Documentology

Recognizing the internal and external elements of the document is an essential component in their assessment. Before examining the content of the document, it is necessary to determine its authenticity and credibility, next to measuring its informational value. The definition of documentology and its components is discussed, followed by introducing some of the new sources in this subject in a specialized manner by assessing the documentology sources. The study questions are: What is the stance of Safavid period documentology compared to previous periods?  The available studies on this issue are rare; consequently, library and document methods are adopted here to assess this issue in more depth, thus, the innovation in this context. The findings indicate that the recognition of the historical background and document issuance date provided in some clerical resources of the Safavid era, like Tadzkire al-Muluk, Dastur al-Muluk, Risalah al-Aqab and Muwajib, and Soleimani's origins. The content of some treatises in Ahmad Ghulam and Bayazi Safavi’s analects, in the field of seals and its function and descriptive manner of the internal and external components of letters, are of high importance. The similarity of analects in the mentioned three documentations reveals that the analects concerning secretaries of the court, who had access to the content of Soleimani's manuscripts, have been enriched. The author of Soleimani's manuscripts is probably Muhammad Reza bin Abdul-Hossein Tusi.