Some remarks on Italo Pizzi s Manuale della Lingua Persiana

Transcription

1 Some remarks on Italo Pizzi s Manuale della Lingua Persiana Riccardo Zipoli Italo Pizzi ( ) was an Italian who worked on Iranian Studies in Italia. He introduced this field of studies in Italia for the first time and in this regard he can be named as the founder of Iranian Studies. He learnt Persian and some other Iranian languages by himself. His rich output on Persian and other Iranian languages are divided in two different categories: a technical production providing essential teaching tools (handbooks, grammars, histories of literature and anthologies); his work as a translator and populariser of Persian literary texts. Among his initial major works is Manuale della lingua persiana ( Handbook of the Persian Language ), which consists of a short grammatical compendium, an anthology of excerpts (with some translations) and a Persian- Italian vocabulary. 270

2 Rubrics and chapter headings in texts of the Shahnameh 271 Charles Melville Iraj Afshar spent a lifetime on different fields of Persian history and culture. He also worked on manuscripts and codicology. Included in this is the publication of facsimile editions of important texts, not least the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. In this work, Melville wants to focus on rather a neglected aspect of manuscript production, namely the rubrics and headings incorporated into the text, concentrating particularly on the story of Forud in the Shahnameh. In modern printed editions of the text of Ferdowsi s Shahnameh, where one episode or story ends and the next begins, this is not always clear in the manuscript copies of the work. In fact, some stories, follow seamlessly from the one before, with no indication of a break, such as would be marked by a rubric or text heading, while others may be marked by headings that use a variety of titles, and often may not be placed at the same point in the text

3 Illustration of the Alleged Prophetic Remainings in Ottoman Illustrative Supplications Ahmad Khameyar Of the remainings of the late Ottoman Empire are collections of supplications known as Duanamah in which the alleged remainings of the Prophet are illustrated. The manuscripts of these supplications belong to 19 th century A.D. onwards, and their illustrations are accessible via the digital facilities of the libraries. Khameyar divides the illustrations into five groups so that he may have an illustrative brief on them: the illustration of the Prophet s footsteps, his sandals, his palm, his sword known as Zulfiqar, and his other belongings. As Muhammad s footsteps are found in different Near Eastern cities as well as some Indian cities while 9 others are in Istanbul, the right footstep is drawn mostly illuminated on a separated page. In fact, His sandals have been noticed more so that Sunni scholars would have composed treatises on them and some pairs reportedly exist in Damascus, Morocco, Ardabil, Lahore and Istanbul. Sandals have mostly been illustrated on pages across the footsteps with illuminated backgrounds. Unlike footsteps and sandals, there hardly remain palm steps with only two traces in Medina and Aleppo illustrated on a separate page. Still is Zulfiqar that only one exists in Topkapi Museum, Istanbul. Khameyar s paper is finished with presentation of 14 illustrations of the alleged prophetic remainings. 272

4 Introducing the editions of "Gharayeb al-hadith" and "Adab Al-khalq Al-Nabi" in the library of Leiden University, Netherland 273 Kianoush Motaghedi In Iran s history of art, no doubt, art of the fifth century A.H. is one of the most prominent and flourishing era of art in various fields such as architecture, metalworking, Book making, and pottery... that its impact can be observed in the next centuries. By a research on schools and Book making methods, it will be determined that this art has been developed in Seljuq and Ghaznavid era more than any other time. In this opportunity two major editions will be introduced which were preserved in the library of Leiden University. By the establishment of Ghaznavid dynasty, Khorasan became one of the major centers of cultural and artistic activities. During this period and by interaction and integration between the old methods in the region (Sasanian and Manichaean) and the ones of western lands (specially Baghdad school), the arts such as calligraphy and illuminated manuscript in Khorasan school have been evaluating continuously. Later by the advent of the paper in the middle of second century A.H., to copy production field, the structure of Book making art underwent major changes in Iran. In a visit to the library, the editions were examined and described as follow: the book Gharayeb al-hadith by Abu Ubayd Al- Qasim Ibn Sallam (252 A.H.) and the book Adab Al-Khalq Al-Nabi by Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Abi Rafi Al-Warraq in the fifth century A.H. In the final section the artist family, Warraq Ghaznavid and their works will be presented.

