Anonymous [Dar al-Funun].

Zubdat al-Hikayat (The Quintessence of Tales / زبدة الحكايات).

Tehran (Dar al-Saltanah-ye Tehran / دار السلطنه طهران), Royal Government Printing Office (Chapkhaneh-ye Dowlati / چاپخانه دولتي), Nowruz 1285 AH / March 1868 CE (نوروز ١٢٨٥ هجری قمری).

8°, 65 pp.

Later(?) green morocco, lavishly gold-tooled, with flap (rabat / رباط) on the upper cover, smooth spine, blind-stamped garland frame on the inside of the flap, edges gilt, white silk paste-downs.

A rare lithographed Persian book printed in Tehran in 1868, compiled under the auspices of a Persian language instructor at the Dar al-Funun (the institute of higher education in Qajar-era Tehran, Iran), possibly associated with the court educator Mirza Mohammad-Hossein Gharib. The colophon notes that the book was produced with the express purpose of educating students at the Dar al-Funun and other modern institutions. In the Middle East, lithography was the preferred method for printing books, as it preserved the aesthetics of manuscript calligraphy. In Tehran, lithographic printing became established in the 1830s with support from the royal court and rising demand for textbooks, religious texts, and administrative manuals. Early Persian lithographed books—such as the copy offered here—are of great rarity, especially in such well-preserved condition.

Zubdat al-Hikayat (زبدة الحكايات) is a collection of moral, didactic, and humorous anecdotes in Persian prose. The stories range from folk humor, including tales of Molla Nasreddin (ملا نصرالدین), to instructive dialogues between sages and seekers, doctors and patients, and sultans and courtiers. The tone is alternately witty and contemplative, typical of the adab (ادب) tradition. The text is lithographed in elegant nasta‘liq script, with approximately 10 to 12 lines per page. The first page features a decorative headpiece with floral motifs surrounding the title.

Condition:

Binding very slightly rubbed at the corners, The copy examined is clean and well preserved. Minor toning to the pages. Binding intact and handsomely preserved.

Sources:

Green, Nile. The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca. University of California Press, 2019.

Marashi, Afshin. “Nationalizing Iran: Culture, Power, and the State, 1870–1940.” University of Washington Press, 2008.

Miller, Michael. “Educational Reform and the Persian Press in Qajar Iran.” Iranian Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, 2003, pp. 207–229.

Rypka, Jan. History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company, 1968.

Subtelny, M. E. “Socioeconomic Bases of Cultural Patronage under the Later Timurids.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 20, no. 4, 1988, pp. 479–505.

Walcher, Heidi A. In the Shadow of the King: Zill al-Sultan and Isfahan under Qajar Rule. I.B. Tauris, 2008.