Nameh Farhangestan
Year:2010 | Volume:11 | Issue:1 (41)|Papers Count:15

The second part of the present study is aimed at providing overall views of the following classified branches of Iranian Studies: a) Historical and conceptual studies on religions and sects in the contexts of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Perisa as well as the contemporary Iran; b) Epistemological studies; c) Ethical studies, including practical ethics and theoretical ethics; d) Legal studies, including issues on customary and conventional laws as the primary sources of modern law; e) Art, aesthetics and artefact, in the contexts of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Persia as well as the contemporary Iran, including history of art, philosophy of art and beauty, sociology of art and the relation of art to other branches of human knowledge and activity; f) Persian language and literature; g) Narrative literature: systematic study of various fields of narrative literature; including children’s literature, fairy tales, early and modern stories, considering the correspondent historical, geographical, cultural and religious contexts of the works under study; h) Social and cultural studies for children and adolescents; i) Social and cultural studies including issues on the confrontation of modern technical society with traditional manners of living.The mentioned branches of studies maybe carried out using the method of library research or field investigations or using the various combinations of these methods.

The present article is dedicated to the study of the ancient Persian convention of hanging the king’s whip, as a “sign” of his absolute authority over the land, and as an “emblem” of his power and justice, to be revered by the people. Some indications to the convention under discussion, can be found in a few early sources, amongst which one may refer to aI-Boldan of Ibn Faqih Hamadani (9th century CE) and the sahname of Ferdowsi (in the sections narrating the events during the reign of the Sassanid King Bahram-e Gur). According to some indications, including a statement addressed to the Ghaznavid King Mas'ud (quoted in the Tarik-e Beyhaqi), the traces of the convention in question can also be found throughout the early centuries of the post-Islamic Persia.

The measure of the accordance of words with the elements of prosody is one of most important factors in creation of an internal coherence between the rhythmic pattern and intonation and musicality of every piece of poetry. In case of discordance between the words and elements of prosody, even if the rhythmic pattern would be correct, the fundamental aesthetic function of the elements of prosody would be lost. Thus considering merely the rhythmic patterns would not be a reliable manner of achieving the ideal intonation and musicality of poetry. The present study, using the different sampling methods based upon a specialist software of Persian poetry entitled S imiya, is aimed at providing a functionalist classification of the varied rhythms of prosody.

The tremendous migration of the learned Persian scholars of the Safavid Persia to the Indian Subcontinent, during the Gurkanid era-which was due to the unclear socio-political situation of the then Persia-resulted in the production of a huge corpus of literature in Persian, and in various fileds of knowledge. It is noteworthy that most of the learned Persian immigrants were welcomed by the Gurkanid dignitaries. Amongst these prominent immigrants, one may refer to asef kan of Qazvin, a distinguished scholar and a man of literature, who attained a high position in the court of the Gurkanid Akbar sah. asef kan was notably distinguished in terms of historigraphy and poetry. In the field of historiography, he created a number of precious works amongst which one may indicate to the final section of the Tarik-e Alfi, a piece benefited from his sense of style and aesthetics. Unfortunately, except a few scattered verses, cited here and there in some biographical collections, none of asef kan’s poetical works has not yet been published. asef kan’s beautiful verse tale based on Nezami’s Farhad va sirin is now came to be known as the most significant amongst his poetical corpus. According to the author of the tazkere-ye Nasrabadi, the mentioned verse tale-which is composed in the Masnavi style-is the most distinct amongst the whole works adapted from Nezami’s kosrow va sirin. A few manuscripts of asef kan’s Farhad va sirin are luckily left to us. The first critical edition of the work in question, by the author of the present study, is forthcoming.

The present article is aimed at providing a technical account on a recently issued Farsi software of numerology. The software in question recognizes the various possiblities of the combination of numbers written in Farsi, and is able to analyze and convert them to correspondent actual numbers. In fact, every number written in Farsi-given as an input datum-can be analyzed by the software, in terms of grammatical correctness, and can also be recognized and converted to the respective actual number, which is the major output of the software under discussion.

The present review is aimed at providing a critical view on a well-known work of sadr aI-Din ‘Ayni (1878-1954), the prominent Tajik man of letter, journalist and historian who is recognized as the founder of modern literature in Tajikistan. The mentioned work which is entitled Namuna-yi Adabiyot-i Tojik (Representative Sample of Tajik Literature), was first published in Moscow, in 1926, with a recent second impression/edition in Tehran, 2006 (edited by Ali RAVAQi).The present review firstly deals with the author, sadr aI-Din ‘Ayni, the methodology and the content of the work as well as the historical necessity for the existence of such a work in the period of Soviet Socialist Republics. After this preliminary section, the article deals with some erroneous outputs in different sections of the work and provides overviews of the both old and new editions.

Mostafa b. ‘Abd Allah al-Qustantini (1017-1067 AH), known as HaJi kalifa and Kateb Calabi (Katip Celebi), was a prominent Ottoman historian and bibliographer who was came to be known as ”l-Soyuti of the Ottomans”. He was a prolific writer and a distinguished bilingual poet, but is mostly known for his precious work entitled KaSf al-zonun ‘an Asami” al-Kotob va al-Fonun.Amongst the critically published works of Kateb Calabi one may refer to the Istanbul edition of his Kasf al-onun with an offset print of the same edition in Tehran as well as to hisTaqvlm al-Tavarlls, a part of which has been edited and published.Taqvlm al-Tavafi/s provides a general overview on the world history from the fall of Adam to the time of the author. To the main body of the work, an introduction, a few appendices and an epilogue are attached. Various extant manuscripts of Taqvlm al-Tavarlls are copied in four different structures, but with the same content. There are also different addendums provided to be attached to some manuscripts of the original work.The present study is aimed at providing critical views of some extant addendums toTaqvlm al-Tavarlls, various translations and unintroduced manuscripts as well as siXpublished editions of the work (including the most recent edition by Mir Hasem Mohaddes).

