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.

Color me amazed ...

Among projects I keep in the slow-lane is an attempted translation of a pair of verse histories that belong to the clutch of Persian and Turkic works collectively referred to as the Kokand Chronicles. Produced in the 19th century, these works offer various perspectives on the history of the Ming dynasty, the Khanate of Kokand, and the Ferghana valley after 1720. Timur K. Beisembiev is at the forefront of current scholarship on these works, and has produced much that is useful (including the now indispensable Annotated Indices to the Kokand Chronicles) but a lot of work remains to be done. (This is the story, alas, for much of Central Asian history between the Mongol and Russian conquests.)

The works in question are the شهنامهٔ دیوانهٔ عندالیب and the شهنامهٔ دیوانهٔ مطریب and exist in two copies at the Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent. The copy I am working from is Ms. 696/I-II, and is described in volume five (publ. 1960) of the institute's catalogue of manuscripts (q.v. nos 3532 and 3534, p. 49). Both works are concerned with the reign of Muḥammad 'Alī Khan (r. 1237/1822-1258/1842). Nothing is known of the authors.

A pair of stiches caught my eye in شهنامهٔ دیوانهٔ عندالیب (fol. 5b l.15-fol.6a l.1):

خان نی اوروغیدین ایرمیش اول ایر
حم آتی انینگ ایرور علی شیر

که رنگی اوجوب گحی قیزاردی
که سرغاریبان گحی کوکاردی

My best translation thus far of this quite literally colorful pair of stiches goes something like this:

'There was a man from the khan's kinfolk,
Also called 'Alī Shīr,

Who turned pale and sometimes red;
Who turned yellow and sometimes blue.'

The translation is a bit literal, and maybe the depth of meaning can be more accurately rendered in a metaphorical sense:

'There was a man from the khan's kinfolk,
Also called was 'Alī Shīr.

Sometimes he blanched and sometimes he blushed;
Sometimes he yellowed and sometimes he turned blue in the face.'

I'm still working on it; suggestions welcome.

Sources on Mir 'Ali Shir (1)

While we lack for accessible translations of Mir 'Ali Shir's works, there are no shortage of sources on him, his life and times available in English translation (and other languages). An obvious starting point is the Makarim al-Akhlaq, a panegyric written by Khwandamir in Mir 'Ali Shir's honor, listing his virtues and literary achievements. Significantly, it gives details of the institutions established by Nawa'i and the notable scholars and religious figures employed therein. Also by the Khwandamir is the Habibu al-Siyar, a general history that includes a lengthy section on Sultan Husayn Mirza, including at least 200 potted biographies of notable personalities from his reign.

Similarly, the Tarikh-i Rashidi of Mirza Huseyn Dughlat, the Bada’ya’ al-Vaqa’ya’ of Vasifi, and Babur's Baburnameh also include lengthy descriptions of Herat in the time of Sultan Husayn Mirza and Mir 'Ali Shir. Later, 16th-century tazkirahs by Fakhri Heravi and Sam Mirza add more detail to the picture. Excerpts from several of these sources have been collated in a nifty volme edited by B. Ahmedov.

References

Ahmedov, B., ed., Navoiy Zamondoshlari Xotirasida, (Tashkent: 1985).

Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, Bábar-Náma [facsimile of the Haydarabad Codex], ed. by Annette S. Beveridge, E. J. W. Memorial Series, I, repr. (London: Luzac and Co., 1971).

—, Bâburnâma: Chaghatay Turkish Text with Abdul-Rahim Khankhanan's Persian Translation, trans. by Wheeler M. Thackston, Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures, 18, 3 vols (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1993).

—, Bābur-nāma (Vaqāyi’): Critical Edition Based on Four Chaghatay Texts, ed. by Eiji Mano, (Kyoto: Syokado, 1995).

—, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, trans. by Wheeler M. Thackston (New York: Modern Library, 2002).

Mirza Haydar Dughlat, Tarikh-i-Rashidi: A History of the Khans of Moghulistan, trans. by Wheeler M. Thackston, Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures, 38, 2 vols (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1996).

Fakhri Haravi, Taẕkirah-‘i Rowẓat al-Salātīn, ed. A. Khayyampour (Tabriz: 1345/1966).

Khandamir, Makarimul Akhlaq, trans. by S. Mutallibov (Tashkent: OzFan, 1941).

Khwandamir, The ‘Makārim al-Akhlāq’: A Treatise on ‘Alishīr Navā’ī, ed. by T. Gandjeï (Cambridge, UK: E. J. W.Gibb Memorial Trust, 1979).

—, Habibu’s-Siyar: Tome Three, trans. by Wheeler M. Thackston, Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures, 24, 2 vols (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1994).

Sām Mīrzā Ṣafavī, Taẕkirah-‘i Tuḥfaḥ-‘i Sāmī, ed. by Rukn al-Din Humayun Farrukh (Tehran: 1384/2005-2006).

Zain al-Din Mahmud Vasifi, Bada’ya’ al-Vaqa’ya’, ed. by A. N. Boldyrev 2 vols (Tehran: 1970–72).