" Mar" (مر) or " Man" (من)? A Suggestion on the Emendation of a Verse in the Shāh-nāme

One of the important and fundamental problems relating to the emendation of the old texts which has many claims to our attention is the recognition of the pseudo-archaic forms of the words in the manuscripts. Such readings، because of their tempting forms، sometimes، mislead the editors in identifying the original one. The reading of «mar-īn» (مر این) in the second line of the first couplet excerpted from the Shāh-nāme is one of such pseudo-archaic forms: اگر کشته گشتی تو در چنگ اوی مر این گرز و این مغفر کینه جوی چگونه کشیدی به مازندران کمند و کمان تیر و گرز گران Amongst twelve manuscripts of the Shāh-nāme used by Dr. Khaleghi-Motlagh in editing the second volume، the reading of «mar-īn» has been recorded only in Florence manuscript and the editor has opted for this form as a lectio difficilior، whereas other original manuscripts (including the recently discovered manuscript in the Oriental Library of Saint Joseph University NC. 43، Beirut) instead of «mar-īn» have «man-īn” (من این (whose correctness and genuineness is confirmed by various evidences reported and commented on in the present article.