The Prince and the Sufi The Judeo-Persian Rendition of the Buddha Biographies (Brill Reference Library of Judaism, 62)

328 Pages·2020·2.151 MB·English

by  Dalia Yasharpour

ThePrinceandtheSufi
The Brill Reference Library
of Judaism
Editors
AlanJ.Avery-Peck(CollegeoftheHolyCross)
WilliamScottGreen(UniversityofMiami)
EditorialBoard
HerbertBasser(Queen’sUniversity)
BruceD.Chilton(BardCollege)
JoséFaurZ”l(NetanyaCollege)
NeilGillmanZ”l(JewishTheologicalSeminaryofAmerica)
MayerI.Gruber(Ben-GurionUniversityoftheNegev)
IthamarGruenwald(TelAvivUniversity)
ArkadyKovelman(MoscowStateUniversity)
BaruchA.Levine(NewYorkUniversity)
AllanNadler(DrewUniversity)
JacobNeusnerZ”l(BardCollege)
MarenNiehoff(HebrewUniversityofJerusalem)
GaryG.Porton(UniversityofIllinois)
AviezerRavitzky(HebrewUniversityofJerusalem)
DovSchwartz(BarIlanUniversity)
GünterStemberger(UniversityofVienna)
MichaelE.Stone(HebrewUniversityofJerusalem)
ElliotR.Wolfson(UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara)
volume 62
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/brlj
The Prince and the Sufi
TheJudeo-PersianRenditionof
theBuddhaBiographies
By
DaliaYasharpour
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Coverillustration:PaintingbyRuthYasharpour.ManuscriptcopyofThePrinceandtheSufifromprivate
collection.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Yasharpour,Dalia,author.|ElīshaʻbenShmūel,active17thcentury.
ShahzādehvaSufi.English.|ElīshaʻbenShmūel,active17thcentury.
ShahzādehvaSufi.Judeo-Persian.
Title:ThePrinceandtheSufi:theJudeo-PersianrenditionoftheBuddha
biographies/byDaliaYasharpour.
Othertitles:ShahzādehvaSufi.English.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,[2021]|Series:TheBrillreferencelibraryof
Judaism,1571-5000;volume62|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2020041408(print)|LCCN2020041409(ebook)|
ISBN9789004442740(hardback)|ISBN9789004442757(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:ElīshaʻbenShmūel,active17thcentury.ShahzādehvaSufi.|Elīshaʻ
benShmūel,active17thcentury–TranslationsintoEnglish.|Elīshaʻben
Shmūel,active17thcentury–Criticismandinterpretation.|Judeo-Persian
literature.
Classification:LCC PJ5089.Y372021(print)|LCC PJ5089(ebook)|
DDC892.7/14–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020041408
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020041409
TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface.
ISSN1571-5000
ISBN978-90-04-44274-0(hardback)
ISBN978-90-04-44275-7(e-book)
Copyright2021byDaliaYasharpour.PublishedbyKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillNVincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopi,
BrillSense,HoteiPublishing,mentisVerlag,VerlagFerdinandSchöninghandWilhelmFinkVerlag.
KoninklijkeBrillNVreservestherighttoprotectthispublicationagainstunauthorizeduse.Requestsfor
re-useand/ortranslationsmustbeaddressedtoKoninklijkeBrillNVviabrill.comorcopyright.com.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations viii
TransliterationfromPersianandArabictoEnglish ix
Introduction:ThePoet,HisWorks&LiteraryAnalysisoftheJP
Composition 1
1 TheJPPoetintheContextofHistory 1
2 Compositions 9
3 TheBuddhaBiographiesandTheirTransmission 19
4 TheHebrewRenditionandItsConnectiontotheJPComposition 23
5 OtherLiteraryPrecedents 27
6 Genre 34
7 MajorThemesandMotifs 38
8 Structure 44
9 Language 49
10 Manuscripts 53
TheJudeo-PersianTextof ShahzādehvaSufi
TransliterationSystemfortheEditedText 59
EditedText 60
TheAnnotatedEnglishTranslation 159
Bibliography 295
Index 314