Taj al-qesas a work compiled by Abu Nasr of Bukhara in the 2nd half of the 5th century AH/11th CE, is a compilation of the sacred history of the Semites, from Adam to the Muhammad, ending with the account of Imam All’s martyrdom.The critical edition of the first two parts of this work, along with a scholarly introduction (including critical views on the textual and stylistic features of the work), has been provided by Ali Al-e Davud in two volumes. The first volume includes the editor's critical introduction as well as 54 chapters covering the lives of the Prophets from Adam up to Jacob. The second volume is totally dedicated to Jacob and Joseph, consisting two sections, in 40 chapters, respectively entitled Ons al-Moridin and Rawzat al-Mohebbin.The chapter dedicated to the story of Jacob, is essentially based upon an earlier work, entitled Ons al-Moridin by Abu al-Qasim Mahmud Jayhani, who was Abu Nasr’s master. In fact, this latter work was edited, amended and extended by Abu Nasr to be included in his own compilation. However Abu Nasr preserved the original title of his master’s work. Taj al-qesas, is of immense value in terms of literary, linguistic and stylistic considerations.

At the middle of the 19th century, MolieRE was well known as a very capable playwright in the neighbouring countries of the then Persia, to the extent that some of his plays had been performed in the lands in question. In 1869, Mirza Habib Esfahani who was living in Constantinople, provided a rhymed Persian translation of The Misanthrope (French: Le Misanthrope ou l’Atrabilaire amoureux), a 17th-century well known comedy of manners in verse, written by MoliERE. The play satirizes the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society. Mirza Habib’s translation, being entitled Gozares-e mardom-goriz, was based upon the Ottoman-Turkish translations/versions of the play under discussion. The publication of this work was the starting point for the performance of a number of MoliERE’s plays in the Large Hall of Dar al-Fonun (lit. “polytechnic college”), in Tehran, a hall which was sometimes used as a theatre and was founded by Jules RicHARd and his Persian assistant, Mirza AliAkbar kan-the latter being himself a teacher of the French language and literature in Dar al-Fonun.The present study is dedicated to the review of a critical edition of Mirza Habib’s rhymed Persian translation of The Misanthrope, which has recently been published by Iraj AfsAR (Tehran 2009). Three helpful appendices, aimed at providing overall views on the history of Theatre in Iran, as well as the original French text of the play in question, have also been attached to the main body of the work.

The Bactrian Inscription of Ayrtam was discovered in 1979, in the eastern side of Tarmad, located in the northern banks of Amodarya River. The inscription is written in Bactrian language, using a modified version of the Greek script.Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Middle Iranian language which was spoken for a long time in the northern regions of Afghanis~an. The language in question was preserved for centuries, even under the extended rule of Alexander and his successors over the Middle East. The name of Bactria, being nowadays just a small province in the northern Afghanistan, can be found in Avesta as well as in the Inscription of Dariush the Great. Contemporary studies and achievements on the Achaemenian Dynasty and their predecessors have actually provided the major decoding keys to the language, culture, and history of Bactria. The Bactrian Inscription of Ayrtam occupies the third place in terms of historical and linguistic importance, after the Bactrian inscriptions of Surkh Kotal and Rabatak. It actually provides some precious informations on the history and language of one of the most important regions of the ancient eastern Persia.

The present study is dedicated to the investigation of the symbolism of “Baptism” and “Eucharist” (this latter is also known as “Holy Communion”, “Holy Sacrament” or the “Lord's Supper”), on the basis of the 6th text (56v.-57r.) from the Christian Sogdian Manuscript CZ, a compilation critically edited and translated by Nicholas SiMS-WilliAM (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1985).Before dealing with the major issue in question, the author examines the very significances of the Christian rituals of Baptism and Eucharist in the religio-historical context of the New Testament. In this initial section of the article, the author lay emphasis on the very fact that Christian “Baptism” is not a formalistic accomplishment, simply transforming a dry sinner to a wet one, but it is a major “rite of initiation”, essentially capable of launching deeply the believer out into the spiritual life, as if, leaving behind the dark burden of exteriorized existence, he/she is born again. The “Eucharist” may also refer not only to the rite itself, but also to the consecrated “bread” and “wine”- used in the rite-correspondingly considered as the veritable symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The “consecrated bread” is also recognized as the symbol of the unique Christian church, which in its turn, is held as a major extention of the Body of Jesus Christ.

The previous parts of the present study, was dedicated to the examination of eleven structures in compounding. The present part is dealing with four subsequent structures: 12th structure: Noun+-al-+Adjective, which is mostly used to form compound nouns, with -al- as a formative element; 13th structure: Noun+Present Stem: One of the most prevalent structures in word formation.In this structure, syntactic-semantic relations between the formative elements are varied. Most of the words which are formed in this manner are agentives (e. g. danes-ju, eqtesad-dan); 14th structure: Reflexive Pronoun+Present Stem: the. words formed in this manner are adjectives; 15th structure: Noun+ Adjective of Hyperbole: most of the words formed in this manner are also adjectives.