مجله متن شناسی ادب فارسی
سال دوازدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 47، پاییز 1399)

The words in the Persian literary texts have been distorted because of various reasons such as multiple duplications, different orthographies, and illegible manuscripts. The works of a writer or a poet and his/her stylistic attributes, Divans (collections) of other poets, in addition to different manuscripts of a work can have effective roles in their corrections. Aghraz Al-Seyasah Fi A'araz Al-Reyasah written by Zahiri Samarghandi is also among books which have been distorted over time. Jaafar Sheảr by using four manuscripts (one in written, and three in pictorial formats) of Aghraz Al-Seyasah, without taking advantage of all of them, has corrected and published the printed version of the book for the first time in 1349 (AH). Negligence in using the written version in the correction and trusteeship towards pictorial versions of Aghraz Al-Seyasah, hastiness in correction and weaknesses in typesetting have yielded some errors in the book. In the present paper, the authors, by studying the available manuscripts of Aghraz Al-Seyasah Fi A'araz Al-Reyasah, particularly the newly-discovered manuscript in the library of Khangah-e Ahmadi (Shiraz) and referring to other works written by Zahiri Samarghandi (including Sandbad nameh and Ghorrat–al-Alfaz) and Divans of the other poets, have tried to analyze and correct some distortions and falsification errors in the published text of Aghraz Al-Seyasah.

In more than a quarter of Farsi Poems of Tarikh-e Baihaqi, there are some discrepancies in the recordings of the verses in the two versions of Fayyaz and Yahaghi–Seyedi. This has caused a significant difference. The present study sought to determine the correct recordings of these verses by analyzing the differences. Tarikh-e Baihaqi is an important work from both historical and literal aspects. This study aimed to validate these two recordings of the verses and to provide a better recording of them. It also intended to create a better understanding of the concepts of Tarikh-e Baihaqi. In order to give more weight to historical elements, Baihaqi used a variety of sources including Persian and Arabic verses, the Holy Quran, hadiths (Prophet Mohammad’s narrated words), proverbs, quotations, and other similar elements. He used a total of 321 lines (verses) of Persian poetry. The aim of the research was to compare the meaning of Persian poems in Tarikh-e Baihaqi in two versions of this book (Fayyaz and Yahaghi–Seyedi) and to find out which of these two versions is better and has more value and validity in terms of meaning.

In the present study, first, the recordings of these 321 poetic lines in the two versions have been examined comparatively and the differences between these two versions in the recordings of Persian poems have been shown. Then, the cases in which the meaning of a verse or a line is not in harmony with the meaning of the same verse or line in the other versions were identified. The research method of this study was descriptive-analytical. The data were analyzed in a completely inductive way using library and indexing methods. Due attention was paid to vocabulary alignment and selection and their placement in co-occurrence and succession. Also, in analyzing differences in the versions in a discursive-rational way due attention was paid to grammar, semantics, and poetical meters. Among the six published versions of Tarikh-e Baihaqi, the present study has compared the two versions of Fayyaz and Yahaghi–Seyedi for reasons of the accuracy of opinion and obtaining more manuscripts in the field of Persian poetry.

Through a comprehensive study of the Persian poems of Tarikh-e Baihaqi, the authors of the present study found that, for various reasons, some of the verses or stanzas of this work have no clear meaning or no meaning at all. The four long kasidas (odes) of Skafi with 249 lines make up more than 77 percent of the Persian poems in this book. All four odes are about the historical events mentioned in Tarikh-e Baihaqi. Therefore, they are very consistent both horizontally and vertically. Paying attention to this important point in correcting the poems of Tarikh-e Baihaqi is one of the means to achieve a definite corrected version. This research has tried to provide the correct meaning of these lines and, consequently the correct form of these verses following rules of syntax and writing, applying aesthetic criteria, consulting dictionaries of ancient vocabulary, and using reliable emended versions of the poems. The version of Tarikh-e Baihaqi published by Fayyaz came out in 1350 AH and that of Yahaghi-Seyedi was published in 1388 AH. Fayyaz used 12 versions, and Yahaghi and Seyedi used 24 versions to correct the text.‌ Of these 24 versions, two manuscripts, C and N, are the oldest ones, which were both available for Fayyaz. Thus, although Yaghaqi and Seyedi had a significant advantage in the collection of manuscripts in terms of quantity, the manuscripts used in terms of antiquity have no advantage over the manuscripts used by Fayyaz.The results showed that in 81 verses (more than one-fourth) of the 321 verses of Persian verses in Tarikh-e Baihaqi, there are differences in the recording and reporting of the verses in these two corrections. This has created a significant difference. The results indicated that out of 321 Persian poems in Tarikh-e Baihaqi, 240 lines in both versions had no discrepancies and problems. However, there were significant differences in 81 lines. The results also showed that in 53 verses (65.43 percent), Fayyaz recorded and reported sounds better; but in 14 verses (17.28 percent), the Yahaghi-Seyedi’s recording seemed to be better. Furthermore, the correct and clear meaning of 4 verses out of 14 verses which were meaningless in both versions of the book has been presented.The result suggested that Fayyaz’s correction is by far better than the correction of Yahaghi-Seyedi. This is despite the fact that nearly 50 years have passed since its publication and Fayyaz had fewer manuscripts and had no access to present-day advanced electronic search engines. Out of 81 controversial lines, 53 corrected lines by Fayyaz were superior and more valid. Of course, this finding does not mean to disqualify the value of the emended version of Yahaghi-Seyedi, because in correcting the other 14 lines, the scales are in favor of this version. The current recording of these 14 lines contained flaws that the editors themselves and other researchers have pointed out to be misleading and dubious. The authors of the article, considering the total number of the versions of both published texts, have provided suggestions for correcting 4 lines. But, 10 lines are still recorded in such a way that they do not lead to the desired meaning. This shows that other corrections of Tarikh-e Baihaqi are likely to become available.

