The Verses of Shahname in Neyshaburi’s Khalgh al-Ensan

Khalgh al-Ensan is an unpublished Arabic book by Bayan al-Hagh Neyshaburi (died in 521 AH) in the field of commentary on the Koran in which there are some verses from Ferdowsi’s Shahname. Neyshaburi was the judge of Ghazne on behalf of Ghaznavids, but in the last years of his lifetime, returned to his birthplace, Neyshabur, and collected his Majalles in commentary of a chapter from the Koran, called “Khalgh al-Ensan.” The existence of these verses in such an old book indicate the fame of Shahname in so-called era in the eastern territory of the Persian literature which Second Ghaznavid had the power beside Seljuqids. In fact, an author who was known as a religious scholar with a strong attention to Ferdowsi’s Masnavi can demonstrate the relationship between religious scholars and non-religious poems. In this article, moreover we noted to important variants between ancient MSs of Shahname and Khalgh al-Ensan that can improve some parts of Ferdowsi's Masnavi in future. In our opinion, Neyshaburi’s reference for Ferdowsi’s poems, was a selective book like an anthology of Shahname, that existence of some old instances of those books is proved; for example, the selection of Ali ibn Ahmad that is existed at the moment and is published, or Mas’ud-e Sa’d's selection which is missed, both of them very close to Neyshaburi’s lifetime.