The Work of the Scholar, Moralist and Exegete, Husayn Kashifi, is Fairly well-known, and becomes even more so with the appearance of this special issue of Iranian Studies. On the other hand, the esoteric dimension of Kashifi's work has received far less attention. It represents, however, an integral part of the author's world vision. The goal of the present article is to cast light on the principal ideas and character of Kashifi's work on magic, entitled Asrār-i Qāsimī. This medium-sized book opens like any other, as if it were dealing with a subject as incontestable as pharmacology or astronomy. Its goal, however, is to outline the procedures that enable one to participate in the hidden laws that connect all living things. Kashifi's stated purpose is to make the contents of the voluminous general surveys of the Ancients on esotericism accessible to a wider Persian-speaking audience.

Iranian Society has Traditionally had a Deep Admiration for the Courageous hero or champion, often called jawānmard (lit., young man; jawānmardī—manliness). Such a person possessed the aggregate of all positive virtues of manhood—courage, honesty, hospitality and generosity. One model of the jawānmard is the heroic warrior, as reflected in Persian epic literature and classical popular romance. In Persian culture, Rustam, the legendary pre-Islamic hero of the epic Shah-nāmah embodied the characteristics of the heroic warrior.

A related term for jawānmard is the Arabic fatā (lit., young man; manliness—futuwwa; Persian futuwwat), which designated the ideal hero of pre-Islamic Arabia. In Perso-Islamic culture, a synthesis of ancient Persian and Arabo-Islamic ideals, the ethic of piety towards God, which was influenced by the increasing dominance of Sufism, shaped a second model of heroism.

The Date of the Composition of Husayn Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi's Anvār-i Suhaylī is uncertain. It is conjectured that it must have been completed at the end of the ninth/fifteenth century, probably about the time that he wrote another famous work, the Akhlāq-i Muḥsinī. Since Kashifi died in 910/1504-05 “at a ripe old age,” this implies that he had probably already reached an age of experience and wisdom when he started to recast the collection of fables known as Kalīla wa Dimna.

This is not the place to go into detail about the rich and varied history of these fables, and of their adoption in most cultures of the ancient world. It will suffice to recall only the stages of the history of this text that are directly related to the late fifteenth- century Timurid version studied here.

The Pancatantra, the Sanskrit text on which Kalīla wa Dimna was based, was probably composed in Kashmir by an unknown Brahmin around 300 A.D. By using fables which had animals as the main characters, the text aimed at informing youths, who were destined for government posts, about the laws governing political life.

Iranian Civilization Fostered an Interest in Astrology Starting from Pre-Islamic times. Thanks to the studies of David Pingree and R. Lemay and, more recently, of George Saliba, Charles Burnett, A. Panaino, and E. Raffaelli, we are on firm ground regarding the development of astrological knowledge in the Islamic world, and specifically the contribution to it of pre-Islamic Iranian civilization. As for the Persian texts in the field, even though they have been studied to a much lesser extent than those written in Arabic, they contain rich materials which shed further light on the socio-cultural context of science in the Iranian world during the Islamic period.

The Akhlāq-i Muḥsinī of Husayn Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi in Many Respects Represents a late medieval summa, or codification, of the Persian genre of ethical and advice literature. Designated variously as andarz, pand, naṣīḥat, siyar and akhlāq, the genre of political advice literature is an ancient one in Persian culture, going back to Late Antiquity and exhibiting concordance with Greek and Indian sources. Most works of Sasanian political wisdom literature, such as the Advices of Anushirvan, Buzurjmihr, and Ardashir, as well as those attributed to the ancient Greek sages Aristotle, Plato, and others, are of indeterminate authorship. Many have been preserved only in late manuscript copies dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and some, like the famous Letter of Tansar, may even have been composed in later periods.