ʿAlī-nāma : Manẓūma-ī kuhan /
:
Until the discovery of the Persian ʿAlī-nāma , Ibn Ḥusām's Khawarān-nāma (completed in 830/1427) was believed to be the oldest Persian epic poem involving the often wondrous exploits of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the beginnings of Shīʿism. The Khawarān-nāma takes its inspiration from Firdawsī's Shāh-nāma (completed in 400/1010), but then adapted to fit the Shīʿī theme, with ʿAlī and his companions often taking the place of Rustam and other heroes. With this edition of the ʿAlī-nāma we now have access to a much older poem on this subject. Composed by someone using the alias of Rabīʿ, it was completed in 482/1089 in Khurāsān, most probably in or near the town of Sabzawār, just seventy years after the completion of Firdawsī's Shāh-nāma . The text is important because long before others, it acknowledges the heroes of the Shāh-nāma , some of whom were actually written into the script.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405134
9786002030016
Ashraf al-tawārīkh : Waqāyiʿ-i marbūṭ bih dawra-yi ḥukūmat-i Muḥammad Walī Mīrzā dar Khurāsān /
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When the Qajar ruler Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1834) acceded to the throne in Tehran in 1797, he was confronted with many challenges. On the one side, foreign powers like England, France and Russia sought to increase their influence in Persia while internally his authority was disputed in different parts of the empire. A major concern was Khurāsān, where he had various challengers. Desirous to increase his presence there, he put his 15-year old son Muḥammad Walī Mīrzā (d. 1864) in charge of Khurasān in 1803. Over the next 14 years, Walī Mīrzā did much to assert Qajar control over Khurāsān, something in which he was for the most part succesful. The present work is an account of Walī Mīrzā's rule in Khurāsān. Written by Muḥammad Taqī Nūrī, vizier and intimate of the court, it constitutes a rare and detailed source of information on people and events in Khurāsān in that period.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404953
9789648700510
Universal Science : An Introduction to Islamic Metaphysics.
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The Universal Science ( ʿIlm-i kullī ) by Mahdī Ḥāʾirī Yazdī , is a concise, but authoritative, outline of the fundamental discussions in Islamic metaphysics. For many years used as a textbook in Iran, this short text offers English readers a readily accessible, lucid, and yet deeply learned, guide through the Sadrian, Avicennan, and Illuminationist schools of thought, whilst also demonstrating how the 'living tradition' of Shīʿī philosophy engages with central ontological, epistemological, aetiological, and psychological questions. Discussions include the primacy of existence; the proper classifications of quiddity; and the manifold properties of causality and causal explanation. This is the first of the various influential works authored by this leading Shīʿah intellectual to have been translated into English from the original Persian.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004343115 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i mubārak-i Ghāzānī, Nuskha badalhā, taʿlīqāt u ḥawāshī. Volume 3 /
:
Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī's (d. 718/1319) Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh has been described by many as the first world history ever. Composed in Persian for the Mongol Il-khans Ghāzān (r. 1295-1304) and Öljeitü (Uljāytu, r. 1304-16), its aim was to set out the history and condition of the Mongol people, conquerors of the world (part one), followed by a description of the other peoples and nations of the world and their histories (part two). Given its unprecedented scope, Rashīd, vizier to both rulers, mobilized a whole team of specialists, informants, and collaborators to assist him in his task. Making use of written and oral sources, the part on the Mongols is a key source on the emergence and organisation of the Mongol empire, while the second part constitutes the first attempt ever at writing a history of the world. The four volumes published here contain the history of the Mongols up until Ghāzān. Section: Mongols; 4 vols; volume. 3.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404403
9786002031105
Tadhkira-yi Muqīm-i khānī : Sayr-i tārīkhī, farhangī u ijtimāʿi-yi Mā warāʾ al-nahr dar ʿahd-i Shībāniyān u Ashtarkhāniyān /
:
