مجله مطالعات ایرانی
پیاپی 13 (بهار 1387)

Setting free the soul from the prison of body is one of the common motifs in Manichean texts which is a kind of Torfanain Middle Persian. The Persian Manichean writers have taken advantage of the Persian language capabilities to offer this motif as well as they could. The Torfanain texts clearly reveal the fact that their writers have greatly been influenced by the liberty traditions of their age.The chosen words for study have both literal and figurative meaning. These words are: Ahriman, Vadahram Yazd, resurrection and Ravanchini.

In a clear and widespread examination of epical and heroic stories one faces both beautiful and brave women and girls who fight demons and dragons bravely and even prevail warrior men. This motif is called heroine and at least three main reasons can be counted for its emergence and repetition in stories. 1- women’s honor in agricultural age of mankind civilization matriarchy age). 2- Imitation of martial particularities of some goddesses. 3- Symbolic protest against patriarchy idea.The most important characteristics of these heroines is having the same amount of ideal beauty and braver, prevailing heroine, determining a marriage test and the end of heroine’s dignity after marriage.The most well-known heroines in Iranian tales are Banoo Goshtasp- Rostam`s daughter- and roshanak/ Buran Dokht- Darab`s daughter.

Biza is an area in the North western part of the city of Shiraz and is located in Fars Province. It is an Area with a population of almost 45000 whose major occupation is farming and stockbreeding. In Biza Torkish language, Lori (dialect) and Bizaie dialects are spoken.Bizaie dialect is the prevalent dialect which is a group of western Iranian languages and belongs to the branch of western Iranian languages. So far, no research has been carried out on this dialect.The present article tries to study is dialect from phonological, morphological and lexical point of view.

Manichaeism was one of the important movements in the Sasanian age which was established in the early of third century B. C. From the beginning, they faced with oppositions on the part of Zoroastrians. Moreover, orthodox Christians fought and opposed this religion while Mani tried to preach it in Rome.Mani religion is a combination of religions such as Iranian, Buddha, Sámi and Christianity religions.The efforts of Mani followers to preach his religion resulted in collecting and providing a rich work of Manichaean which also adds richness to Persian language and literature.Mani believed that his knowledge and tradition is an abstract of previous religious schools. He believed that in contrast with the previous religious views which were oral and were supposed to be written by their followers, his viewpoints are written by him. Therefore, there was emphasis on written tradition on the part of Manichaean in contrast with Zoroastrians. Mani introduced himself as the last prophet and the one who completes the doctrine of other great leaders such as Zoroastrian, Buddha and Christ. He promised people the presence of the Jesus Christ. He presumed himself as the "savior" whose presence has been annunciated by Jesus. In his religion Christ is the son of God and the messenger of light and brightness. Finally he appeared in the form of human beings and was crucified to represent symbolically the annoyances of soul in the prison of skeleton.

The word "chak" is an old Persian word which means deed and bill. Semantic and phonetic similarities of this word with the European word "cheque", which has been used in Persian in recent decades, has made lexicographers and researchers consider this Persian word as a root of the word "cheque" by mistake. An etymological study of this European word indicates that it has a Persian root, but its root is not the word "chak" rather the word "king" in chess is known a its root. The word "king" has been used in vocative phrases. While transferring into Persian due to strange phonetic and semantic changes, it has entered Persian as a loan word. This is the main reason of the mistake in Persian dictionaries regarding the root of this word. This article tries to study and criticize this clear etymological mistake.

The Persian Gulf is a geographical place with its old ups and downs in the channel of history. It has an eventful background due to comings and goings of nations, trade, establishment and collapse of governments and military oppositions and war. Name crisis is one of the phenomenon of this Gulf in the recent century. Indeed, in the 20th century this gulf apart from its military situation and geo-economics and geopolitics desirability which have created a sense of competition and opposition among the great and hegemonistic powers, faces the crisis of name. The Persian Gulf or the Arabic Gulf? The present article tries to reveal the importance of the name of this gulf and the reasons and aim of calling it the Arabic Gulf.

Paying attention to geographical situations and special characteristics of different climates has found a special place in historical researches. Even a general review of history books reveals the fact that whatever has happened to people in different periods of time has an undeniable relation with their geographical locations, characteristics and coordinates. The permanent presence of zealous men of Tabriz in decisive campaign of the history of Iran is an example of this kind of historical considerations. Therefore, a research based review of the behavior of a nation can represent similarities in different historical periods. Kerman also has been a harbor for famous defeated men who have worked in political and military fields. Being far from the centers of power and capital of the country as well as Kermani`s hospitality have been the main reasons of seeking refuge of defeated rulers to this city. Morale of demanding justice from the wrongdoer for the wronged can be known as the third reason. In different documents Kerman has been referred to as Darolaman (safe house). Most of the men who have come to this city, decided to stay there forever. For example, when Amir Nezam Garoosi entered Kerman, he wrote in his last will to be buried in this city.This article studies the reasons of seeking refuge of Nabunid, third Darius, third Yazdegerd, Jalal-ad-din Kharazmshah and Lotfalikhan Zand to Kerman.

