PERSIAN LITERATURE QUARTERLY
Year:2010 | Volume:6 | Issue:26|Papers Count:24

Music is one of the most beautiful and delicates arts; it is a means of expressing inner human emotions and feelings.Given the fact that hearing nice songs is a requirement for the perfection of human soul, many great people of the world have benefited from this divine blessing. Saadi (606-692 or 694 A.H.) is an orator who regards happiness, liveliness, and enthusiasm as necessary for a dynamic society by focusing on songs, music, and musical instruments. However, as his life coincides with the most sorrowful era in Iranian history, the bloody invasion of Mongols, he as well as his contemporaries is affected. The present article traces the signs of this invasion in Saadi’s use of music and musical instruments.

Myths are symbols for human experience and represent spiritual values of a culture. In other words, they constitute the human nature with all his needs, wants, hopes, wishes, and worries. Although myths are primarily created as entertaining stories with serious purposes, they last for hundreds or thousands of years due to their attractions. The main purpose of myths is to explain the nature of the universe (like the myth of creation and fertility) or to teach the society how to behave to work better and to succeed. Heroic or epic myths create models for the people to follow.Heroes and champions are models of conduct for the society. Likewise, the myths of creation satisfy the need of human beings to understand the roots.In fact, myths are cultural responses to these basic questions: "Who am I? " and "How should I spend my life? " Hence, the present article tries to explain how and why the myth of Adam was created and found its way into the minds of the society and the mind and language of the poets.

One practical ritual of some Sufi sects is audition (samaa’), ecstasy, and enjoyment. This tendency has effected plenty of blames, derision, and curses against Sufis. This article first focuses on the causes for the emergence of this Sufi behavior in some sects, then mentions the Sufi sects for and against the idea of audition, and at the end cites the conditions and requirements of audition in the sects that advocate it.

Farrokhi Sistani, the great poet of the fourth and early fifth century, has a lofty place in poetry. His fame rests on his experiences and knowledge of the works of the past, his skill in music, and his seemingly easy yet difficult poems. Many poets have tried to use some lines of his in their own poems, or to compose odes similar to his in meter, rhyme, or content. This article is to study how Persian poets have imitated his famous ode beginning with: There rose an elephant-like cloud from the azure sea / like the will of lovers changing, like the nature of lovers deeply in love.It also portrays how poets are influenced by Farrokh’s odes and his poetic themes and contents.

Nasser Khosrow is one of the great authors of Khorasan who not only cannot be placed among the professional panegyrists, but also his poems and his words show his commitment to his ideology and faith and help him propagate it. Hence, instead of citing false virtues and titles of the kings, this aware Muslim announces his obedience to the great men of Islam and frequently adorns his book of poems with the virtues of this holy family. The holy Prophet (S.A.) and his revered family (A.S.) are among the few people whom Nasser Khosrow has praised wholeheartedly and sincerely.Mohammad's (S.A.) religion and the innocent and purity of his household have enchanted him so much that the sublime qualities of the Prophet and his family have been revealed in his poems. This article studies this issue from different perspectives.

In the second line of Hafez' s hypocrisy-fighting brilliant sonnet, beginning with: On the pulpit, preachers goodness display Yet in private, they have a different way he asks the “Scholar in the midst” about his problem. Based on its social and historical background, this idiom can reflect the past generations' understanding and beliefs about knowledge and the social aspect of popular terms, such as the “scholar” and “knowledge owner.” Various evidences show that “scholar” and “scholarship”have from a long time ago been one of the outstanding social “ranks” and “classes”in Iranian history and culture.The present article focuses on the status and qualities of scholars as an important social class.

In early centuries of Islam, Muslims tried to achieve truth and salvation through science, philosophy, and Islamic scholastic theology. Science has always been (and is) trying to seek reality and truth via observation and experience; philosophy via reasoning and wisdom; theology via debates on beliefs. Hence, at different stages and times, they offered temporary answers to the interpretation of realities, answers which have never been final and definite, but man basically wishes to achieve certainty and definite answers.Mysticism seeks to achieve truth in a different way; it is a completely personal way, unlike science, philosophy, and theology, which look for a general way. Because of this, mystics consider mystic (Gnostic) knowledge to be superior to scientific knowledge.This article tries to introduce wisdom and knowledge, kinds of knowledge, elements of perception and knowledge (knowledge through inference, perception, and experience) and elements of science.

“Golestan-e-saadi” is a rare work which has been popular beyond time and borders; it has inspired many poets and men of letters. Rowzeh Khold by Majd Khafi (an eighth century poet and mystic) is one of the most successful works similar to Golestan. Although Majd Khafi humbly acknowledges that Saadi is superior, he takes pride in his work by saying: If my words are not as superb as Saadi’s, please kindly accept my apologies.Since popularity is beyond my control, my fine words and pure nature are not to blame.He even ironically boasts that: Behold Rowzeh Khold by Majd Khafi; Every sheet of it is a rose garden.Inasmuch as considering all the similarities and differences between the two works is beyond the scope of this article, the another studies the first chapter of the two works, entitled “About the Kings” and “About the Governors” in Golestan and Rowzeh Khold, respectively as well as the similarities and differences between Saadi’s and Khafi’s minds and languages.

Mathnavi Ma’navi is a mysterious rose garden, in which the flowers and plants are irrigated by limpid Koranic springs; its exhilarating and life-giving smells refresh the depressed and cures the ill-hearted. This unique work is so valuable that it has been said to be a mystic and loving interpretation of God's words. The warnings in this work should be heard with a “different ear” and absorbed “wholeheartedly” since it is rooted in divine words.Believing that, in the darknesses of the present time, following him and his secret-laden teachings can be a way to solution, this article looks at the way spiritual darknesses are portrayed in Mathnavi Ma’navi and in Mowlana’s thought-provoking references to Satan and Satan’s followers.

This article deals with the reasons why Maktabi is anonymous and why his biography is shrouded in ambiguity. Were the lines in the preface to his book of poems purposely distorted? If yes, why? What effects have these distortions had on Maktabi’s beliefs? Was Sadr his teacher.

Although constituting half the society, women have always been neglected through history in the works and thoughts of thinkers and have been rarely represented in writing. The present article studies female practical wisdom in Khamseh under four titles: ethical dos, ethical don' ts, household management, and civil politics. In this invaluable collection, Nezami sometimes has a positive approach and mentions women' s virtues, such as chastity, generosity, humbleness, contentment, modesty, piety, forgivingness, faithfulness, hospitality, independence, education; he sometimes has a negative approach by referring to negative features like jealousy, trickery, wine drinking, revengefulness, and immorality. Neami mentions some household management roles that women play: educating children, being a good wife, honesty, truthfulness, and some political roles they play: justice, generosity towards people, joining the king and the nation, using art in politics, avoiding cruelty, and consultation.

This research has been carried out under the title "Epic plants and their symbolic values in shahnameh." Plants have traditionally had an eminent and important position in Persian literature and poetry and Ferdowsi’s companionship with plants is well known among writers and poets. Having examined the mythical background of plants, the author has sought descriptive images and associations and their symbols in Ferdowsi’s thoughts. The poet's mental images of plants have bben proved on the basis of his own poems. Plants in Shahnameh have such vast associations that Ferdowsi has sometimes considered them to represent special colors. And sometimes, he establishes relations between this earthly world and the other world using these plant symbols.In this article, it has been tried to show that plants in Ferdowsi’s poetry have not been used only to beautify poems, but rather they are the result of original perception of the poet's present moments and have implicit and complicated concepts.