نامه فرهنگستان
سال هفدهم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1397)

Seraj al-din Ali-Khan Arezu (1069-1119 AD) is one of the most significant characters in the history of Persian language and literature in the Indian subcontinent in 12th century AH. He has many works in Persian in various literary fields of rhetoric, literary criticism, dictionaries, etc. But his most important works are the books on literary criticism, which captured the attention of contemporary researchers of the field. In this article, some of his barely known ideas in literary criticism are studied.

'Ishqiyyah or Shaṭṭārī order is a Sufi order established in India in 15th century by Shāh 'Abdulla Shaṭṭārī . He travelled all around the India from east to west and tried to promote this order. He finally settled in Mandu and died there. His order spread to the east of India by his successor, Shaikh Qāzin. It seems that Shāh 'Abdulla believed that his tradition rooted in Khorasanian path of love differed from what prevailed in India. Before Shāh 'Abdulla Shaikh Najmiddin Kubra had talked about the path of love as the path of Shaṭṭar but this term in his works was just a general term. However Shāh 'Abdulla based on this genera term established a Sufi order. From then on Shaṭṭar has become a specific term which indicates his followers.

Khosrow Dehlavi is one of the most influential and popular poets in Persian literature; however, his poems have not been accurately counted and comprehensively edited yet. Many poets have imitated his poetry (Tatabboʻ), and these imitations (Mojabat) were the benchmark for their poetic power. One of these poets is Jalal Azod Yazdi, that according to the author's research, he was influenced by Khosrow's poetry. This influence was not limited to the usual poetic imitations, and led to plagiarism of Khosrow's poems. In this study, the manuscripts and printed poems of Khosrow and Jalal are accurately evaluated, and the imitations of Jalal and his plagiarism is investigated. The collection of Jalal’s Ghazals in his published Divan includes 257 poems, about fifty of which are influenced by Khosrow's poetry, and around forty of these poems are possibly associated to plagiarism. Identical verses and intact quotations (Tazmin) of Khosrow's poems without mentioning his name, and the imitation (Esteqbal) of the metre, radif (identical ending syllable), rhymes and the structure of Khosrow’s poetry indicates that Jalal had access to Khosrow's poems. Replacing the pen name of Khosrow with Jalal, adding one or more new couplets to some of Khosrow’s Ghazals, and the presence of Khosrow’s Ghazals in the old manuscripts of Jalal eliminates the possibility of interference or error of the scribes, and reveals Jalal’s plagiarism of Khosrow Dehlavi's poems.

Bhagavad Gita , the sixth book of the epic collection of Mahabharata , is dedicated to Hinduism. The mystical importance of this section led the Muslim Sufis to mention it independently in their works. The plurality of prose and poetry translations of this work shows the significance of this mystical text among the Persian-speakers of India. The leaders of various orders of Sufism viewed the book according to their beliefs, and translated it to their languages. The differences in their worldviews and beliefs have been undoubtedly reflected in their translations. This paper deals with the comparative study of three translations of Bhagavad Gita , entitled Sorud-e Elahi , translated by Darashokouh (d: 1069 AH); Merāt al-Haqayeq translated by ʻAbd al-rahman Cheshti (d: 1094 AH), and a poetic translation by Feyzi-ye Dakani (d: 1004 AH). Darashokouh was a follower of Qaderi order, ʻAbd al-rahman was one of the Cheshti leaders, and Feyzi was Eshraqi, and their various mystical approaches reflected in their translations.

Asefi Heravi is one of the prominent poets of the tenth century AH, whose name has been mentioned as one of the idiosyncratic poets in several tazkeras of Safavid era. The core argument of this study is that in the tenth century AH, Nazok-khiyal (narrow imagination) poetic trend existed along with the Voquʻ poetic style, that led to the emergence of the former in the eleventh century. The tazkeras and poems of Asefi, show that he was one of the pioneers of Nazok-khiyal style, and this paper tries to prove it through studying the historical documents and stylistic features of Asefi’s poems. In this article, Asefi’s biography and style are studied, and some unclear points are analyzed. Moreover, it is discussed that the poets of Door-khiyal and Nazok-khial styles welcomed Asefi’s poetry, and Nazok-khiyal poets followed his style. Finally, the features of Asefi’s Nazok-khiyal poetry are explained through various examples of his poetry.

