Presents the most complete Persian edition and the first known English translation of the
Durr al-Majalis The book investigates lines of connection and shared literary heritage between the Persianate and Malay-Indonesian worlds over many centuries. Majid Daneshgar provides a critical and comparative study of Persianate-Malay stories, with specific focus on Durr al-Majalis, or Pearl of Gatherings a classical Islamic text produced by Sayf Zafar (late thirteenthmid-fourteenth centuries CE), a writer and scholar of Central Asian background, during the Delhi Sultanate.
The book illustrates how the Durr al-Majalis contains various legal, theological-philosophical, metaphysical, chivalrous and mystical accounts. In addition, it traces how the book travelled beyond the so-called Balkans-to-Bengal borders and was copied, translated and annotated across Eastern Africa, Eastern Turkistan, Mongol-dominated China, Arabic-speaking Egypt and South East Asia. It demonstrates how this Persian collection of stories shaped the idea of Islam, Islamic teachings and stories across the Muslim World, and in the Malay-Indonesian World in particular.
Dedication
Personal Epigram
Acknowledgments
Transliteration Format
Preface
Part I: A Global Text
1. Introduction
The Persian-Malay Network: Historical Ties between Muslims
Persian Phonology in Malay Language
Persian Origin of Malay Islamic Literature
2. Durr al-Majalis: Origins and Identity
Reception of the Text
Bibliographical and Biographical Details
3. Transregional Circulation
Durr al-Majalis in Punjabi
Durr al-Majalis in Pushto
Durr al-Majalis in Bengali (and in Bengal)
Durr al-Majalis in Turkic Languages and Contexts
Durr al-Majalis in the Arabic Zone
Durr al-Majalis in Kurdish
4. Islamic Themes and Novelty
Belief and Doctrine
Philosophical Theology
Occultism and Magic
About the Prophets
A Killing Story of Sunnis and Shi?is, and the idea of de-Shi?itisation
Dialogue
5. Persianate-Malay Islamic Stories: A Comparative Analysis
On Persianate-Malay Muslim Literature
Shared Islamic Stories in Persian and Malay
Close Similarities
6. A Critical Persian Edition and Critically Edited Translation of Durr al-Majalis
On the Persian Edition
On the English Translation
The Formation
Part II: Persian Edition and English Translation
Persian Edition
English Translation
Part III: Appendices
Appendix A: A Description of Select Persian-Language Manuscripts
Appendix B: A Description of Select Translated Copies
Appendix C: A Description of Select Printed Volumes
Appendix D: Personal Digital Collection
Majid Daneshgar is Associate Professor of Area Studies, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. He is the former Munby Fellow in global bibliography at Cambridge University Library in association with St John's College, University of Cambridge, and George Grey Scholar at Auckland Libraries, New Zealand. He has frequently published on Islamic studies, orientalism, Persianate-Malay literature and manuscript studies. His main monographs are Studying the Qur'an in the Muslim Academy (Oxford University Press, 2020), Tantawi Jawhari and the Qur'an (Routledge, 2018; Arabic translation 2023), and several co-edited volumes such as Malay-Indonesian Islamic Studies (Brill, 2023), Islam and Science in the Future (Zygon, 2020), Deconstructing Islamic Studies (Ilex-Harvard University Press, 2020), Islamic Studies Today (Brill, 2017) and The Qur'an in the Malay-Indonesian World (Routledge, 2016). He was also awarded the Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Union, the Best Publication Prize 2022 (FRIAS), and nominated for the Most Inclusive Teacher Award at the University of Otago, New Zealand in 2015.
