin Badi’-e Joveini

The book Atabat-ol-Kataba includes a set of epistolary compositions and correspondence of the era of Sultan Sanjar Saljuqhi written by Montajiboddin Badi’-e Joveini. The book has been edited and published upon the attempts made by Abbas Eghbal Ashtiani and Mohammad Ghazvini in 1950. Due to difficulties of comparative correction and the fact that there has been only one single manuscript of the work in question, certain words have been recorded erroneously in this book. One of these incorrect words is the expression “عاطار” for which both the editors/correctors and commentators of Atabat-ol-Kataba have made mistakes or have declared that the word in question bears no meanings, as they have relied on the edition published by Ghazvini-Eghbal. In essence, there is no such word in Persian or Arabic literatures. Such a meaningless expression has been a distorted form of the initial word of the Arabic proverb “مما طار به عنقاء مغرب” which has paved its way into the text of Atabat-ol-Kataba.