Al-Yamīnī : Fī akhbār dawlat al-malik Yamīn al-Dawla Abi ʼl-Qāsim Maḥmūd b. Nāṣir al-Dawla Abī Manṣūr Sabuktakīn /
:
uḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿUtbī (d. 428/1037 or 431/1040) was a native of Rayy who, through family connections, had entered the administration of the Sāmānids in Nishapur, attaining the rank of postmaster there. After several intermediary engagements he entered the service of the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty Abū Manṣūr Sebüktigin (d. 387/997) and then, of his son Maḥmūd of Ghazna (d. 421/1030). From the time that al-ʿUtbī was sent as an envoy to Gharchistān in around 390/1000, there is a gap in his career until he offered his famous history of the Ghaznavids presented here to Maḥmūd-also called Yamīn al-Dawla-in around 410-11/1020. Since he was rewarded with a postmastership in the relatively insignificant town of Ganj Rustāq-which he soon lost to intrigue-he must have written this Arabic work mainly as a means to securing a job. Early dynastic history, ornate style, invaluable source of information on the early Ghaznavids.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404984
9789648700329
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 2, Bāʾ-Khāʾ /
:
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.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405226
9789648700817
ʿAhd-nāma-yi Mālik Ashtar : Tarjuma-yi Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Badāyiʿ nigār-i Tihrānī /
:
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)
:
1 online resource. :
9789004406261
9786002030726
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Sāmāniyān u Buwayhiyān u Ghaznawiyān /
:
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 Samanids, the Buyids and the Ghaznavids.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404199
9789648700398
Tārīkh-i Rashīdī /
:
In the history of Islam, royal courts and other centers of wordly power played a major role in the survival and development of the sciences and the arts. And many rulers and high ranking officials themselves, too, often engaged in one or several of these. By way of example one may, for the Persianate world, mention Sultan Bayqārā (d. 911/1506), the Timurid ruler of Herat, and Ẓahīr al-Dīn Bābur (d. 937/1530), founder of the Mughal empire in India. Another example is the author of the present work, Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥaydar Dūghlāt (d. 957/1551). Coming from a family of Chagatai generals and high administrators, he served a whole series of rulers in various parts of east Asia, mostly as a general and lastly as the ruler of Kashmir. Though wider in scope, the Tārīkh-i Rashīdī is above all a unique source of information on Chagatai history, full of personal reflexions on religion, culture, and the arts.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404083
9789646781870
Tuḥfat al-fatā fī tafsīr sūrat Hal atā /
:
One of the challenges that the Qurʾān poses to its readers is the apparent contradictions that it contains. In order for these contradictions to be removed, Muslim scholars developed a doctrine according to which one verse could be abrogated by another. Abrogation being linked to temporality, the question whether a verse was revealed in Mecca or Medina became a major point of discussion. Ghiyāth al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 949/1542) was one of the major representatives of the School of Shiraz in philosophy and a specialist in Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophy, as well as mysticism. The present volume contains a new edition of his commentary on Sūrat al-Insān (no. 76), which is one of the suras on whose time of revelation much had already been written. In this seminal and innovative work, emphasis is given to a mystico-philosophical reading of the text, an appoach that would reach its zenith in the work of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640)
:
1 online resource. :
9789004403017
9789646781740
Fihrist-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭi-yi Fārsī u ʿArabi-yi Kitābkhāna-yi Firdawsī, Kālij Wādhām (Wadham), Dānishgāh-i Āksfūrd (majmūʿa-yi Mīnāsiyān) /
:
