Chronogram, Persian - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Seyed-Gohrab, Ali Asghar
Leiden
Brill
(1,246 words)
Chronogram s (Pers. mādda(-yi) taʾrīkh ) are dates disguised in texts, generated from the numerical values of the Arabic alphabet (abjad, ḥisāb al-jummal ; see Colin). Chronograms appear early in the history of Persian poetry. The Persian narrative poems ( mathnavī s) Āfarīn-nāma ("Book of celebration," dated 333/944-5) by Abū Shakūr Balkhī, Shāh-nāma ("Book of kings") by Firdawsī (d. c.410/1020), and Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqa ("The walled garden of truth") by Sanāʾī (d. c.1087/1130) were dated with chronograms (de Bruijn, Of piety and poetry ;