مجله متن شناسی ادب فارسی
سال چهاردهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 55، پاییز 1401)

One of the texts of the pre-Naqashbandi period related to the Khwajagan period is a book entitled Maslak al-Arifin, the author of which is a person named Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad Bukhari or Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn As'ad Bukhari. This book is one of the most important sources for understanding the Khwajagan sect before the formation of the Naqshbandiyya and Baha'u'llah Muhammad Naqshband Dynasty (d. 791 AH), which has not been published yet. There were 2 reductions of this book: the short reduction included 17 chapters and the long reduction consisted of 23 chapters. In this article, besides introducing the book, its aspects of importance were shown. The most important information in Maslak al-Arifin was about the dynasties of Khawaja and its branches. In this work, there was a dispute between Ghijdiwani successors over vocal and silent dhikr, which showed how the Khwajagan dynasty was divided into two groups. Also, some Naqshbandiyya terms that were among the eight principles, such as "solitude in the society" and "travel in the homeland", were mentioned in this book. There was also a chapter entitled "Cloak", which give us unique information about the types of cloak colors and their suitability with the Sufi’s conditions. This research was based on a descriptive-analytical method accompanied by historical research.

The will is the first step in a mystical journey (here a journey of birds toward Simorgh, which is comparable with Phoenix). In the first step, birds are aware of the importance of finding Simorgh and having a king, but this primary awareness is in conflict with their current situations; thus, they face mental challenges and doubts. They are in a decision-making dilemma between what they have and what they want to have (Simorgh) which finally led to excuses, doubt, and inaction. The two main questions of this study are: 1) why do the birds reject to take a trip despite knowing the necessity of finding Simorgh? 2) Why is life without Simorgh meaningless? Theoretical foundations explained here mean the role of wisdom in acts and the relation of thought and emotion in the fulfillment of desires. Attar intended to illustrate that asking (quest) is a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition. Where there is a will, there is not a way necessarily and ambition has a key role in this regard. Some obstacles of the journey expressed include thought deficiency fear, avoiding risks, interests, pleasures, and habits. What is missing link in this stage is ambition. Lack of ambition is the main reason for the excuses of birds which is shown in birds’ speech with the recurring “enough” word as the motif.

Nafthat ol-Masdur is a historical-literary work of Shahabuddin Mohammad Zaidari Nasavi, which is written in the style of euphuism. One of the figures of speech that has been effective in the rhetoric of this book is ‘Equivoque’. One of its types is the ‘association of ideas’ which is one of the features of Nasavi's style. The present study intends to explore the rhetorical functions of the association of ideas in Nafthat ol-Masdur. The central questions of this research are: Can the association of ideas in Nafthat ol-Masdur be studied only in terms of traditional rhetoric at the sentence level or with the help of Structural stylistics? Is it possible to explore it in connection with the context? To answer the questions, first, 570 examples of the association of ideas were found. After examining them, we found that the association of ideas is sometimes only related to the sentence and sometimes is related to the context. It also makes the work more coherent and rhetorical, and ultimately helps to the brevity of the whole text. We have also examined the psychological dimension and found that there is a connection between the subject of lines and the frequency of the association of ideas.

Nozhat-Nameh Alaie is one of the most important ancient encyclopedias in the history of Persian literature that, due to its specific nature, is considered a multi-competent text and exposes the reader to a diverse number of genera. This text is composed of the knowledge of zoology, mineralogy, agriculture, astrology, history, geography, mythology and epic, talisman, insight, and so forth, which have been mixed with different popular customs and beliefs giving it a close resemblance to the Persian fantasy literature. Contrary to its significance, this text has been edited by Farhang Jahanpour and has been published without any endnote section. Despite using original and reliable manuscripts, this edition suffers from a lot of shortcomings. The present study takes a descriptive-analytical approach to edit and report a number of words, idioms, and phrases of Nozhat-Nameh Alaie. The main objective of the study is to edit a number of positions from the book on the basis of the original editor’s referred manuscripts, in order to further explain and analyze them with reference to other similar and corresponding texts. The results of the study show that although the original editor had access to dependable copies of manuscripts, lacking a definite methodology and criteria in editing the text, on one hand, and paying scares attention to the various knowledge of the text and its cultural backbone on the other hand, have led to many errors and shortcomings in Nozhat-Nameh Alaie. However, by reflecting on the manuscripts and referring to parallel and proper similar resources, these failures are rectifiable.

One of the prophetic biographers is Abdul Aziz, nicknamed Mohy Al-Hesari, who lived at the beginning of the ninth century and is not mentioned in any of the references. He is the author of the historical book Motamem al-siar fi Fazilateh Khair Albashar. The author, in addition to describing the outward and spiritual attributes of the Prophet, has accurately described the events of the beginning of Islam from the first year until the caliphate of Imam Ali. In this regard, the present study aims to investigate the biography of the Prophet in this work. In the introduction, Mohy Al-Hesari states that he wrote his work in twelve days, so the book is divided into twelve chapters. Each chapter contains an Arabic sermon and its Persian translation. A copy of this work is kept in Nour Othman Library No. 2854. The findings of the present study indicate that this work is important in terms of the subject matter as well as lexical features and lexical information. It is also an interpretive, historical, moral, and doctrinal work that has been cited in various sources along with their critiques. The antiquity of the work and its uniqueness have also added to its importance.

The analysis of the semantics/semiotics in literary texts is amongst new science that provides the readers with more perception and understanding. This research focused on new approaches to the aspects of interaction to open a new horizon of meanings for readers. The researcher studied semantics/semiotics and meanings based on the anecdote of Indian child servant and Sultan Mahmud in the 6th book of Masnavi. The research aimed to investigate the semiotics not only in a single way, but also in relation to the collection of other semiotics causing construction of meaning in interaction; meanwhile, the possibility and accessibility of character of the interaction was considered. The key point is that semiotics in an interactive process leads to meaning creation, artistic generation, and eloquence. Molana’s discourses entail dynamic characters. This research strongly aimed to investigate what happens in the circumstance of discourse, the process of evolution, and chaos in discourse, how the discourse change does result in dynamic meanings, and which discourse-base system outperforms the mythological base of it. Also, it was tried to find out which discourse approach further represented the mystical base of Masnavi-Maanavi. The research resulted in the impossibility of studying meaning regardless of its application in discourse, which shapes the flow of meaning creation.

Seyfi Neyshabouri, a 6th century literary man, has compiled the oldest complex of romantic letters known as "Rasāyel-ul-Oshāgh va Vasāyel-ul-Moshtāgh". He has provided one hundred letters in different subjects for all lovers to select their own oppropriate one and send it for their beloved. He has used of a way known as "sending convenants" (Ohud-e-Estersāl) to write friendly and romantic letters. The authors in this article have tried to introduce this work and, by referring to persian books on writing and composing techniques, especially those related to this work, discuss about the construction of letters included in it and its author's opinions on writing letters. Findings showed that Seyfi has composed letters by considering elements such as preface (including title, citing God's name (Tasmiyeh), introduction or "Sadrnāme", prayer for the Prophet and its family), main context (including a part referred to "Ammā Baad" and main text) and conclusion of the letter. In conclusion, he has suggested that one may delete Tasmīyeh and poet's name, if he/she want to send a letter for his beloved.