In the western world, oriental manuscript collections are now mostly kept at universities, institutes and in national or regional libraries. Yet many of these collections were jumpstarted with the acquisition or donation of some private collection. An example is the oriental collection at Leiden University Library, which started with a legacy of around 60 oriental manuscripts by J.J. Scaliger in 1609. In fact, private collectors have always enriched library collections until this very day. The shelf marks of the oriental manuscripts in almost every major collection in the western world bear testimony to this. Dr Caro Minasian (d. 1973) was an Iranian physician and a passionate collector of oriental manuscripts. In 1968 he sold the greater part of his collection to UCLA (1507 items). In 1972 he bequeathed the remainder (959 titles) to the Ferdowsi library of Wadham College, University of Oxford. This Persian catalogue contains the first detailed description of the entire Minasian collection.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004406704
9786002031136
Kalimāt-i qiṣār-i Imām ʿAlī : Du majmūʿa: 1. Miʾat kalima - Nathr al-laʾālī, 2. Tarjuma-yi manẓūm-i Nathr al-laʾālī /
:
Being the first imam of the Shīʿa, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's (d. 40/661) statements-in any form-have always been important. In the centuries following his death, there appeared several collections of aphorisms, speeches, sermons, rulings and letters, all ascribed to him. The significance of these works was not just informative or even literary; they also had a didactic side insofar as ʿAlī was regarded as a channel for God's grace to man, it being through him that man could learn how to fulfil God's wish of obeying Him. Among these works, there are the Miʾat kalima by Baḥr b. ʿAmr al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/868-69) and the Nathr al-laʾāliʾ , probably by Faḍl b. Ḥasan Ṭabarsī (d. 548/1153). The present volume contains the facsimile editions of a well-executed 19th-century copy of both of these Arabic texts, followed by a Persian translation into poetry of part of the Nathr al-laʾāliʾ by Yār ʿAlī ʿAlānawī Tabrīzī (early 16th century)
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405691
9786002030092
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 8, Indices /
:
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.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405578
9789648700879
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 1, Āʾ-Alif /
:
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 ʿUrfi-yi 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.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405219
9789648700800
Naqd wa bar rasī-yi Āthār u sharḥ-i aḥwāl-i Jāmī /
:
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. The present volume by Aʿlākhān Afṣaḥzād contains an in-depth study of his life, work and significance, concluded by a two hundred-page analysis of his famous Laylī u Majnūn.
:
Series taken from jacket. :
1 online resource. :
9789004402478
9789646781160
Maḥbūb al-qulūb. Volume 2 : Al-Maqāla al-thāniya fi aḥwāl ḥukamāʾ al-Islām wal-ʿulamāʾ al-aʿlām wal-udabāʾ al-kirām mimman lahum al-iʿtināʾ bi-shaʾnihim wal-iʿtibār bi-kalāmihim /...
:
In the Islamic world, the writing of biographical reference works has a very long tradition. In the field of philosophy and other rational sciences such as medicine, one could, for example, mention Isḥāq b. Ḥunayn's (d. 298/910) Taʾrīkh al-aṭibbāʾ wal-ḥukamāʾ or Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's (d. ca 668/1270) ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī taʾrīkh al-aṭibbāʾ . The present two-volume biographical dictionary of philosophers and physicians of all times thus continues a centuries-old tradition. Its author, Quṭb al-Dīn Ishkawarī Lāhijī (d. ca. 1088-95/1677-78), was a student of the great Safavi thinker and founder of the School of Isfahan in philosophy, Mīr Dāmād (d. 1041/1631). This is also obvious from his spiritually-orientated, inclusive understanding of the various actors and episodes in the history of philosophy. Written in classical Arabic, at times sprinkled with his native Persian, it distinguishes itself from earlier dictionaries in that it also contains many of the author's own philosophical opinions. 2 vols; volume 2.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004402287
9789646781757
ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 7, Nūn-Yāʾ /
:
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.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405561
9789648700862
Sām-nāma /
:
