Introducing the Manuscripts of the Sām-nāmeh in the World's Libraries

Sām-nāmeh is a romantic epic referred to as the last Persian national epic. It has drawn great attention for two reasons, causing many scholars to discuss about it; first, because of its being epic and, secondly because it has been mixed up with Khwaju Kermāni's Homāy o Homāyun, and wrongly ascribed to the latter. As far as the various catalogues indicate, there are 21 manuscripts of the Sām-nāmeh kept in the world's important libraries. In this article the manuscripts accessible to this writer have been fully introduced; for the others only their topical outlines have been presented, simply because of the criticisms and remarks expressed by cataloguers.