Throughout history, the lands of Central Asia have seen empires come and go. A case in point is Transoxania, a region roughly situated between the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers. After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, Transoxania became part of the Chagatai khanate, following which it was first ruled by the Timurids and then by the Shibanids and the Janids (Ashtarkhanids) as the khanate of Bukhara. At the beginning of the 18th century, Janid power over the khanate of Bukhara had declined to the point that a local leader called Muḥammad Muqīm Bahādur Khān (d. 1119/1707) declared himself independent in Balkh in 1114/1702. His reign was short-lived and he was summarily executed in 1119/1707. The present volume describes the history of the Shibanids, the Janids and the coming-to-power of Muqīm Bahādur Khān until the year 1116/1704. Its author, Bahādur's secretary Muḥammad Munshī, intended to write a sequel, which has, however, never been found.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402294
9789646781498
Kitāb shināsi-yi āthār-i Fārsi-yi chāp shuda dar shibh-i qāra (Hind, Pākistān, Banglādish), 1160-1387/1195-1428/1781-2007. Volume 2 /
:
Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century marked the beginning of a new era in the transmission of knowledge, the spread of ideologies, and the administration of peoples. Even if the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr (d. 1627), when presented with a printed copy of the Gospels, expressed his interest in exploring the possibilities for the printing of texts in nastaʿlīq in movable type, it would take another two hunderd years before the people of the Indian subcontinent started printing themselves. In the 1820's, when Indians began using western printing techniques to reproduce texts in local languages, they preferred lithographs over movable type. The former required less technology, were typographically superior, and also closer to the traditional reading experience. Movable type came only later. The printing of Persian texts had its heyday between the 1820's and 1850's. The present inventory shows the immense richness of two centuries of Persian printing on the Indian subcontinent. 4 vols; volume 2.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406063
9786002030429
Kitāb al-mulakhkhaṣ fi ʼl-lugha maʿa ʼl-wafāʾ bi-tarjamat mā fi ʼl-Qurʾān /
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A trusted and much-used means to navigate between words and languages, the dictionary has a long history. The oldest bilingual dictionary is a Sumerian-Eblaite lexicon of more than 4000 years ago. The earliest monolingual dictionary is preserved in fragments from a Chinese lexicon from around 800 BCE. As for Arabic-Persian dictionaries, of which the facsimile published here is a valuable specimen, these made their first appearance in the 4th/10th century, at the time of the first translations of the Qurʾān and its commentaries and the increase of scientific texts in Arabic eligible for translation into New Persian. The present dictionary was copied in 684/1286, but is certainly older than that. It is a general lexicon which has been alphabetically arranged. At the end there is an appendix with an overview of the terminology of various practical fields that leaves a very modern impression (days of the week, basic arithmetic etc.). Historical and philological introducton, indices.
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1 online resource. :
9789004407237
9786002031150
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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004407350
9786002031280
Burzū-nāma : Bakhsh-i kuhan /
:
Firdawsī's (d. 411/1020) Shāh-nāma , this famous epic poem in celebration of the history of the kings and dynasties of Persia, was not written in a void. Indeed, before him there had been other epic works in Persian, more or less similar to it, by authors otherwise unknown, and now lost: by Masʿūdī Marwazī (before 355/966), by Abu ʼl-Muʾayyad Balkhī (before 352/963), by Abū ʿAlī Balkhī (before 390/1000), and the Shāh-nāma-yi Abū Manṣūrī (346/947). It has been said that Firdawsī may have taken some of his inspiration from this latter work. After Firdawsī, others wrote similar works, in imitation of him: Asadī Ṭūsī's Garshāsp-nāma (completed in 458/1066) and Īrānshāh b. Abi ʼl-Khayr's Bahman-nāma (501/1107-08) are just two examples of this. The present work by Shams al-Dīn Kawsaj (8th/14th century) is another epic poem in Firdawsī's style. The add-on found in some manuscripts, by a later author of lesser talent, is not included here.
