Dīwān-i Fānī : Mawsūm bih Ganj Allāh /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405851
9786002030238
Dīwān-i ashʿār-i Fahmī Astarābādī /
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This is a collection of poems, mostly ghazals, by the otherwise little-known 10th/16th century poet Fahmī Astarābādī. All that the available sources tell us about him is that he was talented and intelligent, that (as a young man?) he went to India, that he earned a living in business, and that he died in Delhi. Thanks to the research of the editor of his divan, we now know somewhat more. First, that Fahmī spent a certain time in the entourage of Rustam Rūzafzūn (d. 917/1511), ruler of Mazandaran and that he also wrote poetry in praise of some of the other members of that family; that he lived in Yazd for two years and lost his fortune there, returning broke to Mazandaran; that he travelled to Najaf, Mecca and Mashhad; and that he was in India when Sultan Bābur died in 937/1530. Alive in 948/1541, is not known when or where he passed away.
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Poems. :
1 online resource. :
9789004405608
9789648700930
Dīwān-i Hātif-i Iṣfahānī /
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Persian poetry of the pre-modern era is divided into three successive styles, each belonging to a different period: Khurāsānī, ʿIrāqī and Hindī. The Hindī style is called such because in Safavid times, during which it developed, poets no longer enjoyed the shah's patronage so that many of them went to India, where Persian poetry had flourished since Ghaznavid times (11th-12th century CE). The Hindī style is often regarded as a lesser style, but has the merit of having put a halt to the decline that Persian poetry was suffering from at the time and also, by its accessible language and subject matter, of having brought poetry within reach of the ordinary man. The poetry of Hātif Iṣfahānī (d. 1198/1783) published here was written in the latter half of the 12th/18th century, at the beginning of the neo-classical period of return ( bāzgasht ) to the poetical styles of the pre-Safavid era.
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1 online resource. :
9789004407244
9786002031167
Rubāʿiyyāt-i Ḥakīm Khayyām /
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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.
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Includes facsimile text originally published in Istanbul, 1953. :
1 online resource. :
9789004404885
9789648700374
Mathnawi-yi Haft awrang. Volume 1 : Silsilat al-dhahab, Salmān wa-Absāl, Tuḥfat al-aḥrār wa-suḥbat al-abrār /
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Regarded by many as the last great mystical poet of medieval Persia, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492) spent the greater part of his life in Herat. As a student, he excelled in every subject he engaged in and appeared destined for an academic career. But then, in his early thirties, he went through a spiritual crisis that ended in him joining the Herat branch of the mystical Naqshbandiyya order, led by the charismatic Saʿd al-Dīn Kāshgharī (d. 860/1456). A protégé of three successive Timurid rulers in Herat, Jāmī's wide network of friendships and relations extended from spiritual and literary circles through the political to the academic. With 39.000 lines of verse and over 30 prose works to his name, Jāmī's literary production is quite overwhelming. Highly imaginative in their treatment of the human condition, Jāmī's seven long mathnawī s contained in the present two-volume edition bear witness to his great artistic talents and wide intellectual horizon. 2 vols; volume 1.
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Poems.
Vol. 2 edited by: Aʻlākhān Afṣaḥʹzād and Ḥusayn Aḥmad Tarbiyat. :
1 online resource. :
9789004402423
9789646781030
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 /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405042
9789648700657
Mathnawi-yi Haft awrang. Volume 2 : Yūsuf wa-Sulaykhā, Laylā wa-Majnūn, wa-Khiradnāma-yi Iskandar /
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Regarded by many as the last great mystical poet of medieval Persia, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492) spent the greater part of his life in Herat. As a student, he excelled in every subject he engaged in and appeared destined for an academic career. But then, in his early thirties, he went through a spiritual crisis that ended in him joining the Herat branch of the mystical Naqshbandiyya order, led by the charismatic Saʿd al-Dīn Kāshgharī (d. 860/1456). A protégé of three successive Timurid rulers in Herat, Jāmī's wide network of friendships and relations extended from spiritual and literary circles through the political to the academic. With 39.000 lines of verse and over 30 prose works to his name, Jāmī's literary production is quite overwhelming. Highly imaginative in their treatment of the human condition, Jāmī's seven long mathnawī s contained in the present two-volume edition bear witness to his great artistic talents and wide intellectual horizon. 2 vols; volume 2.
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Poems.
