Suchergebnisse

Translation of the book " Silent soldier" of Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf on General Akhtar, his superior at ISI, who was killed in an aircraft crash in 1988, along with President Zia ; ʿAbdurraḥmān, Ak̲h̲tar, -- 1924-1988 ; Afghanistan -- History -- Soviet occupation, 1979-1989. ; Generals -- Pakistan -- Biography

The Ottoman biographer, historian and former career military officer Kātib Çelebi (d. 1067/1657), better known as Ḥājjī Khalīfa, completed his Taqwīm al-tawārīkh in Istanbul in 1058/1648. Begun as an excerpt of his earlier history Fadhlakat aqwāl al-akhyār , he expanded it to cover personalities and events up to the days in which it was written. Composed in a mixture of Ottoman Turkish and Persian, it became a popular 'desk reference' that received various upgrades by different eighteenth-century authors. The work was printed for the first time in Istanbul by İbrahim Müteferriqa in 1146/1733. The Taqwīm al-tawārīkh was translated into Latin, Italian and French, besides the anonymous Persian translation contained in this volume, completed in 1075/1664, well before any of the other translations. It is one of the rare historical works in Persian to have the form of a chronology, most of them being histories of dynasties or general histories

In the history of Islam, Muslim-Jewish polemics have been documented from the earliest times and studies on this subject abound. The present work is a case in point. In the spring of the year 1211/1796, the famous Shīʿī scholar Sayyid Muḥammad Mahdī al-Ḥusaynī al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1212/1797) was on his way from Mashhad to visit the holy shrine of Imam Ḥusayn in Karbala, accompanied by a flock of his senior students. When they reached the town of al-Kifl, less than 20 km north of Najaf and home to a community of over 3.000 Jews, a delegation of the latter came to see Ṭabāṭabāʾī in the caravanserai where was staying, wishing to engage in a debate with him. The text presented here is an account of Ṭabāṭabāʾīʾs detailed listing of the contradictions and errors in Judaism as seen by him, a listing that remained largely unanswered. Arabic text, with a Persian translation from before 1238/1822-3

During the reign of the Safavid Shāh ʿAbbās I (reg. 996-1038/1588-1629), Isfahan was the center of power, diplomacy and trade of Iran. Every year scores of diplomatic envoys and traders would make their way to the capital in pursuit of some political or commercial gain. The present collection of Persian letters and documents, whose originals are kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples, gives a fine view of the major issues in international relations that ʿAbbās I had to deal with during most of his reign. The collection consists for the greater part of translations of documents from various European courts and religious bodies and authorities, prepared by the interpreters of the Carmelite mission in Isfahan. Among the subjects: the silk trade, Anglo-Spanish relations, the threat of the Ottomans, the importance of Russia in an alternative trade route to Europe, foreign access to Persiaʾs ports, and the interests of the Catholic church

Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/1235) is arguably the greatest mystical poet in the history of Arabic literature. Born in Cairo and a student of Shāfiʿī law and ḥadīth in his younger years, he turned to mysticism, living a solitary existence on Cairoʾs Muqaṭṭam hills, in the desert, and in the Hijaz. After his return to Cairo, people worshipped him as a saint and even today, admirers still visit his tomb in that city. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492) is one of Persiaʾs great medieval poets. As a young man, he joined the followers of Saʿd al-Dīn Kāshgharī (d. 860/1456), leader of the mystical Naqshbandiyya order in Herat. His combined output in poetry (39.000 lines of verse) and prose (over 30 works) is quite overwhelming. Besides a commentary on Ibn al-Fāriḍʾs Khamriyya mīmiyya , he also made the first and only Persian translation of his seminal al-Tāʾiyya al-kubrā , published here for the very first time

Since times immemorial man has been fascinated by his dreams. This is true of western civilization as it is true of any other civilization, including Islam. In the Qurʾān and the traditions, dreams and visions are frequently mentioned as instruments of divine guidance and instruction. This sanctification of the pre-existing oral tradition around dreams and their interpretation created room for this tradition to further develop, both in a religious and in a secular context. Dream interpretation remained unsystematized and mostly oral until Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq's (d. 260/873) Arabic translation of Artemidorus' (2nd cent. CE) Oneirocritica and Dīnawarī's al-Qādirī fi 'l-taʿbīr (commissioned in 397/1006) that it inspired. From then onwards, a vast literature developed. The work published here is an important early text from the Persianate world, based on more than fifteen declared and other sources, most of which are lost. It is a compilatory work, with an introduction followed by an alphabetical inventory of themes. 2 vols; volume 1

Born into a family that traced its origins to caliph ʿUmar born al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/644), Rashīd al-Dīn Waṭwāṭ (d. 578/1182) was a graduate of the Niẓāmiyya academy in his hometown of Balkh, where he had received a solid grounding in Arabic language and literature. Bi-lingual in Persian and Arabic and an accomplished writer of poetry and prose, he spent the greater part of his active life in Gurgānj, steadily climbing the administrative ranks to become chief-secretary at the courts of Qizil Arslan Atsiz Khwārazmshāh (d. 551/1156) and his son Il-Arslan born Atsiz (d. 568/1172). Bald, small sized and bad-tempered, Rashīd al-Dīn used his sharp tongue to protect himself from ridicule and animosity. He is mostly known for his annotated translation of 100 sayings of ʿAlī born Abī Ṭālib and several collections of letters. The Persian renderings of 281 Arabic sayings and proverbs presented here offer an excellent sample of the authorʾs taste and erudition