Pandnameh is not from Attar ē Neyshaburi

One of the most important topics in literary criticism is research into the correctness and inaccuracy of attributing a work to it's poet or writer. Throughout the history of the literature of various lands and nations, works have been attributed to famous poets and writers for various reasons, including political prejudices and religious Purposes, or similarities in form or theme that either really belonged to other poets and writers or have been works whose authors have been unknown; Attar ē Neyshaburi is one of the poets whose works have been mixed with those of poets of later periods, that have been written in a high degree of weakness in terms of form and structure and poetic language, and also differ from Attar’s definite poems in terms of their content. Undoubtedly various factors, whether intentional or unintentional, played a role in mixing the works of others with the works of Attar. The most famous work attributed mistakenly to Attar ē Neyshaburi is Pandnameh. This poem has about 900 bits, and the oldest Manuscript of it, is dated to 861 A.H.; namely ninth century; just two centuries after Attar's death. The difference between the date of the writing of the first version of Pandnameh since Attar's death, indicates that this poem most likely belongs to the eighth or ninth century and that it's author probably lived in the late eighth or early ninth centuries.

Methods & materials:

In the present study, the attribution of Pandnameh to Attar has been investigated and compared with Attar’s poems in the analytical-inferential way from the point of view of stylistic issues namely structure, language and content. It should be noted that in this review, the printed version of Pandnameh, corrected and annotated by Silvestre de sacy, has been cited.

Pandnameh differs dramatically from the point of view of three stylistic aspects, namely structure, language, and content, with the four definite mystical poems of Attar, Asrarnameh, Elahinameh, Manteqotteyr and Mosibatnameh. For example, besides the boring repetitions and the shortness of volume of the verses, there is no anecdote and allegorical story in the structure of Pandnameh. Whereas one of the most common methods of Attar to express the meaning and contents of his poems to the reader, is the insertion of allegorical stories and narratives. In other words, Attar as a narrator and interpreter tells stories and narrates to teach. The poetic language used in Pandnameh also differs from poetic language used in definite poems of Attar; some of the words and combinations used in the text of Pandnameh are either not used in Attar's poetry or have been used in different forms in his poetry. In terms of syntax and grammar there are also major differences between Pandnameh and Attar's poems; for example, verbs, adjectives, prepositions and other elements used in the verses, and the way of putting the linguistic elements together in verses is contrary with the syntax of Attar’s poems. The content of Pandnameh also differs from the content of Attar's poems; for example, the author of Pandnameh expresses beliefs about love, Health and Silence (in the mystical sense), kings and other topics that are opposed to what Attar thought in his poems.

In this article, by Scientific study and stylistic comparison of Pandnameh with Attar's poems from three aspects of structure, language and content, it is concluded that this poem is not from Attar, because first of all, the form and structure of Pandnameh is significantly different from which is clearly seen in the four definite works of Attar; because While Attar has attempted to convey the content of his mind and thought to the readers in all four of his poems by using narrative expression and allegory, Pandnameh is devoid of this structure and form of expression. A greater percentage of the poetic language used in Pandnameh is different both in terms of words and idioms and in terms of syntax from Attar's poetic language in his poems; a greater percentage of the content of these two groups of works are dramatically different from each other. The dominant thought in Attar's poems is pure mysticism and Sufism; but, not only is the prevailing thought in Pandnameh sometimes just for expressing religious themes far from the pure mysticism, it is more like other books written on the subject of advice that just teaches and expresses general ethics.