In Persian literary history, Firdawsī's (d. 411/1020) Shāh-nāma , the famous masnavi composed in celebration of the history of the kings and dynasties of Persia, is the archetypal epic poem. After the Shāh-nāma , many other epic poems saw the light, among them Asadī Ṭūsī's Garshāsp-nāma (dated 458/1066) and Īrānshāh b. Abi ʼl-Khayr's Bahman-nāma (dated 501/1107-08), but also Shīʿī adaptations celebrating the wondrous exploits of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the beginnings of Shīʿism, such as Rabīʿ's ʿAlī-nāma (dated 482/1089) or Ibn Ḥusām's Khawarān-nāma (completed in 830/1427). The present masnavi is an example of an epic poem in the form of a romance, turning around the love of Sām, the grandfather of Rustam, for the daughter of the emperor of China. Previously ascribed to the 8th/14th-century poet Khwāju-yi Kirmānī, it has now been established that it is a product of later Persian folklore, blending parts of Kirmānī's Humāy u Humāyūn with elements from other tales and romances.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004406247
9786002030498
ʿAlī-nāma : Manẓūma-ī kuhan (facsimile) /
:
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 facsimile 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.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004405127
9789648700732
Iskandar-nāma, bakhsh-i Khatā /
:
The Persian Iskandar-nāma or Alexander romance is a collection of mostly legendary stories about Alexander the Great, whose core narrative goes back to a Greek account of his life and accomplishments, written between the third century BCE and the first century CE. In the Persian tradition, the work distinguishes itself from its Greek model in that Alexander is described as half-Persian and half-Greek, and also in that he is often identified with the prophet Dhu ʼl-Qarnayn mentioned in the Qurʾān, besides the introduction of all manner of local motifs and elements. There exist various versions of this romance in Persian, both in poetry and in prose, the oldest ones dating from the 4th/11th (Firdawsī, Shāh-nāma ) and 6th/12th (Ṭarsūsī, Dārāb-nāma ) centuries, respectively. The present work is one of seven chapters of a popular prose version in story-teller fashion dating from the Safavid era in which earlier, traditional themes are often overshadowed by elements introduced for entertainment.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404717
9789648700121
Khulāṣat al-ashʿār wa-zubdat al-afkār. Volume 6.2 : Bakhsh-i Iṣfahān /
:
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 work by Mīr Taqī al-Dīn Kāshānī (alive in 1016/1607) published here is an important example of this. It consists of an introduction, four divisions, and an epilogue ( khātima ), six volumes in all. From among these volumes, the epilogue listing some 394 poets from specific cities and regions in the Persianate world, many of whom were contemporaries of the author, is of special interest. Having met with many of them on his literary travels, their biographies contain a lot of information on the social and cultural climate of the time, besides new poets and poems. This volume: 6.2, Isfahan.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404694
9789648700312
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Afranj, pāpān, wa qayāṣira /
:
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-khāns 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 especially 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 Franks, European emperors, and the popes.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404144
9789648700039
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Salghariyān-i Fārs /
:
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 Salgharids of Fārs.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004404274
9786002030047
Tuḥfat al-azhār wa-zulāl al-anhār. Volume 3 : Fī nasab abnāʾ al-aʾimma al-aṭhār ʿalayhim ṣalawāt al-malik al-ghaffār /
:
In traditional societies, ancestry is an important organising principle, often determining the lives of individuals or groups from the moment that they are born. In the Arab world, nasab (pl. ansāb ) or lineage was and to some extent still is, a major factor in the distribution of wordly and religious power, while administrative positions, trades, crafts and certain offices in the world of scholarship, too, often devolved along hereditary lines. Among the Shīʿa, where blood ties with the family of the Prophet through ʿAlī and his descendants are highly regarded and a source of authority and social standing, we find a number of ansāb works that focus exclusively on the genealogy of the twelve imams. Born into a Shīʿite family of ansāb scholars in 11th/17th-century Medina, the author of the present work travelled extensively in the Shīʿa world in his search for information. The result is a voluminous work, rich in material, genealogical and historic. 3 vols. & supplement al-Rawḍ al-miʿṭār fī tashjīr Tuḥfat al-azhār ; volume 3.
:
Vol. numbering from spine. :
1 online resource. :
9789004402577
9789646781207