Journal of Literary Studies
Year:2018 | Volume:51 | Issue:1 (200) |Papers Count:17

Nasr al-Dorr is an important book written by Abu Sa’ d Mansour bin Hussein Abi during the first decade of the 5th century AH. This book is an anthology consisting of seven chapters on various subjects intended for all occupations including teachers, preachers, poets, courtiers, and even kings and peasants. The third chapter includes 12 parts; each part is a brief selection of quotes and rare anecdotes regarding a famous figure or a group from special classes. In the twelfth part of the third chapter, the author deals with the words of Shateran. As this subject has been overlooked to date, it is of importance as one of the significant documents on chivalry prior to the seventh century in which an increase was witnessed in the number of texts on Ayyari and chivalry. Subsequently, its translation is presented in the following. Ultimately, according to the same text, major characteristics of Ayyaran which were essentially different from the Iranian codes of conducted are listed as the conclusion.

The study discusses the correct name of one of Abd al-Abbas Iranshahri's books. The book is based on Bayan al-Adyan (بیان الادیان) authored by Abolma’ ali Mohammad Balkhi, which has been called "Hastishenasi". Looking on the different meanings and interpretations of "Hasti" in Persian language and culture and the understanding of early scholars of Islam, the real name of the book seems to be "Hasti-Dad". It is emphasized in the study on the importance of Iranian's due attention to Persian and that many intellectuals found it necessary to have a heavenly book in Persian to explain and interpret the principles of Iran's historical and mythological beliefs. So, those who did not want a religion other than Islam in Iran, translated Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, into Persian in the Samanid period.

Our understanding of the life of Abu Mansour Daghighi is very inadequate. Owfi’ s conflicting and incorrect words in Libab al-albab as well as the distortion of a verse from Farrokhi Sistaani’ s “ Daghgaah” ode to Daghighi have misguided scholars of literary history, misleading them to consider Daghighi’ s lifetime to have started since the first half of the fourth century AH until the second half of the same century. Additionally, the incorrect perception resulted from the verses by Ferdowsi on Daghighi’ s death was a substantial factor in confusions occurred on Daghighi’ s time of life. Paying attention to Daghighi’ s praise poems, the lifetime of his praised subjects and the correct interpretation of Farrokhi Sistaani’ s verse with respect to the correction done by Hafez Mahmoudkhan Shiraani would clarify the inadequacy of the given dates. Accordingly, it is concluded in this study that Daghighi was most probably born between the years 280-285 AH and died at approximately the age of 50-55 (on 341 AH).

Persian writing, by its nature, has been caused some problems recently in editing Persian texts. For instance, consonant گ/g/ has been written with only one sarkash (ک) in many Persian manuscripts. This kind of writing has resulted in misreading and misunderstanding of some words and caused some problems for editing Persian heroic texts. That is, in texts like Shanameh, some words such as kargsar and kargsaran, have been written and understood as gorgsar and gargsaran. In this way, parts of Iranian culture (the history and life of tribes of the regions, in this case), have been neglected. In this research it was cleared by intra-textual and paratextual resources that gorgsar and gorgsaran, as the names of men, regions and tribes in heroic texts, must be corrected and read as kargsar and kargsaran.

Ghanei Tousi probably has versified Kalileh va Demneh Bahramshahi (originally written as a classic prose by Nasrollah Monshi) in a period between 644-646 AH. He versified the book in 10548 verses in the name of Izzaddin Keykavous II, a Romian Seljuq in Konya, Asian Minor. Although the theme of this educational-allegorical work is different from Iranian national epics, for some reasons it can be said that Ghanei both has showed his respect for Ferdowsi and has inspired from his Shahnameh. The reasons are: using the same rhythmic structure as Shahnameh for Kalileh va Demneh, being Ferdowsi’ s countryman, his enthusiasm in Iran, and Seljuqs’ interest in Shahnameh. In this article the enthusiasm and influence are discussed in seven sections: 1. using admiration expressions used for Ferdowsi and Shahnameh, 2. borrowing verses, lines or terms from Shahnameh, 3. using exactly the same lines of Shahnameh or lines with a slight changes without mentioning that the part has been taken from Shahnameh, 4. inspiring from Shahnameh and writing similar verses, 5. using metaphors and images derived from Shahnameh, 6. using the same themes of Shahnameh, and 7. using the name of kings and heroes of Shahnameh.

In this inquiry, first the origins of gypsies and their alternative names such as Lori, Loli, Ghereshmal, Fij, Zott, Souzmaani, Qorbati and Gharaachi are discussed according to reports available in Persian and Arabic references while their lexical roots were explored. Then, a brief history of gypsies’ migration from India to Iran since the era of the well-known Sassanid King, Bahram the Fifth a. k. a. Bahram Gur, to date is presented. In addition to the examination of different actions and behaviors of gypsies throughout various regions of Iran according to Persian works of poetry and prose in this study, positive and negative comments of Iranian poets and authors on this social group are presented and analyzed as well.

