نشریه تاریخ ادبیات
سال یکم شماره 1 (بهار 1388)

In Persian literature Sadi is known as the “Afsah al-Motekallmin” (the most eloquent speaker), emphasizing the quality and clarity of the poet’s language. Apart from eloquence of language, Sa’di possesses such great depth of thought and excellent views on government and personal and social morality that it would have been fitting to bestow on him the title of sage as well, like some other Persian poets. The aim of this paper is to examine the poet’s thoughts in practical knowledge or pragmatism.

The eleventh-century poet, Ghatrane Tabrizi is considered the first to compose Dardic poetry in Azerbaijan and Arran. He himself in some verses has expressed his pride in being the precursor of Azerbaijan poets. Even in the fifth century his poetry was surveyed from different viewpoints and, in most hagiographies, he has been praised as a dexterous and influential poet. Another point of view from which Ghatran’s poetry can be analyzed is his influence on the poetry of western Iran. Ghatran composed in Persian. Since Persian was a well-established language at that time and had developed because of its effective basis, it became a regular and significant language at the court of Amirs of western Iran and made vernaculars marginal. This survey traces Ghatran's poetic career and analyzes his literary role in marginalizing Iranian languages.

It is quite customary and natural to come across images and discussions of money and economic issues in works of literature throughout the world, but not so when we see a deep relation imagined between literature and money as two fundamentally inseparable things. Even stranger is to look for this relation in Persian mystical poetry, and this is what this article will undertake to do. This essay will basically look at the economic metaphor in Rumi’s (1207-1273) ghazals, something that, as far as I know, has never been undertaken before. The presence of money and certain economic concepts will be looked at and discussed in the mystical poems of Rumi. Also, Rumi’s view of poetic language, basically as related to the economic metaphor, will be considered. Another important point to be taken into consideration is the fact that as far as the history of Persian literature as well as the history of literary criticism and theory in Iran are concerned, this kind of approach has never been applied to works of Persian literature. Therefore, it is high time for this to be done.

Mofradat is a prose work on how to teach Persian correctly, written by the ninth-century poet and literary figure, Ahmad Daei. This work is thought to be oldest teaching manual that contains grammatical rules of Persian in Anatolia. It contains four chapters comprising nouns, verbs, morphology and prepositions. Chapter one is a dictionary of Persian to Turkish nouns. Chapter two is an alphabetical dictionary of Persian to Turkish verbs. In these two chapters, Turkish equivalents of Persian words are written below the line. Chapters three and four respectively deal with Persian morphology and prepositions. This article deals with how Persian has been diffused in Anatolia, and provides a brief description of the structure and writing of Persian grammatical rules—especially in Anatolia. In addition, the life and works of Daei and the various chapters of Mofradat will be explained.

One of the most controversial issues in Literary History books is the formation of Restoration in literature; a literary school which, according to many experts, kept Persian poetry away from its revolutionary movement for a time. The interest of Qajar kings in the royal customs of Qaznavi and Samani reigns, the peaceful society of Iran during the Zand period and the period after that, the unpopularity of the Indian Style, the efforts made to rid poetry of decadence, etc, are reasons presented by researchers for the formation of this literary style. The writers of this article are of the opinion that it is possible to view this subject from another perspective (the Foucauldian discourse theory) and state it in some other way. In their opinion if we are of this belief that the Restoration period is a part of pre-modern discourse, then we have to admit that history (as one of the discursive aspects of pre-modern discourse) has no developmental meaning and its movement is periodic and circular; that is because the discursive aspect of history in this discourse is against the modern discourse which has a linear and developmental movement. Such a discourse and discursive aspect is based on returning to the origins, which is the very same thing that the poets of the Restoration Period did by returning to the style of the poets of the Iraqi Period (in Sonnet) and the Khorasani Period (in Ode).

Among the Arabic texts written by Iranians during the early centuries of Islam, one can find Persian phrases and verses which can shed light on valuable issues in the history of Persian language and literature. The study of these texts will sometimes increase the treasury of Persian literature, and sometimes give a better picture of the infiltration of Dari Persian during the early centuries. A proper discussion of the history of Persian literature requires the study of Persian writers of Arabic texts. The Arabic text under study in this article is Adabol Foghara, written by Baba Ja’far. The compilation date of this book is around the turn of the fifth century. Baba Jaifar wrote this book in Hamedan. The importance of this book is that it helped spread Persian poetry and prose in non-Arab areas of Iraq, prior to it being discussed in histories of literature.

Amongst all the kings of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, Kavoos is the most favored king who rules during a major portion of Iran’s national epic poem. A significant number of tales, as well as battles, of Shahnameh either happen during his reign, or subsequently, when he is still alive. Some of these tales and battles are those of Rostam and Sohrab, Siavosh and the battle of Mazandaran and Hamavaran, and Keikhsorow’s grand battle with Afrasiab. Kavoos is also mentioned in Avesta, Pahlavi, and post-Islamic Persian and Arabic texts. Although Avesta describes Kavoos as a competent and intelligent king who ruled “all peoples and all nations”, it does not, however, provide him with an unambiguous fate. The main features of this mighty and noted character becomes discernible mainly through browsing Pahlavi as well as post-Islamic Persian and Arabic texts. The current paper attempts to conduct a linear investigation into the evolution of the character of Kavoos through existing texts, from Avesta to Shahnameh. It also tries to delineate his involvement in such matters as flying and the battle of Mazandaran and Hamavaran.

The fifteenth century is unique in all aspects of Iran and Iranian life. The destructive Mongol invasion and its inauspicious effects showed the imprudence of the monarchic system and resulted in different reactions from the destitute against this most tragic of world events. This action and reaction brought about impressive social phenomena, some of which can be found within historical and literary texts of the period. The main subject of this research is to survey and analyze the effects of these phenomena in different aspects of Iranian life. The recognition of Iranian identity, and the expression and explanation of its components allow the new generation to watch their past clearly in the mirror of time and learn the lessons of history. The contents of the six sections of this paper deal with some of the social phenomena which should be analyzed and re-evaluated.

The Mongol period is one of the most outstanding eras in the history of Iran: positively because of the variety of epoch making events which took place in that era, and negatively due to the intellectual‚ cultural and social degradation which became prevalent in that period. Therefore this era still deserves careful study from different perspectives. One of the issues which requires scrutiny is the reaction of literary figures of those days against Mongol hegemony which naturally can be traced to their philosophical and ideological orientation to life in general. The present article is the result of an attempt to scrutinize this topic‚ utilizing available historical and literary sources and to offer an explanation for the reaction of contemporary men of letters to that national catastrophe.