The Establishment of a Special Form of Orezanevisis in the Safavid Era

Ghavam Mohammad Shirazi was an administrator of religious and judicial affairs in the Safavid era. After several years writing, examining, and verifying the deeds, and in response to the needs of society and the demand of his relatives, he wrote a book called Resaleh Dastour (Shorout), meaning rule book (conditions). This work talks briefly about a special type of sejel (recorded manuscript) called “Oreza Neveshtan”, common among the judges and nayebs (procurators) of Shiraz. The concise work mentions nothing about the way of writing it. This study aimed to explore the writing of this special type of sejel on sharia decrees (deeds). This was done using a descriptive analytical method and relying on documents published in the form of books and articles and archival sources. In the meanwhile, Shirazi narrating style was validated. The results indicated that by “Oreza Neveshtan” they mean graphically using the words “Oreza… Alayya” (it was offered… to me) in the recorded manuscripts of the highest-rank Safavid officials in Isfahan and not the judges of Shiraz. This way of recording indicates the difference of authority of Sheikh al-Islam and Nayib al-Sadr from other Islamic jurists in Isfahan in the Safavid era.