Water lily (Lotus) is a sacred flower and a global symbol, which has captured the attention of people in several nations. In India it has been associated with gods and goddesses, and it is introduced by Mitra and Anahita in Iran. Hindus and Buddhists consider lotus as a valuable mystery, the symbol of the world, the manifestation of order and beauty, and the symbol of the four elements of soil, water, fire, and wind. After the tree of life, the lotus is the commonest and most famous symbol of manifestation. The shape of lotus in Indian culture is a mature flower, and in Iran it appears in both blooming and mature forms. The present paper aims to investigate the religious and mythical beliefs in both Iran and India, which used lotus as a godly symbol in decorative art. The findings show that lotus, because of its life stages, is the symbol of human’s growth in both countries, especially India. Also, declaring the artistic and mythical concepts related to lotus can aid this symbol’s lasting in the contemporary arts.

This article tries to analysis the semiotic context of the illustrated Mewar Ramayana manuscript by emphasizing on the structuralist semioticians underscore of reciprocal determination of polar signs, the definition of binary oppositions in world mythologies by Lévi-Strauss, and the deep second binary oppositions, mentioned by Fourie. The painters of Mewar court used many examples of deep second binary oppositions to characterize protagonists and antagonists in this manuscript. The most pivotal of them are: modesty ≠arrogance, benevolence ≠ rapacity, chastity ≠lechery, relativeness ≠otherness, penance ≠gluttony, courage ≠ cowardice, unison ≠ discord, etc. Painters have wisely utilized these semiotic differences to draw a distinct boundary between the good and the evil in their paintings.

Meftah al-Fozala , is one of the oldest examples of the early Persian lexicography, which was mainly compiled in the Indian subcontinent in 873 AH/1468-9 by Mohammad ibn Davud ibn Mohammad ibn Mahmud Shadi-Ābadi. In this article, the compilation methods and techniques used in Meftah al-Fozala are discussed, and also the constituting components of the entries, such as headwords, definitions, illustrative examples, grammatical information, etc., are analyzed. For studying the variety of headwords, the whole book was analyzed, but for the statistical analysis, the method of simple random selection of pages was used. Therefore, ten percent of the dictionary, that is five hundred and thirty-two entries from different sections were analyzed. The results show that the variety of the headwords of Meftah al-Fozala remained mainly unchanged in comparison to the previous dictionaries of the same period. But its entries include new components, like pronunciation, non-Persian equivalents, vernacular terms, and references to the sources, consequently, the entries of this dictionary are longer and more comprehensive. Some of the entries of Meftah al-Fozala are very similar to the same entries in Lesan al-Shoʻara and Farhang-e Zafan-e Guya . Comparing these dictionaries makes it possible to find out which parts were compiled by Shadi-Ābadi himself and what was gathered from the mentioned dictionaries.

Indian Soma, named Haom or Haoma in Avestan culture, was a wondrous mysterious plant, personified as a divinity in Indo-Iranian mythology. Soma can be traced back in the oldest human written works, like Vedas and Avesta, and other later texts. Soma, being a god-plant, had noticeably significant rituals. This article aims to analyze the position of Soma in Rig Veda and its unique functions and it deals with the Persian Haoma in Avesta as well.

The Persian historians were undoubtedly part of the elites of Indian subcontinent during the period of the Delhi Sultans from seventh to tenth centuries AH. Through writing historical books, and properly communicating with prominent government officials, especially the Delhi Sultans, the Persian historians propagated Islamic teachings. In this research, the main question is, what was the leading role of the Persian historians in the development of the Delhi Sultans’ approach to Islamic governance? Persian historians carried out an active role in this regard by promoting religious, moral, political, and social teachings in accordance with Islam. Responding to the main question of this study, the most significant works of the historians of this period have been investigated, on the basis of the descriptiveanalytical method.

In the intimate, friendly, and existential geography of Ancient India, where there is ultimate mingling between humans, and gods and environment, it is hard to find a story about mountains, unassociated with gods and daemons. Among mountain features investigated in this paper through descriptive analysis, some qualities such as life, breeding, family relationship, and flying have an ancient history. The creation of natural phenomena like Krauncha passage is considered as mythical aetiology and a part of the sacred history. Mountains are personified and may express jealousy, outrage, obedience and disobedience, or they may get punished, or judge like humans and gods. In events such as tearing the mountains apart, we witness the inevitable conflict between evil and good to achieve order and balance in the world.