Tarjuma-yi manẓūm-i waṣiyyat-i Imām ʿAlī (ʿalayhi al-salām) bih Imām Ḥusayn (ʿalayhi al-salām) : Kuhantarīn tarjuma-yi manẓūm-i Fārsī az kalām-i ʿAlawī /
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In Shīʿī literature, there exist several texts containing the last will ( waṣiyya ) of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, son-in-law of the Prophet and, in Shīʿism, his rightful successor. These last wishes were addressed to his sons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn and to the Muslim community at large. Transmitted through various sources, they are important insofar as each of them, in its own way, justifies the Shīʿī view on ʿAlī's succession after he was murdered in Kufa in the year 40/661. This volume contains two Persian versions-one in verse, the other in prose-of ʿAlī's last will and injunctions addressed to Ḥusayn, the third imam. The original Arabic prose text has come down to us through various ancient sources, the oldest one dating from the fourth/tenth century. The Persian translation in verse was made by the poet Sayyid Ḥasan Ghaznawī (d. 556/1161), the prose version possibly around 910/1504 by a scribe named Muʿīn al-Dīn Munshī Shīrāzi.
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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 /...
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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.
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ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 7, Nūn-Yāʾ /
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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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Sām-nāma /
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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.
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Tārīkh-i Kishīk Khāna-yi Humāyūn /
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Abu ʼl-Muẓaffar Awrangzīb (r. 1068-1118/1658-1707), the last of the great Mughal emperors, reigned over all but the entire Indian subcontinent. His sons, in charge of individual provinces, sometimes rebelled against him. An example of this is the rebellion of Prince Akbar (d. 1116/1704) in 1091/1680-81. This revolt must have been the more disappointing to Awrangzīb as Akbar was his favourite son. However this may be, the scheme was foiled and Akbar fled to Kandahar. When he understood that there was no chance of return, Akbar eventually sought refuge with the Safavid emperor Sulaymān I (r. 1076-1105/1666-94) in Isfahan. While in Isfahan, Akbar had several people taking turns spending the day in his company. The writer of the present memoirs, the poet laureate Nūr al-Dīn Kāshānī (d. 1123/1711) was one of them. Written in 1110/1698 in Mashhad after Akbar's expulsion from Isfahan, these memoirs offer a compressed account that is both historical and anecdotal.
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Dīwān-i Khāzin /
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About fifty years ago, during renovation works in the complex of Imam Reza in Mashhad, a hoard of manuscripts was discovered in a secret niche. These manuscripts had probably been stashed away in a time of unrest to prevent them from getting looted or destroyed. Among them, there was one quite remarkable codex, copied in 481/1088 and published here, containing the divan of ʿAbdallāh b. Aḥmad al-Khāzin, a poet who belonged to entourage of the Buyid vizier Ṣāḥib b. al-ʿAbbād (d. 385/995). Al-Khāzin was his librarian for a time, until he was banished from the court. Since most of the poems are dedicated to Fakhr al-Dawla (d. 387/997) and Ibn al-ʿAbbād, they must have been written after Fakhr al-Dawla was brought to power by Ibn al-ʿAbbād in 373/983. Even with sections missing, this manuscript contains no less than 1.922 verses by al-Khāzin, much more than the 241 verses quoted in al-Thaʿālibī's (d. 429/1038) Yatīmat al-dahr.
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1 online resource. :
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Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i Īrān u Islām. Volume 1 /
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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 in these three volumes describes the history of Iran and Islam. Section: Iran, 3 vols; volume 1.
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Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh : Tārīkh-i aqwām-i pādishāhān-i Khutāy /
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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 shahs of Khatāy (China)
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Tafsīr-i Shahristānī al-Musammā bi-Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār. Volume 2 /
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Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahristānī (d. 548/1153) was a prominent historian of religions who was well-versed in Islamic theology and the sciences of the Qurʾān. He is mostly known for his Kitāb al-milal wal-niḥal , a ground-breaking history of religions, his Kitāb muṣāraʿat al-falāsifa , a critical exposition of the philosophy of Avicenna (d. 428/1037)-later refuted by Naṣīr al-Dīn Tūsī (d. 672/1274) in his Maṣāriʿ al-muṣāriʿ -and the Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār , his partial Qurʾān commentary contained in the present two volumes. The Mafātīḥ al-asrār was written in the final years of Shahristānī's life and clearly bears the stamp of Ismailism, a branch of Shīʿism to which he had been introduced as a young man by his teacher in Qurʾānic studies in Nishapur, Abu ʼl-Qāsim al-Anṣārī (d. 512/1118). Even if the Mafātīḥ al-asrār is a work that remained unfinished, it is a fine and rare specimen of the richness of Ismaili taʾwīl . 2 vols; volume 2.
