JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES
Year:2007 | Volume:40 | Issue:3 (158)|Papers Count:10

Festivals and celebrations are regarded as vitality and dynamism of each society. In pre-Islamic Iran, there have been as many as twenty four festivals. When Iranians accepted Islam, many Islamic festivals were added to these national festivals. Whereas one can find lots of information in Tarikh-e-Beihaghi, we can find little information in other historical books. Meanwhile there is quite a large amount of relevant information about Islamic and national festivals in Persian poetry, which in turn, provides the reader with adequate information on the ways these festivals and rites were held. Although most of these poems are merely a kind of glorifying and eulogizing the kings, rulers and authorities, one can find valuable information through reading these poems. By reading and analyzing these poems, one will be acquainted with the ways these festivals were held. These poems also provide us with helpful information about the vitality, merriment and contentment of the people and at the same time elucidate the secret of their permanence or elimination. Through studying the reflection of these festivals in Persian poetry, one can learn about the prevalent ideas in the monarchy as well.

Alkaafi fil Arooz-e-val Ghavaafi written by Khatib Tabrizi is quite familiar for the students and researchers of the area of prosody and meter. Khatib Tabrizi is a sixth century scholar. The main characteristic of his Age in writing books was to adapt from the texts and works of the predecessors and little use of creativity and innovation. Considering the bibliography and the methodology of this great scholar in compiling the above mentioned text, the author of the article has concluded that Khatib Tabrizi like his other contemporary scholars could not avoid this characteristic of his Age and has emphasized on adaptation in his work very much. In his adaptations the main focus of Tabrizi has been on the books of Saaheb Ibn-e-Abbad and Akhfash. However he has also adapted from the books and works of the other scholars too.

The old, rich and popular tradition of verbal story telling by narrators has been prevalent among all indo-Europeans, especially Aryans who were living in the Iranian plateau, in the Eastern part" of Iran and Khorasan. This tradition of oral narration has kept fiction and also historical event" and has transmitted them to us. The writer of this article tries to evaluate this tradition and analyze it diachronically. Then, he will show that most-if not all-of the stories and mythological works, in early Islamic era could have been formed under the influence of this popular and verbal tradition. Some parts of Shahnomeh, Vis-o-Ramoin and Samak-e -Ayyar had been first orally narrated by the narrators and then they were written down. This fact has also been proved through a morphological comparison of Sahnameh and Samak-e-Ayyar. This comparison also proves that Samak-e-Ayyar is an epic and not a fiction.

Comparing literary views of the poet and writers, as the creators of literary texts and those of the critics has rarely been noticed in the area of literary criticism. This article, studies Attar's point of views on various issues of poetry including rhyme, rhythm, poetic inspiration, addressee, utterance, meaning and didactic poem. The author of the article studies four Masnavis of Attar -Elahinameh, Asramameh, Mosibatnameh, and Mantegh-o-tair- and the poet's views on the above mentioned terms are extracted and then are compared with the views of the contemporary and past literary critics views. In this comparison, the writer of the article has also consulted some lyrics of the poet.

Shahnameh and the History if Bal'ami are great and important literary works in Iranian culture. These two works have many similarities and embody the history of Iran from its beginning up to the authors' time. The researches show that the sources and references that Ferdowsi and Bal'ami consulted were different. Ferdowsi consulted the prose Shalmameh of Abou Mansouri and the oral narratives; while Bal'ami consulted the History if Tabmi and prose Shahnameh of Abolmo'ayed-e-Balkhi. In spite of the difference of the sources, the research shows that the similarities between these two texts are much more than the differences. The reason for the similarity of the texts is the honesty of the authors in narrating the stories and the reasons for the differences can be the followings: a-differences in the sources consulted, b- Ferdowsi as a poet, c- differences in methods, d- Ferdowsi's religious and Islamic believes, e- The authors different opinions in narration.

Mountains and trees have many similarities. In this way, Simorgh of Shahnameh shifts from the tree of Vispobish to Alborz Mountain. If Simorgh has spiritual existence in Avesta, a devilish side has been added to it in Shahnameh. In Avesta, it lives on a tree, but in Shahnameh we find him on Alborz Mountain. All the researches done on Shahnameh and Iranian mythology did not pay any attention to the reasons of this shifting. The writer of this research studies the elements of Mithraism such as the sun and water in connection with the stories of Shahameh and the similarities between Alborz and the tree of Vispobish and the reasons caused Simorgh's shifting to Albarz Mountain.

In the classification and structural analysis of Shahnameh, the authors of the article consider the conflict between good and evil (from now on C.G.E.) as the main motif of this great epic. This motif has spread all over the epic. The number of the stories being influenced by the myth of C.G.E. is at least twice as many as every other motif in the epic. Considering the antiquity of the myth and motif of C.G.E. in the man's culture and the definition of structuralists -under the influence of this myth- for the narration, the authors introduce the C.G.E. as the narrative archetype; because this myth is the deep structure of narrative pattern in collective unconscious of mankind.

Historical characters are mostly heroes and protagonists that come from epics and romances. One of these characters is Bahram-e-Goor. He is the one that Nezami has best described his life after what Ferdowsi has written. His justice, bravery and courage, being always cheerful and having a poetic taste, has made Bahram-e-Goor a popular king. The longest story in Shalznameh after the story of Khosrow Anooshirvan is the story of the life of Bahram. Nezami also in a secret challenge with Ferdowsi, has described the life of Bahram in a separate poem called Bahramnameh or Haft Prykar. These two poets have described the life of Bahramin a specific approach. The writers of this article, have analyzed the character of Bahram in the poetry of these two poets.

Mohammad Akram (Ghanimat-e-Konjahi) was from Gujarat, India and lived during the era of Alamgir king (eleventh and twelfth centuries). In his poetry, one can find new ideas and delicate senses especially in his Neirang-e-Eshgh, which is also known as Ghanimat. His complete collection of poetry consists of lyrics, elegies and quatrains. In his poetry, Ghanimat has followed great masters of poetry such as Sa'eb-e-Tabrizi, Naziri of Neishabour, Naser Ali Sarhendi, Babafaghani and others.

Saam Naameh is an epic of love that is called the last national epic of Persian literature. Since the beginning of modern researches on Persian literature, several studies have been done on this epic and the authors all tried to either reject or conform the ascription of the text to Khajooy-e-Kermani. The writers of this article present a brief history of these arguments first and then according to their findings conclude that the epic belongs to the folklore.