Qari Naneh (Old Woman Winter) and Who?

Debate and dialog have been two traditional means of obtaining knowledge since the beginning of creation. However, some conditions are necessary for a successful dialog or debate to take place. One of the most important conditions is for the interlocutors not to be dogmatic. Generally speaking, a dialog literally means thinking about the reality and nature of something and exchanging the related ideas. This paper deals with one of the available sources for internalizing the principles of dialog in children, namely, short quoted dialogs in folk literature in prose or poetry which teach certain well-established principles using a simple language. Therefore, while discussing the roots of debate and dialog, the writer briefly explains their background in both folk and classic literatures and in other sciences. He particularly focuses on dialogs in children’s folk literature with reference to two examples: Drakht-i Asurig (The Babylonian Tree) as an ancient example, and Qari Naneh (Old Woman Winter) and the Elements of Nature as contemporary examples in Azeri popular culture. In Qari Naneh’s dialog with the elements of nature, the tools of establishing the dialog include the following: knowledge, patience, and skill. Moreover, the most effective norms of having an efficient and useful dialog are as follows: 1) knowledge of thoughts and character, 2) a sympathetic language, 3) righteousness, 4) politeness in speech, 5) speaking in short, and 6) lack of haste in speaking.