An Investigation of Content and Structure of Esfazari Epistolary

One of the great figures of Timurid period is Moin-al-Din Mohammad Zamji Esfazari Heravi، the famous letter-writer، poet، calligrapher and historian of whom a number of works have remained. The only published work of this writer is the book Rozat al-Janat fi Osaf Madina Harat and his other works have been forgotten throughout time. One of his outstanding works is Tarassol. This work consists of an introduction، four letters and a conclusion and it is one of the works which became famous even in the time of its writer. At the beginning of this work، the writer mentions the theoretical basics of epistolary and letter-writing and then he includes the letters he wrote as a letter-writer on behalf of Sultan Hossein Bayghara. There are various types of formal and informal letters in this work such as: Amsale، Manashir، orders، symbols، Soltaniat، Ekhvaniat، Ojubeh etc، and Esfazari has tried to make his work not only a comprehensive list of letters in Timurid period but also an example for letter-writers and، probably due to this reason، this work became so popular. The style of this work is elaborated and the structure of its letters is very similar to common structures of other epistolaries of Timurid and previous periods. However، there are a number of letters like Ketabeh، Vaghfnameh، introduction، epitaph، As’ale etc، in this work due to which this work does not simply consist of governmental letters like symbols، charters and Soltaniat; something which is absent in the works of Esfazari’s contemporaries. This article tries to introduce the content of Esfazari’s work، state his ideas about letter-writing and investigate structural characteristics of this work.