PERSICA XIX, 2003 A TREASURY FROM TABRIZ: A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT CONTAINING 209 WORKS IN PERSIAN AND ARABIC* A.A. Seyed-Gohrab 1. INTRODUCTION This article is an introduction to a newly published facsimile edition of a rather unique miscellany containing 209 titles both in Arabic and Persian. The first paragraphs of the article are devoted to various physical aspects of the manuscript and palaeography, as well as the copyist’s life and work. The remaining paragraphs introduce the manuscript’s con- tents in a thematic way, beginning with literary works, followed by religious sciences, phi- losophy and cosmographical texts. The manuscript is written on light brown Oriental paper. It contains 368 folios (734 numbered pages in the facsimile edition), measuring ca. 320 x 190 mm (reproduced in the facsimile edition in a uniform format of 310 x 215 mm). The written area covers ca. 200 x 185 mm, with 41 lines to the page in a varying layout. The quires are numbered, with a few numbers still visible. The manuscript originally belonged to Mirza MuÌammad-¨Ali Tafrishi, better known as Ma¨adin al-Mulk. The library of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis- i Showra-yi Islami) in Tehran bought this miscellany in 1995 and is now preserved under the number 14590. No information is provided in the introduction to the facsimile about the binding of the manuscript. Most of the texts were copied between 721-723/1321-1323. Three treatises were copied at a later date (724/1323, 725/1324 and 736/1335). According to ¨Abd al-Îusayn Îaˆiri, the present title of the facsimile is taken from an appellation occurring in the introduction of Malik MaÌmud Tabrizi’s Diwan.1 Safina is an Arabic word, literally meaning “ship.” Other synonyms are jung, a Chinese word referring to a kind of sailboat, and majmu¨a, a word used to refer to a collection of manuscripts containing materials from different genres and disciplines, which were often made for per- sonal usage. The sizes of such collections differ considerably from each other. It may con- tain twenty to more than hundred titles. Roughly speaking, a regular miscellany contains around fifty titles. Persian miscellanies include poetry and prose covering a wide range of * This research was sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). 1 I would like to thank Professor J.T.P. de Bruijn for reading the first draft of this paper and for his invaluable remarks. I cannot find a reference to the word safina in this introduction. See p. 489. 126 A.A. SEYED-GOHRAB fields; also personal notes can be found in such collections.2 The term safina as collection of poetry appears in several classical Persian texts. NiÂami-yi ¨Aru∂i (the Prosodist, d.ca. 560/1164-5) used this term in his Chahar maqala (‘Four Discourses’).3 The poet Îafi of Shiraz (d. 791/1389) refers in his Diwan to a book of poetry as a safina-yi ghazal (“the boat of love-lyrics”):4 dar in zamana rafiqi ki khali az khilal ast ÒuraÌi mayy-i Òaf-u safina-yi ghazal ast In this age, the only friend who is free from flaws, is a goblet of pure wine and a boat of love-lyrics. In another couplet, the poet refers to his own collection of poetry as a safina: didim shi¨r-i dilkash-i Îafi ba madÌ-i shah yik bayt az an safina bih az Òad risala bud We saw the heart-seizing poetry of Îafi in which he praised the king: one couplet from this boat was better than a hundred of treatises.5 2. THE SELECTION OF MATERIALS Since a safina was usually made for private use, the selections of materials are purely based on the owner/copyist’s choice, although the literary taste of the time and the curriculum of the owner cannot be ignored. The choice had also an ideological dimension as well, and often influenced the copyist’s choice of material. For instance, Rashid ad-Din’s atelier in Tabriz, which is famous for its illustrated manuscripts, followed an ideological stream. In addition to a safina’s personal use, there are several instances in which kings, princes and other notables ordered to copy miscellanies for their own libraries. Abu ˆl-Majd’s selection of titles is indeed personal. As we shall presently see, he has copied a large number of titles both by famous and lesser-known authors. The unique char- acter of the Safina lies not only in the fact that it introduces for the first time several new titles, whose existence were unknown or questioned, but also in its rich contents covering a wide range of fields. Works on the following subjects occur respectively in the Safina (it seems that Abu ˆl-Majd followed a thematic arrangement for his miscellany): Prophetic traditions, ethics, mysticism, jurisprudence, scholastic theology (kalam), exegetical litera- 2 A safina as a personal notebook often has an oblong-shape and is used in Arabo-Turkish lands. See J.T.P. de Bruijn, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, under Mukhtarat, in Persian Literature; J.J. Witkam, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, under Nuskha. 