PEDAGOGIC AND LYRIC IN PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDIES QUARTERLY
Year:2010 | Volume:2 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

No one can deny the blending and cultural communication between the two ancient civilizations of Iran and India. A very important point to consider is the comparative study of the Iranian mysticism with the Indian religions and philosophical-and-mystical movements. The aim of this paper is not to seek the origin of the Iranian mysticism in the Indian rituals; the goal, however, is to examine the similarities between the Iranian mysticism and the existing rituals and creeds in the Indian religions and movements in a scientific and well-documented way. By a careful examination of the Indian books and texts such as Bhagavad-Gita, Mahabharata and Upanishad, and also Persian mystical books, one can find lots of similarities between educative and mental-journey aspects and methods. From a comparative viewpoint, the most important points could be summarized as: the significance and value of human’s existence, love and insight, plurality of comportment's stages and positions, the value of the heart’s position, the importance of the sage and the preceptor, piety and asceticism, fighting against the self, perdition theory, and so on.

A long-time existing subject in Persian mysticism, which has formed innovative works, is wisdom and its contrast with mystical love and madness or the contrast of Aristotelian peripatetic school (philosophy and reasoning) with the platonic Eshragi school (mysticism and intuition). The wisdom which is confronted, and humiliated, by a mystic poet like Molana in his two eternal works, i.e. Masnavi and Shams Sonnets, is Greek wisdom which follows self and dream, acting as an obstacle in reaching the destination, and in Molana's words, “It is the incomplete love which denies love.” This does not refer to the complete wisdom, bearing the title of “wisdom of wisdom,” which has been admired and praised in religious verses and sayings and in the works of some mystics such as Molana. This paper, by referring to other mystical poems and texts, tries to examine the contrast between such wisdom and mystical love and madness.

Studies on Hindi style are often limited to items such as discussing delicate meanings, allegory, and so on, while other points, including the structure of the main frame of this style, that is, sonnet, have not been paid enough attention to. This study, based on Lucien Goldmann’s structure-orient developmental theory (emphasizing the relationship between the author’s worldview in the work and its structure), tries to examine the Hindi-style sonnet structure, its lack of cohesion, and the contradictions in its lines.The present study shows that the poets’ ignoring wisdom in this style--inherited from Iraqi-style poets’ worldview-- along with their trivial view--being the result of their ignoring wisdom on the one hand, and their attempt to find delicate meanings on the other hand-- have resulted in these poets’ incoherent, nonsystematic, and contradictory worldview. This worldview is reflected in the internal incoherence, looseness of its basis, and contradictions in the lines of the Hindi-style sonnet.

This study focuses on meeraj, and tries to, comparatively; analyze the existing merajnamehs (ascension writings) in Persian literature and translations. The motivation, date, quality, type and the scientific and rational analysis of such a phenomenon by the experts, how meraj (ascension) is reflected in the literary and mystic texts, and the spiritual journey of some Moslem and non-Moslem figures, including Bayazid-e-Bastami, Zarathusrtra, Buddha, Dante, and Milton are emphasized, too. Besides, the following points are also discussed: the characteristics of the heroes of this phenomenon (in terms of their intellectual and spiritual ranks), those who accompany them throughout the journey, its time, place, and those who are met, rewards and punishments and its worldly and spiritual reasons, the intellectual justification of these rewards and punishments, and the final destination of this spiritual journey.Based on their importance, the results achieved have been pointed out at the end. Meraj (ascension) and merajnameh (ascension writing)–which is still being created and realized - in human history is regarded as a combinatory and secondary genre; and, as a literary genre, it has not been analyzed or criticized independently.

Parvin Etesami is among the few famous female poets in Persian literature. Being influenced by the Islamic- Iranian culture, she analyzes the position of women in her contemporary era, and, addressing women, informs them of their capabilities and values.Reminding the women of the restrictions and difficulties they have undergone in the Iranian society, in her poems, Parvin attempts to present a realistic picture of women. She directly states that women should be regarded as the foundation and basis of life, and that it is through them that a comfortable life can be achieved.She believed that a man’s or a woman’s superiority is based on knowledge, skill, aptitude, mystical orientation, and chastity, and ignoring these factors causes their inferiority.

The main aim of comparative literature is to recognize the intellectual sources and its reflection in literature, and also to discover the common points between human minds. To achieve this, it is not enough to consider the subjective aspect of the works; yet, one needs to pay attention to different literary genres and their criteria. This paper tries to examine, comparatively, how sonnet changed and the way it penetrated into the literature of the German-speaking countries. It also attempts to find out the reasons of the German-speaking poets’ interest in this genre.

The Talpourians ruled in Send during 1700-1782 A.D. The language spoken at their court was Persian. Gholam-Mohammad Khan Laghari, whose family was very interested in Persian poetry, culture, and language, was a poet of Talpourian dynasty. He was the son of Ali-Mohammad Khan (1162-1250 Hegira) and through him, he learned Persian and Arabic.Gholam-Mohammad Khan was considered as a famous adviser and commander. He passed away in 1279 Hegira. Gholam was proficient in composing Persian poems. Mostly he followed the style of Hafez Shirazi’s sonnets.This paper tries to explain the sonnets composed by Gholam-Mohammad, following Hafez’s footsteps.

“Generosity” that has always had a close association with mysticism throughout the history has also influenced the “civil life” in Islamic societies. This is not just intellectual influence but it brought about social and political changes as well. Some try to reduce “generosity” to common mysticism; this, however, seems not to be able to clarify its role in the development of the social life of the ritual completely. Throughout the history, generosity has penetrated into the social life and work of common people, and, therefore, mixed with their thoughts. It has, thus, been so much able to mix mystical concepts with the civil life that it is regarded as a type of civil mysticism. This paper tries to prove this point.