A Textual Study of Two Manuscript Collections of Sa’di Shirazi Held in the Alisher Navoi State Museum of Literature

This article is dedicated to a textual-comparative study of two manuscript “kulliyats” (collections) of Sa’di Shirazi, preserved in the collection of the Alisher Navoi State Museum of Literature of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. The research scientifically analyzes the structural composition of these manuscripts, their genre characteristics, the commonalities and differences between the texts, and the specific features related to the formation and copying process of the codices. The manuscript copies are examined using a comparative-textual method, with special attention given to the textual variants they contain, the discrepancies between certain couplets and passages, scribal peculiarities, and the changes that occurred during the text’s transmission. Furthermore, the article highlights the significance of these “kulliyats” as sources for studying Sa’di’s creative heritage, the reliability of the manuscript texts, and their scholarly value from a textological perspective. The findings of this research serve to establish an important source study and textological foundation for the systematic study of Sa’di Shirazi’s manuscript sources, the identification of existing textual variants, and the future preparation of a scholarly-critical text.