JOURNAL OF PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Year:2012 | Volume:2 | Issue:2 (4)|Papers Count:8

This study is an attempt to religious poems of great Shiite poets in the fifteenth century A.D. What is the theme of religious poems? Religious poems written about the prophet of Islam and Imams, may peace be upon them. Indeed, before the century in question, Sunnite poets wrote many religious poems which were mostly about the Prophet, Rashedin caliphs, and Imam Ali. One can argue that from the fifteenth century, Shiite poets began to write eulogies about the Prophet and his Household and elegies about the event of Ashura. Some of the poets would devote their poems to the life one of the Imams. This flourishing movement marked the beginning for Shiite poets to write religious poems which started a revolution in the Iranian history of religious literature up to the present time.

A lot has been written about the causes of Persians defeat by Arab Muslims in most history books on Persia and Islam, but now after many years, a question has been raised by historians and those interested in history. How could Arab tribes who did not have the wealth, power and military organizations of Sassanides defeat this wealthy, powerful and great empire? The emergence of corruption and chaos in Sassanides' governmental system seems to be a more important factor to be studied compared to the power of Arabs in the collapse of Sassanides' kingdom; that is, the internal corruptions and disorder contributed to the downfall of Sassanides' government more than any other external causes. The present study is an attempt to shed light on the most essential causes of Persians' defeat based on Shahnameh.

One of the most important linguistic and rhetorical devices of the poet in expressing his thoughts is "Irony". Irony is an indirect expression that plays a vital role, either in poetry or prose. Mohammad Taghi Bahar, the Poet Laureate, was a great poet who lived at the time of Iranian Constitutional Revolution. The major characteristic that makes him unique among his contemporaries is his indiscriminate use of irony. In this paper we endeavor to identify different kinds of irony in Bahar's poetry. The writers attempt to investigate this figure of speech in Bahar's poetry, taking into account its categorical structures, linguistic aspects, and expressive concepts.

Shahrashub is one of the oldest Persian poetic genres. The first extant poem of this genre is found in the Mas'ud Sa'd's divan. Sharashub is a poem which describes different professions of the people in a city. The poem has a romantic tone by which the writer seemingly describes his beloved. Shahrashub of Mas'ud Sa'd is a precious version of this genre not only for its literary characters but also for the different sociological information it provides: information on different professions, customs, work tools of the poet's time. In describing different craftsmen, the poet has creatively made use of poetic devices, composing fair pieces. In the present study, some of the structural and contextual specifications of Mas'ud Sa'd's Shahrashub are enumerated and discussed.

One of the most controversial chapters of Marzbannameh is the one titled the "big-footed demon and the sage". This chapter, because of its mythological references and folkloric beliefs, has always been a source of interest for researchers. The place and time of the narrative are two significant elements in this chapter. Time is mystified, like other myths. The place is Babylon ruled by Nimrod and Dahak. The best reason for this selection is the Qur'anic story of Harut and Marut that had occurred in that land. In mythological criticism, finding the exact correspondence between fictional elements and myths is difficult, and sometimes just some traces are recognizable. An instance in this narrative is the sage may be compared with some mythological and historical figures like Ushet Feryan, Houshang and Zoroaster, yet can not be exactly identified with one particular figure. Another concept which is studied here is the demon's being big footed, as well as the different aspects and the background of this image.

Regadless of its political, philosophical and social issues, Modernism in literature refers to an aesthetic discourse in which the method of expression is of great significance. Nevertheless, modernist literature is also concerned with political, philosophical and social themes. Inspired by western literature, Modernist literature in Iran started to grow in the 1960s. One cannot deny the role of the pioneering poets, particularly Yadollah Royaee, who through establishing and expanding these movements influenced Persian literature of that historical period. As a formalist poet, Royaee regards the form of a poem as its ultimate end. Avoiding poetic themes and commitment, and using Modernist elements such as "defamiliarization", "imagery", and an inclination toward "prosaic poems" and the other linguistic techniques, Royaee is regarded as one of the Iranian Modern poets in literary circles. In this article, the researchers deal with the impact of modernism on his poetry.

Mohammand Taghi Bahar, Malekoshoara (the poet laureate), was an erudite scholar, a great poet, a committed journalist, and a considerate politician who spent much of his life in political turmoil. Because of his familiarity with and mastery of Classical Persian literature, he was influenced by other poets like Masood Saad Salmani. Bahar, like Salmani,' spent many days of his life in prison, under torture, and in exile. The present study is an attempt to investigate, from an aesthetic perspective, the similarities and differences between Bahar's and Salmani's habsiats (poetic chronicles of one's life during imprisonment) in terms of prison context and problems, the conduct of prison guards, persecution, torture, depression, frustration, and the poet's chronicles.

Shahnameh is not only significant from a literary perspective, but it is a comprehensive encyclopaedia of age-old Persian traditions and rituals. Iranians cherish this masterpiece. Among these rituals, there are certain ones related to death such as burial and lamentation ceremonies, which have their roots in human beings ritual beliefs and tendencies. Considering that missing loved ones is always a source of sorrow for survivors, people in the past tried to express their pain explicitly to alleviate the psychological pressure. So they would exhibit some samples of their pains by tearing their garment apart, pouring dust on their head, cutting their chignon, scraping their face, cutting thier hair, which are implied in Shahnameh. Also, we come across some burial rituals in Shahnameh, which, despite their superficial differences their origin is the cultural and religious beliefs of a nation. These differences in the ideology and religious teachings brought about different ways for burying the dead.