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Semnānī, ‘Alā al-Dawle Aḥmad b. Moḥammad
Moṣannafāt-e fārsī. Ed. Najīb Māyel Haravī, 2nd printing, Tehrān, Entešārāt-e ‘Elmī va Farhangī, 1383/2005, lv+470 p.
This is the second printing – in a very handsome format, but with a small tirage of 500 copies – of a carefully edited work originally published in 1369/1990. The editor, who has previously published on Semnānī, here provides an introduction consisting of Semnānī’s captivating autobiographical remarks (pp. ix-xix) excerpted from his Malfūḍāt (Semnānī was himself not precisely sure of the year of his birth, which he places approximately in 657 h.q./1259 or a little later; his dates are usually given as 659-736 h.q./1259-1336). The editor’s introduction continues with a description of each of the twelve independent works included in the volume: Serr-e samā‘ (pp. 1-6), Ādāb al-sofra (pp. 7-12), Mā lābodda min-ho fī al-dīn (pp. 13-125), Serbāl al-bāl li-ḏawī al-ḥāl (pp. 127-51), Farḥat al-‘āmelīn wa farjat al-kāmelīn (pp. 153-80), Bayān al-eḥsān le-ahl al-‘erfān (pp. 181-249), Fatḥ al-mobīn le-ahl al-yaqīn (pp. 251-75), Salwat al-‘āšeqīn wa saktat al-muštāqīn (pp. 277-300), Nūrīya (pp. 301-311), Taḏkerat al-mašāyeḫ (pp. 313-22), and Šaṭranjīya (pp. 323-28). A thirteenth section, entitled Maktūbāt and consisting of eight separate documents and letters, concludes the collection (pp. 329-63), except for an addendum that presents a short portion of a text entitled Lama‘āt, attributed to Semnānī by Ḥaqqī Effendī, of which no complete manuscript is known (pp. 419-21).
The text-critical apparatus for the thirteen works is provided in the form of endnotes (pp. 365-78), followed by the editor’s annotations (pp. 381-417), five indices (pp. 425-66, including Qur’anic verses, ḥadīṯ and proverbs, verses cited, technical and unusual terminology, and proper names), and a bibliography (pp. 467-70). In addition to their importance for the thought of Semnānī and the ḫānaqāh culture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Semnānī writes in a pleasing Persian prose style.

