مجله متن شناسی ادب فارسی
سال سیزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 51، پاییز 1400)

There are anecdotes and stories about the spiritual transformation and repentance in Tazkirat al-Awliya which indicate that a gnostic person leaves sin and crime and starts  obedience and worship. This is seen in different aspects of Gnosticism. A gnostic repents in different aspects of Gnosticism such as obedience, hierarchy, position, situation, and even in its existence. This has caused to construct a broad range or awakening areas in this prominent mystical work. Besides, as mentioned by writers of gnostic texts, the  awakening areas in each position depends on an earlier position. So, the question of awakening, how it is realized, and how it is linked in mystical research is of great importance. This paper examines the nature of awakening, its extent, and its continuity in Tazkirat al-Awliya  through the library and documentary methods. The results show that awakening in Tazkirat al-Awliya anecdotes is not limited to the initiation of a mystical journey, but rather in all stages and aspects of the journey, and it has different areas each having different aspects, features, and effects in the journey. Without understanding these areas, it is not possible to analyze and explain the position of stages of the journey. 

One of the central issues in the field of Islamic mysticism is the issue of human excellence and perfection. This issue has been raised in the form of moving from negligence to consciousness and its transcendent levels. Movement in this interpretation means a departure from power to action, which is done gradually or repulsively. According to the mystics, when the light of knowledge enters the heart of a gifted person, such a person must start moving in the path of perfection and reach the path to God to reach his goal and desire. So, the movement towards perfection does not beginunless one changes spiritually in his current life and changes his path, which is used to entertain him to the world  and takes a new path. For this reason, it is not possible to enter the path of perfection and walk its steps except with vigilance and awakening. The reflection of this issue can be seen in the anecdotes of Tazkirat al-Awliya. At the beginning of the conduct, the seeker repents from the realm of sin and negligence and turns to the realm of the path, and upon entering the realm of the path, these awakenings are constantly repeated. The sum of these anecdotes explains the areas of awakening in Tazkirat al-Awliya which can be classified into five general areas: the area of ​​disbelief to faith and sin, disobedience to obedience, neglect to consciousness, absence to presence, and presence to perdition. Considering the position of reprimand in the field of Islamic mysticism, it seems that it merits more study . In the meantime, Tazkirat al-Awliya is the best source for explaining the nature of awakening and its continuation in the form of mystical anecdotes due to its importance in expressing the moods and words of the great Sufis. 

This research uses the library documentary method to draw a pattern of awakening areas in the stories of Attar Nishaburi’s Tazkirat al-Awliya, and the relationship of these areas with the mystical levels of the sect. For this purpose, first, a collection of topics from Persian mystical prose texts up to the seventh century AH was extracted and classified. Then, based on the views expressed in these texts, the nature of awakening, its levels as well as its continuity was explained in the anecdotes of Tazkirat al-Awliya.

The results of this study indicate that awakening in Tazkirat al-Awliya anecdotes is not limited to the initiation of a mystical journey, but rather in all stages and aspects of the journey. Also, awakening has different areas  each having different aspects, features, and effects in the journey. Without understanding these areas, it is not possible to analyze and explain the position of the stages of the journey . On the other hand, the analysis of awakening areas in the anecdotes of Attar's Tazkirat al-Awliya shows the necessity of the seeker's movement by using the topic of warning and awakening to the higher authorities and degrees of faith. In addition, theawakening as well as  the subsequent changes as the essence of conduct from the beginning of the path to the level that the seeker can achieve are influential in the course of human perfection.

Chahar Maghaleh or Majmaol Navader contains anecdotes, some of which are not found in any former sources. After Chahar Maghaleh, many books have mentioned anecdotes. Each text is somehow related to the texts before and after it in terms of whether the connection is direct or indirect, conscious or unconscious, and limited or unlimited. Understanding such connections helps us to better understand the text through its sources. ‘Dialogue and intertextuality’ is a theory examining the relationship between texts and works before and after them. Dialogue deals with the relationship between all systems of language, writing, image, etc., according to the social nature of human beings. Man's interest in history and the experience of the past for a better life is based on the intertextual characteristic. The present study examines the memoirs of the ninth century AH to determine the relationship among six biographies and Chahar Maghaleh. For this purpose, first, six ninth-century AH biographies were examined. The related memoirs were Majmal Fassihi, Tazkereh al-Shoara, Baharestan, and Roza al-Safa. Then the commonalities between them and Chahar Maghaleh in the fields of vocabulary/words, phrases or sentences, events, time, and places were examined. Among the ninth-century memoirs, four were related to Chahar Maghaleh in the areas under discussion, especially events.

