“Khoshni” or “Khonsa”? Correcting some Lines of Khaqani’s Divan

Many lines of Khaqani’s divan have been misunderstood because of its complexities and nuances as well as the use of whimsical words and words in different semantic contexts. At the same time, this vastness of words and phrases in Khaqani’s poetry caused his divan to be one of the major sources of new words and poetic evidence for ancient lexicologists. Investigators of Khaqani’s divan have occasionally used invalid dictionaries—such as Jahangiri, Borhan, and Majmaolfors—to correct Khaqani’s dubious and controversial lines; therefore they have sometimes misunderstood them. In this study, while looking critically at dictionaries and using evidence from ancient texts, suggestions are put forward to correct three lines of Khaqani’s divan, and it is demonstrated that the word “khoshni” (meaning prostitute) is the result of the erroneous reading of “khonsa” (meaning bisexual) in a few lines of this divan. Unawareness of the meaning of “khonsa” and “mokhannas” is one of the main reasons that has prevented scholars from recognizing the original form of Khaqani’s manuscripts, while paying attention to the correspondences between the words and the phrases contained in the lines and the use of identical themes in the works of Khaqani could be one of the ways of correcting his poems.