Literary Arts (Nov 2014)
Introducing Kholasat ol-Maqamat and its stylistic and lingual characteristics
Abstract
Abstract Kholasat ol-Maqamat is a manuscript on spiritual stations of famous mystic and Sofi, Sheikh Ahmad Jam. This manuscript has been written by Ab ol-Makarem Ibn Alaâ ol-Molk Jami, one of Sheikh Ahmad's descendants, in the time of Shahrokh Mirzaâs reign (840) to whom that manuscript was presented. The style of this book is similar to that of Asrar ot-Towhid and as it appears from its name, it is a concise of some books on maqamat written in Sheikh Jam's time. Therefore, maqamt is a name applied generally to papers written about spiritual stations of special characters. Historically, it so happened that this work probably belongs to Sheikh Ahmad's time, because at that time or afterwards some books have been written on his spiritual stations which we will point out. We believe works of this kind which has been written afterwards, such as Asrar ot-Towhid on Abu Saeed's spiritual stations are affected by the method of maqamat-writing in the time of Ahmad Jam, and Kholasat ol-Maqamat is an anthology of early works on this subject. To write this book, Alaâ ol-Molk, in addition to Mohammad Ghaznavi's Maqamat which is a description of the Ahmad Jam's Maqamat, has used four Maqamats: Imam razi od-Din Ilias Taybadi's Maqamat, Sheikh Ahmad Tarkhestani's Maqamat, Taj ed-Din Mahmoud buzjani's Maqamat and Darwish Ali Buzjani's Maqamat. Moreover, he has benefited from Khaje Mohammad Heisamâs History, Jameâ ol-Osul, Some of Sihahe Sitte and Masanid Arbaâe, apparently complete works of Several poets including Sheikh Attar Neishaburi and also some works of Sheikh Jam (Ons ot-Taebin, Seraj os-Saâerin, Rawzat ol-Moznebin, Konuz ol-Hekme, Miftah on-Nijat, Bihar ol-Haqiqe and a collection of Sheikh Jamâs poems). Additionally, this book contains mystical, geographical, historical benefits and stylistic and lingual characteristics. This manuscript is distinguishable for some reasons such as availability of some other manuscripts titled maqamat of which the author made used, all have been written in jam's time by his cohorts. Each of them has a great value, since that time is probably the beginning of writing maqamat. Because on the basis of notes remained, Alaâol-Molk has used four maqamats named Imam Razi od-Din Ilias Taibadi, Sheikh Ahmad Tarkhestani, Darvish Ali Buzjani that now there is no information about. This point increases the value of Kholasat ol-Maqamat.  He had also some of his ancestor's works that contain more accurate and detailed subjects as well as more complete information about family and descendents of Sheikh than Mohammad Ghaznavi's Maqamat. Three manuscripts of Kholasat ol-Maqamat are available with different mode of hand writing: Manuscript in Ganj Bakhsh library of Lahur, manuscript in theology faculty of University of Mashhad and digital library of parliament. Finally, necessary to say, this manuscript indicates Sheikh's spiritual stations happened to and written by his cohorts at that time. Since that papers except Mohammad Ghaznavi's Maqamat have been disappeared, Kholasat ol-Maqamat which is the extract of those maqamats could be known as the most important and exquisite manuscript about Sheikh's spiritual stations and Keramat. Actually, recognition, introduction and emendation of this manuscript will be an effective and fruitful step to know more about Sheikh Ahmad Jam and his spiritual stations and tunes and the style of writing maqamat which is of high importance for researchers in getting information about Sheikh's dignity and styles of writing maqamat. There is a hope that this book has the success of unveiling