5 Comparison of writing the word Mohammad written in nastaliq from Timurid to Qajar dynasty Mohammad Reza Amouzad Mahdiraji The word Mohammad was always noteworthy for Muslims, as one of the names of the Prophet and his name and titles has been used frequently in many contexts and prayers. Some people choose the name Mohammad for their children; thus, this word entered in Persian and Arabic texts as well as colophons. Holy name of Mohammad has appeared in several calligraphy works. Nastaliq calligraphers are not an exception to this rule and express their devotion by calligraphing various pieces relating to the Prophet. To examine the word Mohammad in nastaliq, some works were chosen of different periods representatives; Mir Ali Heravi, Mir Emad Hassani, Mirza Gholam Reza Esfahani and Mirza Mohammad Reza Kalhor were chosen as calligraphers of Timurid, Safavid and Qajar era so that the word Mohammad is surveyed in their works. 274

6 Invocative Music to Bayezid II 275 Ahmad Sadri If Muslim mystic s ideas on Music is to be known, the book Rawzah al-arifin (the Garden of the Mystic) would be a valuable source, esp. its sixth chapter. Sadri brings the chapter under title of Sama namah, with introduction on its importance as well as introducing Bayezid II, the treatise and research method. What comes next is Bayezid s ideas there. Sultan bayezidi criticizes the jurists who are against Sufism first, considering Sama as a distinctive feature of Sufists, and then jurisprudentially differentiates between haram (forbidden) and halal (permissible) Sama. Doing this, he denounces the former and those indulged in it on the one hand, and regards misuse of such dhikr rooted in the history of Sufism on the other. Adjusting his orientation to the halal Sama, he starts to mention its advantages: first, it relieves the fatigue happened to the worshipers; second, if an obstacle arises throughout one s move to spirituality, nice music may remove it; third, through Sama can open up one s ear to reality. The seventh section is devoted to the etiquettes of Sama; making one s intention sincere, avoiding to cheat others by pretending something unreal, and watching not to make others disbelieve in the elite Sufists by committing sins against one s pious appearance.

7 Nafisi s Proposal to provide a Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts across the World Mohammad Abdoli What made us to look back at Nafisi s proposal to the Iranian Academy on cataloguing the Persian works abroad was a document consisting of 16 pages dating from 1935 to 1937 preserved in the National Iranian Archive. Abdoli starts his paper with Nafisi s eagerness to collect Persian manuscripts, and proves it through two evidences: first, the fact that the majority of his works are majored in this field, and second, what his close friend, Isa Saddiq, narrates on their journey to India. Those 16-page document consist of nafisi s proposal and the letters sent to and from the Academy, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 2 years. The final letter is sent by the Ministry of Culture to the Academy listing 10 catalogues of the Persian manuscripts in Turkey, Egypt, Russia and India. In this paper, 9 letters preserved in the 16-page document is listed, their text is given and the picture of Nafisi s proposal and the final letter is included. 276

8 Avesta Manuscripts by Mobad Hooshangi (4140YL), Yeganegi Library and identification of Yasna manuscript scribe in Jamshid Sorooshian Library 277 Bahram Boroumand Mobad Hooshangi s Avesta manuscript is a newly founded version, which was bestowed on Professor Alberto Cantera by Afshin Sohrabi in 2011, and he donated the manuscript to Yeganegi Library. This manuscript is well preserved and contains a colophon which has a great importance. The old graphological comparisons of manuscripts scribe, Dastur Tiran Jamasp, with Yasna manuscript scribe of Jamshid Sorooshian s library that we were unaware of the scribe s name and year of scribing because of not having colophon, clarify the information about the scribe. By the obtained information, plotting the family tree and finding the position of each scribe will be possible.

9 Gold-Plated Marquetry (Moaraq) Ali Safari Aq Qal eh In 2011, the book entitled as Nuskheh Shenakht (Codicology) was published by Ali Safari Aq- Qal eh. According to the late Iraj Afshar, it was the second textbook in the field of codicology. The author tried to explore the terminology of this field as it was in the cultural geography of Iran so that he could examine the terminology outside this realm in separate papers later; this paper is one of them. What persuaded Safari to study the terminology of this field has been the fact that he regards outdating of the terms as the most severe challenge and thinks the sole solution is to refer to the side-notes of the manuscripts. Gold-Plated Marquetry is of such sophisticated terms that is a method of designing the interior front cover of books. The method is a combination of two other designing methods; it is best commented by the side-notes of two manuscripts: first, a note on the starting page of Divan poetry of Hafiz in Heidelberg University and second, on the manuscript of Lawayih and Lawami by Jami the poet, in The Walters Art Museum. Both these manuscripts belong to the tenth century A.H.; Safari attests that the majority of the gold-plated manuscripts belong to that era. Two other samples also are mentioned: one is a script of Panj Ganj of Nezami in Iran-bastan Museum and the other that of Golestan and Bustan of Sa di in Munich. 278

