BORHĀN-E JĀMEʿ

 

BORHĀN-E JĀMEʿ (Comprehensive proof), title of a dictionary compiled in the last years of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qājār’s reign by Moḥammad-Karīm b. Mahdīqolī Garmrūdī Šaqāqī Tabrīzī. He undertook the task at the request of Bahman Mīrzā, one of the sons of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā, and completed it in 1250/1833 at the time of the accession of Moḥammad Shah, another son of ʿAbbās Mīrzā. He based his work on the Borhān-­e qāṭeʿ and the Farhang-e jahāngīrī, which he considered to contain both defective and superfluous information. The Borhān-e jāmeʿ is in effect an abridged list of words taken from the Borhān-e qāṭeʿ, with verse examples from the Farhang-e jahāngīrī inserted in the margins. For the order of his entries he chose the inconvenient system of the Farhang-e jahāngīrī, namely order determined by the second, first, third, etc. letters of each word.

The Borhān-e jāmeʿ consists of a preface and twenty­-nine sections. The preface begins with references to the reigning monarch (Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah), the crown prince (Moḥammad Mīrzā), and the compiler’s patron (Bah­man Mīrzā), and then expounds ten types (ṭerāz): 1. application of the word “Pārs” to Iran and extent of the country; 2. enumeration of the letters of the Arabo-­Persian alphabet; 3. order of the entries in the Borhān-e jāmeʿ; 4. categories of words (noun, verb, particle), with explanations of each; 5. meanings of single letters added (prefixed, infixed, or suffixed) to words, with interesting comments; 6. groups of letters which are only meaning­ful in compounds (i.e., as prefixes or suffixes); 7. interchangeability of letters; 8. pronouns; 9. spelling; 10. knotting the fingertips (ʿaqd-e anāmel), i.e., decimal notation.

Mīrzā Reżāqolī, a brother of the compiler, wrote out a copy of the work for the lithographers, finishing the task in mid-Rajab 1260/July-August, 1844, and the compiler finished checking it in the following month. The printing was completed under his supervision at Tabrīz in Šawwāl/October-November of the same year. This first edition has 456 pages, with the verse examples in the margin between the columns. An undated offset edition was published in Tehran. The number of the entries is between 5,000 and 6,000 (present writer’s estimate).

 

Bibliography:

Preface and text of the Borhān-e jāmeʿ. Borhān-e qāṭeʿ, ed. M. Moīʿn, introd., pp. CX-CXI.

Dehḵodā, I, introd., p. 204.

(Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī)

Originally Published: December 15, 1989

Last Updated: December 15, 1989

This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 4, p. 368