Rustam nāma : Dāstān-i manẓūm-i Musalmān shudan-i Rustam bih dast-i Imām ʿAlī ('alayhi al-salām) bih inḍimām-i Muʿjiz-nāma-yi Mawlā-yi muttaqiyān /
:
In his Meccan days Muḥammad's message was rejected by many as a threat to the values and interests of the community. Among his opponents, there was a merchant called Naḍr b. Ḥārith. From his visits to the city of Ḥīra in Mesopotamia, a cultural melting-pot of Iranian, Christian, and pagan Arab beliefs and traditions, he had brought back stories from Iranian folklore, especially about Rustam and Isfandyār, with which he tried to attract the attention of those listening to Muḥammad's speeches, away from the latter's revolutionary message. This explains why the religious elite of the Persianate world rejected Iranian epic folklore as contrary to the message of Shīʿī Islam, Rustam in particular being viewed as incompatibele with the person of Imam ʿAlī. But folklore being difficult to eradicate, Rustam was often depicted as a Muslim convert and enemy-turned-friend of ʿAlī, like in this poem from Safavid times. A miracle story involving ʿAlī accompanies it.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405042
9789648700657
Māhtāb-i Shām-i Sharq : Guzāra wa guzīna-yi andisha shinasī-yi Iqbāl /
:
A lawyer by profession and an Urdu and Persian poet by vocation, Muḥammad Iqbāl (1877-1938) is the spiritual father of Pakistan. Born in Sialkot, he received his pre-college education in his hometown, after which he went to study in Lahore. In 1905, after several years of teaching (Arabic, English and philosophy) in Lahore, he travelled to Cambridge to study philosophy and law. Two years later, he went to Heidelberg, where he received his PhD in 1907 with a thesis entitled The Development of Metaphysics in Persia . He then returned to Lahore, working as a lawyer for most of his life. From around 1910 onwards, Iqbāl's poetry and prose works show an increased commitment to the cause of Islam and its political and societal ramifications, culminating in his idea of an Islamic state in northern India, the future Pakistan. The articles published in this volume all highlight different aspects of Iqbāl's life, work, and thought.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404755
9789648700145
Al-Riḥla al-Makkiyya : Tārīkh-i siyāsī u ijtimāʿi-yi Mushaʿshaʿiyān /
:
In Islam, messianic beliefs are typically associated with the doctrines of the Shīʿa. The idea of the Manifestation of the Hidden Imam at the appointed time has always been part of their beliefs, then and now. Besides mainstream Shīʿa movements such as Twelver Shīʿism, Zaydism, or Ismailism, there have also been marginal and extremist groups around charismatic leaders claiming a messianic role. One of these is Sayyid Muḥammad b. Falāḥ (d. 861/1456-7), founder of the Mushaʿshaʿ movement among the Shīʿī Arab tribes of Khūzistān, western Iran. Fighting or arranging themselves temporarily with their neighbors, notably the Safavids and the Ottomans, the Mushaʿshaʿ dynasty continued to exist in different forms and shapes well into the nineteenth century. The present work is a nineteenth-century Persian translation of a history of the Mushaʿshaʿ dynasty in Arabic by the governor of Ḥuwayza and descendant of Ibn Falāḥ, ʿAlī Khān Mushaʿshaʿī (alive in 1128/1716). Based on written and oral sources.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004408111
9786002031310
Dīwān-i Ghiyāth al-Dīn-i Kujujī /
:
Born into an influential family from Kujuj near Tabriz, Khwājah Ghiyāth al-Dīn Shaykh Muḥammad Kujujānī was a relative of the well-known mystic Muḥammad b. Ṣiddīq Kujujī (d. 677/1278). Better known as Khwāja Shaykh, Kujujānī held the office of Shaykh al-Islām of Tabriz under the Jalāyirid rulers Shaykh Uways (d. 776/1374) and his son Ḥusayn. Like his forebear, Khwāja Shaykh had Sufi leanings and possessed a flourishing khānqāh (Sufi convent) in Tabriz. In 783/1382, Shaykh Ḥusayn was killed by his brother Aḥmad (d. 813/1410). Under Aḥmad, Khwāja Shaykh was still a man of importance, at ease among governors and heads of state, which is clear from his involvement in Aḥmad's negotiations with some of his enemies. However, fearing Khwāja Shaykh's influence as a spiritual leader, Aḥmad had him murdered in 787/1385 or 788/1386. Popular in Azerbaijan and Iraq in his lifetime, Khwāja Shaykh's poetry is published here for the first time. Contains material in Fahlawī (Azeri)
:
1 online resource. :
9789004407251
9786002031174
