Necessity of Re-editing Kimia-ye Saadat

Kimia-ye Sa''adat is the most important work of Abu Hamed Mohammad Ghazzali in Persian which has been edited and published twice in Iran: the first time in 1940/1319 Š by Ahmad Aram، and the second time in 1982/1361 Š By Hossein Khadiv Jam who had already published the first half of the book in 1976/1355 Š. This article seeks to study these two editions، especially the one by Khadiv Jam، and compare them with the old manuscripts of the book. The study further indicates the shortcomings of the two editions and suggests the necessity for re-editing the work. Besides the original manuscripts used by Khadiv Jam، the study uses the manuscript in Malek Museum (dated 605 A. H.)، two manuscripts from British Museum (dated 644 A. H. and 672 A. H.)، and the newly found manuscript of Uppsala (dated 619 A. H.). The article refers to some of the most significant problems in the two existing editions especially the one by Khadiv Jam. Among the most noticeable shortcomings are the following: insufficiently introducing the manuscripts، careless selection of the original manuscript (s)، adopting vague and uncritical methods for editing، deletions، unsupported additions، and some obvious mistakes in editing strange and rare vocabulary. These problems are so fundamental that in certain parts they cause serious semantic changes which depart drastically from the writer’s supposed intention.