مجله آینه میراث
سال نوزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 68، بهار و تابستان 1400)

The text of the decree assigning library superintendency to Kamal al-Din Behzad was for the first time published by Qazvini and Bouvat in 1914, copied from the MS of the Nāmeh-ye Nāmi kept in the National Library of Paris. The issuance date of the decree was reports to be 928 H./1522 by order of Shah Esma’il I. Since then, the unquestionability of this report, repeated in later researches, has been taken for granted.The purpose of the present study is to determine how many texts of the superintendence decree there exist and, at what times and by whom they have been issued. By examining the process of the publication of the text of the decree and the relation between Shah Esma’il and Khwandmir, and by comparing the dates of the decrees in the Nāmeh-ye Nāmi, this research, utilizing a descriptive-analytical method, attempts to find a reasonable answer for this question. Based of the findings of this study, there is only one decree text in Behzad’s name and that being dated 913 H./ 1507 and issued from the Timurid court.

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.

The Nasāyeh-e Shahrukhi , one of Jalāl Qā’eni’s works, is amongst the texts referred to as Andarz-nāma (literally, Book of Advice [generally known as Mirrors for Princes] ) The author was both a religious scholar (faqih)and a prominent preacher.  Dedicated to the Timurid Shāhrukh, the book, besides some counsel and advice to the king, presents first-hand knowledge about certain religious and social features of the author’s time. The two significant subjects mentioned by Qā’eni, which are addressed in the present study are as follows:  first, problems related to the taxes levied on the people and the injustice and violations committed by tax-collectors under the Timurid rule; and second, the religious investigations of various groups, especially the Ismailis, in the author’s birthplace, that is, Qohistān.

In Attar’s Elahi-naqmeh, there is narrated the story of a young “tarsā” (Christian) who claims to be in love with an idol and sacrifices himself for it. So, in conformity with customs, boiling oil is poured over his head at a temple, and he dies.The redactor- commentator of the Elahi-mameh has counted the word “tarsā” in this story as being a translation of the Arabic “rāhib” (hermit). Besides, he has identified the scene of the story as one of the Buddhist temples.The present article casts doubt on both these claims and tries to demonstrate that, more probably, the root of this story can be found in Buddhists’ customs and stories. During the discussion, remarks will also be made regarding the word “rāhib”.

In one of the old manuscripts of the translation of the Kalila va Dimnah dated 594 H./1198 A.D., there can be seen a quotation from Imam Ali (peace be upon him) and its versified Persian translation. An examination of hadith and literary sources clearly showed that this quotation is a rendition of Imam Ali’s will made to Imam Huseyn and versified by Sayyed Hasan of Ghazna. One of the benefits of this finding is that the commonly known date of the quotation and reference to it is moved back several years earlier. Furthermore, in a book from late 6th or early 7th century H., entitled Munes Namah, and prepared by a man of letters named Abu Bakr b. Khosrow Al-Ostād, in the domain of the Azerbaijan Atābaks, a substantial segment of Sayyed Hasan Ghaznavi’s poem is included. This additionally demonstrates that at a time very close to the days of Sayyed Hasan, his poem was widely known and that certain great literary men of Azerbaijan tried to promote and reproduce it.

The purpose of this research is to expound a book on occult sciences from the Safavid period. In my opinion, this text, which, in the present article, is referred to as “The Limiyā-ye Safavi”, is one of the newly found books authored by Mulla Jalal Monajjem of Yazd, a historiographer and astrologer from the time of Safavid Shah Abbas I, having been confused, in many MSS, with the Asrar-e Qāsemi, the renowned book by Mulla Huseyn Vā’ez-e Kāshefi, a late Timuri scholar.While introducing this book and trying to prove my assertions, I will first present a brief account of scientific and codicological studies of “The Limiyā-ye Safavi”, and then in the main and final part of the article, I will deal with the historical and codicological grounds for ascribing the book to the Safavid era and to Mulla Jalal Monajjem of Yazd.

This article explores the cultural context and social set-up that have led to the emergence of female warriors and demonstrates that the female fighter is an historical phenomenon the origin of which must be assumed as somewhere around the Euro-Asian Steppe.  This historical phenomenon had found its way from earliest times into the culture, art and literature of the Greeks, playing, in subsequent centuries, a role in fictional and mythical narrations of Greek writers and historians.By examining the archeological studies and the stories of the Scythians in Greek sources, the present article attempts to elucidate that the accounts of the female warriors in the Shahnamah are all rooted in the ancient Scythian heroines, where in most cases one can observe motifs and elements of Greek way of narrating.

The Rowzat al-Safā, written by Mohammad b. Khāvandshāh known as Mir Khwānd, is one the most celebrated Persian books on general history, and has been reprinted numerous times. In writing this book, Mir Khwānd has availed himself of many sources, often specifying their names and quoting the exact wording therefrom. One of his sources in writing the section on the pre-Islamic Iran is the Aghrāz al-Siyāsat by Zahiri of Samarqand. Despite quoting from this book quite often, Mir Khwānd, contrary to his usual practice, has made no mention of its name.In this article, by citing the same sentences from both works, the above assertion is substantiated and, in certain cases, the Rowzat al-Safā’ errors are corrected.

Among the Arabic loanwords in the Persian language, there are words that have undergone certain semantic changes taking on new uses. One of such words is mashrooh, specifically and widely used in epistolatory as well as embellished prose writings as a divani [courtly/ governmental administrative] term.Using a descriptive-analytical approach and documenting by examples from Persian prose and poetry sources, this article examines the new meanings of the term mashrooh. The findings of this study indicate that mashrooh has been used in Persian texts in the sense of “gazette”, “document” and “decree” prevalent in the state offices of Estifa (Finance) and ‘Arz (regulatory oversight of the army).These new applications of mashrooh have been overlooked in Persian dictionaries.

Of Kamal al-Din Mohtasham-e Kashani (935-996 H./1529-1588) there have remained seven works designated “Seven Divans”, which have thus far been repeatedly printed in the form of collections of works or anthologies.By comparing these eight editions - regarded as the most important and the most complete printings of Mohtasham’s works - with two of the oldest manuscripts of the poet’s works, this survey tries to rectify the verses incorrectly recorded in many of the editions and offer explanations as to their problems.

Sām, Zāl’s father and Rustam’ s grandfather, is of the most renowned champions in Iran’s heroic texts. Due to Sām’s personality distinguished from Garshāsb’s mythical image, and because he has gradually come to be regarded as Rustam’s grandfather, he has long been counted as one of the most popular champions in Iranian epic literature so much so that numerous stories about his heroic attainments have reached us. Sām-nāmeh (the large) is one of the most famous versified heroic accounts of Sām’s achievements and his courageous spectacular deeds in meeting his beloved Paridokht. Apart from this poem, there are other versified stories of sām’s valiant feats in the West (Maghrib) lands and Mazandaran, which are less known. Contrary to the well-known (large) Sām-nāmeh, the small Sām-nāmeh, of an anonymous writer, appears to be uninfluenced by verbal accounts, but considering the textual indications, its accounts are deep- rooted in ancient stories.In this article, first we introduce this poem, which we call the “Small Sām-nāmeh; then we determine the probable approximate time of its composition, and briefly make references to its contents.