Critique of the Correction of Tazkerat al-Awliya by Mohammad Reza Shafiei Kadkani

Tazkerat al-Awliya is one of the most important Persian mystical sources in describing the states and sayings of the great Sufis, which Attar Neyshabouri wrote using the sources written before him such as Tabaqat al-Sufiyya, Haliya al-Awliya, Resaleye Qosheiriyyeh, and Kashf al-Mahjoub. The most authoritative correction of this book was made by Reynold Allen Nicholson between 1322 AH/ 1905 to 1325 AH/ 1907. After that, in 2019, Shafiei Kadkani made another correction of Tazkerat al-Awliya which untied the conceptual knot of many of its words, combinations, and expressions. It also provided an opportunity for further research on this book. Nevertheless, there are errors in the corrected text. In this research, the descriptive-analytical method was used to highlight the shortcomings and irregularities in the correction of Tazkerat al-Awliya which can be divided into 7 general formats: 1) shortcomings in the original version, 2) deviations from the original versions, 3) distortions, 4) incorrect reporting, 5) misreading, 6) incorrect comments, and 7) other shortcomings. Library resources such as the original manuscripts and other manuscripts have also been used. The results of the research showed that the quality of correction in the first part of Tazkerat al-Awliya is not comparable to the second part due to the visible duality. The main reason for the duality of the book is the difference in its manuscripts, which is sometimes accompanied by the corrector’s errors.