The Persian Mirrors for Princes Written in the Saljuq Period: the Book Series

Abstract

The article begins with a concise description of the genre, period, and classical Persian texts covered by the announced book series of three books: 1) Amir Mu‘izzi Nishapuri. The Siyasatnama/Siyar al-muluk: A Fabrication Ascribed to Nizam al-Mulk — this text is still being published and reprinted under the authorship of Nizam al-Mulk, an outstanding Prime Minister of the Saljuqids. However, the results of historical, codicological and textual analyzes show that the text was compiled by Muhammad Mu‘izzi Nishapuri, the head of poets department under the Saljuqid rulers Malik-shah and his son Sanjar, and then attributed by him to the dead Nizam al-Mulk with completely definite goals; 2) The Writings of Imam al-Ghazali is a book that includes six texts. Three of them are authentic: a student manual entitled by the author as the Zad-i Akhirat (Provisions for the Hereafter); an authentic part of al-Ghazali’s epistle to Sultan Sanjar entitled the Nasihat al-muluk (Counsel for Kings) and a medieval collection of letters addressed by the Imam to various recipients and entitled the Fada’il al-anam min rasa’il Hujjat al-Islam (The Virtues of People [drawn] from the Epistles of the Proof of Islam). The remaining three texts are fabrications; 3) Kay Kawus b. Iskandar b. Qabus. Qabus-nama (The Book of Qabus) and Nizami ‘Aruzi Samarqandi. Chahar maqala/Majma‘ al-nawadir (Four Discourses/The Miscellany of rarities) is a book that includes two authentic texts. After this, the article touches upon the problem of existence of literary and physical forgeries in medieval Islamic literature, their categories and methods of their identification.