Sharḥ-i Naẓm al-durr : Sharḥ-i qaṣīda-yi tāʾiyya-yi kubrā-yi Ibn-i Fāriḍ /
:
Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/1235) is arguably the greatest mystical poet in the history of Arabic literature. Born in Cairo and a student of Shāfiʿī law and ḥadīth in his younger years, he turned to mysticism, living a solitary existence on Cairo's Muqaṭṭam hills, in the desert, and in the Hijaz. After his return to Cairo, people worshipped him as a saint, and even today admirers still visit his tomb. Ibn Turka Iṣfahānī (d. 835/1432) stemmed from a well-educated family in Isfahan. A survivor of Tīmūr Lang's (d. 807/1405) massacre of the population of Isfahan in 789/1387, he first studied the Islamic sciences with his elder brother in Samarqand, after which he went on a study tour which took him to such great scholars as Shams al-Dīn Fanārī (d. 834/1451) and Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī (d. 805/1403). A specialist of mysticism in its relation to philosophy and Islam, this is his commentary on Ibn al-Fāriḍ's al-Tāʾiyya al-kubrā.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404632
9789646781962
Sullam al-samawāt /
:
In the Persianate world, encyclopaedias have a long history. Arabic works by Persian authors aside (like Ibn Farīghūn's Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm , 4th/10th century), the earliest encyclopaedia in Persian is Avicenna's (d. 428/1037) philosophical Dānishnāma-yi ʿAlāʾī . Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī's (d. 606/1210) Jāmiʿ al-'ulūm on the other hand, is an encyclopaedia on everything there was to know at the time. Philosophical encyclopaedias would usually divide into logic, physics and metaphysics, more general encyclopaedias into the pre-Islamic and Islamic sciences, also called the rational ( ʿaqlī ) and traditional ( naqlī ) sciences, even if a strict separation was not always maintained. In addition, there were also specialized encyclopaedias like Ibn Ḥusayn Jurjānī's medical Dhākhira-yi Khwārazmshāhī (early 6th/12th century). The content of encyclopaedias often being dependent on the author's interests and intellectual horizon, no universal format exists. The present work by Abū Qāsim Kāzarūnī (fl. early 11th/17th century) is an example of a very personal encyclopaedia, treating of religion, philosophy, and literature.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404939
9789648700305
Rubāʿiyyāt-i Ḥakīm Khayyām /
:
The rubāʿī or quatrain is a short Persian poem in a special metre with a rhyme suitable to its form. Its use is not bound to any specific field, there being philosophical, satirical, romantic, lyrical and other types of quatrain. In the past, it was believed that the rubāʿī was a special form of the hazaj metre of Arabic poetry. Meanwhile, it has been established that it is in fact Iranian, its origin being the pre-Islamic tarānah or song for feasting and wine. In the West the quatrain was rendered immortal through the work of ʿUmar al-Khayyām (d. ca. 517/1123). A native of Nishapur, he was a respected mathematician and astronomer, as well as a recognized expert in poetry. Many of the quatrains ascribed to him are, however, spurious. This volume contains a reprint of Yār Aḥmad Rashīdī's selection (dated 867/1460), first published in 1953, followed by two other works in Persian, also by Khayyām.
:
Includes facsimile text originally published in Istanbul, 1953. :
1 online resource. :
9789004404885
9789648700374
Dīwān-i Ishrāq /
:
In early Islamic philosophy, poetry was regarded as a means to transmit the eternal truths of philosophy to the masses and to move them to virtuous conduct by the use of poetical syllogisms. We find this theory for the first time in the works of Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī (d. 339/950). In another application, poetry was used as a didactic tool in the philosophical curriculum, like Avicenna's (d. 428/1037) Urjūza fi ʼl-manṭiq or, much later, Mullā Hādī Sabzavārī's (d. 1289/1873) Manẓūma on logic and philosophy. Finally, there are the many poems which, while philosophical in spirit, were not written to be learned by heart by others but rather from personal motives. Here we can mention some of the Persian poetry ascribed to Avicenna or the philosophical poetry of Nāṣir Khusraw (d. 481/1088). The poems in this collection by Mīr Dāmād (d. 1040/1631), a prominent member of the Isfahan School in philosophy, belong to this latter category.