The present research investigated the corrective damages of the text of Nuzhat Al-Oghul Fi Latifa Al-Fosol and presented various evidence and examples to prove this issue. Nuzhat Al-Oghul Fi Latifa Al-Fosol is written in prose on the subject of Islamic ethics and mysticism, by Abu Tahir Muhammad Bin Muhammad Yahya Aufi. This one-copy text has been corrected by Iraj Afshar and Javad Bashari. The basis of this research was a comparative critique of the work corrected with the original version, and similar examples of ancient texts have been mentioned in some cases to confirm and complete the correction of defective samples. Although the text is a single copy, and the editors have considered the texts’ margin effect as a copy, there are several correctional damages that the authors of the present study have to investigate. These damages are classified into several headings titles, including ignorance of the original version, ignorance of the metre of the verses, false meaning of verses, text extensions, text shortcomings, ignorance of the sentence structure, and such examples that have been obtained by matching the text of the book with the original version. Moreover, only the obvious errors of the work were examined to avoid the prosaic prolixity.

Nuzhat Al-Oghul Fi Latifa Al-Fosol is a single copy text (with serial No. 9084, Ayatollah Marashi Library) by an author named Abu Tahir Muhammad Bin Muhammad Yahya Aufi. Iraj Afshar says, "It is an unknown text" and has corrected it (see Afshar, 2011, p. 13). Little is known about the owner of Nuzhat. There is also doubt about the correctness of the author of the book. At the beginning of the book, some have called him "Al-Oumi" due to the author's name being distorted in the version (see Version: 1a). Afshar has corrected it as "al-Aufi" since the author of the Nuzhat Al-Oghul says about his uncle "Abd al-Rahman Auf" (see: Afshar, 2011, p. 167; manuscript: p. 110a).

The data collection method in the present research is the library and tacking note. In this research, the printed text of the book Nuzhat Al-Oghul Fi Latifa Al-Fosol was compared with the original version by the analytical-comparative method. Corrections in this text have been cited by matching the printed version and text to prove a more societal example of ancient texts in some cases.

This research has addressed the corrective damages in the following categories:Grammatical Errors: the ignorance of the grammar in some cases has caused corrective (criticism) damages. A sentence is presented in a position of the text, which is not grammatically correct. In Afshar's correction, it is stated, "Let each of us speak the truth, so that there was no wrong in it, which, by its blessings, will free us from this prison" (Afshar, 2011, p. 187). The verb "not being" is mentioned in the version, and the sentence ends with the same verb (see 120a). In the following, "be that" is the beginning of the following sentence, and that "be that" means hope that has been used, "Let each one speak the truth, as there is nothing wrong with it. May it really free us from this prison with its blessings" (Version: 120a). Damages of Pun and Saj: Due to the calligraphy of the version of Nuzhat Al-Oghul and continuity of words in prepositions, plural signs, compound words, and similar examples, pun and saj in this work need serious revision. Failure to pay attention to the connection of words with these devices destroys the artistic beauties of the work, mainly that they have been acquired by ancient calligraphy (see Jalali & Forouzandehfard, 2018, p. 108). In an example of Afshar's correction, it is stated, "He did not extend his hand and finger towards the bread" (Afshar, 2011, p. 106). In the version, "hand and finger did not extend towards the bread" is mentioned (Version: 71a). It is clear that the author's construction was creating punctuation between the two words of finger and towards the bread. The neglect of this critical matter has destroyed it in correction. Lack of attention to the metre in the poems: Persian metres are one of the things that the critic and the corrector can comment on decisively. Ignoring this vital point is sometimes misdiagnosed. In some parts of the text, the wrong correction has disturbed the verse’s metre and meaning (Afshar, 2011, pp. 44 and 175). Additionally, items such as text deficiencies, text redundancies, serious spelling mistakes that had a significant effect on correction, as well as grammatical errors, were examined. Examples of these damages were provided during the research. The most important achievement of this research is to prove the revision of the correction of the text of Nuzhat Al-Oghul Fi Latifa Al-Fosol.

