نقد شيوه هاي استشهاد به اشعار عربي در تاريخ وصاف

Critique of Methods of Making Reference to Arabic Poems in the Fourth Volume of Tarikh Vassaf

Tarikh Vassaf by Adib ʹAbdollah Shirazi has been a telling example of exalted and artificial Persian prose in the history of Persian prose evolution. Tarikh Vassaf has as its subject the general history of Iran after the conquest of Baghdad, which, based on the explicit statement of the author, was written at the footnotes of Jahangosha (Vassaf, 1852, p. 4). He dedicated the first volumes of his work to Ghazan Khan in 1305 AD and the fourth volume to Oljaito, in 1312 AD in Soltanieh. Adib ʹAbdollahʹs main objective was to demonstrate his art in writing and oratory. Thus, his book has mainly captured the attention of men of literature rather than historians, though it is one of the three or four first-hand sources in the history of Monguls and in the provincial governments of Persia, Kish and the Ilkhanid period. As is common with technical prose, Vassaf has adorned his work with frequent uses of Arabic and Persian poems. In the fourth volume, he has mainly referred to the poetry of Motenabbi, Maʹarri and Toghraʹi Isfahani. Due to his regular investigation of the works of these three poets or lack of access to other sources, Vassaf has frequently quoted from these three poets.