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Daqāʾiq al-taʾwīl wa-ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl /
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The Qurʾān is a complex text, and it has been regarded as such since the very beginning. Qurʾān interpretation ( tafsīr ) was already practiced by the Prophet's nephew ʿAbdallāh b. al-ʿAbbās, who used folklore and poetry to interpret his uncle's revelations. With the passing of time, Qurʾānic exegesis developed from a mere branch of tradition ( ḥadīth ) into a full-fledged, independent discipline. The earliest Qurʾān commentary in Persian was a translation of Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī's (d. 311/923) Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān , made in 345/956. The oldest surviving Twelver-Shīʿī commentary to have been composed in Persian is Abu ʼl-Futūḥ al-Rāzī's (d. 552-56/1157-61) Rawḍ al-jinān wa-rūḥ al-janān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān . Second oldest are two commentaries by Abu ʼl-Makārim Ḥasanī (7th/13th cent.), one of them being his Daqāʾiq al-taʾwīl wa-ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl , whose extant part is now published in this volume. A commentary on selected verses only, its unique characteristics and broader context are explained in the editor's introduction.
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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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Thawāqib al-manāqib-i awliyāʾ Allāh /
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Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (Mawlānā) is the most famous and widely quoted mystical poet of the Persiate world. Ever since he passed away in 672/1273, people have studied, commented and recited his works, both in the Muslim world and, in modern times, also in the West. After Firīdūn Aḥmad Sipahsālār's (d. before 712/1312) Risāla-yi Sipahsālār dar manāqib-i khudāwandigār , the second most detailed source on Rūmī in Persian is Shams al-Dīn Aḥmad Aflākī ʿĀrifī's (d. 761/1360) Manāqib al-ʿārifīn . A follower of Rūmī's grandson Jalāl al-Dīn Firīdūn (d. 719/1320), Aflākī could include a lot of first-hand information in his work. Aflākī's work saw at least two revised editions: the Khulāṣat al-Manāqib by Aḥmad b. Maḥmūd (early 9th/15th century), and the work published here by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. Jalāl al-Dīn Hamadānī (d. 954/1547). Composed in Egypt where he had sought refuge from Safavid anti-Sunnī policies, he abridged the original text, removing mistakes and redundant, inappropriate, and un-Persian, 'alien' material.
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Laṭāʾif al-ḥisāb : Risāla-ī dar bāra-yi sargarmīhā-yi riyāḍī /
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Quṭb al-Dīn Lāhījī (d. ca. 1088-95/1677-1684) was a philosopher and traditional Islamic scholar who also took an interest in mathematics. He was a student of Mīr Dāmād (d. 1040/1630-31) of the 'School of Isfahan' in philosophy, as well as a contemporary of the philosopher, traditionist and mystic Muḥsin Fayḍ Kāshānī (d. 1091/1680). After his studies in Isfahan, Lāhījī returned to Lāhījān. There he was entrusted with the office of Shaykh al-Islām which his elder brother had held for three years before him, in succession to their father, who had been Shaykh al-Islām of Lāhījān before then. He held this office for many years. Among his works are Maḥbūb al-qulūb (history of philosophy), Fānūs al-khayāl (the imaginal world in Illuminationist philosophy) and the Tafsīr-i sharīf-i Lāhījī (Qurʾān interpretation). The present collection of mathematical puzzles aims to show the fun and practical use of mathematics. As a Persian text, it is quite rare in its kind.