The rhetoric figure of quotation is one of the eloquent and innovative methods of rhetoric in Marzbannameh providing a wide field for the author's rhetoric and subtleties. Varavini has used various capacities and types of this figure of speech to coordinate the expressions and beautify the words with emphasis on Qur’anic verses. Attention to the rhetoric figure of quotation is necessary to know the aesthetic and semantic details of Marzbannameh. Accordingly, this study deals with the aesthetics of this important literary figure of speech in this book using the descriptive-analytical method. The results of the study indicate that this figure in the Qur’anic verses is one of the most important features of the style and the most prominent aspects of the beauty of speech in Marzbannameh which has given it lexical and content richness leading to more cohesion, coherence, and conciseness of expressions. In most cases, Varavini intends to use more than one rhetoric figure of quotation of a verse and uses some of the prominent words of a surah or neighboring verses in the warp and woof of his expressions. Sometimes, using this figure of speech, he has established a connection between the common words of some verses in different suras, but with a related semantic context, and its result has been used in combining the words, expressions, or making similes, or metaphorical and allegorical combinations, etc. Many of the words of the rhetoric figure of quotation in Marzbannameh are indications of understanding the implications applied in the text.

Varavini’s Marzbannameh is one of the brilliant works of technical prose in the classical educational literature in the seventh century AH, and one of the important figures of speech that has been widely and variously used in this book with an effective role in the beauty of this book is the rhetoric figure of quotation. Among the advantages of the rhetoric figure of quotation is the indirect and implicit use of verses, narrations, poems, and the like. In addition to documenting his speech in the natural course of speech, the author leaves the comprehension of these items to the reader. The main purpose of this research is to conduct an aesthetic analysis and explain the way of processing the rhetoric figure of quotation and its functions as one of the special methods of rhetoric in Marzbannameh prose, and in the light of this knowledge, some textual nodes, as well as their implicit and semantic implications, are revealed.
The present study aims to answer the following research questions:
How is the rhetoric figure of quotation processed in Marzbannameh and what are its aesthetic aspects?
What are the functions of the rhetoric figure of quotation in Marzbannameh and can it be considered as one of the prominent and stylistic features in the prose of Marzbannameh?

The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical based on library resources. After studying the rhetorical resources about the rhetoric figure of quotation and extracting the salient features from the text of Marzbannameh, the author matched them with Quranic verses and then made an aesthetic analysis of this figure.

The rhetoric figure of quotation is one of the most technical literary techniques and the most prominent stylistic features in Marzbannameh. It is applied in two areas of words and meanings in two ways: in the first instance, the author extracts verses and hadiths, poetic verses, proverbs, etc. from the chain of the original order and rhyme and texture or structure of Arabic, and uses one or more prominent words of this text with the same word or derivatives and meanings of those words in organizing his prose phrase. In the second type, the author, by preserving the structure of the verse, hadith, etc., embarks on adapting, changing, omitting, and adding to its words. The rhetoric figure of quotation has provided the author with linguistic and lexical facilities for novelty and the construction of similes, metaphors, allusions, puns, etc. Among the various types of this figure of speech, the quotation from Quranic verses has been the focus of Varavini’s attention. Lack of attention to the widespread use of this figure of speech in Marzbannameh sometimes causes deficiencies or errors in the meanings of words and phrases. A better understanding of the meaning, the subtleties of choosing words, and the exact relationships and proportions between them are associated with paying attention to this figure of speech. The use of Quranic verses in Marzbannameh to organize phrases and construct similes, metaphors, and irony combinations can be seen at four different levels: 1) the use of salient words of a verse or several adjacent verses in a surah, 2) the use of prominent and frequent words from different verses of a surah, 3) the use of salient words of two or more related verses (often with verbal commonality) from different surahs and combining them, and 4) the use of verses and hadiths simultaneously. In Marzbannameh, sometimes the words of a verse or surah are used as the figure of quotation included in a relatively long distance in the vertical axis of each of the chapters. In addition to creating coherence to understand it, it is necessary to consider all the expressions of a chapter and realize the subtleties embedded in the text. This is one of the reasons why Varavini emphasizes reading from beginning to end to get the subtleties hidden in his words. When describing scenes and events or mentioning the personality traits of individuals and positive or negative moral actions and the ending of their actions, Varavini uses Quranic verses related to the mentioned cases and weaves the words of these verses within his phrases. This has led to the development of intentions and meanings in the text and the creation of a deep Quranic structure in the heart of the anecdotes. With the help of the rhetoric figure of quotation and expressing Quranic themes and narration, especially in educational topics and in the heart of anecdotes in the positive words of fictional characters, Varavini added to the content richness and eloquence of his speech and also conveyed moral messages to the reader implicitly and with more inductive power.

