A Critical Reflection on Habib Yaghmaei’s Edition of Asadi Toossi’s Garshasbnamah

AbstractIf we consider the fame and popularity of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh as the first and most important reason for the anonymity of Toussi’s Grashasbnamah, the second reason for this oblivion must have something to do with the only existing edition of this literary work. Garshasbnameh was first completely edited and published by Habib Yaghmai in 1938. This edition has some problems. By comparing manuscripts that Yaghmai used in the process of editing as well as the newly-found ones, we seek to analyze and criticize the methodology and result of Yaghmai's edition and provide some suggestions. The findings of this research shows that the editor deviated many times from his declared method. Sometimes he did not mention textual variants, and in some cases textual variants were given partly. Also, shifting of the copy-text and other textual variants from text to margin is sometimes unjustified. In addition, the edition lacks comprehensive, useful, enlightening and guiding commentaries.