JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES (UNIVERSITY OF ISFAHAN)
Year:2007 | Volume:2 | Issue:49|Papers Count:8

'Tazieh' (the passion play) is a ritual, musical and poetic play that has come from the heart of Shiite Iranians' mournings for the martyrdom of Imam Hossein – the third infallible Shiite Imam - with his followers in the 'Karbala' desert in the year 61 (A.H). This kind of play is the only Iranian traditional play which has a written text. The texts are highly influenced by the Iranian classical literature. This article is concerned with the direct presence of Persian classical poets in 'Tazieh'. After investigating different ways of using Persian poems, we conclude that in 'Tazieh' attention is mostly paid to the surface meaning of poems. In addition, although in some cases poems are used with no change, in most cases some necessary modifications are made to make them more suitable for the setting. Finally, some comments are made concerning the influence of the Persian epic literature on the passion play.

Over the long years of teaching Sa’di’s works to students, the writer has tried to understand the text rather comprehensively in order to convey it to his students. While teaching 'Golestan', the commentaries of Dr. 'Khazaeli', Dr. 'Khatib-Rahbar' and Dr. 'Yusefi' were referred to when certain sentences and lines of poetry were not properly analyzed or discussed. The present paper is based on the result of those classes. Some words, expressions, idioms, sentences and lines of poetry in 'Golestan' are discussed and commented upon.

Having taken the early research on the term the Persian Gulf into consideration, the authors of the present article have tried to show, in a novel piece of research, that: 1 - More than seventy Arabic texts have not been examined. These texts are presented as new unsearched sources. Phrases, the exact references, and the numerous applications of the term - Persian Gulf - have also been referred to.2 - There are some considerable points in these texts regarding the first usages of the term Persian Gulf in Islamic texts, biographies, Arabic poetry as well as Arabic documents in the 13th century Hejira.3 - The term 'Fars' - the Arabic form of 'Pars' – is used more than other terms in the abovementioned texts. This confirms the idea that the southern gulf in Iran was related to the area of Pars and not the Persian people and in its naming there has been no national and racial tendencies.

The virtues of “science” and “knowledge” are of widespread application in 'Sanais' works and two very good tools in discovering ambiguous things. Somehow, his perspective on the science and knowledge is quite new among Persian poets like him and before him. He is the first mystic poet to mix the best in “religion” with “the way towards God” to clarify ambiguous and hidden concepts. After him, his followers and friends like 'Attar' and 'Molana' took his beliefs to maturity and perfection. 'Sanai', attributing science to the spiritual world firmly and seriously, chooses a perspective of unity of science (orderly awareness of natural order) and knowledge (spiritual knowledge). Although he looks at science of religion as the head of other sciences, he accepts wholeheartedly other sciences, even the Greek philosophy, after he gives them a flavor of religion. The purpose of this study is, using Sanais' works, to investigate how man can – in the light of perfection in true sciences (especially religious knowledge and acting upon it) and after going through the way towards God, and with the power of discovery – reach the truth of things in general and of God in particular.

Sorrow and happiness are two human phenomena rooted in the human soul. Different theorists with different points of view have different interpretations about sorrow and happiness.'Jalaleddin Mohammad Balkhi' - one of the greatest Islamic and gnostic thinkers - has a special view about these notions which results from his Islamic ideology and the depth of his inner thoughts. He considers all the universe totally in the control of God. In his point of view, sorrow and happiness are inner states and not outer ones. It is why a person might feel sad while superficially he has everything; on the other hand, one may feel happy despite being poor.'Molavi' has two different casual and final interpretations of sorrow and happiness. He considers the sorrow and happiness as good and bad feelings. In casual interpretation prosody, he considers the sorrow as a result of tiredness of soul and in the final interpretation he considers them as the hopeful ways toward special results.

This paper is the sum of a research project on the definitions of some terms in 'Mathnavi' which are gathered and compared with each other. They were on domains like love, wisdom, oldness, and friendship as well as some proper names. 'Ayaz' is a term frequently mentioned in 'Mathnavi'. 'Ayaz' is a proper name, but in our culture he is regarded as a mystical person. In this paper, attempts have been made to study his personality in 'Mathnavi', and have a wider look at the formation of his character up to Molana's era.

There is no doubt about the necessity of reconsidering, criticizing, and analyzing issues in the field of language and literature. Rhetorics as one of the fields associated with Persian literature, particularly poetry, needs to be reconsidered, criticized and analyzed comprehensively with regard to the figures of speech. This article attempts to critically discuss the attitudes and opinions about harmony. First, we consider the natural identity of this figure in poetry and its difference with other complex rhetoric figures. Then, referring to fifteen works related to rhetorics, we critically analyze their authors’ views and definitions of harmony as well as its historical trends. Finally, presenting a rather comprehensive definition and classification for this literal figure, as the conclusion, we present some key factors needed to offer a rather comprehensive definition of harmony.

The Restoration style in the Persian poetry was influential in the foundation of poetry and simple prose in the next literary period. The basis of this conversion was related to Isfahan literary region in the 13th century (A.H). The region and style was not far from steadiness and also mere and unreasonable imitation. Although the Qajar court was influential a lot, Isfahan poetic societies played the major role in this conversion. The abundance of writers and poets of 13 and 14 centuries (A.H) is a proof to this claim.