Acknowledgments
Aversionofthepresentstudywassubmittedin2005totheDepartmentofNear
EasternLanguagesandCultures,UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngelesasadoc-
toraldissertation.MyDissertationChair,ProfessorHosseinZiai,hadavision
ofcreatingacenterforthestudyofJudeo-Persianthatwouldattractstudents
and scholars to the University; with his untimely passing, it languished. It is
myhopethatthecompletionofthisworkcontributesinsmallparttooffering
studentsandscholarsmoreaccesstoJPprimarysources.
Withouttheunwaveringsupportof myhusband,MichaelCantor,Iwould
nothavebeenabletoproducethiswork;Idedicateittohim.
As a graduate student, I worked with ProfessorYona Sabar to produce an
English translation of the Hebrew rendition. Professor David Yeroushalmi
guided my Judeo-Persian graduate studies. I received feedback on the new
EnglishtranslationfromProfessorWheelerThackston.Thesescholarsarelong
time mentors and I am grateful to them for their overwhelming generosity.
Overtheyears,Ireceivedvaluablefeedbackontheworkfrommanyprofessors
includingVeraB.Moreen,AmnonNetzer,ShaulShaked,andSarahSoroudi.
Thesamemanuscriptswereconsultedhereashadbeenforthedissertation.
Onceagain,IgratefullyacknowledgeMr.EhsanMisaghianofLosAngeles,The
BenZviInstituteof Jerusalem,TheHebrewUniversityof JerusalemNational
LibraryandTheLibraryoftheJewishTheologicalSeminary,NewYorkforpro-
vidingmewithaccesstomanuscriptshousedintheircollections.Ihadnothad
theopportunitytovisittheJewishTheologicalSeminaryinNewYorkandthe
HebrewUnionCollegeinCincinnatibeforesubmittingthedissertation;Iam
gratefulforhavingvisitedsince.AccesstomanuscriptsatHarvardUniversity
duringmyyearsofteachingtherealsoprovedvaluable.Ithankallthelibrarians
whofacilitatedmystudyoftheseandrelatedmanuscripts.
Abbreviations
AI ActaIranica
AJS AmericanJewishSociety
AO ActaOrientalia
Ar. Arabic
BL BritishLibrary
BSOAS BulletinoftheSchoolofOriental&AfricanStudies
BZI BenZviInstitute,Jerusalem
EI EncyclopaediaofIslam
EJ EncyclopaediaJudaica
Heb. Hebrew
HU HebrewUniversityofJerusalemNationalLibrary
IA IranicaAntiqva
IJMES InternationalJournalofMiddleEasternStudies
IOS IsraelOrientalStudies
IR Irano-Judaica
JAOS JournaloftheAmericanOrientalSociety
JE JewishEncyclopedia
JNES JournalofNearEasternStudies
JP Judeo-Persian
JPSA JewishPublicationSocietyofAmerica
JQR JewishQuarterlyReview
JR JournalofReligion
JRAS JournaloftheRoyalAsiaticSociety
JSAI JerusalemStudiesinArabic&Islam
JSIS JournaloftheSocietyforIranianStudies
JTS JewishTheologicalSeminary,NewYork
KS KiryatSefer
MS Manuscript
MSS Manuscripts
OS OrientaliaSuecana
PAAJR ProceedīngsoftheAmericanAcademyofJewishResearch
Per. Persian
RASM RoyalAsiaticSocietyMonograph
REJ RevuedesÉtudesJuives
SBB StudiesinBibliography&Booklore
VT VetusTestamentum
ZDMG ZeitschriftderDeutschenMorgenlandischenGesellschaft
Transliteration from Persian and Arabic to English
ItcorrespondstoIJMES,exceptforshortvowels.ForHebrewtoEnglish,Iused
theLibraryofCongress.
Consonants
Persian Arabic Persian Arabic
ء ’ ص ṣ
ب b ض ż ḍ
پ p ط ṭ
ت t ظ ẓ
ث s̱ th ع ‘
ج j غ gh
چ ch ف f
ح ḥ ق q
خ kh ك k
د d گ g
ذ ẕ dh ل l
ر r م m
ز z ن n
ژ zh و v w
س s ه h
ش sh ى y
Vowels
Long Diphthong Short
Persian Arabic Persian Arabic Persian Arabic
ا ā و aw َ_ a
و ū ى ay ُ_ o u
ى ī ِ_ e i
هfinal eh ah