Bot-e Ján or Tab-e Ján? Rereading a Phrase from Khwaja Abdullah Ansari’s Collection of Persian Rasāel

Document Type : pajoohesh

Author

10.22081/jap.2019.67539

Abstract

In Khwaja Abdullah Ansari’s Collection of Persian Rasāel, published by Muhammad Sarvar Mola’ei, there is an article under number 10, titled “Anonymous article”, which is attributed to Khwaja. It has probably been compiled and codified under his name by some of his adherents. In the article, there is one sentence: “chon yār ah last kār sahl ast, sohbat bā ahl
bābat-e jān ast, sohbat-e nā-ahl bot-e jān ast”. In the present article, the author is rereading this sentence. He has stated that the right words are “tab-e jān”, not “bot-e jān”. The article also discusses the meaning of this sentence, its exact translation in Arabic, and some examples of this sentence being used in the old texts.

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