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Tarjuma-yi Kitāb al-milal wal-niḥal /
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Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm Shahrastānī was born in 479/1086-7 in Shahristān in today's Turkmenistan. After his basic education he went to Nishapur, then a major centre of learning. Afterwards, he taught for some years at the Niẓāmiyya academy in Baghdad. Returning to Khurāsān around 514/1120, he became a staff member at the chancellery of the Saljuq ruler, Sanjar (d. 552/1157), entertaining close relations with him. At some point Shahrastānī returned to his hometown, although it is not known why or when, dying there in 548/1153. His influential history of religions and sects, which also includes an account of Greek and Islamic philosophy, is one of his best known works. Until recently only two Persian translations of it were known: one by Afḍal al-Dīn Turka-yi Iṣfahānī dated 843/1449-50, and an improved edition of it by Muṣṭafā b. Khāliqdād, dated 1021/1612. The anonymous translation published here is much older and may even date from Shahrastānī's own lifetime.
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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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Tārīkh-i Būshihr /
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Born in Najaf, Muḥammad Ḥusayn Saʿādat (1865-1935) first studied in his hometown and later in Shiraz. In 1898 he went to Tehran, where he started teaching at Teachers College and also at a modern primary school. During that time there was a desire to put education on a new footing, taking inspiration from western ideas. This is how Saʿādat, whose talents in education had not gone unnoticed, was appointed to found a new school in Būshihr, Iran's main port and trading hub in the Gulf area. This school, which later came to be known as the Madrasa-yi Saʿādat, soon became a famous in the region and many of its alumni had brilliant careers. Saʿādat's history of Būshihr is the product of a methodical mind that can view things in local, regional, national and international perspective. The only history of the city that we have, it is a work of incontestable importance.
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ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn wa-ʿaraṣāt al-ʿārifīn. Volume 1, Āʾ-Alif /
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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 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.
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Irshād : Dar maʿrifat u waʿẓ u akhlāq /
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According to Majid Fakhry, ethical theories in Islam may be divided into four categories: 1. scriptural morality (moral precepts and judgments from the Qurʾān and the Traditions); 2. theological theories (rationalist interpretations of scriptural morality based on philosophical or theological methods and categories developed in the eighth and ninth centuries); 3. philosophical theories (ultimately relying on Greek sources, mainly Plato and Aristotle in neo-Platonic interpretations); 4. religious theories (based on the Qurʾānic view of man and his position in the universe, and differing from theological theories in that they were not dialectical, not polemical, and more concerned with moral theory than with questions of methodology). The present work comes under the last category, to which it adds an element of mysticism. Besides the more general sources and authorities, it also refers to scholars and mystics from Transoxania specifically, the work having been written there in the early 6th/12th century. Contains word material from that region.
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1 online resource. :
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Majlis dar qiṣṣa-yi rasūl (ṣalawāt Allāh ʿalayhi) /
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In Persian literature, so-called ' majālis ' works typically evoke the atmosphere of a religious gathering. In such a gathering, a chronicler relates parts of the history of Islam and the lives and times of its prominent representatives, often referring to trustworthy sources. Besides, questions may be asked, while teachings or sermons may also be given. Examples are Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī's (d. 672/1273) Majālis-i sabʿa and Saʿdī's (d. 691/1292) Majālis-i panj-gānah . Judging by its title, the present work by an unknown author from the 5th/12th century-it is not known if it was originally written in Persian or translated from Arabic-would seem to belong to this same type of writings. Only, on closer inspection this is not the case. Being mostly inspired by Ibn Isḥāq's (d. 150/767) al-Sīra al-nabawiyya and Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī's (d. 322/933-4) Aʿlām al-nubuwwa , only its last five chapters are called majlis , but then lack the characteristics of a typical majālis work.
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Risāla-yi Ḥātimiyya /
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Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, a pre-Islamic poet from the late sixth century CE, is especially known for his chivalry and magnanimity. A member of the tribe of Ṭayy in Yemen, he is mainly associated with the court of the Lakhmids in Ḥīra in Mesopotamia under king Nuʿmān b. Mundhir (reg. ca. 580-602). His poetry centers around the qualities that earned him his fame, even if part of the poems ascribed to him may be later inventions. Legend has it that his grandfather, who was his guardian, abandoned him when he saw that his grandson's generosity was incurable. Four mourning girls, hewn in stone, lined his grave, together with the cooking pots from which he had served his guests. A popular character in medieval Arabic literature, no separate work was ever dedicated to him, unlike the Persian tradition. The present text on his life and deeds by Wāʿiẓ Kāshifī (d. 910/1504-5) is the oldest to exist in Persian.
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