Iskandar-nāma, bakhsh-i Khatā /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404717
9789648700121
Risāla-yi asṭurlāb-i Kūshyār Gīlānī /
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Kushyār (Pers. Kushyār) b. Labbān Gīlānī was a Persian astronomer and mathematician who flourished around 390/1000. All we know about his personal life is that he originated from the region of Gilan in northern Iran, bordering on the Caspian Sea. Given that he is cited in Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī's (d. after 442/1050) Kitāb fī ifrād al-maqāl fī amr al-aẓlāl , Kushyār must have become an authority by the time al-Bīrūnī came to write this work. From his works in mathematics, Kushyār's Kitāb fī uṣūl ḥisāb al-Hind on Indian arithmatic is the most important, and in astronomy his Zīj-i jāmiʿ . His Arabic work on the astrolabe is published here for the very first time, accompanied by a Japanese translation, both by Taro Mimura of Japan. In addition, this volume also contains a facsimile edition of the anonymous medieval Persian translation of this work, followed by a critical edition, both by Mohammad Bagheri of Iran.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406278
9786002030764
Badāyiʿ-i mulaḥ : Nawhā-yi namakīn /
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In the history of Arabic literature, the term adab ('custom', 'norm of conduct') applies typically to works providing a particular kind of moral and intellectual education. Aimed at a specific urban class whose values they reflected, these works offered a useful stock of relevant quotations to be used in social discourse. Among the adab works, the poetic anthology was extremely popular. These anthologies could take on different forms, depending on whether they were organised around a set of themes, a collection of motifs, a series of comparisons, a selection of geographical places, and so on. The poetic anthology published in the present volume was written in Khwārazm in 595/1199. As the title ' Marvels of Witticism ' suggests, its author, the linguist Qāsim b. al-Ḥusayn al-Khwārazmī (d. 617/1220), wanted to highlight the beauty of the repartee in different thematic contexts. The Persian translation accompanying the text was probably made by someone other than al-Khwārazmī himself.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402768
9789646781603
Sindbādnāma /
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To most people Sindbad is the iconic hero of a collection of medieval tales about the adventurous travels of a sailor named Sindbad, known from the Arabian Nights . Composed of seven stories, the collection is all about the importance of personal initiative, courage, and perseverance to overcome potentially disastrous situations and always come out on top. But apart from Sindbad the sailor, there is another collection of stories around another Sindbad, less known to the modern western reader. This collection turns around a young prince who is exonerated from the false accusation of plotting against his father, the king, thanks to the wisdom and foresight of his tutor, a sage named Sindbad. The stories go back to a Middle Persian archetype, which was-besides Abān Lāḥiqī's (d. ca. 200/815) Arabic version-rendered into New Persian several times. From among these, Ẓahīrī Samarqandī's (6th/12th cent.) adaptation, here edited anew, is the only one to have survived.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402973
9789646781726
Ṣaḥīfa-yi Sajjādiyya bā tarjumaʾī kuhan bih Fārsī /
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The Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya is a compilation of supplicatory prayers ascribed to the fourth Imam of the Shīʿa, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Sajjād (d. 94/712-13 0r 95/713-14). Alternatively referred to as the 'psalms' ( zabūr ) or the 'gospels' ( injīl ) of the family of the Prophet, the Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya ranks among the holiest books of the Shīʿa, together with the Qurʾān and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's Nahj al-balāgha . Al-Sajjād was known for his piety and for his being given to prayer. Yet it is more likely that the Ṣaḥīfa is a later compilation of prayers attributed to him. The Ṣaḥīfa published here in facsimile is the 'complete' ( kāmila ) recension ascribed to Ibn Makkī (d. 786/1384) in a copy made just five years after Makkī's death, together with an early interlinear Persian translation. Apart from the orthographical and linguistic points of interest of this manuscript, its early dating may throw light on the history of transmission of Ibn Makkī's recension.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406674
9786002031068
Pizhūhishhāʾī dar tārīkh-i ʿilm : Maqālātī dar bāra-yi tārīkh-i riyāḍiyyāt, nujūm, mikānīk, wa pizishkī /
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As is well known, large parts of the Greek sciences were assimilated by the medieval Muslim world. Equally well known is the fact that quite a number of Muslim scholars contributed to the further development of some of these sciences and also, that some of their works were translated into Latin and other western languages, leaving their imprint on late medieval and early modern science in turn. For this reason, anyone interested in the history of science in the western world will be interested in reading about the history of science in Islam and vice versa. This is why the editor of the present collection of articles has done well to bring together contributions from both fields, in French, English, and Persian. While all of these articles are interesting in their own right, the section dedicated to Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274) and a study of Descartes' (d. 1650) de Solidorum elementis deserve special mention.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405813
9786002030184
Rawḍat al-munajjimīn /
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In the first centuries of Islam, Arabic gradually replaced Middle Persian to become the language of the new religion and the administration of Iran. Works in Middle Persian were translated into Arabic and Persian authors also started writing directly in Arabic. From the fifth/eleventh century onward, there arose a need for works in New Persian, either translated from Arabic or composed in New Persian straightaway. The work published in this volume is a product of that period. Not much is known about the life of its author, Shahmardān b. Abi ʼl-Khayr. A resident of Gurgān and Astarābād, he was a scholar who also worked as a secretary and financial officer. In astronomy, he was a student of Abu ʼl-Ḥasan Nasawī (fl. 2nd quart. 5th/11th cent.). Shahmardān's work is an accessible, popularized compilation of the works of others, among them Abū Maʿshar (d. 272/886), Kushyār b. Labbān (fl. late 4th/10th cent.), and Bīrūnī (d. 440/1048)
