In 1999, SPPC undertook a mission to contribute to research in Classical Persian literature by funding a series of facsimile reproductions of important Persian manuscripts in order to make them available to the scholarly community for textual and paleographical studies. We hope such a series would promote textual scholarship that is virtually absent in departments of Iranian studies in the United States.
The process of publication of the manuscripts that are included in this series involves three steps: First, a manuscript is chosen based on its paleographic, textual, cultural, or other important characteristics. The choice is made by the series� editors, Professor Iraj Afshar (emeritus, Tehran University), and Mahmoud Omidsalar (John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, CSULA). The editors may rely on the advice of other experts in the field. Second, permission to reproduce the codex in facsimile is secured from its individual or institutional owner. Third, the manuscript is reproduced in limited numbers in the original size by a publisher in Iran. Every volume has an extensive introduction that discusses the codicological, textual, and other features of the manuscript either in Persian or in English. Depending on the language of the main introductory essay, a summary in Persian or English is provided. Some volumes may have two long introductions; one in English and another in Persian. These are usually composed either by the editors or by other scholars that may be invited to contribute them to the volume.
Thanks to the generous financial support of the SPPC members, we have published four volumes in this series since 2001. These are: Mujmal al-Tawarikh wa-�lQisas (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, ms. no. HS or 2371) in 2001; Mujmal al-Aqwal fi al-Hikam wa al-Amthal (holograph copy from Professor Mohaddes�s private collection) in 2002; Hazar Hekayat-e Sufiyan (a Sufi text from Professor Afshar�s private collection) in 2003; The Shahnameh (British Library�s manuscript. no. Add, 21.103) in 2005. The fifth volume, a holograph copy of the fourth book of Tarikh-e Wassaf (Nurosmaniye K�t�phanesi, manuscript no.3207) is in the final stages of production in Iran. |
