The 13th Volume of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ is published

1/19/2025 09:57

The 13th volume of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ was published by the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia (Center for Iranian and Islamic Studies); Being compiled by Aḥmad Munzavī, it was revised and completed by Malīḥeh ʿAlīnezhad and published under the supervision of ʿAlī Bahramiān.

CGIE: The 13th volume of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ was published by the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia (Center for Iranian and Islamic Studies); Being compiled by Aḥmad Munzavī, it was revised and completed by Malīḥeh ʿAlīnezhad and published under the supervision of ʿAlī Bahramiān.

The book begins with a foreword by Kāẓim Mūsavī Bojnurdī, the CEO of the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia (CGIE), as follows: “Producing a well-researched catalog of the books in the Islamic world, from the advent of Islam to the end of the 13th century AH, was one of the plans we were going to implement in parallel with the other ones at the CGIE. We had begun to go ahead with it and had accumulated thousands of card catalogs when in the winter of 1990-91 CE, professor Aḥmad Munzavī submitted a proposal to the center in which he had suggested compiling a catalog of all the written works in Persian language, including books, treatises and letters, from the most ancient manuscripts to the ones published until the end of the era of lithographic printing; a subject catalog which is systematically compiled in alphabetical order.  

Professor Munzavī started making cards for such a catalog in 1982-83 CE while he was working at the Iran-Pakistan Institute of Persian Studies but he abandoned this idea since he thought it would be impossible to continue working on it in Pakistan and India. [Upon his return to Iran in 1990-91 CE], he proposed the implementation of his plan to the CGIE so as to take advantage of the center’s financial support and its technological and scientific facilities. Having examined his proposal, the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia found it similar and relevant to its plans and accepted it as part of a comprehensive plan.

The card catalogs he had made in Islamabad, Pakistan were transferred to Tehran and he resumed the compilation of this catalog in cooperation with a group of young researchers at the CGIE; the names of some of these researchers are mentioned at the beginning of the 1st and the 13th volume of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’.

Professor Munzavī began his work at the CGIE in the winter of 1991 CE and published the following volumes of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’:

Volume 1: Including chapters on Travelogues, Geography, Stories and History of the World, published in 1995-96 CE. Volume 2: Including chapters on History of Iran and History of the Indian subcontinent published in 1996-97 CE. Volume 3: Including chapters on History of the Prophets and Imams, Biographies of the Poets, Biographies of the Aged and the Luminaries, published in 1997-98 CE.

Volume 4: Including chapters on Mathematics, bookkeeping (accountancy), Astronomy and Astrology, published in 1999-2000 CE.

Volume 5: Including chapters on Natural Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacology and Chemistry, published in 2001-2002 CE.

Volumes 1-5 of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ were published by the Iranian Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Elites Publications.

Volume 6: Including chapters on Philosophy, Ḥikmat (Wisdom) and Practical Philosophy, published in 2003-2004 CE.

Volumes 7 & 8: Including a chapter on Mysticism, published in 2005-2006 CE.

Volume 9: Including a chapter on Kalām (Speculative Theology) and ʿAqāyid (Beliefs), published in 2006-2007 CE.

Volume 10: Including a chapter on Anthologies (Part 1).

Volume 11: Including a chapter on Anthologies (Part 2).

Volume 12: Including a chapter on Anthologies (Part 3).

Volume 13: Including a chapter on Dīvāns (Collections) of Poems (Part 1).

‘Catalog of the Persian Books’, which consists of 850000 card catalogs on all subjects, is anticipated to be published in 25 volumes; the information on these card catalogs have been extracted from 520 catalogs and bibliographies in 1070 volumes.

I am delighted that the 13th volume of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’, which is the scientific heritage of the late professor Aḥmad Munzavī, was revised by Malīḥeh ʿAlīnezhad et al in the Cataloging Division and published under the supervision of ʿAlī Bahramiān. I would like to acknowledge the considerable efforts of the typists and the typesetters in the Publications Department as well.”

In his preface to this catalog, ʿAlī Bahramiān, the chief scientific officer of the CGIE, has written: ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ is like an impressive construction which was single-handedly founded by the late professor Aḥmad Munzavī half a century ago; in the first place, this catalog vividly reveals the significant part the linguistic heritage of Persia played in the human culture and civilization and in the second it provides every researcher who has an interest in the history and culture of Iran and the Persian language with great help in finding their preferred resources and also guides them through their search for the books’ author/s and their bibliographies. Hence this catalog, which is the fruits of both his perseverance and his colleagues’ labors, is to an extent an encyclopedia of books and other writing in Persian language. The CEO of the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, Mr. Mūsavī Bojnurdī, and the CGIE’s library director, Mr. Majīdī, have done their best to follow the late professor Munzavī’s path and pave the way for the publication of the remaining volumes of this catalog. The notes and card catalogs professor Munzavī had made in his lifetime to realize his ambition were great enough, however they needed to be completed and revised thoroughly since in the years after his demise, many libraries in Iran and other countries in the world have published new catalogs of all or part of their Persian books and writing or have provided the researchers with online access to their databases which contain the whole copies or parts of them or at least some information about what they house, cataloged or uncataloged. In addition, we are equipped with a wide range of facilities to record and save the information for each title and introduce the authors’ biographies and their works. Thus despite the fact that the compilation of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ is based on the original notes and card catalogs he and his esteemed colleagues have made, we have indeed made considerable efforts to complete and revise them meticulously.

The 13th volume of ‘Catalog of the Persian Books’ including a chapter on Dīvāns (Collections) of Poems is now available to all the enthusiasts of the Persian literature; this book would not have been possible without the support and help of a number of people. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Kāẓim Mūsavī Bojnurdī, the CEO of the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, and Muḥsin Mūsavī Bojnurdī, the director of the CGIE’s publications. We owe special thanks to all those colleauges who made contributions to the compilation of this catalog, whose names are listed at the beginning of this volume and above all, we are greatly indebted to Dr. Malīḥeh ʿAlīnezhad who had a leading role in completing and revising the contents of this volume. I also thank our courteous colleagues at the publications department and wish them the best of luck.         

Title of publication: Catalog of the Persian Books, volume 13

Page numbers: 832 pages

Quantity: 200 copies

Price: 4,800,000 Rials

If you are interested in purchasing a copy, please

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