Khazanet al-Khial: A Treasure in the Literature of the Safavid Era

Mohammad Momen Jazayeri Shirazi Hindi (1074-1130 AH) was a prolific writer of the late Safavid period. His literary works amount to 39 books and treatises, most of which are in the form of manuscripts which have been neglected by researches. Few sources can be found on his biography and life except for those gathered and written by Ayatollah Marashi Najafi or some scattered notes written by himself in his works. The book Khazanet al-Khial (Treasure of Imagination) is one of his valuable works. It touches on various subjects such as literature, wisdom, sermons, debates, proverbs, history, and biographies. In this article, we examine the type of prose and writing style along with other literary features of this work according to the common literature of the Safavid era. The style of the book is rhymed prose, and it is replete with figures of speech, both verbal and abstract, which has made it look like the technical prose of maqama. However, despite the multiplicity of literary devices, it has fluent and understandable prose, and owing to the variety of subjects, it is not boring but fascinates the reader. One of its differences with maqama written by authors like Hamedani and Hariri is that each chapter has main and minor titles. Haj Mohammad Momen has derived a part of the contents of his book from the Quran, the hadiths, and writings of the early and late men of letters. Hence, we can find many instances of borrowing, adaptation, reiteration, and allusion to verses, hadiths, poems, and sayings everywhere in his book. Complete and sometimes calligraphic manuscripts of the book are available in Iran, along with two incomplete copies.