Section Days abstract book 2010.indd - RUB Research School ...

A LATE MEDIEVAL PERSIAN FROM AN ANGLE:
DISCOVERING PERSPECTIVES ON MAÉD AL-DÏN
AL-FÏRØZÀBÀDÏ
Vivian Strotmann
Fakultät für Philologie; Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
e-mail: Vivian.Strotmann@rub.de
My subject of enquiry is a Persian scholar on the threshold to Early Modernity. MaÊd al-DÐn
al-FÐrÙzÁbÁdÐ (1329-1415) - protected traveller, revered religious authority, powerful
politician, celebrated scholar and controversial lexicographer – has now lain buried in the
sands of the Yemeni desert for over half a millennium. At first sight, we are therefore faced
with a man long dead, whose scholarly endeavours seem of interest and relevance merely for
those involved in this field of enquiry. The fact most striking about this scholar seems the
almost complete lack of established facts. His great lexicon, the QÁmÙs al-muÎÐÔ, brought
him fame beyond death, but detailed information is largely wanting and – when extant –
contradictory. Besides collation of what little we know, what can be expected from
examinations of this man?
It is at this point that my thesis makes its departure. For the field of Oriental and Middle
Eastern Studies, clarification of his vita and establishment of his oeuvre presents a gain in
itself. They are, however, not goals in themselves. More important still than the erudition of
biographical and scholarly fact about the ÑÁÎib al-QÁmÙs are the issues which surface in the
process. Above all else, al-FÐrÙzÁbÁdÐ is remembered as a luÈawÐ and what examinations
we have of him are predominantly centred on this facet of his scholarly profile. As indicated
above, however, there is much more to this scholar than initially meets the eye. These aspects
of the famous scholarly personality are imbedded in – and therefore have to be studied against
– a variety of backgrounds both within and beyond Oriental sciences.
Ultimately, there emerges the mosaic of a Late Medieval Persian scholar whose life had
repercussions beyond the borders of his time and the reaches of his travels, whose scholarship
gained influence even unto the emancipation of a philological discipline. Sketching these
interconnections of backgrounds is the incentive of my proposed presentation.