The present article tries to analyse the manner of kingship in ancient Iran. The article in addition to considering the issue in the pre-historic era has dealt with the analysis of the type of the political system, the structure and form of government, as well as the place and role of religion in ancient Iran. The term ancient era refers to the period which starts from the Mad era in 708 B.C and ends with the decline of the Sassanid dynasty in 651 A.D. In this era, the prevalent political systems were in the form of a limited monarchy and the feudal system was dominant. King was not the absolute power rather; he was bound to follow a special framework. In this period, religion and politics possessed a horizontal role and place. Furthermore, religion is known as one of the two main bases in ancient era. In principle, politics and any other issue was defined in relation to religion. In other words, religion and politics were inseparable. The third section of the article analyses different issues related to Mad, Achamenian, Ashkanian and Sassanid dynasties.

Science of Geography and the subjects related to has attracted the attention of people and caused shaping different point & views and theories since the ancient times. Distinguishing the position of Iranians, because of their old civilization, in this branch of human knurly is considered an important subject to study.In this research the writer is trying to consider, describe and illuminate. The Iranians works in the science of geography in ancient times, as well as it's influence to Islamic civilization as far as possible. Findings show that the Iranians in the above mentioned since and the subjects related to it like descriptive geography, urban geography.Describing the earth, land division, sea geography and roads have introduced theories: and during the Islamic period have influence the Islamic geography and the works of Moslem geographies.

This article is about phonetics and phonology of Dashtaki dialect. As far as the researcher knows it is the first research in this field. Dashtak is a village in Marvdasht township. Marvdasht is a township in Fars province. This dialect has some specialties regarding phonetics and phonology which distinguish it from standard Persian. The existence of the vowel /ü/ and diphthong /uā/ is one of these features. In some cases, vowel length is a distinctive feature. The place of articulation of /k/ and /g/ are farther back than the place of articulation of these consonants in standard Persian. Furthermore, Intonation patterns in Dashtaki dialect are different from the existing patterns in standard Persian in one case: the last syllable of all sentences, excluding imperative sentences, are longer than ordinary statements. This property is salient in interrogative sentences. This article will introduce Dashtak village at first. Then it will improve the existence of all phonemes by means of minimal pairs. Furthermore, phonotactics, the structure of syllable and phonetic processes are analyzed. finally, the phonological differences between Dashtaki dialect and standard Persian are shown and suprasegmental features are analysed.

Although the word “magus” has been just used once in the Holy Quran, it has had special effects on the filed of Islamic regulations and obligations. Undoubtedly, the word “magus” refers to Zoroastrians but discussing on whether they are involved in the category of the people of the book or not reveals an important issue in Islamic culture, since being included in this category entails remarkable obligatory consequences. Studies show that despite some efforts which have tried to introduce and label Zoroastrians as a kind of idolatress and non-divine religion, Islamic resources encounter no problem in recognizing them in the group of the people of the book.

Political archaeology, a new approach to archaeology, has been created in the recent decades. Instrumental use of different sciences, specially archaeology and history has provided most of politicians with a kind of justifiable instrument by means of which they offer and even make documents to reach their aims. Many veteran politicians have accessed to find a joint background, to recreate the magnificence of the past power and to make some new organizations and countries with old appearance. Then they head the populations to the predestinated purpose with these evidences.Generally speaking, the present article deals with archaeology of religion, with a specific attention to archeology of bible. The point that most of the scientific departments of the world take the scientific realities of bible as a topic for a theoretical chair is an undeniable fact. It is interesting to know that even some of the western archaeologists have pointed out some of these facts. for example, Sir Morr Timor Willer states that" Palestine is a land on which most of the sins have been committed by the name of archaeology". This article takes a glance to the history of the archaeology of bible and some of its positive and negative achievements.

Water is considered as the foremost substance of the world`s order and the most significant component existed from the beginning of the world giving life to all organisms. This article, by resorting to documents tries to reveal the fact that since along time ago water in Iranian`s belief has been considered very respectful and holy for its blessing and life giving characteristics on the one hand, and its purifying and sanctifying quality on the other hand. The article begins by mentioning ancient Iranian`s belief about rain, sea, natural fountains, god of rain and supplication for rain rituals. Finally it unravels the secret of water and fountain in the implicit language of mystics and philosophers as well as the discussion on dual connotation of water.

In the historical era and especially in the Islamic period due to the abundance of historical sources such as: travelogue, itineraries and biographies, one can study a monument like an architectural building in its social and political context from a different perspective by resorting to these documents. However, one should not overlook inborn inadequacies of these sources like partialities, untruthfulness etc. On the basis of the analysis of the events of the last 30 years of Kerman Saljuqos Dynasty (550- 580 A.H) obtained from the valuable history book Kerman Saljuqos written by " Afzal-ad-din Abumohammad Kermani" and rewritten by "Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim Khabisi Hosseini". This book is regarded as a political and social context of the mausoleum building named "Khaje Atabak" located in Kerman city. The inscriptions of this mausoleum do not state anything about its constructor (owner) and the time of construction. However, the analysis of the mentioned book reveals that this building has been built during the years 555- 560 A.H and the constructor or at least the owner was "Atabak Ala-addin Boozghosh" the minister of "Toghrolshah" (the 8th king of Saljuqos dynasty).