Qabus nama

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seen here is the last page of a Qabus nameh manuscript located in the library of The Malik National Museum of Iran, dated 1349.

Qabus nama or Qabus nameh is a major work of Persian literature from the eleventh century.

It was written by Amir Unsur al-Mo'ali Keikavus ibn Iskandar ibn Qabus ibn Wushmgir ibn al-Ziyar, the Ziyarid ruler of Persia, and was dedicated to his son Gilan shah.

The Belles lettres was written in 44 chapters and outlines princely education, manners, and conduct in ethical didactic prose.

[edit] Extant original copies

One of the earliest remaining copies of this work is the one translated into Turkish by a person named Marjumak Ahmad ibn Ilias by the orders of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II in the fifteenth century. It is kept in the Fatih Library of Istanbul. Another excellent copy is kept at the Leiden University library.

Another old copy belongs to the library of The Malik National Museum of Iran in Tehran, dated 1349. The British Museum also keeps a copy of an early Turkish translation as well, dated 1456. A 1474 copy also exists in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

The Turkish version was then translated into German by Heinrich Friedrich von Diez as Buch des Kabus in 1811, and a source of inspiration for Goethe's West-ostlicher Divan as he was in contact with von Diez.

The text was translated directly from The Persian into English by Reuben Levy with the title: A Mirror for Princes in 1951. French, Japanese, |Russian, and Arabic translations also followed.