TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF PERSIAN LITERATURE (RESEARCHES ON PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE)
Year:2018 | Volume:54 (NEW VOL 10) | Issue:1 (37) |Papers Count:10

Narratology, as a branch of structuralism, aims to discover a general model of narration. William Labov is one of the theorists in this domain who, together with Joshua Waletzky, proposed a model for narrative structure based on oral narration of speakers of English. This model, also famous as diamond, consists of six parts: abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, resolution, and coda. Tarikh-e Beyhaqi is a historical narrative in which oral narrative has a conspicuous presence. Based on Labov’s model, this article seeks to analyze the story "executing Hasanak", in which oral narrative plays a crucial part. Results of the research show that the macro structure of Hasanak story is consistent with Labov’s model, but elements such as subject matter and writing techniques cause differing of the work from the model in some parts and make it unique. Moreover, the most important individuating aspect of this work is manifested in evaluation part where Beyhaqi’s writing style is made emphatic and his claim regarding his being unbiased in historiography is rejected.

It has been a long time since the first edition of Farokhi Sistani’s Diwan. Though its first edition, considering the limitations in the facilities available at that time as well as the limited number of manuscripts found up to then, was of high importance, there are a large number of stiches in Dabir Siaaghi’s edition which do not yield to an optimal meaning due to his method of edification and also his not having at hand many of the manuscripts now at disposal. We have access to more than 70 manuscripts of which 10 more significant ones were selected and finally 6 manuscripts were singled out as more significant on the basis of which our edition was based. One manuscript was set as the relative basic one. In order to prepare the most optimal edition, we compared all the manuscripts available and finally made a more exact edition. In this article, we are to bring forth some of the mistakes, misreading, mis-selections and also wrong accounts in Farokhi’s Diwan. Accordingly, our proposed accounts are given in a way that pave the way for achieving a better edition.

Dastoor-al-Alaj is the medical work of Sultan Ali Khorasani, a doctor of the Uzbek court who, after forty years of practicing and traveling with Koch Konji Khan, has compiled it on the request of Sultan Mahmood Uzbek. There are more than thirty copies of this book, which is a quasi-literary text, available in libraries in Iran and across the world. At the time of Abu Sa' id Bahadur Khan's rule, Sultan Ali added a sixteen-chapter introduction to the book. In the existing versions, this sixteen-chapter introduction does not appear, but is available as a separate book. In lithographs, the introduction is placed at the beginning of the book. By referring to the lists, several versions of the book were identified. Subsequently, with the study of the historical books of the Safavid period and the books that introduced the Persian medical texts, the few books available on the Uzbek dynasty. However, some data were obtained about the Uzbakan and the book ‘Dastoor-al-Alaj’. Among other things, the information about Sultan Ali was very small and confined to what appears in the book's preface. In the content of Dastoor-al-Alaj, some features of the syntax of Arabic language, such as the consistency of adjectives, the verbs of the beginning, as well as the use of ancient Persian verbs, old words and imitation of old styles could be seen. From the point of view of the principles of writing, the observance of continuous writing in compound words, the segregation in the current prefixes, and adherence to the writing of the consonant ‘A’ are the main features of this book. This study is based on the oldest and the most complete version of the book.

Layer semiotics with sign substructure, langue, parole, codes, context and so on aims to provide an exact reading of text. In this procedure, the sign in discourse interaction will change to text. In fact in this process, the contextual reading has resulted the signs in form of codes which turn to textural layers. Although inter-text and inter-discourse reading of addressee will direct these layers. Khosrow and Shirin poem had the potential of this reading, so due to current research, some signs such as water, milk, blood, tree, stone, sun and so on are seen as the main actors of a story around three characters including Farhad, Khosrow, and Shirin so that phenomenological reading considers the above-mentioned signs in parallel to every character in semantic process in proportion with the implicit significations. Descriptive–analytic method of Layer Semiotics indicated how a poet can use the story economy in form of signs to make the volume of semantic-content structure of a literal work. So, some analysts with structuralism view in addition to purgatory view of all signs in reading different codes caused to the semantic reproduction, for example when the companion actors with Shirin such as water, milk and blood are placed due to the signs processing in different codes of mysticism, myth, psychology and so on. Finally, Shirin is placed in a way confronting different implicit significations such as Gnosticism Early death when she was punished.

This research reviews and criticizes poetical works of Faizi Fayyazi who was a famous and reputable poet in tenth century (15th century AD) and was one of indisputable masters of Persian literature in Indian peninsula. Beside some imperfect lithographic transcription, in 1967, this poetic work was printed by research office of Pakistan and in 1362 (1983) the same print was offset printed by Forughi publication in Iran with some incorrect manipulations. The main question of this research is how valid are these transcriptions and how far they can transfer the poet's intentions to reader. To answer these questions, we have reviewed and analyzed Faizi's poets (specifically lyrics) based on unfeigned and primeval manuscripts using scientific text correction methods and critical approach through comparing those manuscripts with printed transcriptions. With finding disruptions and distortions which were mainly the consequence of misread and/or editor's carelessness, we came to this conclusion that printed transcriptions except those distortions and disruptions, suffer from other handicaps like metre disorder, gaps, etc. and anywise are not meritorious to Faizi's poets. Therefore it's essential to scientifically reedit poetic works of this great poet.

