The Canon · Volume II

The Literature.

adabادبیات

The works, written and told — from the Masnavi and the Shahnameh to the folktales and legends that were never written down at all.

In gatheringEntries gathering

A volume in progress. Entries are gathered by hand, verified with scholars and elders, and published only once they can stand on their own. What is here is real; what is missing is coming.

The chapters

Open this volume.

This volume is being gathered. Its first entries are with our scholars and elders now.

ScopeWhat belongs in this volume.
Texts
The written canon — epics, divans, and the manuscripts that carried them.
Oral tradition
Folktales, the Simurgh, village legends — literature kept alive by the telling.
Figures
The poets and storytellers themselves — Rumi, Rabi'a of Balkh, and those unnamed.
The other volumes
Vol. IThe LanguageVol. IIIThe CustomsVol. IVThe ThoughtVol. VThe ArtsVol. VIThe Food