Abstract
Diplomatics is the science of studying documents, and the study of document elements, including the composition of the text and their formal characteristics, is considered the focal subject of this field. Since the beginning of the diplomatics studies of Iranian document until today, several efforts have been made to methodize the study of document elements, which today are the basis of Iranian diplomatics education, study, and research. Reviewing and comparing the works written in this field, however, shows some differences among them. A deeper look into the nature and causes of the differences reveals a deficiency and lack of effort in providing common specialized literature and ambiguity in the theoretical foundations on the basis of which the elements of Iranian documents are identified and categorized. The consequence of this situation is the failure to create a precise and structured method and standard in the field of Iranian diplomatics studies. The consequence of this situation is the failure to form a structured method in the field of Iranian document studies, which manifests itself in the lack of a comprehensive and precise standard. In view of this issue, the present article, with the aim of providing a standard (or criterion) that, along with maximum absorption of the contents of previous works, provides a sound theoretical basis for defining and classifying the elements of Iranian documents around its axis, has put the design of a standard for text-based documentary elements on its agenda.
In this way, the authors focused on gathering and processing the necessary theoretical foundations and concepts, along with a comparative study of previous works. In order to provide a theoretical framework, the concept of "document as text" was pursued within the context of an approach that, in the words of the authors of the article, is called "text-based". From the perspective of this approach, a document is identified as an entity with three dimensions: "content", "context", and "form". The form dimension, which includes the elements of documents, is the main subject of diplomatics studies. Therefore, the work was expanded in the field of processing operational concepts related to the formal dimension of the document, and with the help of the idea that "the way content is transmitted is the product of the decisions of the text producer", the homogeneous elements of documents were defined in four categories: Peykar-Matn (body text, the product of the producer's main content measures), Diwān-Afzūd (chancery additions, the product of the intentions and actions of the ruling authorities and court agents in order to complete the content goals), Zamineh-Ārāyeh (ground/decoration, the product of measures related to creating optimal platforms for implementing content goals), and Pas-Afzūd (post-additions, add-ons after the production and issuance of the document).
Along with the development of theoretical foundations, the extraction of document elements from the perspective of previous works was considered. The achievement of the work is the "Schedule of Standard (criteria) for Text-Based Diplomatics Elements, Based on Iranian Court Documents)" in which the elements corresponding to each of the four categories (Peykar-Matn, Diwān-Afzūd, Zamineh-Ārāyeh, and Pas-Afzūd) are organized in a classification table by utilizing the outputs of comparative tables of previous works. "Standard (criteria) for Text-Based Diplomatics Elements", with a conceptual look at the nature of the elements of Iranian documents, has moved beyond assumptions derived from personalized perceptions or criterias based on the nature of European and Western documents, and has provided a comprehensive recognition, classification, and ranking of the elements of Iranian court documents, based on specific conceptual boundaries.