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Poetry. :
1 online resource. :
9789004405028
9789648700626
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Banī Isrāʾīl /
:
Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī's (d. 718/1319) Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh has been described by many as the first world history ever. Composed in Persian for the Mongol Il-khans Ghāzān (r. 1295-1304) and Öljeitü (Uljāytu, r. 1304-16), its aim was to set out the history and condition of the Mongol people, conquerors of the world (part one), followed by a description of the other peoples and nations of the world and their histories (part two). Given its unprecedented scope, Rashīd, vizier to both rulers, mobilized a whole team of specialists, informants, and collaborators to assist him in his task. Making use of written and oral sources, the part on the Mongols is a key source on the emergence and organisation of the Mongol empire, while the second part constitutes the first attempt ever at writing a history of the world. The section published here describes the history of the Jews.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404182
9789648700336
Majmūʿa-yi Rashīdiyya : Shāmil-i Kitābhā-yi Tawḍīḥāt-i Rashīdī, Miftāḥ al-tafāsīr, Sulṭāniyya, Laṭāʾif al-ḥaqāʾiq /
:
Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (d. 718/1319) came from a Jewish family in Hamadan. His grandfather had been a courtier of Hūlāgū Khān (r. 1256-65) while his father was a court pharmacist. Rashīd al-Dīn converted to Islam when he was about 30 years old. Trained as a physician, he started his career under the Il-khanid Abāqā Khān (r. 1265-82), rising to the rank of vizier under Ghāzān (r. 1295-1304), Öljeitü (r. 1304-16) and Abū Saʿīd Bahādur Khān (r. 1316-35), who had him executed in 718/1319. Rashīd al-Dīn was also an historian and as such he is best known for his monumental Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh , the earliest attempt at writing a world history and a major source of information on the emergence and organisation of the Mongol empire. The four treatises published here show another side of Rashīd al-Dīn's talents as a scholar and are mostly about Qurʾān interpretation, prophethood, revelation, miracles, kingship, and notions around virtue and salvation.
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"Nuskhahʹbargardān-i nuskhah-ʾi khaṭṭī-i shumārah-i 2235, Kitābkhānah-ʾi Kakh-i Gulistān, Kitābat 706 H."
" Facsimile copy of the manuscript no. 2235, Gulistan Palace Library, copied in 706 A.H"--Added title page. :
1 online resource. :
9789004406193
9786002030627
Sharḥ-i Thamra-yi Baṭlamyūs : Dar aḥkām-i nujūm /
:
Claudius Ptolemy (d. ca 170 CE) was a Graeco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer who lived and worked in Alexandria. His Tetrabiblos ('Four Books', Lat. Quadripartitum ), in which he sets out the principles and practice of astrology, became a highly influential work that was also taught at the cream of European universities, well into Renaissance times. In the Islamic world, there existed an Arabic summary of this work, entitled Kitāb al-thamara ('Harvest', Lat. Liber Fructus ), erroneously ascribed to Ptolemy himself. Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274) was an influential philosopher, theologian, mathematician and astronomer, besides being the first director of the famous observatory at Marāghah near Tabriz. Author of more than 50 scholarly works, the present volume contains his Persian commentary on the Kitāb al-thamara in which he also made use of two earlier commentaries in Arabic, one by Aḥmad b. Yūsuf al-Miṣrī (4th/10th cent.) and the other by Abu ʼl-ʿAbbās al-Iṣfahānī (4th/10th cent.)