:
Poems :
1 online resource. :
9789004404762
9789648700190
Taḥsīn wa taqbīḥ-i Thaʿālibī /
:
Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1038) was a very productive writer in Arabic philology and belles lettres and a promotor of the Arabic language in the eastern lands of the Islamic word. Born in Nishapur, it was there that he began his career, forging bonds of friendship with influential literati and various men of state. From there he travelled to the courts of different rulers in some of the major cities in Transoxania and Khurāsān, finally to return to Nishapur where he spent the last years of his life. A compiler and literary critic more than an author in his own right, al-Thaʿālibī's literary anthologies have done much for the preservation of early Arabic literature-mostly poetry-otherwise lost. As explained by the editor, the present work is not a Persian rendering of his Taḥsīn al-qabīḥ wa-taqbīḥ al-ḥasan , but probably done from an Arabic original that was similar to two of Thaʿālibī's other compilatory works.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404786
9789648700220
Dastūr al-kātib fī taʿyīn al-marātib. Volume 2 /
:
From the time that the art of writing was invented, people have been sending letters. This is true of the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets 5.000 years ago, as it is true today in the information age. But not every letter is the same: a letter to a lover, a friend, or a business relation, each requires a different tone. In the case of official correspondence, the need for a standard is even more pressing than in industry or trade. In the medieval Islamic world with its highly developed bureaucracies, there evolved a special type of textbook in the form of manuals for secretaries. These would include general information on the secreterial trade as well as collections of sample letters. This Persian manual by Shams Munshī was completed in 767/1366 and dedicated to Sultan Uways Jalāyirī of Tabriz (d. 776/1374). Wide in scope and well organized, it was superior to anything written before it. 2 vols; volume 2.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004407350
9786002031280
Dastūr al-kātib fī taʿyīn al-marātib. Volume 1 /
:
From the time that the art of writing was invented, people have been sending letters. This is true of the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets 5.000 years ago, as it is true today in the information age. But not every letter is the same: a letter to a lover, a friend, or a business relation, each requires a different tone. In the case of official correspondence, the need for a standard is even more pressing than in industry or trade. In the medieval Islamic world with its highly developed bureaucracies, there evolved a special type of textbook in the form of manuals for secretaries. These would include general information on the secreterial trade as well as collections of sample letters. This Persian manual by Shams Munshī was completed in 767/1366 and dedicated to Sultan Uways Jalāyirī of Tabriz (d. 776/1374). Wide in scope and well organized, it was superior to anything written before it. 2 vols; volume 1.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004407329
9786002031273
Rubāʿiyyāt-i Muʾmin Yazdī : bih hamrāh chand ghazal u qiṭʿa /
:
Muʾmin Ḥusayn Yazdī (d. 1018/1609) was an Islamic scholar and a poet. Born in Yazd around 948/1541, his father was librarian to the governor of Yazd at the time, Shāh Niʿmatallāh Bāqī (d. 994/1586 or 996/1588). Ever since his childhood, Muʾmin was eager to learn. Thanks to his father he could go to Shiraz in search of higher education. There he followed the lectures of, among others, Mullā Bāghnawī (d. 995/1587), the famous academic and author of a whole series of glosses and super-commentaries on works in philosophy, theology, and logic. Muʾmin became a respected scholar and even resided in Mekka for a time, besides visiting the holy cities of Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad. As a specialist of quatrains Muʾmin can be compared to authors like ʿUmar Khayyām (d. ca 517/1123) or Bābā Afḍal Kāshānī (d.667/1268-69). In the latter part of his life Muʾmin went through a mental crisis, choosing a life of isolation.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004406513
9786002030979
Dīwān-i Fānī : Mawsūm bih Ganj Allāh /
:
Born in Khūy (Azerbaidjan), Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥasan Zunūzī Khūʾī (1172-1225/1758-1810) was a traditional Islamic scholar and man of letters who signed his poems as 'Fānī'. He received his basic education in Zunūz, Tabriz and Khūy, leaving for the holy cites of the Shīʿa in Iraq at the age of 23. There he attended the classes of, among others, Āqā Muḥammad Bāqir Bihbihānī (d. 1205/1790) and Mīrzā Muḥammad Mahdī Shahristānī (d. 1215-16/1800-01). He then returned to Khūy where he spent the rest of his life, save for a two-year 'sabbatical' in Mashhad. In Khūy Fānī was a protégé of the local ruler, Aḥmad Khān Dunbul (d. 1200/1785) and his son Ḥusayn Qulīkhān Dunbul (d. 1213/1799). He is the author of a number of works, among them the encyclopaedic Baḥr al-ʿulūm (Persian) and the spiritual Wasīlat al-najāh (Persian). The Persian poems published here are mostly mystical in tone, often inserting terms or concepts taken from astronomy.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405851
9786002030238