Persian Grammar Books of Mìrza Habìb-i Eşfahanì

Abstract

The Iranian poet, editorial, corrector, calligrapher, translator and linguist Mìrza Habìb-e Eşfahanì was born in 1251/1835 in Ben a village near Esfahan. He went to Isfahan for his first education; after completing his education there, he went to Baghdad and took lessons such as literature, fiqh and procedure. After his education in Baghdad, he went to Tehran and started to live there. Having spent the last thirty years of his life in Istanbul, Habìb-e Eşfahanì served as a civil servant at various levels of the Ottoman state for twenty-five years, he taught Persian and Arabic in Maktab-e Soltanì in Galata and Persian and French in Darüşşafaka and Ministry of Education was a member of “Encümen-i Teftiş ve Muayene”. Having a good command of Arabic and French and also a foundation for Turkish dialects, Habìb-e EãfahÀnì left many valuable works in the fields of copyright, translation, analysis, poetry selection, textbooks, etc. during his life in Istanbul. Habìb-e Eşfahanì, a good linguist, broke new ground with his works on the grammar of Persian; he succeeded in saving the composition and content of Persian grammar books from the translation and imitation of Arabic grammar books. According to the statement of Iranian linguist and academician Jalaluddin Homaei, Mìrza Habìb-e Eşfahanì is the first person to use the term “dastur”, which means grammar in Persian, and he wrote five grammar books, two of which are in Persian and three in Turkish. His works on Persian grammar are Dastur-e Sokhan (1289/1872), Dasturca (1293/1876), Dabestan-e Parsi (1308/1892), Rahnama-ye Farsi (1312/1894) and Khulasa-ye Rahnama-ye Farsi (1309/1891). Tagged copyright Isfahani has penned such works both in Turkey works written about the source of the knowledge of the Persian language in Iran; many authors have spoken about his works. Isfahani has penned such works as both the source of the works written about Turkey knowledge of the Persian language in Iran, and many authors have mentioned with satisfaction from his work.

He was known more as Mìrza Habìb Efendi and Habìb Efendi in Turkey. Considering the contribution of Eşfahanì to Persian grammar and the fact that all of these works were prepared for those who want to learn Persian in Istanbul and Darüşşafaka and Rüştiye schools, they are more important. In this respect, in this study, after giving information about the life and works of Eşfahanì, Persian grammar books written by him will be evaluated in terms of form, content and method and his views on the grammar and teaching of Persian will be shown.

Thus, the importance and influence of his Persian grammar books and contribution to Persian education in Turkey will be revealed.