Atabat-ol-kataba is a book written by Montajab-o-ddin Badi'e Joveini which includes samples of administrative and court-related correspondence as well as friendly letters of the Sultan Sanjar Saljuqi era. The book was edited and published in 1950 by Allameh Ghazvini and Eghbal Ashtiani based on a photo version of the book as the only existing version of the work in question. It was also reprinted in 2005. A re-edited version of the book including an index and commentaries has recently been published in 2017 by Maryam Sadeghi. She  has resorted to a comparative method based onthe version published by Ghazvini and Eghbal. The present paper aims to explore Sadeghi's method of editing and correcting and to criticize some shortcomings with her work as opposed to Ghazvini and Eghbal’s edition. The findings indicate that in spite of correcting several errors resulting from typesetting in Ghazvini and Eghbal’s work, when it comes to refining the text itself, Sadeghi has frequently deviated from the comparative methodology and has rather made subjective corrections. As a result, in many cases, she has changed Ghazvini and Eghbal’s correct choices on the basis of her own taste and subjective perception and has entered huge mistakes into the text. The paper examines some cases of such arbitrary changes.

The unique manuscript version of Atabat-ol-kataba belongs to the National Library of Egypt. A photo of the manuscript was transferred to Iran in 1931 by Allameh Mohammad Ghazvini and was edited and published in 1950 by the attempts of  Abbass Eghbal Ashtiani with an introduction by Allameh Ghazvini. The book was reprinted in 2005 by Asatir Publications in the form of an equally copied offset. Apart from this edition in which there have been some typos and shortcomings with the edition, no one re-edited Atabat-ol-kataba until 2017 when Maryam Sadeghi managed, once again, to re-edit and publish it by Negah-e Mo’aser Publications. Since she believes that “the text edited by Ghazvini is so incomplete and insufficient and does not provide a critically edited text and, thus, it cannot be profitable for the readers” (Joveini, 2017, p. 15), she has nictitated herself to re-edit the text in question so that “a totally edited and adorned text can be made available to readers” (Ibid, p. 66). Reprinting and re-editing scholarly works typically aim at reviewing and disambiguating the previous prints as well as approaching the written manuscripts of the respective authors as closely as possible. In the works edited on the basis of a comparative methodology, such a mission imposes on the editors a doubled responsibility and undertaking. While in the comparative methodology, the editor is allowed to make use of his/her own guessing capabilities, such guesses cannot be effective, if he/she is not trained in the areas of text research and knowledge of texts and if he/she is not attentive to linguistic, semantic, thematic, historical, and cultural issues and evidence within the work in question or other works of the era under investigation. Moreover, “some contemporary editors have regretfully confused the comparative methodology with arbitrary edition and have made their own arbitrary non-scientific changes under the title comparative edition” (Jahanbakhsh, 2011, p. 32). Since the re-edition of Atabat-ol-kataba has been made through a comparative method, it is necessary to explore the editor’s proposed choices and compare the cases of difference with their counterpart choices in the previous edition. Such comparisons could be useful both for the readers of the book and the upcoming editors in their further re-editions in the future.

As Sadeghi has based her edition of Atabat-ol-kataba on the basis of the printed edition by Ghazvini-Eghbal, this research also resorts to a comparison between Ghazvini-Eghbal’s edition and Sadeghi’s edited version through an analytical-descriptive methodology by making references to library resources. In the present study, after making the above-mentioned comparison, Sadeghi’s proposed choices have been contrasted against choices adopted by Ghazvini-Eghbal as the base version, and cases where Ghazvini-Eghbal’s adoptions have been preferable but Sadegi has mistakenly changed them, have been studied one by one under the title ‘Errors in the Edition of the Text’ along with an analysis of each and every item. So, an attempt has been made in analyzing the texts comparatively by making references to a wide variety of evidence from other comparable texts of the era in question as well as evidence from the text of the book under discussion. Furthermore, certain errors made in Ghazvini-Eghbal’s edition which have been well-discovered by Sadeghi but have not been rightly corrected by her are presented under the title ‘The Author’s Proposals’.

