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{
    "pk": 62276,
    "title": "Paleography and Textual Editing Practices in Afghanistan During the 20th Century",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "<p>Textual editing has remained an underexplored area within literary studies in Afghanistan. This study investigates the knowledge of paleography and the editorial methods employed by several Afghan scholars, with the aim of clarifying the approaches to textual editing in the country during the 20th century. Drawing on bibliographies and indexes of articles from leading Afghan literary and historical periodicals such as Kābul (Kabul Literary Association), Āriānā (History association of Afghanistan), Zhwandūn (Ministry of Information and Culture), and Khorāsān (Dari Institute of Language and Literature), this study identifies and analyzes the editorial work of four prominent scholars: Khāl-Muḥammad Khastah, Sarwar Gūyā Iʻtimādī, ‘Abd al-Ra’ūf Fekrī Saljūqī, and Muḥammad Ḥusayn Behrūz. The findings reveal that Afghan text editors often faced considerable challenges, most notably limited and difficult access to manuscripts preserved in international libraries. As a result, they frequently relied on locally available sources, which were sometimes unverified or based on single manuscript copies. Furthermore, core components of modern critical editing such as comprehensive manuscript description, systematic collation, and documentation of variant readings were often overlooked. This study offers new insight into the field of paleography in Afghanistan and provides a preliminary reassessment of its textual editing practices and key contributors during the 20th century.</p>",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0",
        "short_name": "CC BY 4.0",
        "text": "Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.",
        "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"
    },
    "keywords": [],
    "section": "Article",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/255176qt",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Khalilullah",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Afzali",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "UCLA",
            "department": "UCLA LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS"
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": "2026-02-03T02:58:37.736000Z",
    "date_accepted": "2026-02-09T19:32:59.197099Z",
    "date_published": "2026-02-09T15:35:00Z",
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        "type": "pdf",
        "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/melanotes/article/62276/galley/48570/download/"
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}