1-One of the objective aspects of the royal Glory in the Kā rnā mag ī Ardaš ē r ī Bā bakā n (Book of the Deeds of Ardaš ī r, the Son of Bā bak) is the appearance of a material manifestation in the shape of a corpulent animal, probably a ram. The word signifying this concept has been written in the Pahlavi text of Kā rnamag as جی. Scholars agree on the meaning of the word and generally refer to it as ram, but they disagree on the reading of the word. Most researchers following Antia, corrected it as+اجی and read it warrag. However, the latter has been used neither in Pahlavi nor in Persian texts meaning "ram". In Shahnameh, Ferdowsi renders it into غرم (γ orm) “ a mountain ram” , so it is possible that Pahlavi spelling is also a contamination of+جای (the deletion of ا is very common in Pahlavi writing). The given form could be easily read as "rang", Persian رنگ which means "mountain goat". 2-Pahlavi غجاغ defines the manifestation of the Ā dur Farrobā y in the shape of a bird, in the Kā rnā mag (chapter 9, Frag. 11). This spelling has been read as xrō s and interpreted as "cock" by editors. Although this interpretation is possible, but it is not suitable for the context. It is better to transliterate this word as ʾ lwh and read it as ā luh (Persian آله) "eagle" which comes from Old Iranian *ardifya-(Av. ə rə zifiia-Skt. ṛ jipyá-) literary "moving or flying straight, upwards".

Following the birth of Rostam through the particular quality presented in Shahnameh, an effigy (doll) of the newborn was made adorned with the pattern of sun and sigil, with a dragon drawn on its arms and a lion claw held in its hand. The doll was placed on a horse and sent to Zaal, in Zabolestan. According to Garshasp Naameh, a similar figure was made of silk when Saam was born, then placed on a horse and sent to Garshasp. The question here is that were the news of the birth of heroes’ grandchildren sent via sending a doll of the newborn? Why has not this been done using miniatures? These two important questions are posed in this study so that scholars may find a worthy answer.

The origin and development of “ Bon Basend” combination is discussed. The concept was used in Shanqashi Commentary which means “ separated from the root” . According to the origin of the word, it must be rooted from “ wisin” which means “ to break apart” ; and it must not be confused with the word “ Gosalidan” as some had supposed so. There is a similar word used in Attar’ s poetry as a verb called “ Begosandi” and also as another word in a translation of Quran from Astan Qods Library. Finally, two roots were speculated for this word: the past form with transforming the second “ n” to “ d” , and the present root as the object.

Bahram V (Gur) calls himself the grandson of Shamiran-Shah who is an unknown figure. Some of western and Iranian resources have reported the marriage of Yazdegerd, Bahram’ s father, to a Jewish woman. This research aimed at answering some questions: Did Yazdegerd marry a Jewish woman and was she Bahram’ s mother? Who is Shamiran-Shah, whom Bahram introduces as his matrilineal ancestor? This research, after a brief look at the resources and methods of Iranian historiography, based on historical and geographical resources, examined the reigns of Yazdegerd and Bahram Gur and study various views on Yazdegerd's marriage to a Jewish woman and the so-called Shamiran-Shah. The results showed that Shamiran is not a name for human beings but rather an ancient region that can be identified as the mythological “ Iranvij” . So, Shamiran-Shah is the Iranian king in that cold land, i. e. Jamshid. Referring to Shamiran-Shah as his matrilineal ancestor, Bahram had emphasized his nationality as an Iranian and the antiquity of his family-perhaps because his merits for ruling had been questioned by the nobles and clerics-as he had already shown himself as an Iranian through his patrilineage.

In Persian epics and generally in all myths and stories, we sometimes face with stories of the similar structure. These similarities may be because of the collective unconscious and the archetype, because they have imitated each other, or an adjective has replaced a name and change it into two or three narratives, or they were two stories from single narrative that over time have been established as two different stories. The research tries to investigate the similar structures of the two stories, and proves that the stories have the same origin. It was approved that "Koke Kouhzad" and "Shakavand Kouh" which are amongst the oldest Persian stories, had been a single narrative that after ages have become two independent stories. The stories are same not only in structure but also in some details.