In her re-edition of Atabat-ol-kataba, Sadeghi has divided the book into three sections: ‘introduction’, ‘description of the text’, and ‘indices’. In the second section, she has edited the text of the book. A critical review of the ‘description of the text’, the typos, and editorial shortcomings with her work requires separate research. The present research aims at answering the following question: To what extent has Sadeghi been successful in her comparative edition of Atabat-ol-kataba and in presenting a well-edited text? The study has come up with the conclusion that she has managed to discern and resolve certain typos in Ghazvini-Eghbal’s edition but when it comes to her critical edition of the text, for several times, she has acted subjectively and has mistakenly changed the correct choices according to her own taste and subjectivity, despite the fact that she has labeled her method a ‘comparative methodology’. The present paper refers to some of these editorial errors so that the final outcome may be of some help both to potential readers of the book and to upcoming editors who may wish to re-edit the book in the future.

Moʼinoddin Farahi Heravi, nicknamed Moʼin/Moʼini, is a poet, artist, jurist, and commentator of the Holy Qur’an in the second half of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth century AH. The divan attributed to him was corrected in 2016 by Beheshti Shirazi. The purpose of the present study is to review  Farahi Heravi’s  divan in terms of the quality of correction and authenticity of poems. Unfortunately, due to the inaccuracy and little knowledge of the scribers, the existence of other poets with the nicknam Moin/Moini, the datelessness and recency of the corrected manuscripts, and the lack of precision in proofreading and  examining the authenticity of poems attributed to the poet, poems of several poets have found their way into his divan. Such poems are related to the poets before, contemporary, and after him. In this study, an attempt has been made to examine this work in terms of the quality of edit and authenticity of poems. Also, the poems of other poets who have found their way to his divan have been identified. To help the esteemededitor to eliminate the shortcomings of the work and complete the existing shortcomings, a revised and documented text of the poems of this valuable Iranian thinker and a vague corner of Persian poetry of the ninth and tenth centuries are presented.

Moʼinoddin Farahi Heravi, known as Molla Meskin, is an Iranian poet, preacher, jurist, and artist. He was contemporary of Soltan Hossein Bayqara and Amir Alishir Navaʼie. His father-- Sharafoddin Mohammad Farahi-- was also a poet. Although there are Sufi thoughts in his lyric poems, his connection with any Sufi dynasty is not clear. Haji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zonun states that 14 works are attributed to him that apart from Divan, Hadaiq al-Haqaiq and Gesase Musa, only Ma'arej al-Nobowa fi Madarej al-Fotowa, which is the biography of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), has been published several times in India. His divan has been published several times in India and Pakistan and once in Iran under the title of Moin Cheshti (d. 633). Another research is the correction of Moʼinoddin Farahi Heravi's Divan by Seyyed Ahmad Beheshti Shirazi, published by Rowzaneh Publications in 2016. Compared to the previous editions of Moʼinoddin Cheshti's Divan, this Divan has 31 exceptions, 31 couplets, 52 fragments, and 66 quatrains, and has not been reprinted after its first edition in recent years. This publication is the basis of the present study.

The present study was done using a library method and written documents of libraries and analyzing their content and comparing them with the contents of Farahi Heravi's divan. An attempt is made to investigate the authenticity of poems attributed to Heravi by referring to authoritative literary and historical texts, memoirs, anthologies, selected poems, recent articles and books related to Farahi Heravi’spoetry and life, tracing his poems in contemporary texts of the poet (before and after the poet's era), the findings of other poets (about 18 poets), as well as corrected mistakes in determining the format of poems and recording some verses with documents.

In this divan, some poems with the inaccuracy of the scribes and incorrect editing are repeated in two different poetic forms. The proofreader has obvious mistakes in correctly recognizing the format of some poems. Moʼinoddin Farahi Heravi's Divan, despite the efforts of the esteemed proofreader, needs to be reviewed and re-edited due to the poems of 18 other poets, so that the poems of other poets are removed from the body of the Divan and the poems are properly placed in special formats. The misprinting Farahi Heravi's poems by Moʼin Cheshti in India and Pakistan, mere corrective adherence to the manuscripts he uses, which are mainly of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AH, failure to trace the poems in manuscripts in other authentic texts, as well as inserting poems from three Farahi Heravi's works (Hadaiq al-Haqaiq, Qesas Musa and Ma'arej al-Nobowa) especially in couplets and quatrains in the Divan can be the reasons for such wrong mixes. Due to the presence of some of Farahi Heravi's poems in other texts, such as the ‘resaleye Akhlage noori’, which do not have the text of the printed divan, it can be said that the present divan does not include all the poet's poems. It has a review, completion, ornamentation, and re-edition.