جمعه 10 فروردین 1403

14 August 2023

Manuscripts Office Expert: 300 Manuscripts of Sa’adi’s Works in Astan Quds Razavi’s Manuscripts Treasury

Around 300 precious manuscripts of Sa’adi Shirazi’s works are kept at the manuscripts treasury of Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi. The oldest manuscript among these works is one written only seventy years after Sa’adi’s departure.


talking about this topic, an official in manuscripts office of Astan Quds Razavi’ Organization of Libraries, Museums, and Document Center said, “As one of the richest and biggest libraries in the Islamic world, manuscripts treasury of Astan Quds Razavi’s Central Library maintains about 300 valuable works of Sa’adi, great poet of the 7th century AH. These works include Kolliyat, Golestan, Bustan, Odes, Sonnets, Attachments, Quatrains, and Meetings in prose and verse and also a couple of very exquisite copies of his Kolliyat)”.
Seyyed Muhammad Reza Fazel Hashemi added, “Poems of other Persian poets who have welcomed Sa’adi’s works are also kept at the treasury. These prominent poets include Hafez, Salman Savoji, Saif Farghani, Khajavi Kermani, Awhadi and Ubayd Zakani”.
Introducing Sa’adi’s most valuable manuscripts, he stressed, “Kolliyat, written by Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Latif Aqaqiri (an indirect pupil of Sa’adi) in 766/1364 AH in Shiraz, is one of the oldest existing copies in this collection”. He also said, “Writing of this work backs to seventy years after Sa’adi’s death”.
Features of this copy which is very unique in terms of antiquity and gilding works of Ilkhani era was introduced by Fazel Hashemi. He said, “Having two inscription-like epigraphs decorated with bergamot designs in a dark blue background, golden tables and lines, red and blue headlines in Naskh style, and a brown calfskin cover are some features of this copy”. He also mentioned, “Text of the work has been written in Nastaleeq style with 25 lines on each page. Yellow is the color of its papers and it has got 383 pages the size of which is 14cm × 21cm”.
Responsible of manuscripts office of Astan Quds Razavi’ Organization of Libraries, Museums, and Document Center introduced works which are, in terms of gilding and artistic aspects, attributed to artists and calligraphers as very important  and reminded, “Another copy of Kolliyat is one of these valuable copies which was written in Nastaleeq style in 1052 AH/1642 by Muhammad Momen Shirazi. This text has been written in twenty-line pages and it has been decorated with four conjugated and gilded epigraphs”. Fazel Hashemi referred to two other valuable copies of Kolliyat at the library’s treasury of handwritten books and added, “The first copy contains ten epigraphs and five gilded and carbuncled inscriptions and the second one, written by Abd al-Hossein Anjavi Shirazi, has got carbuncled and gilded epigraphs at the beginning of each part and a beautiful shiny cover”.
Explaining on the exquisite copies of Bustan in the collection of Astan Quds Razavi’s manuscripts treasury, he said, “One copy of Bustan written by Abd al-Rashid Deilami, a prominent calligrapher of Safavid era in 920 AH/1514 with conjugate epigraphs and sun-like lines on the first page, a Nastaleeq style and also other beautiful designs of birds, flowers, and golden petals is another precious work of this collection. A copy of Bustan written by Abd al-Qaffar Tafreshi, a calligrapher of Qajar period, and another one written in 1049 AH/1639 by Muhammad Ali Zarrin Qalam are two other valuable copies of Bustan”. He also said, “This latter one has been presented by the Supreme Leader in 1376 AH/1997”.