A Review of the New Critical Edition of Nasir Khusraw's Travelogue

In 2020, a new critical edition of Nasir Khusraw's Travelogue was published by Mohammadreza Tavakoli Saberi. The primary manuscripts used for this edition include a copy from the Library of the Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow (1006 AH) and another from the British Museum (1102 AH). The Lucknow manuscript has been used, directly or indirectly, in all previous editions of the Travelogue. However, it seems that the British Museum manuscript has not been utilized in any prior critical editions of the text. The editor has addressed the issues in these two manuscripts by consulting various editions of the book. In other words, the text is a synthesis of these two manuscripts combined with several printed editions. However, since this critical edition lacks variant readings, the contribution of each manuscript and edition to the final text remains unclear.
Other issues have also been noted in this edition, most of which can be attributed to the editor's insufficient familiarity with the methods of editing ancient texts and with literary and linguistic research. These include errors in reading the manuscript recordings, incorrect or unnecessary diacritical markings, and inaccurate explanations and annotations. Nevertheless, some readings in this edition appear more accurate than those in the previous edition.