Vol. 2 edited by: Aʻlākhān Afṣaḥʹzād and Ḥusayn Aḥmad Tarbiyat. :
1 online resource. :
9789004402447
9789646781054
Tarwīḥ al-arwāḥ fī tahdhīb al-Ṣiḥāḥ : Muʿjam muhadhdhab al-Ṣiḥāḥ u al-Mujallad al-awwal wal-thānī /
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The history of Arabic lexicography is long and extremely varied. But no matter what dictionary one is looking at, it is always organized in a certain way and always has a certain level of detail. Thus, some of the early dictionaries centered around one or more particular themes, such as insects or weapons. Other dictionaries - the majority - brought together any word material, irrespective of subject or theme. Some dictionaries offered a lot of material in explanation of some term while others offered less. Abū Naṣr al-Jawharī's (d. 393/1003) famous Tāj al-lugha wa-ṣiḥāḥ al-ʿArabiyya is an example of an early dictionary which offered a lot of detailed explanations. The earliest abbreviation of it and indeed the earliest abbreviation of any medieval Arabic dictionary, was the work by Shihāb al-Dīn Zanjānī (d. 656/1258) contained in this volume. Long believed to have been lost, it is published here for the very first time.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405660
9786002030054
Āthār-i Fatḥallāh Khān-i Shaybānī. Volume 2 : Jild-i duvum Zubat al-āthār, Maqālāt-i Shaybānī, Fawākih al-siḥr /
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Fatḥallāh Khān Shaybānī (d. 1308/1891) was a major poet of the Qajar era who belonged to the so-called 'return' movement, which wanted to break free from the Sabk-i Hindī or 'Indian style' in poetry, that was popular in Iran since Safavid times. Shaybānī was born in a suburb of Kashan around 1241/1825. Having completed his education there and thanks to his father's connections, he became a companion of the future Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh Qājār (r. 1264-1313/1848-96). However, due to courtly intrigues he was soon expelled, an expulsion which would last a full 35 years before relations were restored. In that period he served in various official capacities, lastly as the governor of Mashhad. Between assigments, he lived in the countryside near Natanz for around 25 years. Shaybānī's work, here published in full, is characterized by an aversion of undue embellishments, his choice of subjects, his criticism of politics and society, and his concrete suggestions for change. 2 vols; volume 2.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406391
9786002030887
Dastūr al-kātib fī taʿyīn al-marātib. Volume 1 /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004407329
9786002031273
Maḥakk-i Khusrawī /
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When the founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran, Āqā Muḥammad Khān Qājār (r. 1789-97), conquered the capital of Georgia Tiflis in 1795, two infant sons of the defeated king Heraclius II were captured. Of these, the eldest died on the way. The other, Khusraw Khān, the later Mīrzā Khusraw Bayg Gurjī (d. 1277/1860), was taken back to Tehran by the commander of the Persian forces, Ḥājjī Ibrāhīm, who treated him as if he were his own child, calling him Mīrzā. When Ḥājjī Ibrāhīm was executed in 1803 on the orders of Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1249/1834), Mīrzā Khusraw first lived with a family in Shiraz and then, in 1805, he was adopted by the childless Talpur ruler of Sind, Mīr Karam ʿAlī Khān (r. 1227-44/1812-28). It is there at the court in Hyderabad that he developed into a refined man of letters and where he compiled this poetical anthology, then only 27 years old.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405776
9786002030146
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 6, Qāf-Mīm /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405554
9789648700855
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 2, Bāʾ-Khāʾ /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The present work by Taqī al-Dīn Awḥadī (alive in 1042/1632-33) is a good example of this. Born in Isfahan in 973/1565, as a young man his poetical talent was commended by, among others, the poet ʿUrfī Shīrāzī (d. 999/1591). After some time in the entourage of Shāh ʿAbbās I and a six-year stay in Iraq, he left Persia to try his luck at one of the courts in India. The present work, completed in 1024/1615, was written for a high official at the court of Jahāngīr. It contains about 3500 entries on Persian poets from the earliest times until his own day.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405226
9789648700817
Mathnāwi-yi Shīrīn u Farhād /
