Zahiri Samarkandi and the tradition of writing of Mirrors for princes

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

As a legacy of Iran's political literature before Islam, Writing of Mirrors for princes has been one of the most important and influential historical-literary traditions in the history of Iran and Islam. The authors of the Mirrors for princes usually give political or moral advice to King by using anecdotes and stories related to the past kings and also by mentioning appropriate poems and verses. From this point of view, one of the main topics of the Mirrors for princes was to explain the functions of the royal institution. Works such as Khaje Nizam al-Mulk's Siyasatname, Ghazali's Nasihat al-Maluk, Kikavus bin Iskandar's Qabusnameh, and Saadi's Nasihat al-Maluk are among the most important works that have been written in this field. Among these, one of the least known Persian Writing of Mirrors is Aghraz al-Siyaseh fi Aaraz al-Riyaseh written by Khaje Mohammad bin Ali al-Zahiri al-Katib Samarkandi. This book is a text of ancient works of Persian literature, which is written in artificial and technical prose and contains the history and subtleties of the words of kings, rulers, warriors, philosophers, Iranian and non-Iranian scientists, prophets and caliphs. With this definition, this article seeks to answer the main question based on the analytical-comparative method, whether it is possible to examine the Aghraz al-Siyaseh in the framework of the tradition of writing of Mirrors for princes? Based on the findings of the research, the adaptation of the characteristics of the texts of Mirrors for princes with the text of Aghraz al-Siyaseh shows .

Keywords

References

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Iranian Civilization Research
Volume 5, Issue 2 - Serial Number 10
December 2023
Pages 22-43

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