The emphasis in rhetoric is to prove a concept in the minds of the audience, and to strengthen it in order to eliminate any ambiguity towards the meaning using specific linguistic capacities. Given Naser Khosrow's religious approach to poetry and the special purpose of the poet from the writing of poetry, rhetorical emphasis has many uses in his poetry. Examining the types of these practices can reveal many of the poetic aspects and subtleties of this poet. The purpose of this research is to investigate various types of rhetorical emphasis in Naser Khosrow's poems by the library method. In this research, the evidence of rhetorical emphasis in Nasser Khosrow's poems has been studied in two aspects of the science of meanings and exegesis. The results of this study are as follows: it can be said that the poet's rationalism has caused literary aspects such as reasoning and methods of equation to be more relevant. The poet's Ismaili thoughts have also been effective in applying rhetorical questions and avoiding oaths, alternatives, and sequence of adjectives. Meanwhile, rhetoric such as exaggeration and personification, which are more imaginative than philosophical, are not in his poetry.

Ghiasuddin Ali Yazdi known as "Ghias" was a well-known poet and painter from the tenth and eleventh century AH who was known for the design of silk fabrics to "Naqshband". He, in addition to skill in the art of Naqshbandi, was also capable of poetry and had a collection of beautiful poems. His poetry collection includes various poems odes and sonnets, quatrains and Masnavi. All of these has been corrected and published only once by Hussein Masarrat in 2014. This study, by examining this publication, will show its weaknesses and inadequacies in several sections: 1) the method of correction is uncertain and inauthentic; it is deductive; 2) many of the verses are recorded with distortions that, by affecting the meaning of the original text, have changed a lot of it. In addition to these points, the mistakes related to suspensions, typos, mischiefs, and recordings should also be mentioned. Masarrat’s correction of Ghias’ collection has many drawbacks; for this reason, this article tries to refer to some of them and the need to re-examine his collection. The elements of the style of Ghias poetry are also analyzed in this essay in terms of familiarity and normality. The most important norms in the poetry of Ghias are syntactic, spatial, and archaism. In this study, we try to recall this part of the norms, part of the aesthetic functions in Ghias’ poetry.

Beyhaghi and Jahangosha Jovini's history are two completely different proses that is, Morsel and technical prose. So far, various studies have been done on stylistics of these works, but unfortunately, there is limited evidence regarding the stylistic features of these two works. One of the most important goals of this research is to provide definitive documents and information with respect to the whole text. The purpose of the documents and definitive information is to provide statistical information and to identify each of the important features and elements that experts present on the basis of their view of the style of a work.The focus of this approach is on the information obtained from literary works and their analysis with advanced computer software; for this purpose, the first volumes of Beyhaghi and Jahangosha Jovini's history were chosen. Nouns in each work were extracted from both textsvia using a computer. By examining the two texts, the differences and similarities of the effective features of each work regarding the names of individuals, according to the stylistic approach, were analyzed. Abolfazl Beyhaghi has benefited from the names of individuals because of his particular style and the attempt to document his writings; however, this difference is not only in the variety of names; it is also the in the number of repetitions of nouns. In the same way, in the history of Beyhaghi, the repetition of the names is more than the history of Jahangosha Jovini.

Salarnameh is an epic book based on the style of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, in which the history of Iran has been depicted from the beginning until the reign of Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar. The book consists of two parts: the first part from the beginning of Iranian history to the end of the Yazdgerd Sassanid’s kingdom was written by the intellectual and libertarian Kermani poet ‘Mirza Aqa Khan’ under the title of the Ancient Letter. Shortly after the creation of this work and the death of Mirza Aqa Khan, Mullah Ahmad Hafez Aghili Kermani continued the work until the time of Mozaffar al-Din Shah and changed the name of the book into Salarnameh. The author of this paper reviewed the textual content of three versions of this book (currently only available in three versions). In view of the poet's new look at past events and expressing it in the epic style, based on Ferdowsi, he introduced a comprehensive framework of Iranian history from the earliest to the Qajar era, with the language of poetry. The Aqa Khan’s poetic language is far from literary and explicit but monotonous; however, Mullah Ahmad Hafez has tried to use the elements of rhetoric, especially simile and equivocalness in the text. Compared to the ancient language, poetry is not uniform. From the historical point of view, the Aqa Khan's ideas have been discussed since the earliest times of Iran as a true history, and the ambiguity that was observed at that time due to the lack of historical documents has been influenced by the books of descendants, but in the later periods of history, especially the Medes, the Achaemenids, the Parthians, Seljuks, and Sassanids, with archaeological discoveries and the translation of the old lines, a perfect date for poetry was provided.

Transtexuality is a critical term in the contemporary literary theory, and it is based on the fact that a literary work is defined and understood only in relation to other literary works, since the creator of a literary work enters a world as soon as he decides to create a work of the medium of communication in his mind, and in this case, all the thoughts that the writer or poet takes with himself are involved in his creation of a new work. One of the major areas in the Iranian literature is the epic literature that can be viewed with the new transtextuality approach which may provide the new generation with novel ideas. Shahnameh Ferdowsi, as the greatest epic of Iran, has been a structural pattern and an appropriate content for its later works. In this regard, after Shahnameh, the epic works have progressed consciously or unconsciously through its narrative style and its structural pattern.Kush Nameh is a historical epic in which the wars of the Chinese and the Iranian armies were presented. This could be considered to be another narrative of the enemies of Iranians in the Shahnameh. Although the sources used by Kush Nameh differ from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and contain different content, but undoubtedly, its creator has been directly and indirectly influenced by Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. In this research, based on the descriptive-analytical method, this hypothesis that Kush Nameh and Shahnameh can be viewed through a transtextuality lens (i.e. Kush Nameh as the subtext, and Shahnameh as the super-text) was tested.