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In the history of Persian literature, one finds quite a number of works by famous authors which later served as a model for similar works by other writers. By way of example one could mention Firdawsī's (d. 411/1020) Shāh-nāma and Niẓāmī's (d. 608/1209) Iskandar-nāma , Saʿdī's (d. 691/1291-92) Gulistān and Jāmī's (d. 898/1492) Bahāristān , or Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār's (d. 618/1221) Manṭiq al-ṭayr and Mīr ʿAlī Shīr Navāʾī's (d. 906/1501) Lisān al-ṭayr . In the case of the mathnawī contained in the present volume, it was Niẓāmī's Khusraw u Shīrīn which served as the model for Shīrīn u Farhād , a romantic epos by the otherwise unknown 9th/15th-century poet Salīmī Jarūnī. A native of Hormuz (formerly Jarūn), he dedicated his poem in 880/1475 to the local sultan of his days, Salgharshāh. Its language is unpretentious and the native ambiance is sometimes palpable. Its heros are pure of heart, and a mystical thread runs throughout the poem.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402805
9789646781634
Taḥsīn wa taqbīḥ-i Thaʿālibī /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404786
9789648700220
Dīwān-i Qāʾimiyyāt /
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Ḥasan Maḥmūd Kātib (d. after 640/1243) was an Ismaili poet. Born near Qazvīn, he was alive when Imam Ḥasan of Alamūt (d. 561/1166) proclaimed his doctrine of qiyāmat or spiritual 'resurrection' in 559/1164. He was a secretary of the governor of the fortress of Gird Kūh, Shihāb al-Dīn, whom he later followed to Quhistān. Around 630/1232 he was in Alamūt, preparing a copy of the diwan whose surviving fragments are published here, to be offered to the Imam of the Ismailis at the time, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 653/1255). Ḥasan Maḥmūd was well-versed in the intellectual and spiritual universe of Nizārī Ismailism as recorded, inter alia, in Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's (d. 672/1274) Rawḍa-yi taslīm , Sayr wa sulūk , and Āghāz wa anjām . The present diwan contains the most complete contemporary catalogue of the terminology used in expressing Nizārī Ismaili doctrine, surpassing even the works of Ṭūsī, Nāṣir Khusraw (d. after 462/1070) and Nizārī Quhistānī (d. 720/1320)
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1 online resource. :
9789004405929
9786002030283
Sharḥ-i Naẓm al-durr : Sharḥ-i qaṣīda-yi tāʾiyya-yi kubrā-yi Ibn-i Fāriḍ /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404632
9789646781962
Sullam al-samawāt /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404939
9789648700305
Mathnawi-yi maʿnawī. Volume 3 : mujallad-i sivum daftar-i panjum u shishum /
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The founder of the Mawlawiyya order of dervishes, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273) is the most celebrated and widely quoted mystical poet of the Persianate world. Born in Balkh in 604/1207, he was still a child when his father, a preacher, emigrated westwards with his family, moving to Malaṭya, Sivas, Akshehir, Larende and, finally, Konya. It was in Konya that Rūmī, who had also received a regular education, met the people who would give his life a decisive turn towards mysticism: first, his father's former pupil Sayyid Burhān al-Dīn Muḥaqqiq (d. 637/1239-40) and then, most of all, the celebrated mystic Shams al-Dīn Tabrīzī (d. 645/1247). Rūmī's Mathnawi-yi maʿnawī is a didactic poem inspired by his favourite student Ḥusām al-Dīn Čelebi (d. 683/1284). Composed in six fascicles ( daftar ), it took several years to complete. The edition printed here is an enhanced version of the one by Nicholson, with Nicholson's introductory essays and notes translated into Persian. 4 vols; volume 3.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406339
9786002030818
Rāhnamā-yi dastnivishthā-yi Mānavi-yi Tūrfān (ravish shināsi-yi vīrāyish va bāz sāzī) /
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After its foundation by Mani in the third century CE, Manicheism spread quickly from Iran through the ancient world, from North Africa to Europe and from Central Asia to China. Mani wrote seven works, six in Syriac and one in Middle Persian. The spread of Manicheism led to the emergence of Manichean writings in a number of other languages, and also of texts in criticism or description of this religion by non-Manichean authors in some of these same languages, among them Greek, Latin, Coptic, Arabic, Soghdian, and Chinese. From among the archeological findings involving Manichean texts, one of the most exciting ones was the discovery, in the early nineteen hundreds, of many Manichean fragments in Turfan, in Xinjiang province, China. These are in Middle Persian, Parthian, Soghdian and Manichean New Persian, besides material in Uygur, Bactrian and Kuchean. The present work is a Persian manual for the interpretation, reconstruction and edition of these Turfan texts.
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1 online resource. :
9789004408074
9786002031372