Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Author

Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Qom , Qom, Iran.

Abstract

 
In the present research, it is tried to select verses from the Maxzan al-Asrâr by referring to the manuscripts of two important exegesis of Nezâmi's Maxzan al-Asrâr, namely the exegesis of Mohammad ibn Qavâm Balkhi, known as Karri, from the 8th century AH and the exegesis of Qâzi Ibrâhim Tatavi from the 11th century AH, and then The exegesis and analysis of both commentators about these verses should be examined and compared. The commentary of Mohammad bin Qavâm Balkhi is one of the oldest commentaries of the Maxzan al-Asrâr, the manuscript of which is available, and subsequent commentators are often influenced by this work. Qâzi Ebrâhim Tatavi has repeatedly mentioned Muhammad Qavâm Balkhi in his commentary on Maxzan al-Asrâr. In this research, while comparing the explanations of the verses from both commentators, it is shown that Qâzi Ebrâhim was not just an imitator, and in some verses, he innovated and provided different explanations and analysis, and traces of imitation are also evident in some verses. For this purpose, some verses that are sometimes difficult and ambiguous have been selected to determine whether these interpretations are sufficient in their analysis or whether they have not been able to resolve the ambiguity and the problem still remains.

Highlights

Extended Abstract

 

Introducing, Comparing, and Criticizing the Description of Mohammad ibn Qavam Balkhi and the Description of Qazi Ibrahim Tatavi (based on verses from Makhzon al-Asrar)

 

Introduction

Nizami's Makhzan-al-Asrar is one of the trend-setting works in Persian language and literature, and Nizami introduced himself to readers and audiences of Persian poetry with this work, which is his first poem. Makhzan-al-Asrar has a good variety of topics; on the one hand, it deals exclusively with the prayers and praises of God, and it has created many themes with the praise of the Prophet (PBUH), and on the other hand, it has drawn an imaginative and poetic atmosphere with quasi-mystical solitudes, taking advantage of these solitudes, and the reader is brought into his hyperrealistic world and finally, with twenty articles and anecdotes related to each article, it deals with valuable topics that are similar to home planning and civil politics. On the other hand, Nizami's works are very popular and imitated by other poets, and his style of verse writing has had fans until the contemporary period and has provided a good intellectual source for different tastes of poets. Many commentators have tried to solve the difficulties and problems of Makhzan al-Asrar, according to the oldest explanation that is available, which is the description of Muhammad bin Qavam Balkhi. He was the initiator of this way, and the later commentators have often turned to the explanation and interpretation of Makhzan al-Asrar under the influence of this description; One of these commentators is Qazi Ebrahim Tatavi; he wrote his commentary on Makhzan al-Asrar in 1037 AH. Qazi Ibrahim made great use of Muhammad Qavam Balkhi's description and mentioned it in different parts of his description, and it is obvious that his description is influenced by Balkhi's description. In this research, the imitation and innovation of Qazi Ebrahim Tatavi are investigated in comparison with the description of Makhzan al-Asrar by Mohammad Qavam Balkhi.

Research background

There has not been much research on the comparison of the descriptions of Makhzan al-Asrar and the interpretations of the commentators in explaining the verses, especially the comparison of the description of Muhammad bin Qavam Balkhi and the description of Qazi Ibrahim Tatavi. Ghojezadeh's article (1383) with the title " Descriptions of Makhzan-al-Asrar" is useful in identifying the works that describe the descriptions of Makhzan-al-Asrar, especially the manuscripts of this explanation. Turki and Khatamian's article (2019) titled "The Importance of the Description of Muhammad bin Qavam in Understanding the Themes of Nizami's Makhzan-al-Asrar ", tries to show that the description of Muhammad Qavam has influenced all subsequent explanations of Makhzan-al-Asrar. Noor Mohammad Khan's article (1372) titled "Investigation of Nizami's Influence in the Subcontinent (Imitators and Interpretations of Nizami's Works)" deals with Nizami's imitators and commentators of his works in the subcontinent and gives a brief introduction to each one. Ghasemi's article (1372) entitled "Introduction of some manuscripts of Nizami's works in India" introduced the manuscripts related to Nizami's works in India and introduced some of the copies of Makhzan al-Asrar. According to the background of the research, the present article is innovative in comparing the two discussed descriptions and shows that not much work has been done in this field.

Discussion

The purpose of this research is to show the difference and variety between the two interpretations of Mohammad Qavam Balkhi and Qazi Ibrahim Tatavi in explaining verses from Makhzan al-Asrar, which usually cause disputes and doubts. Considering the variety of meanings and interpretations of the verses of Makhzan al-Asrar, it is necessary to review their explanations and interpretations to finally reach the final meaning from the different meanings of each verse. Another goal is to investigate whether Qazi Ibrahim's description is a pure imitation of Muhammad Qavam's description or whether it has innovations in addition to paying attention to it. Also, considering Qazi Ibrahim's use of Mohammad Qavam's description, in this comparison, the validity of Mohammad Qavam's description will be better known. The present research was carried out in a descriptive, comparative, and analytical manner, based on library sources, and after studying the manuscripts of two explanations of the Makhzan al-Asrar, it compared the interpretations and explanations of these commentators and tried to analyze them and evaluate their meanings.

Conclusion

The description of the Makhzan al-Asrar of Muhammad Qavam Balkhi and Qazi Ibrahim Tatavi is one of the most valuable descriptions that has reached us, and as seen, the description of the Makhzan al-Asrar of Muhammad Qavam Balkhi, which has survived from the 8th century AH, is somewhat influenced by the description of Qazi Ibrahim Tatavi. and Qazi Ibrahim has acknowledged this in various parts of his description, However, he was not a mere imitator and in various verses, he gave a different explanation from Muhammad Qavam Balkhi’s and tried to complete the shortcomings of his description; however, in some of the discussed verses, ambiguity and insufficiency of explanation and meaning remain, and the textual evidence and verbal context of Nizami, Also, It is not a solution to these difficulties. To solve the ambiguities, recent commentaries were also used, which were useful to some extent, but in some verses, there are still some problems, and the old and new commentaries are unable to deal with the complexities of Nizami's speech. Therefore, it is suggested to re-explain the problem verses of Makhzan al-Asrar by referring to the old and new interpretations. Of course, it should be mentioned that Pournamdarian's and Mousavi's description of the "Makhzun al-Asrar" has explained some of the shortcomings, and considering that this description explains the verses independently of other descriptions, it did not see the need to refer to the old descriptions. It should be noted that such comparisons made in the present article while reviving the works of the past and making the readers more familiar with them, lead to a more accurate understanding of the subject, and this matter is evident in the comparison of the two mentioned descriptions in terms of the recording of the verses, the manner and method of the description of the verses.

References

 

Bertels. Ya.A (1355). Nizami, the great poet of Azerbaijan, translated by H. Seddiq, Tehran: Pivand.

 

2Pournamdariyan, Taghi va Mostafa Mousavi (1401). Makhzan al-Asrar, Tehran: Sokhan.

 

Servatiyan, Behrouz (1389). Makhzan al-Asrar, Tehran: Amir Kabir

 

https://doi.org/10.22034/perlit.2024.58122.3549

Keywords

Main Subjects

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