Iranian Studies
Year:2015 | Volume:5 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

There are several studies pertaining to Perisian painting which explain its aesthetics on the basis of mysticism and the notion of imaginal world. This point of view bears some methodological problems. Some of the prominent scholars (Burckhardt, Nasr, Ringgenberg), refering to Ibn Arabi’s mystical notions, have tried to show that the specific aesthetics of Persian painting has been derived from the imaginal world. Our aime here is to show that establishing the aesthetics of Persian painting on the basis of imaginal world’s metaphysics lacking seriously the theoretical and methodological rigour. Firstly, Ibn Arabi and his heirs’ conception of imaginal world was first of all ontological (hierarchy of Being) and epistemological (knowledge of God). Secondly, there are not good proofs which could demonstrate that Persian painters were initiated to this notion. Thirdly, achieving to imaginal world through mystical intuition is conditioned by asceticism and purifying rituals, which are not necessarily familiar to Persian painters almost working in the court of Sultans. We will try to show that considereing these painting in themselves is the genuine way to establish their aesthetics principles.

As one of the most important and primary sources in historicalstudies, “Documents” have key role in reflecting political, social and cultural Life of their own time. Basically, these sources are invaluable for two groups: for ordinary people in terms of informations contained in them, for researchers in their researches. By the formation of human communities, primitive man always has been in search of his identity and trying to differentiate himself from the other. As the time went by and the human communities became more populated, identification became one of the most prominent aspects of the society, and various types of methods were exploited in which issuing identity documents was very decisive. Creating identity, followed by the concept of identity documents, was the production and the result of the second half of the first modern Pahlavi government (1931-1942). Through all kinds of identity documents, marriage contracts have a lot of values from historical and juridical points of view. In the second half of the Reza Shah h’s government, following this project, all the authorities who were in charge of marriage offices were obliged to clarify the husband and wife identity. As a result, the historical process of continuity and evolution in marriage contracts were considered in consolidation of Iranian identity.

The last chapter in the saga of Rustam and his family, the fall of the house of sistanian heroes, and ravage of this territory by Bahman, Son of Isfandiar, is an episode, which relates the mythic and heroic parts of Iranian national saga to its historical part. This article has addressed the issue of origin, date and place of versification of Bahmannameh, one of its variations which is the longest and most extensive one. The internal evidence of this epic poem demonstrates that it belongs to the people of northern Iran, the Deylamis. Moreover, through comparison of poet’s verses about his patron, Mohammad ibn Malekshah, with the history of reign of this king, it concludes that this book has been versified in 495H. in city of Hamedan, where the poet eventually heard or read the mentioned version of the story.

We have now at hand two editions of Onsori’s Divan, none of them is ideal. This is cauesd, first of all, by the corruption of the manuscripts.This article attempts to examine and rectify a number of verses ofOnsori’s Divan which have not been correctly recorded by the editors of the Divan in any of its two main editions; the 1st by Yahya Gharib, edited in 1341 S.H., and the 2nd by Mohammad Dabirsiaghi, in 1363 S.H. The basis of this study is the same manuscripts used by the mentioned editors. In addition, an older manuscript to which they had not access is used to find the correct forms of some of the verses. In this study most of the emendations were made upon grammatical and semantic criteria, especially regarding to the ancient Persian poetry conventions and figures of speech, as well as its literary traditions and style principals.

There are rare references to professional training in Mesopotamian sources mainly because this used to be done in the family, from father to son. Nevertheless, there are some 35 apprenticeship contracts from the Neo-Babylonian period which open a unique window to the social, legal and economic aspects of professional training. The present article edits and translates 3 such apprenticeship contracts from the Achaemenid period and studies the form and content of these contracts. The documents demonstrate economic specialization among the Babylonian craftsmen and the role of private sector within the society.

Since the evidence for direct maritime trade between the Sassanid Empire and China is rareguou, it has often been asserted that there was no direct sea commerce between these two countries. Scholars claim that there is nothing to prove direct Chinese sailings to Iran before Islam and say that direct sea commerce between them was occurred during early Islamic Period. Based on the historical, archaeological and numismatic evidence in Iran and China, this article tries to show that contacts between Persians and Chinese started from sixth century A.D because of the presence of Persians in southern ports of China. Later, Persian Gulf saw a regular Persian-Chinese trade because of the role of Sīrāf port in the expanding of Persian-Chinese relations at the ninth century A.D.

The district of Miyān-Kūh in the Ardal Town, Chahār Mahāl Bakhtiyari Province, because of its high mountains, deep valleys and the fields among small mounts, being placed in the path of the wan dering tribes has been the focus of the attention. The region has two different viewpoints. One part featuring the mounts Chēhēl-Cheshme and Gereh, with the altitude of more than 3500 m., has cold winter and mild summers, while the other part with a low altitude between 1100 to 1800 m. is hot in summers and cold in winters. Such geographical and meteorological properties has caused the region Miyān-Kūh feature rich postures in many months of the year and thus the region be prone to formation and development of human societies with husbandary living from very early times to now. According to the three seasons of close study of the region in the years 1387-1390, 25 of the Middle Elamite sites was identified and recorded. Most identified Middle Elamite sites are situatd in the small and larg valleys and at the foot of altitudes. Additionally, they all possess morphological properties of the settlements contemporary and the hints for the continuation of their settlements are only visible in some parts.