The necessity for reediting The Nozhatnāmeh ‘Alā’i

Abstract

Nozhatnāmeh ‘Alā’i by Shahmardan ibn Abi al-Khair Razi, az one of the first Persian encyclopedia, belongs to the most important class of prose writings. Farhang Jahanpur edited and published this work in 1362/1983, but due to the importance of the text and due to the problems and the deficiencies in it, it needs to be reedited. The present paper in addition to introducing the Nozhatnāmeh as the first encyclopedia containing original source of information and explaining important aspects of it; we have shown some deficiencies such as not referring to all existing editions, relying on inappropriate editions, lack of accuracy of some editions, ignoring stylistic characteristics of the text resulting in distancing from originality, lack of loyalty in recording, misreading the text and remove an important word or term from the text, etc. Additionally, by introducing ten new manuscripts from the book and representing the importance of these editions in clarifying the ambiguities in the text, then the necessity of presenting a more proper correction of the book is emphasized.

Keywords

• editing
• shahmardan ibn abi al-khair razi
• nozhatnāmeh ‘alā’i