10 Kurdish Shanamehs 279 Nader Karimian Sardashti Shahnameh storytelling in Kurdish literature is one of the prominent and valuable cases in literary epic heritage and Iranian culture and civilization, because the outcome of this common heritage has been very fruitful for both Persian and Kurdish literature. According to Ibn al-asir Kurd al-jazari, Shahnameh originated in Kurdish oral literature by the name of Qur an Ajam. Afterwards, it was translated to arabic for the first time in the era of Kurdish Ayyubid with the recommendation of Malek Moazzam Ayyubi. Later, Kurdish poets, imitating and adopting Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, composed many Kurdish Masnavis which were mostly in Gorani Kurdish dialect and the summit of composing these Masnavis belong to the period of Afsharids. Khana Pasha Ghobadi, Almas Khan Konoulei, Mostafa Gorani and some Anonymous poets created the works. Shahnameh storytelling in Kurdish literature either in the terms of historical & mythological characters and stories and legends, or the ancestry and descent and cultural patterns of local and regional folklore, are influenced by culture and customs and Kurdish culture and literature. In this research the characteristics of some Kurdish Shahnameh manuscripts are identified and reported.

11 Terminology of Bookmaking in Mir at al-istilah Hamidreza Ghelich Khani Mir at al-istilah is a dictionary belonging to the 19 th century A.D. that includes lots of technical terms in the fields of bookmaking, calligraphy and book designing, and is important stylistically and calligraphically. Its author is Ray Anand Ram under the pseudonym of as Mukhlis who died in 1164 A.H. He finished writing the book 7 years prior to his death. After Dr. Ghelich-khani published the book in the late 2013, he excluded a list of bookmaking terms and related arts in this paper to provide such list of 176 entries. To do this, in the beggining he introduces the author and then gives a brief description of the term, followed by the extract of the epilogue of the book to have us be familiar with the aim of the book from the author s tongue directly. The manuscripts based on which the book has been documented are the one in Khodabakhsh library in Panta, India, that of Punjab University s library in Lahore, Pakistan, and of British Museum in London. The first manuscript is selected as the base one. The additional insertions enclosed in square brackets are by Ghelich Khani; besides, unlike the manuscripts themselves, the entries are ordered alphabetically; moreover, a sample page from each manuscript is also brought to make the readers visually familiar with them. The entries are followed by a brief description and occasionally by poem excerpts, hints, biographies, comments as well as verses by Anand Ram himself. The bibliography of this paper includes 9 Farsi sources and 2 English ones; 3 out of 9 Farsi ones are those manuscripts of Mir at al-istilah and one of the English ones is its English translation by Tasneem Ahmad. 280

12 The Prophet s Seal and his Name on it 281 Mohammad-Javad Jeddi The most ancient seal in the history of Islam goes back to that of the Prophet. To begin with, Jeddi talks about the drive behind its emergence considering different narrations in that regard; in so doing he brings a picture of Prophet s letter to Muqwaqis, a Coptic official, which was found in 1858 and enclosed by Mohammad s seal. Reportedly, the seal was fallen in well by Ottoman, the third caliph, so what is held in Topkapi Museum in Istanbul cannot be the Prophet s. According to Jeddi, the Prophet s seal is different from the Stamp of Prophethood (Muhr e Nubuwwat); the latter was an in-born sign on Mohammad s shoulder which has been manifested in the artistic works and Shi ite narrations to a great extent. The following three discussions are the carved golden and silver rings of the Prophet whose usage was banned by him afterwards, the term Muhr (seal) in the noble Quran, and the impact of Prophet s seal on the seals of the upcoming Muslim generations. Regarding the last discussion, some poems, Qajarite seals and carved seals of the other people are brought as pictures.