Textual criticism of prose epic of Zofunoon Nāmeh and the codicology of its manuscripts

Epic is one of the ancient and Revolutionary literary genres of Persian literature and valuable texts from it have remained in both prose and verse forms as written heritage. Some of these texts, despite numerous manuscripts and considerable antiquity have received less attention. The "Zofunoon Nāmeh" is a notable prose epic that, due to the prominence of actions and the leadership of Zofunoon in its events, resembles a "Pahlavan Banou Nāmeh / Warlike women epic" where the goal of the warrior princess is to fend off the infidels, unite with her beloved, and free him from the bonds of her rival, the fairy city; This theme, apart from the "Banoogashasp Nāmeh," has perhaps rarely been assigned a comprehensive outline of an independent epic text. Since the background of "Zofunoon Nāmeh" dates back to the 8th century AH, the systematic introduction of the prose form of the "Zofunoon Nāmeh" and its manuscripts becomes even more necessary. the present fundamental study has been conducted using a descriptive-analytical method, and its findings have been presented inductively in two sections. In the first section, after studying the oldest known manuscript of the "Zofunoon Nāmeh" and providing a detailed summary of its events, a report on the textual aspects of the narrative is presented in seven parts: Reason for naming, narrator, time and place of composition, origin, structure, and language. Then, based on the obtained results, the codicology of three manuscripts of the "Zofunoon Nāmeh" from Iran, Transoxiana, and Pakistan are provided.