Loṭfallāh b. ‘Abd al-Karīm Kāšānī. Toḥfat al-dastūr (Dictionary of Numerical Value of words) (sic). Written in 1070 A.H., Edited by Mehdī Ṣadrī, Tehrān, Mīrāṯ-e Maktūb, 2007, 366 p.
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1The book consists of two parts – a general survey and the edition of the dictionary. In the general survey, the editor introduces the author on the basis of the very scarce information available on him in early modern sources. He situates the dictionary and its subject matter in the sphere of Persian language and literature of the period with a particular emphasis on similar writings on the use of the numerical values of Arabic letters for witticisms, chronograms and other forms of socially pleasing and courteous comportment and presentation. Finally, he lists writing and calculating errors and copies the descriptions of the two extant manuscripts from Ketābḫāne-ye mellī-ye Malek and Ketābḫāne-ye Majles-e šowrā-ye eslamī.
2The bulk of the book comprises the edited dictionary in an introduction, three chapters and a final section (ḫāteme). Except for the introduction which elaborates the meaning and significance of the knowledge of numbers for an early modern educated person who wishes to move successfully in polite society, the four following parts list words or expressions, and their numerical values for units, tens, hundreds and one thousand to thousand and seventy.
References
Electronic reference
Sonja Brentjes, “Loṭfallāh b. ‘Abd al-Karīm Kāšānī. Toḥfat al-dastūr (Dictionary of Numerical Value of words) (sic). Written in 1070 A.H., Edited by Mehdī Ṣadrī, Tehrān, Mīrāṯ-e Maktūb, 2007, 366 p.”, Abstracta Iranica [Online], Volume 30 | 2010, document 241, Online since 08 April 2010, connection on 17 December 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/37978; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.37978
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