A Critical Review on the Mathnavī-ye- Manavī Edited by M. A. Movahhed

Among the numerous corrections of the spiritual Mathnavi, the edition of Mohammad Ali Movahhed is the last and without a doubt the best. More than four years have passed since the first edition of this work, which has now reached its third edition. The professor has put corrections on eight complete and monograph versions, all belonging to a maximum of fifteen years after Rumi's death, and three other auxiliary versions. Of these, seven copies were probably written under the supervision of Hossam al-Din Chalabi, the last caliph, and Sultanwaleed, the son of Maulana. Of the other three versions, two versions were written during the lifetime of Sultan Vold. In this article, we have evaluated this magnificent work, while enumerating its advantages, in the following four areas:
1) Correction and recording of verses: In this section, due to the avoidance of word length, we have only discussed the correction of a number of verses in the first book. In order to understand the meaning of some verses according to their recording, because the professor did not say anything in the correction of the book (and we hope that they will clarify the point in the annotations or commentary of the Masnavi later), we have no choice but to speculate. The priority of recording some verses or some words in Masnavi verses, considering the possibility of different readings in the recording of words and combinations such as Bad/Yad, Karkan/Karn, Kardi/Gardi, forms the main topics of this part of the article. In this section, we have reviewed 14 examples, which are mainly related to the meaning and sometimes the validity of the verses included in the margins of the versions.
 
2) Spacing between the verses of the Masnavi: One of the interesting features of this correction is the spacing between the verses throughout the Masnavi. What obligates this work is the most obvious characteristic of Masnavi in ​​telling stories and parables, which, apparently, is the horizontal line of travel And they are not straightforward. The professor listed three goals for these intervals: 1- to guide the reader in the content; 2- Preventing the possible boredom of the singer due to the repetition of monotony and continuity on a single song; 3- Paying attention to the turn of Rumi's words according to the situations of the narration and reflecting on his narrow thoughts. (Rek: Molana, 1396, vol. 1, introduction: one hundred and fifty-five). The author considers spacing between the verses of the Masnavi useful and worthy of appreciation due to the possibility of easier communication of the modern reader with this text. According to the author, out of the three goals that Professor Mowahed has set the foundation of spacing on, the second goal, especially with the clause "probable boredom of the reader", is not very evaluable, because in fact it is not known which reader gets bored where. Therefore, in this part of the article, we have examined and analyzed the first and third reasons, which are responsible for the plot of Rumi's continuous twists and turns from the straight line of the speech, and we have shown that in some cases, the application of scholarly correct spacing may not be justified.
3) Script: Although the Persian Language Academy has made efforts to organize the Persian script for many years, among the high-quality corrections and numerous editions of ancient texts, one can find less evidence that the correctors have a single policy in writing all kinds of Persian words throughout the text. Applying a single policy to distinguish word types, especially in rhymed texts, can guide readers to "correct reading". Even though Professor Mowahed did not use a single procedure in writing in this correction, his precision in calligraphy is noticeable. According to the author, adopting a well-thought-out and uniform script in the correction of texts, based on what has been determined by the Persian Language Academy, both arrests the reader in correct reading and frees the printing of old texts from confusion. In this part of the article, we first pay attention to examples of the teacher's correction, which correct handwriting prevents reading and, as a result, misunderstanding of the verses. Then, in this edition, we will review some mistakes made in typesetting and failure to adopt unity of procedure, especially in writing compound words. About the typesetting of the book, it seems that the beauty of the letters and the arrangement of the words of each stanza was much more important than determining and limiting the privacy of the words.
4) The use of punctuation marks: it is clear that the use of these marks (dot, colon, comma, semicolon, etc.), in its right place, guides the reader in reading and understanding sentences and verses correctly. In the master's printing, the use of signs, without the usual extremes, is interesting. In this part of the article, while showing some examples of the master's accuracy which is the way to the correct meaning of the verses, we have briefly examined the use of the comma and mentioned the cases where the comma has limited the meaning of the verse, or caused a defect to it.
In this article, to avoid the length of words, we have examined only the first book of the Masnavi, although sometimes we have given examples of verses from other books to confirm or strengthen the content. In reciting the verses of the Masnavi, we have used the exact writing and recording of the master's edition as a criterion everywhere.