Rovzat ol-Muridin is a mystical prose work written in Arabic by Abu Ja'far ibn Yazdaniyar Hamadani (380-472). Today, there are manuscripts of this work in the world, and Suri and Pourjavadi have corrected and published this work for the first time. The book Rovzat ol-Muridin is a concise and comprehensive work that has 44 chapters and is written in simple and fluent language. The main question is what the place of Rovzat ol-Muridin in mystical sources is, and what the value and importance of this source is. This work is similar to other mystical works of that period and explains mystical principles in a simple way. Dividing topics into types can be considered one of its expressive techniques. The editors have presented the book in three parts: introduction, text, and notes, along with an index. They had eleven copies in their hands in correcting the text, seven of which were used. There are some questions and even doubts, especially about the author. However, now that Rovzat ol-Muridin has been published, scholars will certainly raise some questions and answers about the work and its author, and by recognizing another legacy of mysticism, they will deepen and enrich this process. And certainly, in the future, there will be more discussion about the status of Ibn Yazdaniyar and the honor of Rovzat ol-Muridin.
The "Rovzat ol-Muridin" is a mystical work that was probably written in the fourth century AH by Abu Ja'far ibn Yazdanyar Hamedani. The text of the work is prose and in Arabic. The book has 44 chapters, including the Khutbah al-Kitab. The subject of the work is purely mystical and reflects the mysticism before the Mongol invasion. In 1402 AH, Muhammad Suri and Nasrallah Pourjavadi corrected it from manuscripts and published it through the Contemporary Culture Publications. Until this date, the main mention and citation of this book was from manuscripts.
This book has the following sections: A - Introduction; B - Text and then comments, appendices, notes, and index. The "Rovzat ol-Muridin" is one of the works that, in the history of our culture, were called "destiny" or "comprehensive" books; That is, they present a lot of information to the audience in a small book. The title of the first chapter is "Adab al-Sufiyyah" and the last chapter is "Shara'it al-Tasuf". The order of the chapters is neither alphabetical nor thematic; apparently, Ibn Yazdanyar narrates the material in that order according to the order and importance of the material from his point of view. The material of the chapters is short and concise and is presented in the form of 861 paragraphs. Ibn Yazdanyar, known as Qazi, was probably born in 380 in Forjard, Hamadan. Instead of Yazdanyar, in some sources, "Dinar, Daniyal, and Daniyar" are mentioned. We owe most of the information about him to his student Ibn Shirouyeh. Ibn Yazdanyar was a Shafi'i and, according to the classification of Sufis, he was from the people of Sahv. Sources such as Samani, Safadi, Haji Khalifa, Yaqut Hamavi, Rafi Qazvini, and most importantly, Zahabi have mentioned his circumstances in their works, and Suri and Pourjavadi have benefited from them. The compilers have mentioned 25 of Ibn Yazdanyar's teachers and have also introduced 5 of his students. Among the mystical sources, "Rovzat ol-Muridin" has a lot of affinity and similarity with the works of Solami, and some have even mistakenly considered this work to be a work attributed to Solami. Apart from Solami's works, there are similarities between this book and Sirjani's "Al-Bayyad wa al-Sawad". The method of expression in "Rovzat ol-Muridin" is that he first cites a verse or hadith and then retells his story. The method of expressing the story is mainly in a piecemeal manner; that is, he first refers to a story and then divides and enumerates it into various categories. In this book, Ibn Yazdanyar uses the "conjunction and" abundantly. Apart from this, the use of metaphor can also be considered another characteristic of the style. He has also used artificial infinitives in writing the book. The next topic is the main themes or topics of the book Rovzat ol-Muridin; apart from the general theme of "mysticism" in the work, we can mention the minor and subtle themes; the inability of reason to know God - a common theme in mystical texts -, special and unconventional claims; for example, in one case, he considers the clothing of Sufis to be the style of prophets, saints and righteous people. Although mysticism in this work is moderate and close to the Sharia, and there is no trace of the superficiality and arrogance of others in it, there are mostly exaggerated claims in it. Another topic is the criticism of the Sufis of the time. The next topic in the subject area of the work is the existence of contradictions in some of Ibn Yazdanyar's statements, a contradiction that is seen in the words and actions of most Sufis. The next section of this article examines the research of Suri and Pourjavadi; apparently, contrary to the sources and even the introduction of the name of the work and the author in the manuscripts, they added the suffix "Hamadani" to the end of the author's name. It should be noted that in mystical sources, there was another person with the nickname Ibn Yazdanyar who lived in the fourth century, and that person was Ibn Yazdanyar Ermavi. A scholar such as the late Zarrin Koob considered the two to be one and the same. Unfortunately, Suri and Pourjavadi did not enter into this matter and did not address it. In the manuscript section, the correctors have corrected the book based on 7 copies and have access to a total of 11 copies. The correctors' correction method was the method of Helmut Ritter, meaning that they included both the original text and the copied version. Although the correctors have taken great pains to correct and print the work and have introduced a little-known work to the scientific community, we can still see and list some minor shortcomings in the correctors' writings. First, in using and citing sources, the correctors have referred to sources whose date of composition was after the writing of the era of Rovzat ol-Muridin. However, they have tried to observe the correct way of referring and citing. Not paying attention to Ibn Yazdanyar, who is well-known in mystical books, namely Abu Bakr ibn Yazdanyar al-Urmavy, is another issue that is seen as a flaw in this book. Other minor issues, such as negligence in Arabization in some rare cases, can also be seen in this work.