Aqa'id al-nisa' (book)
 | |
| Author | Jamal al-Din Khwansari |
|---|---|
| Original title | کلثوم ننه, عقاید النساء |
| Language | Persian |
| Genre | Humor |
| English translation | |
| En. title | The Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia and Their Domestic Superstitions |
| En. full text | Customs and Manners ... |
Kulthūm Nana (Persian: کلثوم ننه) or ʿAqāʾid al-Nisaʾ (Arabic: عقائد النساء) is a humorous book in Persian that criticizes laywomen's superstitious religiosity in the Safavid period written by Jamal al-Din Khwansari. The book is the oldest document regarding the ethics, manners and practices of laywomen in Iran. The book was written in order to criticize the superstitions, but today the book is important because it provides information about the folk culture of its time. The book has been translated into English, French, and Turkish.
Author
Jamal al-Din Muhammad b. Husayn b. Muhammad known as Aqa Jamal Khwansari (d. 1125/ 1713) was a student of Muhammad Taqi Majlisi and a Shiite scholar of the 12th/17th and 18th century. He wrote many books in jurisprudence and principles of jurisprudence, but Kulthum Nana is his best-known work among people. Muhammad Akmal Isfahani, Ibn Maytham al-Bahrani and Mulla Rafi' al-Mashhadi were his students.
Motivation for Writing the Book
The book, 'Aqa'id al-nisa', was written in the style of essays for fatwa. According to Mahmud Katira'i, the editor of the book, the author did not intend to compile the folk culture of his time; rather he sought to tease superstitious beliefs of people in his time, especially women in Isfahan and people who took themselves to be scholars of Islam.[1]
Methodology
Aqa Jamal Khwansari wrote the book in the style of a jurisprudential book (much like today's essays of fatwa) with sections representing various sections of jurisprudence. The book reports some fictional women scholars, known as 'Khala Khanbaji', with the genre of humor. It uses terminologies of jurisprudence, showing how such superstitious views superseded the true rulings of jurisprudence.[2]
Sections
Introduction: it concerns the importance and place of superstitious women and the names of the book's fictional characters (woman scholars).
- Section 2: common superstitions regarding prayer.
- Section 3: common superstitions regarding fasting.
- Section 4: common superstitions regarding marriage.
- Section 5: common superstitions regarding the night of wedding (zafaf).
- Section 6: common superstitions regarding women's birth giving and supplications for a birth-giving woman.
- Section 7: common superstitions regarding bath.
- Section 8: musical instruments.
- Section 9: common superstitions regarding women's relationships with their husbands.
- Section 10: common superstitions regarding vowed (nadhri) foods.
- Section 11: common superstitions regarding amulets and armlets.
- Section 12: common superstitions regarding mahrams.
- Section 13: common superstitions regarding supplications.
- Section 14: common superstitions regarding banquets and parties.
- Sections 15 and 16: superstitions of the pact of sisterhood and its subsequent ceremonies.
- Epilogue: common superstitions regarding supplications, etiquettes, and other manners.[3]
Views of Some Authors
- According to Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, Kulthum Nana is the name of one of the four fictional woman scholars in the book and the book was named after her because of her significant place among the other woman scholars. It is, according to Tihrani, a noble book and a critical fiction with a great sense of humor. The book illuminates the foundation of the four schools and the ill-founded character of some common ideas among people and some heretic beliefs falsely attributed to the religion.[4]
- Ayatollah Sayyid 'Ali Husayni Khamenei takes this book as an instance of past Shiite scholars criticizing superstitions.[5]
- According to Sadiq Hidayat, Kulthum Nana is a book concerning manners of conducts common among laypeople. He takes some contents of the book to be exaggerative, since they no longer exist today.[6]
- According to 'Ali Akbar Dihkhuda, Kulthum Nana is a humorous criticism of superstitions.[7]
- Muhammad Mu'in takes the book a satire concerning disputes among jurists.
English Translation
James A. Atkinson (1780-1852), a notable British orientalist, published a loose prose translation of this book under the name The Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia and Their Domestic Superstitions (Oriental Translation Fund, 1832).[8]
Notes
- ↑ Dhulfaqārī, Majalla matn-pazhūhī adabī, p. 7-26.
- ↑ Dhulfaqārī, Majalla matn-pazhūhī adabī, p. 7-26.
- ↑ Digital copy of the book Kulthūm nana, p. 24; Dhulfaqārī, Majalla matn-pazhūhī adabī, p. 7-26.
- ↑ Dhulfaqārī, Majalla matn-pazhūhī adabī, p. 7-26.
- ↑ Speech is his meeting with the clerics of Simnan province
- ↑ Digital copy of the book Kulthūm nana, p. 24; Dhulfaqārī, Majalla matn-pazhūhī adabī, p. 13-14.
- ↑ Faslnāma-yi āʾīna-yi pazhūhish
- ↑ The website of Culture and Anthropology
References
- Dhulfaqārī, Ḥasan. Majalla matn-pazhūhī adabī. Spring 1393 Sh, No 59.
- Digital copy of the book Kulthūm nana.
- Faslnāma-yi āʾīna-yi pazhūhish.