Methodological and semantic reflections on the recognition of Sira by Afifi

"Sira of 'Afifi" by Afif al-Din Muhammad Kazeruni is a Persian translation of the book al-Muntaqa by his father, Sa'id al-Din Kazeruni. These two works, which were written in an eight-year duration by two famous Persian Sunni narrators and biographers in the eighth century in the age of Muzaffari Empire and during the rule of Amir Mubariz al-Din Muhammad contain a great legacy of the narrations of the Prophetic tradition, which still in the form of a manuscript and have not been corrected or printed anywhere yet. This study aimed to recognize Sira of 'Afifi as one of the famous Islamic works in the biography of the Prophet (Sira) and its textual implications for achieving documented information on one main family in the Iran-Islamic culture and civilization.

With historical explanation and textual analysis, this study deals with the introduction and semantics of Sira of 'Afifi. This study was a library review in data collection, descriptive in introducing Kazeruni and 'Afifi and analytical in studying their Siras methods.

'Afifi selected narrations in narrators' methods and restructured the Sira in a historical story approach. Despite his previous biographers, he attempted to write his work based on evidence. It appears that he tried to recreate the tradition for clarifying the right religious way as possible in order to prevent religious and political dispersion of 8th century's Iran and bring it into the predominant thinking of Shi'aism Sunna as the heritage of Sufism. The work has been published many times and cited by Shi'a and Sunni scholars that show its acceptance and deep influence on Shi'as and Sunnies. One of the important components of this work is the revival of the Persian writing tradition and the tendency of literature and thought towards massism, the spread of Sufi literature and the unifying Shiite Sunni discourse that have formed the main themes of this work.In addition, in the context of research, important issues in the field of recognizing the author's family, his other scientific works, comparisons between translations in line with this work, style of choosing words as a translation, etc. are discussed briefly.

Sira of 'Afifi quickly gained attention in the fields of knowledge of the Islamic world during its time and afterward. As a new adaptation of al-Muntaqa and one of the most important works in writing Persian biographies, Sira of 'Afifi is a rich work in the biography of the Prophet extracted from missed works. Many translations and copies of the work in other languages worldwide show its influence in 8th and 9th centuries. As a work in rhetoric Persian, the work has been written based on methods by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn-Hisham that is a reproduction of Shia Sufism's biographical writing tradition. As a third Sira book in Persian, the work has a historical placement and instructive approach written by a Sunni narrator and as a glorious work from the middle age and al-Muzaffar Empire with linguistic and narrative values.