Evaluation of the Book Matlaʿ al-Qawāfī fī ʿIlm al-Uṣūl Based on the Criteria of a Textbook

Abstract

Abstract: Matlaʿ al-Qawāfī fī ʿIlm al-Uṣūl is an instructional treatise written by Razi al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad Shafiʿ Mostowfi, an eleventh-century AH author, featuring an ornate prose style in its preface and exhibiting the general characteristics of prose from that period in its remaining sections. The subject matter of this book includes prosody, rhyme, poetic devices and rhetorical embellishments, as well as semantics and rhetoric. The purpose of this article is to evaluate Matlaʿ as an educational text and to demonstrate the extent to which the characteristics of textbooks have been observed in it. This evaluation was conducted using a descriptive-analytical method. The findings of this study indicate that in the book Matlaʿ, educational and short-term objectives, as well as the methods for achieving them, are not clearly and explicitly stated in the preface (introduction). The use of Arabic vocabulary and its high frequency (including Qur’anic verses, hadiths, poems, and narrations), the use of difficult and obsolete words, scientific, philosophical, and mystical terminology (without sufficient explanation), lengthy sentences, the absence of a clear and explicit guide, the lack of appropriate activities and exercises, structural and grammatical ambiguities, and ambiguities in understanding the meanings of words have diminished the scholarly value of the book. In the naming of chapters and categories, no use has been made of keywords. The high frequency of Arabic prose and poetic examples indicates a lack of connection between the author and the Persian-speaking reader, as well as cultural and ideological contradictions between them and the imposition of the author’s beliefs and ideas upon the audience.