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1 online resource. :
9789004403673
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Rāshīkāt al-Hind : Tanāsub nazd-i Hindiyān /
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Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (d. after 442/1050) is one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islam. A native of Kāth, capital of Khwārazm, he wrote on subjects ranging from mathematics, geography, astronomy and natural science to history, linguistics and ethnography. He was a student of, among others, the astronomer-mathematicians Kushyār b. Labbān (fl. 390/1000) and Abū Maḥmūd al-Khujandī (d. 390/1000). He also met and corresponded with Avicenna (d. 428/1037). As was common for a scholar of his rank in those days, he spent his life in the entourage of powerful rulers, in Khwārazm, Khurāsān, and Sidjistān. It was at the court of Maḥmūd b. Sebüktigin (d. 421/1030) and his sucessors in Ghazna that he accompanied Maḥmūd on his campaigns to north-west India. It is there that he got acquainted with Indian methods in the arithmetic of proportions and ratios, the subject of this book. Arabic text with a Persian translation by the editor.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405615
9789648700954
ʿAlī-nāma : Manẓūma-ī kuhan /
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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
Dastūr al-kātib fī taʿyīn al-marātib. Volume 2 /
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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 2.
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1 online resource. :
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9786002031280
Burzū-nāma : Bakhsh-i kuhan /
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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. :
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Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Banī Isrāʾīl /
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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
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. :
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Tuḥfat al-mulūk /
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In the Persianate world, wisdom literature has a long history, dating back to pre-Islamic times. After the advent of Islam, this type of literature, often enriched with Islamic, Greek, or Indian elements, was continued in various forms, be it in poetry, prose, or in a mixture of both. Some of these works would address themselves to a wider urban audience while others were primarily directed at kings and their immediate political entourage. Saʿdī's (d.691/1291-92) Rose Garden ( Gulistān ) is an example of the former, Niẓām al-Mulk's (d. 485/1092) Epistle on Rulership ( Siyāsat-nāma ) of the latter. A hybrid form is constituted by Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's (d. 672/1274) highly influential Nasirean Ethics ( Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī ). Judging by its title, the work published here in a new edition would seem to be for kings only. But, compiled in the 6th/12th century, it is actually an account of the wisdom of kings that, written for a general audience.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402799
9789646781641
Dīwān-i ghazaliyāt-i Asīr-i Shahristānī /
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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's name comes from 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 from Ghaznavid times (11th-12th cent.). The Hindī style is often regarded as being of a lesser kind than the Khurāsānī or ʿIrāqī ones, but has the merit of having ended 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 poems of Asīr Shahristānī (11th/17th cent.), whose ghazal s are published here, are written in the Hindī style. Popular in India, even if he never went there, their appreciation in Iran has varied.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404137
9789646781733
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Āl-i Saljūq /
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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 Saljuqs.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404212
9789648700381
Arbaʿīn al-ʿAlāʾī fi kalām al-ʿalī /
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In the history of Islamic literature, the 'Forty Traditions' genre goes back as far as the 3th/9th century at least and exists in all of Islam's major and minor languages. It finds its origin in the tradition saying that whoever commits forty traditions to memory will be reckoned among the jurists on Resurrection Day. Collections vary, from a simple listing of the basic teachings of Islam to more dedicated works around some specific theme, in either case with or without a commentary. There are also collections of sayings of the Prophet's son-in-law ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), from among which al-Sharīf al-Raḍī's (d. 406/1088) Nahj al-Balāgha is the most famous. The work by Yūsuf b. Āybayk published here is a Persian text in the arbaʿūn tradition but based on the Nahj al-balāgha . Dedicated to the Qaramānid ruler of Anatolia ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Beg (d. 800/1397-8), it deals mostly with ethics explained from a mystical perspective.
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1 online resource. :
9789004408135
9786002031341
Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Ughūz /
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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 is about the Oghuz Turks of Central Asia.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404168
9789648700114
Māhtāb-i Shām-i Sharq : Guzāra wa guzīna-yi andisha shinasī-yi Iqbāl /
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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.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404755
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