Description

This book, containing a text by Mirzâ ‘Abd al-Vahhâb Mo‘tamed al-Dawle Nashât (d. 1244/1828), is important for researches of early publishing and printing in Iran. In the introduction the editor of the book, Hajji Musâ, complains about contemporary mass book production in Iran, which are of low quality, resulting in cheap and faulty texts (Marzolph Persian Popular Literature, 2001, p. 221) and emphasizes his effort to make improvements. “…On the very first page [he] makes the point that the present text has been subjected to diligent proofreading (tashih), while the person signing as scribe is ‘Ali-Asgar Tafreshi, an experienced member of his profession who between 1261 and 1288 was active for a period of more than twenty-five years” (Marzolph Persian Popular Literature, 2001, p. 222; Marzolph, Narrative illustration, 2001, 276).

Historically most important part of the text is a three-page catalogue of printed and lithographed books available at the time of this publication, in 1282/1865. It includes 340 books in Persian and 14 books in Arabic languages, with names of books or authors, but without dates, places of publication or other details.

The books in the catalogue are sorted by following subjects: Islamic law (feqh), dogmatics (osul), commentary on the Koran (tafsir), various secular sciences, such as languages with dictionaries, history and medicine, philosophy, Arabic grammar, interpretation of dreams, nonscientific and entertaining literature, including poems, stories and children’s books (for the detailed list of books, please see: Marzolph Persian Popular Literature, 2001, pp. 224-228).

We could trace three institutional examples on Worldcat (Cambridge University Library, Columbia University in the City of New York, Washington University in St. Louis).

References: OCLC 40695706. Cf.: Ulrich Marzolph, Narrative illustration in Persian lithographed books, 2001; Ulrich Marzolph, Persian Popular Literature in the Qajar Period, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 60, 2001, pp. 215–236.