Epistolary in the Timurid Era

One of the important but less known eras in the history of Persian literature in the area of scribing and letter-writing was the Timurid era. At this historical period, such great and famous scribes as Abdulwaset Nezami Heravi, Yusef Ahl, Ali bin Jamal al-Islam, Moein ad-Din Esfazari, Molla Hussein Vaez Kashefi, Shahabeddin Abdullah Morvarid (Bayani Kermani), Khajeh Jahan, Jami, Khandmir, etc. appeared and created valuable and significant works in letter-writing and scribing. Some of these works such as Riaz al-Insha' by Qavan and Epistolary of Jami are merely Diwani (administrative) or Ikhwani (freindly) correspondence of the scribes, and a group including Esfazariepistolary and Kashefi Makhzan al-Insha' have discussed the theoretical rudiments of scribing and book writing along with sample letters. In addition to an introduction to the general currents of book writing and scribing in the Timurid era and a description of theoretical and applied principles of epistolary and letter-writing in this era, the present article introduces the content, style and structure of prominent works of epistolary and letter-writing. It is hoped that a general scheme of scribing in this era and the level of imitation or innovation by the scribes will be displayed.