One of the most important topics in literary criticism is research into the correctness and inaccuracy of attributing a work to it's poet or writer. Throughout the history of the literature of various lands and nations, works have been attributed to famous poets and writers for various reasons, including political prejudices and religious Purposes, or similarities in form or theme that either really belonged to other poets and writers or have been works whose authors have been unknown; Attar ē Neyshaburi is one of the poets whose works have been mixed with those of poets of later periods, that have been written in a high degree of weakness in terms of form and structure and poetic language, and also differ from Attar’s definite poems in terms of their content. Undoubtedly various factors, whether intentional or unintentional, played a role in mixing the works of others with the works of Attar. The most famous work attributed mistakenly to Attar ē Neyshaburi is Pandnameh. This poem has about 900 bits, and the oldest Manuscript of it, is dated to 861 A.H.; namely ninth century; just two centuries after Attar's death. The difference between the date of the writing of the first version of Pandnameh since Attar's death, indicates that this poem most likely belongs to the eighth or ninth century and that it's author probably lived in the late eighth or early ninth centuries.

Methods & materials:

In the present study, the attribution of Pandnameh to Attar has been investigated and compared with Attar’s poems in the analytical-inferential way from the point of view of stylistic issues namely structure, language and content. It should be noted that in this review, the printed version of Pandnameh, corrected and annotated by Silvestre de sacy, has been cited.

Pandnameh differs dramatically from the point of view of three stylistic aspects, namely structure, language, and content, with the four definite mystical poems of Attar, Asrarnameh, Elahinameh, Manteqotteyr and Mosibatnameh. For example, besides the boring repetitions and the shortness of volume of the verses, there is no anecdote and allegorical story in the structure of Pandnameh. Whereas one of the most common methods of Attar to express the meaning and contents of his poems to the reader, is the insertion of allegorical stories and narratives. In other words, Attar as a narrator and interpreter tells stories and narrates to teach. The poetic language used in Pandnameh also differs from poetic language used in definite poems of Attar; some of the words and combinations used in the text of Pandnameh are either not used in Attar's poetry or have been used in different forms in his poetry. In terms of syntax and grammar there are also major differences between Pandnameh and Attar's poems; for example, verbs, adjectives, prepositions and other elements used in the verses, and the way of putting the linguistic elements together in verses is contrary with the syntax of Attar’s poems. The content of Pandnameh also differs from the content of Attar's poems; for example, the author of Pandnameh expresses beliefs about love, Health and Silence (in the mystical sense), kings and other topics that are opposed to what Attar thought in his poems.

In this article, by Scientific study and stylistic comparison of Pandnameh with Attar's poems from three aspects of structure, language and content, it is concluded that this poem is not from Attar, because first of all, the form and structure of Pandnameh is significantly different from which is clearly seen in the four definite works of Attar; because While Attar has attempted to convey the content of his mind and thought to the readers in all four of his poems by using narrative expression and allegory, Pandnameh is devoid of this structure and form of expression. A greater percentage of the poetic language used in Pandnameh is different both in terms of words and idioms and in terms of syntax from Attar's poetic language in his poems; a greater percentage of the content of these two groups of works are dramatically different from each other. The dominant thought in Attar's poems is pure mysticism and Sufism; but, not only is the prevailing thought in Pandnameh sometimes just for expressing religious themes far from the pure mysticism, it is more like other books written on the subject of advice that just teaches and expresses general ethics.

Sultan Valad is considered as the elder and pioneer of the Mawlawiyya way who followed his father Mawlana Jaladodin and imitated his father style in creating texture. This way he tried to explain his father thoughts and worldview. Although Sultan was very influenced by his father’s discourse in his works, he has gained some new experiences with practical action, and this has caused the creation of novice ideas on some of the topics of theology, Quran and Hadith and Islamic mysticism. Reflection on Sultan Valad works shows that he has a great tendency to interpret like other elders of Mawlawiyya way. Many of the interpretations seen in Sultan Valad’s works affected by Shams Tabrizi's writings and his father’s works. The authors of this study, which was based on library studies and was done by a descriptive-analytical method, analyzed Sultan Vald's new insight with regard to the interpretation of Quranic revelations in light of the speeches of other Sufi elders, particularly Mawlana and early mystical commentaries. The authors tried to answer this question: what innovations did Vald have in interpreting the Quranic revelations, and to what extent did his attitude differ from that of his predecessors? The result of this research reveals that Sultan Valad considers production of devotees’ poetry as the interpretation and narration of divine words received from words of relation. He believes that the disciples are dominant in all aspects of the Qur'an but all divine secrets cannot be put in tangible words and phrases. In addition, Sultan Valad addresses the appearance and inner meaning of Quran revelations.

