چکیده:
Yadgar: A Technical Official (Diwani) Term in Sahnama Nadereh Nafisi Faculty of Humanities, Abhar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Abhar, Iran Introduction In Firdausi’s Sahnama (1010 AD), in the story of the reign of Hurmazd-i Nusinrawan, after Parmuda, the son of Sava-Sah, comes under the protection the Sah and Bahram Cobin, Bahram commands the secretaries to count and record the treasures of the fortress where Parmuda was kept captive in. Here the poet says: The secretaries set forth with fearful hearts/From dawn until three watches of the night had passed Much yadgar (?) was blacked/But was not written [all of the treasure] eventually As it appears, this word has been recorded in the narrative of Faramarz-nama in the region of Kuhmareh Sorxi of Fars province in the form of yazgar/yadhgar, meaning “leather scroll”. Accordingly, one of the researchers by presenting attestation from Arabic texts and showing the term ayadkarat al-furs in the texts of Kitab al-Masalik wa al-mamalik, and Kitab al-Aqalim (both by Istaxri, 10th AD) also concluded that ayadkarat al-furs “were scrolls (tumar) on which the images of the kings of ancient Iran, the marzpans, the Zoroastrian clerics (herbeds and mowbeds), and their stories were recorded”. In the following of the mentioned article due to the presence of this term in Arabic texts, the same meaning of “leather scroll”, which is used in the region of Kuhmareh Sorxi, has been accepted for the word yadgar in the verse in question. Research Background So far, researchers have expressed various opinions about this word (see Aydenloo, 2007 → “Vaze-i faramus sode az Sahnameh dar farhang-ha”; Khatibi, 2007 → “Yazgar ya yadgar”; Sadeghi, 2007 → “Darbare-ye yazgar”; Naghzguy-Kohan, 2009 →“Yazgar va Yadgar va enseqaq-e avvaliyye”). What is mentioned in the Notes on the Sahnameh (Khaleghi Motlagh, 2012) about this word, is a summary of these discussions. The author of the notes finally concluded that yadgar used in the above verse refers to “paper, writing and sawad”. Discussion In my view, first of all, it is not necessary to elaborate the meaning of ayadkarat al-furs in Arabic texts; It is obvious that in Middle Persian ayadgar, which later became yadhgar and yadgar, means “note”, “treatise”, “treatise of biography”; Secondly, the meaning of “leather scroll”, which is based on the narrative of Faramarz-nama in Kuhmareh Sorxi of Fars, refers to the appearance of these treatises, not the lexical and terminological meaning of the word yadgar. But the word yadgar in Sahnama, as it appears, is a technical official (diwani) term and the poet has probably quoted this word from Abu-Mansuri’s Sahnama; because yadgar has been used only once in this sense in the Sahnama, whereas Firdausi could easily have used the word “paper” instead, without affecting the meter of the poem. Therefore, to find attestation for this term, the first step is to examine the historical texts and the books of Ayin-i dabiri. After much searching, the author found this word only in Zayn al-axbar (1051 AD) Gardezi. Gardezi mentions yadgar/yadhgar after the “royal mandate” (mansur) and “register” (sijill) and then speaks about the “bags of couriers (baridan)” and the “safe-conducts” (aman-nama-ha), which indicates that yadgar was a ministerial (diwani) term. Since Gardezi most likely quoted this news from Mas‘udi’s (d. 957 AD) Muruj al-dhahab (The Meadows of Gold), it will be helpful to find out the Arabic equivalent of this term in this book. Mas‘udi in the Meadows of Gold under the “mention of the Sassanid kings …” has spoken of the treatises (rasaʼil) and registers (sijillat) and then tadhkirat, and Gardezi has placed yadgar-ha as equivalent to the word tadhkirat. Therefore, most likely, the term tadhkira, which was translated from Arabic to Persian in the Islamic era, was equivalent to the word ayadgar in Middle Persian. Now, if the meaning of tadhkira is understood, the meaning of the word yadgar in the above phrases and Firdausi's Sahnama will also become clear. The word tadhkira in Persian, in addition to its general meanings, has been a diwani term and has three different meanings that we often see in Persian historical-literary texts such as Tarix-i Bayhaqi (11th century) and Tarjama-yi tarix-i Yamini (13th century): 1- List (siyaha) of presents and goods; 2- Script and note (in the specific sense of official letter or message); 3- A written request or complaint addressed to the king and the nobles to receive a reply. In the verse in question in this article, the word yadgar refers exactly to the first meaning, that is, “list (siyaha) of goods”, and most likely, Firdausi quoted this word from Abu-Mansuri’s Sahnama. This is a testament to his commitment to the source used. Now the question that arises here is whether in pre-Islamic sources the word ayadgar had other meanings besides “note”, “treatise”, “treatise of biography” or not? The author thinks that the answer to this question is ‘yes’. The reason is its use, in a sense other than the common meanings, in the text of the History of Sebeos. Thomson, the English translator of the History of Sebeos, uses the word “letter” for yektar and states in the footnote that the word has no attestation for use prior to Sebeos. It should be noted that Sebeos used yetkar here for a specific meaning, otherwise, he could have used commonly used words such as “paper” or “letter” to refer to this letter as he has used in few lines lower. In another attestation in the same book, this word is used to mean “account”, which is somewhat close to the meaning of the word yadgar in the verse discussed in the Sahnama. Conclusion According to what has been said, the word yadgar in the verse in question in Sahnama was a technical official (diwani) term meaning “goods report” or “goods list” (siyaha), and it is not a general term. What reinforces this conjecture is the association of this word with other diwani terms in Zayn al-axbar. In addition, the use of the word yetkar in the History of Sebeos, which is a loan word from Middle Persian, confirms the use of this word with the specific meaning of the letter or note. The author thinks that ayadgar also had various meanings in the Middle Persian, which, although not available to us, traces of them are left in Armenian. The word tadhkira in the diwani terms of the Islamic era is also the Arabic equivalent of the word yadgar before Islam. Keywords: Sahnama, Yadgar/Yadhgar, Ministerial (Diwani) Terms BIBLIOGRAPHY Amuli, Sams al-Din Muhammad (1381/2002). Nafaʼis al-funun fi ‘araʼias al-‘uyun. vol. 1. A. Sa‘rani (ed.), Tehran. Anvari, H. (1355/1976). Estelahat-e divani-e dowre-ye Ghaznavi va Saljuqi [Ministerial (Divani) Terms of the Ghaznavid and Seljuk Period], Tehran. Aydenloo, S. (1386/2007). “Vaze-i faramus sode az Sahnameh dar farhang-ha [A Forgotten Word of Sahnama in Farhangs]”. Farhang-nevisi, no. 1, pp. 280-285. Bayhaqi, Abuʼl-Fadl (1389/2010). 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