Coexistence with a female or male principle in the body and soul of a man and woman has long been considered. Although this view persists in some cases, some scholars such as Jung, in the terms of Anima and Animus, have tried to apply these two principles to human sciences. In folk tales and ancient fictional texts, these two principles appear in the form of romances. One of these old represent of Archetype is the presence of some of the characters in the shadow, which is referred to as "Daye" (nursemaid). His presence in the early stages of the growth of the heroes of the stories, as well as some of his positive and negative actions, expresses the old path of Anima's model in the minds and minds of the storyteller. This research tried to present a paradigmatic interpretation of the sense of nursemaid by representation of the roles of nursemaids in some Persian folk tales. The research questions are: what roles does she play as an Archetypal Anima? In which characteristics is her main role portrayed? Is her role invariable or does it change? By examining these stories, it was cleared that she had shown nine role (six positive and three negative). Among her positive roles are her nurturance and growing up, intermediary, confident, resourcefulness, intercession, and preparing the spousal affairs. Her negative roles can be seen in magic, witchcraft and spellbinding, information and managing of the alehouse (bagnio). Most of the actions and behaviors that exist in people’ s minds are also observed in the studied stories. Among these deeds, nurturance and growing up have been the most frequented as a positive role and witchcraft and spells of highest frequency among the negative roles. About the positive roles of Anima, intermediary, confident, resourcefulness and intercession and preparing the spousal affairs all subsumed under the "intermediary" character of Anima. The criterion for choosing the stories was the presence and role of Daye in them. Among the long folk tales we chose Samak-e Ayyar, Abu Muslimnā meh and Hossein-e Kurd because of the stories’ importance, the diversity of motifs, and the frequency of the presence of Daye (nursemaid).

Shahriā r-nā ma is one of the most remarkable Persian epics. In spite of many years of research in this regard, still there are fundamental ambiguities about it: the attribute of the work to some other famous poets, speculations about the exact time of its compilation from the sixth to the twelfth century (the end of Safavid dynasty), a hypothesis of the two long parts and a long and short pieces that the second part of the Shahriā r-nā ma was the a continuation of the first part. In this research, these theories are discussed and criticized. In this essay, for the first time, all four manuscripts of the Shahriā r-nā ma were carefully studied. According to the content of the work and other woks, it became clear that the main poet of Shahriā r-nā ma, named Farrokhi, lived in the ninth or tenth century or even some centuries earlier, who donated his to a king called Mahmoudshah. Some unknown events have caused, after the death of Farrokhi, another poet seemed to be called Mokhtā ri, assumed the book. Making the work smaller, making slight or big changes in lexicon, syntax and images of the verses, and shortening the text, Mokhtā ri plagiarized and reversified the work. He assumed the book and present it as a new work to the son of previous king, called Masoud.

There is only one account of the war of 572 between Iran and Rom, narrated by Ferdowsi in Shahnameh, and none of the prominent historians in early Islamic period such as Tabari, Balami and others mentioned it. This shows the importance of Shahnameh's account but arises several problems; In spite of providing a correct frame in the account, there are several ambiguities, especially in geographic information. It is obvious that Ferdowsi, in loyalty to his unique source of the account, exercised restraint in clarifying the ambiguities by storytelling techniques. Therefore, we can find some features of the unique lost source of Ferdowsi in narrating this war, which is very essential to settle the controversial issue of the sources of Shahnameh.

In spite of all efforts over the past decades in describing and tackling the ploblems of Shahnameh, there exist still verses, whose exact meaning are not clear because of ambiguous words and combinations. Among them, a specific application of the word "Yadgar (یادگار)", and "send (سند)" that is used at least three times in Shahnameh but it does not appear that Ferdowsi, in all cases, wanted the same meaning recorded in lexicons. The study explores this problem with the help of two ancient Arabic texts containing the word "Yadgar" in its ancient forms "Ayazkar/Ayadkar". It was concluded that this word means "scroll", just as it means in local dialect of Fars, as one of the scholars has mentioned ago. The word "Send" (adopted son), used also in one of the ancient translations of the Qur'an, refers to a person who is called by his kinship to someone, without being really of his generation.

Except for a few Turkish words, there are certain Turkish names and titles in Ferdowsi’ s Shahnameh that have been subject to alteration or manipulation. Such manipulations were either done by the poet himself or his references and scribers. As the major names are concealed under altered or manipulated forms, their accurate number cannot be obtained. To this end, first the entire words and names considered as non-Persian should be extracted; then, each word should be separately explored and examined in both the old references and new studies. However, certain names were correctly recorded in Shahnameh and their unknown origin is due to insufficient research. Certain names were also associated with certain languages based on speculations. Here, a few number of these names are presented while it was also attempted to obtain their origins.

J. S. Bystroń , a Polish ethnologist, published an article in 1912 on the magic of fruit trees fertility in Europe, in particular in Poland. He formulated some hypothesis about the possible origin and diffusion of such practices and beliefs. Persian literary texts and field studies of different parts of Iran have revealed the presence of parallel magic practices. Remarkable similarities of the East European and Middle Eastern beliefs and magic particularly the ritual of threatening a “ lazy” tree testify to a common origin and territorial continuity of fertility magic and its conceptual background in both cultural areas.