Hindushah Nakhjavani
Fakhr al-Din Hindushah Nakhjavani (Persian: هندوشاه نخجوانی, romanized: Hindūšāh Naḫjawāni) or Nakhjivani (c. 1240 - c. 1328) was a medieval Iranian scholar, poet and historian of most possibly Turkic ethnicity.
Life
His full name was Hindushah b. Sanjar b. Abdallah al-Ṣāḥebi al-Kirani. According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, the nisba Sahebi meant that he was connected to a powerful political figure of his time[1] - Shams al-Din Juwayni.
He was born in Kiran (near modern Kələntər Dizə, Nakhchivan). His father's name - Badr al-Din Sanjar - suggests that he was of Turkic parentage, who probably served Eldiguzids. Before 1275, he was a student in Mustansiriya Madrasah, studying ophtalmology, Arabic grammar and hadith under teachers like Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Kīshī (d. 1294) and Abu al-Qasim Kashani. In 1275, he was appointed to Kashan, where his brother emir Sayf al-Dawla Mahmud (d. before 1258) was governor.
He also copied various manuscripts from other authors. He seems to have travelled to Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad in 1280 and started teaching there. Meanwhile he copied Najm al-Din al-Qazwini al-Katibi's Jāmi al-daqā’iq fi kašf al-haqā’iq (collection of Subtleties in Unveiling the Realities) there in 1284/5 and traveled to Nakhchivan's Sahibiyya Madrasah where he copied Abu al-Qasim al-Shatibi and al-Dani's works in 1294/5. He worked on anthology of Arabic poetry called Mawarid al-adab composed in Tabriz on 30 April 1308, with his own additional 45 verses. Sometime later he went to Luristan and presented his work Tajāreb al-salaf, a Persian translation of Ibn al-Tiqtaqa's Kitab al-Fakhri with his own additions[2] to atabeg Nusrat al-Din Ahmad[1] in April-May 1314.[3] Next year, he went to Shushtar where he copied several authors' works including Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mansur ibn Fallah Yamani, 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi and others. He returned to Azerbaijan in 1317, living and working in Baylaqan, Sultaniyeh, Sohrevard and Nakhchivan again in 1321.
Hindushah was credited by Kâtip Çelebi with authorship of a Turkish-Persian lexicon Ṣiḥāḥ al-ʻājam, which became a matter of debate among scholars. While scholars like O.F.Akimushkin who dated the work to 8 May 1279[4] and Gulam Huseyn Bigdali who published an edition of this book supported Hindushah's authorship, Charles Ambrose Storey, Muhit Tabataba’i and others doubted it.[3] Azerbaijani orientalists Jamila Sadigova and Tayyiba Alasgarova in their joint critical edition criticized Bigdali's poor work, while supporting his claim that Hindushah was indeed the author.[5] David Durand-Guédy refuted authorship claims, however agreed that Hindushah, being a Turk most probably spoke Turkic language besides Persian and Arabic, but was also interested in Adhari language.[3]
He has often mixed with his son, more famous Muhammad Nakhjavani.[3] He died before 1328 according to a mention in his son's work.
References
- ^ a b Bosworth 2003, pp. 181–182.
- ^ Browne, E. G. (1924). "The Tajaribu's-Salaf, a Persian version of the Arabic Kitabu'l-Fakhri, composed by Hindushah ibn Sanjar as-Sahibi al-Kirani in 723/1323". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 56 (S1): 245–254. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00150774. ISSN 1474-0591.
- ^ a b c d Durand-Guédy, David (2023-10-06). "The Loyal Scholar. Hindūšāh, Naḫjawān and the Juwaynīs". Eurasian Studies. 20 (2): 88–146. doi:10.1163/24685623-20220129. ISSN 1722-0750.
- ^ Akimushkin, O.F. (1997). "On the Date of al-Sihah al-'Ajamiyya's Composition" (PDF). Manuscripta Orientalia. 3 (2): 31–32.
- ^ Sadiqova, Jamila; Alasgarova, Tayyiba (1993). əs-Sihah-ül-əcəmiyyə (elmi tənqidi mətn) (in Azerbaijani). Baku: Elm. pp. ix–xii.
Sources
- Bosworth, C.E (2003). "Hendušāh b. Sanjar". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume XII/2: Hedāyat al-mota'allemin–Herat VII. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 181–182. ISBN 978-0-933273-75-7.