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1 online resource. :
9789004402638
9789646781221
Majmūʿa-yi āthār-i Imāmiyah : Muntakhabātī az ʿUyūn-i akhbār-i Riḍā, Amāli-yi Shaykh-i Ṣaddūq, Ṣaḥīfat al-Riḍā /
:
At first glance, the collection of traditions, notes and drafts published here is just like so many other personal documents from the library of the average medieval Muslim scholar. But on closer inspection, this codex dated 580/1185 is quite interesting. The manuscript is in two different hands, one part being by a certain Abū Naʿīm al-Naʿīmi al-Bayhaqī, and the other part by the equally unknown Abu ʼl-Ḥasan al-Bayāḍī. As is evident from two study certificates ( ijāza ) contained in this manuscript, Abu ʼl-Ḥasan was a student of Abū Naʿīm. Abū Naʿīm was a native of Bayhaq and Abu ʼl-Ḥasan of Rayy. The manuscript contains mainly excerpts from Ibn Bābawayh's (d. 381/991) Amālī and ʿUyūn akhbār al-Riḍā and traditions which Abū Naʿīm himself had collected in Khurāsān. As such it contains the oldest known fragments from the Amālī , besides being a rare witness of the early Imami teaching tradition in Khurāsān, more specifically in Bayhaq and Nishapur.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406483
9786002030948
Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt al-lawḥiyya wal-ʿarshiyya. Volume 1 : al-Mantiq /
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Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) is arguably the most influential thinker in post-Avicennan (d. 428/1037) philosophy. He is best known as the originator of the Philosophy of Illumination, a mixture of Hellenistic, old-Iranian, and mystico-Islamic elements, further developed and transformed in the Transcendental Philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640). Suhrawardī wrote four major works on the Philosophy of Illunination: al-Talwīḥāt al-lawḥiyya wal-ʿarshiyya , al-Muqāwamāt, al-Mashāriʿ wal-muṭāraḥāt , and the Ḥikmat al-ishrāq . This was also the order in which these works had to be studied. The Talwīḥāt being an introductory course on the Philosophy of Illumination, it is not surprising that three commentaries on it were written, by ʿAllāma Ḥillī (d. 726/1326), Shams al-Dīn al-Shahrazūri (d. 687/1288), and Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284), whose commentary is published here. Ibn Kammūna was a thinker of Jewish origin who by his own declaration was self-taught in philosophy. He wrote several other important philosophical works, among them his commentary of Avicenna's Ishārāt . Volume 1, Logic.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405066
9789648700688
Dīwān-i Imāmī Hirawī /
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Abdallāh Imāmī Hirawī was born Herat where he grew up and received his education. Besides being a poet he possessed a wide knowledge in the sciences of his time and was respected for his learning. Like so many intellectuals and literary figures of his day, Imāmī led an itinerant life, moving from court to court, from patron to patron. Leaving Herat before 627/1229-30, we find him praise the Qarākhitāy rulers of Kirman, religious dignitaries and members of the Atabak court of Yazd, and also Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 678/1279), the governor of Isfahan, ʿIrāq-i ʿAjam and Yazd. In between literary patrons, Imāmī was also a judge in his hometown of Herat, dying in Isfahan in 686/1287. Praised by the poet laureate of the Atabak rulers of Fārs, Majd al-Dīn Hamgar (d. 686/1287), as being even better than Saʿdī (d. 691/1292), Imāmī's work shows the influence of the Khurāsānī and ʿIrāqī traditions in Persian poetry.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406520
9786002030993
Dīwān-i Ishrāq /
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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.
