Critical Review of Majales-ul-Nafayes's Poets in the Arafat-ul-Asheghin

Majales-ul-Nafayes is the earliest biography book of the present era written by Amir ali-Shir Nawa'i in 896 AH in Chagatai Turkish language. It describes the biography and works of the poets in the 9th and early 10th centuries. For the first time, Fakhri Heravi translated this biography book into Persian in 928 AH and called it Latayef-Nameh. Afterward, four others translated Majales-ul-Nafayes into Persian. It had a great impact on the future biography works most notably Arafat-ul-Asheghin va Arasat-ul-Arefin, written by Owhadi Balayani between 973 and 1040 AH. This biography book consists of three groups or classes including early, middle, and late. Approximately, ninety percent of the material in the middle class is derived from the text of Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh. This study is aimed to examine the information related to this class as it is mentioned in Arafat-ul-Asheghin. In this paper, first the text of Arafat-ul-Asheghin, especially the middle class related section, was studied in detail and the information that Owhadi had collected from his original sources namely Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh were investigated as well. Afterward, the results were compared with the original texts which are presented in three separate sections with examples. Two parts of this content are related to the text of Arafat-ul-Asheghin and its author which are discussed under the two titles of "forging a character" and "incorrect assignment of verses". The third part, however, is related to the correction of Arafat-ul-Asheghin and its correctors are mentioned under the title of "incorrect recordings in the correction of Arafat". Like all other biography books, Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh have many manuscripts. The biographies of the poets are contradictory and wrong in some of them. These differences and factual errors have gradually entered in the middle-class section of Arafat-ul-Asheghin which is based on the two biography books. Sometimes the descriptions of the two poets in Arafat-ul-Asheghin are so similar to each other as if they seem to refer to the same person.
Arafat-ul-Asheghin has had a great influence on its following biography books and the books related to the history of literature. Therefore, this type of information has also entered the subsequent sources through this biography book.
For example, Molana Ashraf Khiyabani is one of the poets who is mentioned in Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh. His life has been described in Arafat-ul-Asheghin under the titles Molana Sharaf Khiyabani and Darvish Ashraf. Of all three verses of his poem, once all the verses have been attributed to Molana Sharaf Khiyabani, while, once, the first two verses have been attributed to Darvish Ashraf. Creating two similar biographies for a single poet and attributing his verses to two poets whose names and titles are very similar to each other suggests that the author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin has used different manuscripts of Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh, in which the name and title of a poet are recorded in two forms while there are not two separate poets.
Molana Mohammad-Alam Samarghandi is another mentioned poet in Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh, as the author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin mentioned his biography and his verse under the two titles of Mohammad-Alam Samarghandi and Mohammad Samarghandi, thus, this time the similarity of the name and alias of a poet in the copies of Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh has made the author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin assume them as two separate poets to attribute his verses to a poet other than the original one.
The writer of Arafat-ul-Asheghin sometimes attributes the verses of a poet mentioned in the middle class to another poet except the original one due to the great resemblance to the names and alias of the poets that he was referring to based on the manuscripts of Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh.
For instance, the author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin has once cited one of the verses of Hafiz Sa’d correctly under the title of Hafiz Sa’d, while he has incorrectly attributed it to Sa’d Mashhadi the other time. Although the name and alias of these two poets are similar, they are two separate poets who lived in a different time and their biographies are mentioned separately in Majales-ul-Nafayes, Latayef-Nameh, and Arafat-ul-Asheghin.
Also, the writer of Arafat-ul-Asheghin has mentioned one of the verses of Molana Sharf-al-Din Ali Yazdi in Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh once correctly under the title of Molana Sharf-al-Din Ali Yazdi, and once again he has mistakenly attributed it to Sharf-al-Din Oghla Takallo. Even though the name and alias of these two poets are similar, they are two separate poets as Yazdi lived the 19th century AH and Oghla lived in the 11th century AH.
As it has been mentioned, due to the similarity of the name and alias in most cases, the author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin has attributed the verses of a poet to other poets, too. However, the attribution of the verses to the two poets in Arafat-ul-Asheghin is not always as a result of similarity in name and alias as the author of the biography book has made this mistake despite the difference in name and alias.
For example, there is a verse by Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh which has been attributed to Molana Khiyali and mistakenly to Molana Mani Shirazi by the author, while there is no similarity between the names and aliases of these two poets and they lived in different centuries. Molana Khiyali lived in 850 AH and Molana Mani lived in the 10th century during the reign of Shah Ismaeil Safavi (died in 930 AH).
Besides, there are two verses of Malana Qudsi Heravi in Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh which have once been correctly attributed to Molana Ghodsi and once again mistakenly to Molana Naghed Heravi, though there is no similarity between the names and aliases of these two poets. In addition, they lived in different centuries; Molana Qudsi, is a poet of the nineteenth century who is contemporary with Qasim Anwar, and Molana Naghed is one of the poets of the tenth and eleventh centuries contemporary with the author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin.
Arafat-ul-Asheghin can be considered in terms of correcting the names and aliases of the poets, especially in the middle class, which has been adapted from the Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh. In this class of Arafat-ul-Asheghin, the names and alias of some poets have been mistakenly or incompletely corrected, while the correctors should have referred to original sources or the ones contemporary with Arafat-ul-Asheghin or older biography books to prevent many of these inaccuracies.
For instance, Molana Zeyni Sabzevari’s alias in Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh has been mistakenly corrected in Arafat-ul-Asheghin as Molana Zinati Sabzevari and the correctors have transferred the correct recording in the copy to the footnotes, while it was necessary they prefer recording of the copied-manuscript and also refer to to Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh so that the correct recording of the copied-manuscript replaces the text.
The other examples include the names and aliases of the poets mentioned in Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh such as Molana Khalaf Tabrizi, Khaje Mousa, and Khaje Khord. The correctors of Arafat-ul-Asheghin have moved the correct recording to the footnote and have mistakenly corrected them as Molana Kholghi Tabrizi, Khaje Mousemi, and Khaje Khosro. Majales-ul-Nafayes had a significant influence on the subsequent biography books through Latayef-Nameh. Arafat-ul-Asheghin by Owhadi Balayani is the most remarkable example of this influence and adaptation. 90% of the middle class section is an adaptation and attribution of Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh. In this class of Arafat-ul-Asheghin, some errors and changes have been inserted which are due to the mistakes made by the author when referring to the original sources (Majales-ul-Nafayes & Latayef-Nameh). Sometimes, the mistakes have occurred due to the misinterpretation of correctors in correcting Arafat-ul-Asheghin. The author of Arafat-ul-Asheghin has sometimes considered one poet as two, sometimes combined the biographies of two or more poets and attributed the verses of a poet to other poets, too. Of course, the correctors of Arafat-ul-Asheghin have sometimes moved the correct recording of the poets’ name and alias to the footnotes and replaced them in the text with incorrect recordings. If they had preferred the recording of the copied-manuscript and had referred to Majales-ul-Nafayes and Latayef-Nameh, these mistakes could have been avoided.