Persian Prose: A History of Persian Literature, Vol V

602 Pages·2021·5.954 MB·English

by  Bo Utas (editor)

A History of Persian Literature
Volume V
Volumes of A History of Persian Literature
I General Introduction to Persian Literature
II Persian Lyric Poetry in the Classical Era, 800–1500
Ghazals, Panegyrics and Quatrains
III Persian Narrative Poetry in the Classical Era, 800–1500
Romantic and Didactic Genres
IV Heroic Epic
The Shâh-nâme and its Legacy
V Persian Prose
VI Religious and Mystical Literature
VII Persian Poetry, 1500–1900
From the Safavids to the Dawn of the Constitutional Movement
VIII Persian Poetry in the Indian Subcontinent
Divans, Biographical Anthologies and Literary Criticism
IX Persian Literature from Outside Iran
The Indian Subcontinent, Anatolia, Central Asia, and in Judeo-Persian
X Persian Historiography
XI Literature of the Early Twentieth Century
From the Constitutional Period to Reza Shah
XII Modern Persian Poetry, 1940 to the Present
Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan
XIII Modern Fiction and Drama
XIV Biographies of the Poets and Writers of the Classical Period
XV Biographies of the Poets and Writers of the Modern Period; Literary
Terms
XVI General Index
Companion Volumes to A History of Persian Literature:
XVII Companion Volume I: The Literature of Pre- Islamic Iran
XVIII Companion Volume II: Oral Literature of Iranian Languages
Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi, Ossetic, Persian and Tajik
Anthologies:
XIX Anthology I: A Selection of Persian Poems in English Translation
XX Anthology II: A Selection of Persian Prose in English Translation
A HISTORY OF PERSIAN LITERATURE
Founding Editor—Ehsan Yarshater
Volume V
Persian Prose
Edited by
Bo Utas
Sponsored by
The Persian Heritage Foundation
&
The Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies,
Columbia University
I.B. TAURIS
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A History of Persian Literature
Editorial Board
Mohsen Ashtiany
J. T. P. de Bruijn
Dick Davis
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
Franklin Lewis
Paul Losensky

CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
INTRODUCTION (Bo Utas) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii
CHAPTER 1: A MEDIEVAL NEXUS: LOCATING
ENSHÂ’ AND ITS ONTOLOGY IN THE PERSIANATE
INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, 1000–1500 (Colin Mitchell) . 1
1.Locating Enshâ’ in the Formative Islamic Period
(8 th–11 th Centuries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.Continuity and Challenge: The Saljuq and Khwarazmian
Era (1100–1200) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Dastur-e dabiri by Mohammad b. Abd-al-Khâleq
Meyhani (d. ca. 576/1180) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Ketâb-e atabat al-katabe (compiled shortly after 528/1133)
by Montajab-al-Din Badi’ Joveyni . . . . . . . . 20
Al-Tavassol elâ’l-tarassol by Bahâ’-al-Din Mohammad
b. Mo’ayyed Baghdâdi (d. 588/1192) . . . . . . . . 24
Arâ’es al-khavâter va nafâ’es al-navâder by Rashid-al-
Din Vatvât (d. 578/1182–83) . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3. Innovative Impulses: The Mongol Era (1250–1400) . . . . . . 35
Rowzat al-kottâb va hadiqat al-albâb by Abu-Bakr
Ebn-al-Zaki Motatabbeb Qonavi (ca. 678/1279) . 35
Dastur al-kâteb fi ta’yin al-marâteb by Mohammad b.
Hendushâh Nakhjavâni (d. after 768/1366) . . . . 42
Tohfe-ye Jalâliyye (ca. 708–716/1308–1316) by Hakim-al-
Din Mohammad b. Ali al-Nâmus Khwâri . . . . 50
4.Retrenchment and Replication: The Timurid Period
(1400–1500) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Resâle-ye qavânin by Mo’in-al-Din Mohammad Zamchi
Esfezâri (d. 915/1510) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Mansha’ al-enshâ’ by Nezâm-al-Din Abd-al-Vâse’
Nezâmi Bâkharzi (d. 909/1503) . . . . . . . . . . 76
vii
PERSIAN PROSE
Makhzan al-enshâ’ by Hoseyn Vâ’ez Kâshefi
(d. 910/1504–5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Secondary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
CHAPTER 2: ADVICE LITERATURE (Louise Marlow) . . . . 97
1.Continuities and Interactions among the Pahlavi, Ara bic,
and Persian Advisory Literatures . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
2.Moralizing Sentences and Collections of Sententiae . . . . . 102
3. Collections of Narratives and Cycles of Stories . . . . . . . . 111
4. Mirrors for Princes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5. Ethical Treatises (Akhlâq) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
CHAPTER 3: RESÂLE, MAQÂLE, AND KETÂB:
AN OVERVIEW OF PERSIAN EXPOSITORY AND
ANALYTICAL PROSE (Ali Gheissari) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
1.Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Prose and Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
2.Classical and Formative Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Mystical and Meditative Prose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
3. Early Modern and Modern Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Philosophers after Molla Sadrâ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Religious Practical Tracts: Resâle-ye amaliyye . . . . . . . 190
Safavid and Qajar Epistolary Tracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Monsha’ât-e Soleymâni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Vajizat al-tahrir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Parvaz-e negâresh-e Pârsi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Post-Safavid Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Hâjj Mollâ Hâdi Sabzavâri and Asrâr al-hekam. . . . 198
Âqâ Ali Modarres Tehrâni’s Badâye’ al-hekam . . . . 199
Reform Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Mirzâ Yusof Khân Tabrizi’s Yak kaleme . . . . . . . . 202
viii