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Poems :
1 online resource. :
9789004404762
9789648700190
ʿAhd-nāma-yi Mālik Ashtar : Tarjuma-yi Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Badāyiʿ nigār-i Tihrānī /
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The Nahj al-balāgha is a collection of sermons, letters, testimonials, and wise sayings attributed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), the Prophet's son-in-law, successor, and first imam of the Shīʿa. The collection was compiled by al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1088), a distinguished ʿAlid member of Baghdad's ruling elite. The Nahj al-balāgha is widely considered a work of extraordinary literary quality, besides being an invaluable source of information on the person, opinions, and virtues of ʿAlī. ʿAlī's letter to al-Malik al-Ashtar al-Nakhʿī, in which he describes the ethical and executive mindset with which he wants him to assume the administration of Egypt, is generally regarded as a text of exceptional appeal. It is therefore no wonder that it was translated into Persian many times. The present translation by the man of letters and chronicler of the court Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Badāyiʿ-nigār (d. 1299/1882) was completed in 1273/1857 and dedicated to Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh Qājār (r. 1264-1313/1848-96)
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1 online resource. :
9789004406261
9786002030726
Al-Mashīkhah (Kanz al-sālikīn) : Ganjīna-yi khuṭūṭ va yādgār nāma-yi mashāhīr-i ʿilmi-yi Īrān az sāl-i 845 tā 1022 HQ /
:
In the history of Islam and the Islamic world, the authentication of knowledge has always been important. Thus, the Prophetic traditions are typically introduced by chains of transmission going back from the speaker, all the way to a direct witness of the Prophet's sayings or deeds. And in scholarship, too, the ijāza or licence attesting to someone's proficiency in some subject written by an established teacher was very important as well, comparable to a modern certificate or diploma. Against this background, the booklet published here is rather unique. This is because it contains study certificates and samples of the handwriting of various scholars and religious authorities, issued to five generations of scholars from one and the same family from Yazd, starting with Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥammūʾī Yazdī (d. 885/1480) and ending with Sālik al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥammūʾī Yazdī (duwwum) (d. after 1022/1613). Most of the texts are in Arabic, while the poetry is mostly in Persian.
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1 online resource. :
9789004407275
9786002031204
Fihrist-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭi-yi Fārsi-yi Pākistān (Fihrist-i 8000 nuskha-yi khaṭṭi-yi kitābkhānahā-yi shakhṣī va dawlatī). Volume 3 : Adabiyyāt etc. /
:
This catalogue of Persian manuscripts in Pakistan was compiled by the well-known specialist of Islamic manuscripts ʿĀrif Nawshāhī (1955). It can be seen as a sequel to Aḥmad Munzawī's (d. 2015) 14-volume Fihrist-i mushtarak-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭi-yi Fārsi-yi Pākistān (1983-1997), besides Nawshāhī's own catalogues of the Persian manuscripts in the National Archives of Pakistan and the Punjab University Library in Lahore. The catalogue published here contains information on around 8000 manuscripts in 335 collections in Pakistan, mostly in non-government and private libraries, madrasas, and monasteries. In view of the threat of decay of manuscripts in private collections due to poor storage conditions and a declining interest in the Persian language, this catalogue is both a witness and a wake-up call. In this work, Nawshāhī relies on his own research, on notes by others, until then forgotten in the archives of the Iran-Pakistan Institute of Persian Studies in Islamabad, and also on different kinds of published sources. 4 vols; volume 3.
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1 online resource. :
9789004408210
9786002031440
Dīwān-i Munjīk Tirmidhī : Ashʿār-i parākanda /
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Abu ʼl-Ḥasan Munjīk Tirmidhī was a Persian poet of the second half of 4th/10th century. Not much is known about his personal life, just that he sang the praise of some of the members of the ruling Muḥtājid dynasty of Chaghāniyān in Transoxania, a region just north of his hometown of Tirmidh. He was a contemporary of other poets at the Muḥtājid court, such as Daqīqī (d. ca. 365/976) and Farrukhī (d. before 432/1041). Tirmidhī is especially known for his panegyrics and his satire. In Nāṣir Khusraw's (d. 481/1088) Safar-nāma it is stated that Tirmidhī's divan was extant. Today his divan is lost. What verses we have were gleaned from biographical dictionaries, poetical anthologies and works on eloquence. The present edition contains a listing of everything found in such sources, supplemented by additional information taken from modern authors. The collection contains 410 verses, 50 of which were hirtherto unknown.
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[Collection of poems by Monjeek Termazi, who was a court poet for the Choghani kings.]
In Persian.
Romanized title from cover, page 4. :
1 online resource. :
9789004406100
9786002030405