Persian Language and Literature
Amir Hossein Madani
Abstract
Mohammad Reza Shafiei Kadkani is a contemporary, diligent, and tireless scholar and a man of letters who has proven his mastery, skillfulness, precision, and poetical artistry in various literary fields such as writing, translation, editing, and poetry. Editing priceless mystical works is one of his ...
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Mohammad Reza Shafiei Kadkani is a contemporary, diligent, and tireless scholar and a man of letters who has proven his mastery, skillfulness, precision, and poetical artistry in various literary fields such as writing, translation, editing, and poetry. Editing priceless mystical works is one of his favorite fields. His bright resume in this field is no less than his research works. The edited version of Attar’s “Tadhkiratu ‘l-Awliya” in three sections of introduction, text, and annotations, is one of his works in this field. Shafiei Kadkani’s academic rigor, abundant mystical knowledge, writing the biography of undistinguished mystics, diligence in research, honesty and being true to the main text, criticizing the scribes for using incorrect words and interpolating, having useful information on methodology and morphology, artistic and poetic translations, and having a good grasp on bibliography are some of the features of this masterful editing. These features can be used to answer the following fundamental questions. What are the advantages and merits of Shafiei Kadkani’s annotations in “Tadhkiratu ‘l-Awliya” and why are their values no less than the main text? This article mentions the advantages of the aforementioned annotations in detail under ten titles. The author believes that solitary editing is fruitless even if it’s done through the best scientific methods and it would do no good other than introducing the literary work on a basic level. It is only when the text is embellished with an introduction and well-researched annotations, which is the result of pondering on every inch of meaning in the text, that it comes to life, dusts itself off the obscurity, and talks to the readers.
