A Critique of Ᾱref Qazvini’s Memories

Ᾱref Qazvini’s poems, tasnifs, notes, and letters have had many readers since Constitutional Era; however, during his life time, and especially after his death, his published works were disorganized, misrepresented, distorted, and even lacked some parts. This was mostly done intentionally due to several reasons such as removing his caustic comments, censoring his attacks on two branches of religious and political tyranny as well as on his contemporary fellows, his publishers’ ideological differences, and sometimes the inability to read his manuscripts which has made his writings so distorted and meaningless. In recent years, a collection of Ᾱref’s manuscripts titled Memories of Ᾱref-e Qazvini (Sokhan Publication, 1388) and two sets of his correspondence with his friends, titled Vāhid-e Nāmehā-ye Ᾱref-e Qazvini (Negāh Publication, 1391 and Hermes Publication, 1396), were published. A thorough examination of the texts of all three books and comparing them with Ᾱref’s manuscripts or the original sources has revealed many errors in these publications, the deliberate and ideological elimination of some parts of his letters by Negāh publication, and the significant errors made by Hermes Publication in Ᾱref’s new-found letters. The author, in another article titled “It is not a mansion, It has been destroyed”, has criticized both publications of Ᾱref Qazvini’s letters. ((See: Iran Namag, Canada, Toronto University, Third Year, No. 4, winter, 1397, Special Issue for Professor Mohammad Ali Nodooshan). The following paper just deals with ᾹrefQazvini’s memories.