One of the new methods of text analysis is critical discourse analysis. In this way, in order to derive the relations of power and ideology from the underlying layers of the text, in addition to paying attention to the phonetic, linguistic, and literary features of the text, factors outside the context, namely situational, cultural, and social contexts are also considered. The purpose of this study was to explore the verbal strategies proposed by Fairclough in Dorraye Nadere, to explain the role of these strategies or discourse patterns in shaping the specific style of the text, and to find the dominant discourse in the book based on the characteristics of critical discourse analysis. This study was conducted by using the content analysis method with an integrated method (both qualitative and quantitative ways). The statistical population of the present study was the full text of Dorraye Nadere book. The sampling method was randomly selected and the sample size was calculated based on Cochran’s formula. The findings of the study indicated that the text of Dorraye Nadere has discursive structures so that power relations can be achieved in the lower layers. An examination of the Dorraye Nadere from the point of view of vocabulary, grammar, and cohesion showed that the characteristics considered in Fairclough’s approach were within the framework of various formal values in this text. At the level of interpretation, the manifestations of temporal texture and the relationship between power and ideology were quite evident in the text ofDorraye Nadere.

Tārīkh-e Jahāngushāy-e Juvayni is a valuable book in the history of the Mongols, the Khwarazmian dynasty, and the Ismailis of Alamut by Ata Malik Juvayni. Because of the detailed historical and social issues of that period, names of many of the kings, ministers and great men of that time have been mentioned in the book and many of them are Turkish and Mongolian. Unfortunately, due to the lack of familiarity with the Turkish language, many of these names have been spelled incorrectly even among scholars of history and literature. They, in many cases, have misunderstood the meaning of those names. Given the importance of correct pronouncing of names in reading the text and understanding their correct meaning, this research is a library and field study based on the dictionary of Turkish words, and the use of logical linguistic reasons such as word root verification, referencing to synonyms, using in other sentences, and interviews with scholars from different Turkish speaking regions with the aim of explaining some names in this book and their relatively correct meanings. For this purpose, twenty-five names in this book that contained mistakes in other descriptions and articles in pronouncing or explaining their meaning and some names containing linguistic points were selected and explained.

There is a valuable manuscript called Ausaaf al-Qolub which is held in Astaan Qods library in Mashhad. The index of the library attributed the manuscript to Ibn Khafif, great Persian Sufi (from Shiraz in 10/4 century). Although Carl Brockelmann mentioned the manuscript in the index of Ibn Khafif’s works, Annemarie Schimmel hesitated in this attribution because in the old biographies about Ibn Khafif has not mentioned the name of the treatise. The article tries to demonstrate that the manuscript is truly written by Ibn Khafif, great Persian Sufi. Three series of reasons help us with discovering the real author of the manuscript, Firstly ‘chain of narrators’ and secondly Content similarity between Ausaaf al-Qolub and Ibn Khafif’s statements quoted in Helyat al-Aulia by Abu Noaim Isfahani( One of the greatest biographer in Sufi history who personally was familiar with Ibn Khafif and took a part in his lessons as his disciple)  and thirdly the similarity between some personal information such as travels to Mekka and Qods mentioned in Ausaaf al-Qolub and the information which is available about Ibn Khafif travels in his biographies. These three series of reasons confidently show the real author of the treatise is Ibn-Khafif and the article suggests that the real name of the treatise is something other than Ausaaf al-Qolub.

The correction of the Shahnameh by Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh, Mahmoud Omid Salar and Abolfazl Khatibi, is one of the most trusted and cited corrections of the Shahnameh. In the previous corrections, there were some drawbacks that Khaleghi Motlagh and his team tried to minimize and resolve it in their work. However, their correction also has some shortcomings that can be addressed and corrected to make a better-edited text of the Shahnameh that can help researchers to have a more trustable source for further studies. Therefore, this question arises: which corrections of verses of the Shahnameh can be suggested by focusing on the exact meaning of some vocabulary and numerous authentic manuscripts? Accordingly, in the present study, regarding the authentic manuscripts and photographic prints of the Shahnameh manuscripts and its provided edits, as well as the reserch presented by the epic scholars in the field of Shahnameh in their books and articles, attempts have been made to suggest the correction and meaning in some of the verses of Rostam and Sohrab story. These suggestions are in accordance with the evidence presented in the Shahnameh including ‘Badandish’ in the meaning of ‘Apprehensive’ or ‘Suspicious’, ‘Khanbidan’ in the meaning of ‘Bend’ and ‘Ahoun’ in the meaning of ‘Tunnel’