3 See NiÂami-yi ¨Aru∂i-yi Samarqandi, Chahar-maqala, ed. M. Qazwini, re-ed. M. Mu¨in, Tehran, 1375/ 1996, p. 47. 4 MuÌammad Shams ad-Din ÎafiÂ, Diwan, ed. P. Natil Khanlari, Tehran, 1362/1983, p. 108, gh. 46, l. 1. In several other places, Îafi refers to safina-yi ÎafiÂ. See p. 716, gh. 350, l.9 and p. 981, gh. 482, l. 10. ÎafiÂ’s predecessor, the poet Sa¨di (d. 691/1292) also refers several times to safina. In the following couplet, he tells how his poetry is taken from Shiraz to the northern province of Khurasan: shi¨r-ash chu ab dar hama ¨alam chunan shuda / k-az Pars mirawad ba Khurasan safinaˆi, “His poetry flows like water in the world in such a way that it runs in a boat from [the province] Fars to Khurasan. See Ghazaliyyat-i Sa¨di, ed. N.A. Iranparast, Tehran. 1357/1978, II, p. 369, l. 4. 5 Diwan, ed. P. N. Khanlari, p. 434, gh. 209, l. 8. A TREASURY FROM TABRIZ 127 ture, history, versified encomiums, lexicography, grammar, literary criticism, philosophy, literary texts containing epic and didactic poetry, ‘the religions and the sects’ (al-milal wa ˆn- nihal), astronomy and astrology, geomancy, mineralogy, mathematics, medicine, epis- tles and testaments, administrative texts, collections of poetry (diwans) including a large number of quatrains, Persian and bilingual dictionaries, music, cosmography and geogra- phy, and lectures of Abu ˆl-Majd’s teachers.6 The Safina introduces several new titles whose existence was unknown or questioned. Îaˆiri has singled out these authors and their works as follows:7 1. Yusuf ibn ¨Ali Îusayni, who made a selection of al-maÒabiÌ by Îusayn ibn Mas¨ud Baghawi; 2. Bahaˆ ad-Din Îaydar Kashi who wrote Ad¨iyyat an-nabi 3. Shaykh Zaˆid ibn Sa¨id ™usi who wrote Arba¨un Ìadith 4. Bahaˆ ad-Din Ya¨qub who translated a section on pilgrimage from Abu Îamid MuÌammad Ghazali’s Ihyaˆ ¨ulum ad-din; 5. ∑alaÌ ad-Din Musa’s Kitab fi ¨ilm al-faraˆi∂; 6. NaÒir ad-Din ¨Abdullah ¨Abidi and his Bist bab dar us†urlab; 7. Sa¨d ad-Din Mas¨ud KhaÒbaki, the author of two treatises, one on geomancy and one on mathematics; 8. Majd ad-Din ¨Alkaˆi who wrote Ikhwaniyyat; 9. Majd ad-Din MuÌammad Tabrizi’s collection of poetry (Diwan); 10. ¨Izz ad-Din ¨A†aˆi’s narrative poem ¨Ishq-nama; 11. Zayn ad-Din Sayfi who wrote an ethico-philosophical treatise entitled Mabdaˆ wa ma¨ad; 12. Sharaf ad-Din ¨Uthman’s ™ariq al-akhira; 13. ¨Abd al-¨Aziz Kashi’s Qalamiyya. One should certainly add to this list Amin ad-Din Îajj Bulah’s al-La†aˆif al-laˆali and Jalal ad-Din ¨Atiqi’s lectures. Another unique feature of this miscellany is the occurrence of a large number of po- ems known under the name of fahlawiyyat. These poems are written in the old dialect of Pahla areas.8 There are different theories on the regions that are called Fahla or Pahla. According to Ibn Muqaffa¨ these areas consisted of five regions including Isfahan, Ray, Hamadan, Mah Nihawand and Azarbaijan. Actually, it is a rather vague appellation for the areas in Western Iran, which in Antiquity were known as Media.9 These poems and the generic names given to them are of interest for the study of dialectology. In several places of the Safina, the authors refer to the local languages spoken in, for instance, Hamadan.10 Abu ˆl-Majd shows how several authors spoke in this dialect and composed poetry. Also the name of several poets in Pahla dialects such as Dayhun Ruz, Khaja MuÌammad Kajaji, Pahlawan AÌmad Kowharan, Pir ¨Ali Fakhkhar and Pir Îamid are recorded in the Safina. 6 This thematic arrangement is not always followed in the Safina, but it gives a good impression of the order of books in this manuscript. See Îaˆiri’s introduction, p. 5. 7 See page eight of the introduction. 8 See A. Tafazzoli in Encyclopaedia Iranica, under Fahlaviyat. 9 See pp. 678-80. 10 See p. 524. 128 A.A. SEYED-GOHRAB These poems are identified either on the margins of the manuscript as Pahlawi (‘al-fahlawi’), or in the text itself. Furthermore, other languages (or dialects) are also identified in the Safina. For instance, in ™ariq al-akhira, several poems in various Turkish dialects are cited and they are identified as Gurji, or Karaji and Tabrizi.11 A reference is also made in Îajj Bulah’s La†aˆif to the Owromanan (a Kurdish dialect) and poems written in this dia- lect.12 Part of the materials collected in the Safina are Abu ˆl-Majd’s personal notes, which contain invaluable information about his time, his teachers and the city of Tabriz as the cultural centre of the Il-khanid period.13 Autographs of classical Persian authors are very rare indeed.