Nawa'i Editions (2)

In one of my earliest posts I noted the lack of both critical text editions and translation of the works of نوائی. Therefore, I was very excited when I was in Tashkent back in August to pick up a copy of a recently-published Arabic-script edition of the نسایم المحبَه, his biographical dictionary of Sufi saints, based largely on three of the earliest known manuscripts: 1) Topkapi MS. Rivan 808; 2) St. Petersburg IVAN MS. 97a; and 3) Sulaymaniyya MS. Fath 4056.

These three MSS. are all copied in a small hand, with 27 lines on each page, so the editors have consulted a pair of later MSS. copied in a larger hand. Incidentally, The editors appear not to be aware of another MS. which arguably belongs to the older family, namely MS. Tk. 1069 III Coll., Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkata. This MS. of 116 fols, which I've been able to examine on microfilm, is copied in a small hand, with 27 lines on each page. Many parts of the text are obscured by water damage, but with a little patience and the power of Adobe Acrobat, it's mostly possible to read.

The publishing of (on the face of it) a reasonably reliable text edition will, I hope, make this important source of Central Asian hagiography available to a much wider audience. As I've found out to my delight on numerous occasions, it has a lot of valuable material not found in other sources. For example, according to a friend of mine working on Isma'ilis in Central Asia, it contains one of the earliest references to the traveller and poet ناصر خسرو in a specifically hagiographical context i.e. as a religious personality (p.371)

Most importantly, though, it contains one of the earliest outlines of the group of Turkish shaykhs (ترک مشایخی) 'from the time of احمد یسوی' i.e. the Yasaviyya. While earlier sources had alluded to the co-called 'Turkish shaykhs,' and یسوی was an important figure in the cosmology of Central Asian Sufism, it is only in this work of نوائی that we see the first a full-developed outline of the Yasavaiyya generations, based on initiatory and hereditary linkages.

Nawa'i Editions (1)

For the non-linguist, accessing Mir 'Ali Shir is a sisypheaen task. As far as I am aware, only one of his works has been translated into English, the famous Mughamat al-Lughatain (composed AH 905/AD 1499), his treatise on the superiority of Chaghatay Turkic to Persian as a literary language. It's an interesting work, but imho has more novelty value than anything.

If it's critical and/or published editions of his other more substantial works you're after, you need to know one (or all) of the following: Russian, Turkish, or Uzbek. All Mir 'Ali Shir's works have been published in Uzbekistan as a 20-volume set, with the original Chaghatay Perso-Arabic script transliterated into Modified Uzbek Cyrillic. This has led to a few oddities and inaccuracies, but it's basically readable and fairly comprehensible if you have at least intermediate-level Uzbek [n.b. I'm writing for the benefit of non-native speakers, here].

Additionally, there are also several 'scientific-critical' editions, which usually consist of either a facsimile of an original ms. or re-keyed Perso-Arabic text, and introductory essays, annotations and comprehensive indexes. Of these, there's an excellent edition of the Majalis al-Nafa'is (897/1491-2), Mir 'Ali Shir's tazkirah (compilation) of poets' biographies, and a smart edition of Sab'a-i Seyyar (890/1485), the fourth poem in Nawa'i's Khamsa quintet.

The publication of accessible editions is something of a cottage-industry in Turkey. The notable Turcologist Kemal Eraslan has supervised scholarly editions of the Majalis al-Nafa'is - in two vols, consisting of a transliteration in Modified Latin Turkish script and a translation in Turkish with notes and indexes - and the Nasaoim al-Muhabbat (901/1495-6), Mir 'Ali Shir's Chaghatay rendition of Jami's tazkirah of sufi hagiographies, Nafahat al-Uns.

References

‘Alī Shīr Navā’ī, Majalis al-Nafa’is, ed. by Suyima G’anieva (Tashkent: Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences, 1961).

Alisher Navoiy, Khamsa: Sab'a-i Sayyar, ed. by Parsa Shamsiev and Hadi Zarif, (Tashkent: Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences, 1956).

Alisher Navoiy, Muqammal Asarlar To’plami [collected works], 20 vols (Tashkent: Fan, 1987–).

Ali Şîr Nevâyî, Mecâlisü’n-Nefâyis, ed. by Huseyin Ayan and others (Erzurum: Atatürk Ünīversïtesī, 1995).

Alī-șīr Nevāyī, Nesāyimü’l-Maḥabbe min Șemāyimi’l-Fütüvve, ed. by Kemal Eraslan, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayinlari, 608 (Ankara: Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, 1996).

Alî-Şîr Nevayî, Mecâlisü’n-Nefâyis, ed. by Kemal Eraslan, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayinlari, 735, 2 vols (Ankara: Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, 2001).

Mīr ‘Alī Shīr [Navā’ī], Muḥākamat al-Lughatain, trans. by Robert Devereux (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966).