نشریه مطالعات ایرانشناسی
پیاپی 8 (بهار 1397)

The ancient land of India, which enjoys a uniquely vast geographical and ethnic diversity, is the cradle of one of oldest civilizations in the world. This ancient civilization has several tight relationships and ties with Iranian culture and history. Undoubtedly, a cultural and historical study of each of these two apparently independent geographical units would be incomplete without considering the conditions of the other one. The patterns employed in the construction of the columned halls of India during the Mauryan Era were completely modeled on the Iranian Achaemenid art and culture. In the same vein, Indians adopted their traditions of writing inscriptions on rocks and columns from Iranians. In the reports of Greek historians, such as Herodotus and Xenophon, several references have been made to the unity of these two nations, and history has frequently witnessed instances of the kings and princes of one of the two countries seeking shelter in the other, and one country’s asking for help from the other in its fights against the enemy. The frequent references to the name of India in the inscriptions remaining from the Akaemenid era and the presence of the pictograph of the Indian missionary bearing gifts in Takht-e Jamshid are undeniable documents demonstrating this historical fact. In later periods and during the Parthian and Sassanid eras, Iranians conquered the northern regions of India, and the finding of coins bearing Pahlavi writings in this land testifies to the rule of the Sassanid princes in Kushan lands in north India. This is the case while, alongside such political and military relationships between the two countries in the course of history, wehave also witnessed very close relationships between them in different artistic, scientific and religious areas.

Muslims believed that geometry was as important as mathematics, astronomy, and music. Iranian architecture focused on beauty, alongside which the science of geometry functioned as a powerful tool enabling Iranian architects to measure spatial proportions and create balance and beauty on the ground. Domes, the making of which had started during the Parthian Era, became vastly prevalent upon the rise of Islam in order to cover Islamic buildings, particularly mosques, and, thus, turned into the symbol of Islamic architecture. A dome looks like a container and is constructed based on objective principles of mathematics and statics. The Safavid era represent one of the creative and dynamic periods of architecture, particularly, dome construction, and several beautiful works of this era are still standing today. In this paper, the writer has tried to examine the role of geometry and geometric proportions in the architecture of the Safavid period with an emphasis on the domes of the well-known mosques of that time in Isfahan. The related study was conducted following the analytic-descriptive method while resorting to available documents and performing field studies. The findings demonstrate that the Safavids paid particular attention to proportion in architecture and changed the quadrangular design of the space under the dome into the circular design of a dome. During this period, geometry became simpler and disconnected hollow domes became more common.

When the name of a country and its features appear in the poems of one of the most famous poets of another country, those poems become very important.The description of Iran in Paul Fleming’s poems is a good example in this regard. Fleming, the wellknown German poet of the Baroque period, travelled to Iran accompanying a trade mission from a state in the north of Germany. During the 17 monthsthat he stayed in Iran, he tried to express some of his observations of the events that had occurred during this time in the mouldof some poems in German and Latin using a subtle and delicate poetic style. In his poems, in addition to frequent references to the name of Iran, its cities, and its nature, he has also referred to its ancient and historical backgroundand a number of distinguished Iranian figures. In this paper, the authorhas tried to examine the description of Iran in some of Paul Fleming’s poems which have been written in Latin.

From a linguistic point of view, when a word from one language enters another language, in order to survive there, it needs to adapt itself to the phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic principles and patterns of that language. Otherwise, it will be excluded from the lexicon of the host language. In this paper, the writers have examined and analyzed the various types of phonological changes in the lexicon of Pahlavi language or Middle Persian which have resulted in the development of their new forms in modern Iranian languages, such Talysh. A study of the terms in A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary by D. N. Mackenzie and their comparison with some of the words collected from oral Talysh utterances produced in Anbaran, a district near the joint frontier of Iran and Azerbaijan, demonstrated that the words shared by the two languages have undergone some changes, such as blending, assimilation, ellipsis, inversion, addition, and some other common phonological processes, in their moving from Pahlavi language and entering Talysh language. Moreover, some terms have entered this language in their original form.

One of the most glorious periods of the history of Kerman is the Safavid Era, the remaining historical works and sites of which shine like a brilliant star on the forefront of this province. The most beautiful site among such historical legacies is the exquisite complex of Ganjalikhan, which bears the name of the ruler of Kerman and manifests the supreme capabilities of its architect, Master Sultan Mohammad Mimar Yazdi. Sultan Mohammad was a famous genius in Kerman Province and a forgotten master in Dar al-iba'adah (Yazd). It is not clearly known how Ganjalikhan managed to discover such a unique treasure; why Sultan Mohammad, in spite of his supreme talents, remained unknown in Yazd, and why no structure in Yazd bears his name or represent his architectural designs. In this paper, which reports on a study carried out based on library sources and field observations, the authorstates that, in the course of various political conflicts and the opposition of Ni'matullāhī order to Mutishar'iyah group in Yazd, the authorities of Yazd did nothing but try to ease the tensions and strains in society. However, the reverse happened in Kerman because Ganjalikhan, who was a ruler appointed by the court of Shah Abbas, benefitted from his royal attention and provided and employed all the facilities necessary for the historical and everlasting prosperity of Kerman.

During the Qajar Period, the status of Iran and the Caspian Sea underwent some changes under the influence of foreign powers.Upon the signing of Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, the control of some parts of the country and the Caspian Sea were ceded to Russia after the two Russo-Persian wars. Followingthe political-economic goals that the Russians sought there, security was established in the Persian Gulf and commercial development was launched in this region. The existence of a waterway such as the Caspian Sea, Russia’s neighborhood with Iran, Russians’ critical need for Iran’s agricultural and animal products, and Iran’s need for the Russian cheap goods led to the development of transportation industry and linking routes through the Caspian Sea and the affluence of Astarakhan and Anzali ports. As a result of Russians’ activities and operations, sea commerce was greatly developed in the Caspian Sea region so that, at the threshold of World War I, this waterway played the most significant role in the export and import relationships between Iran and Russia and was even used in transit commerce with other European countries. Given the significance of this point, the present paper examines the commercial and political status of Iran and Russia via the Caspian Sea, as well as the process of the development of commerce and commercial goods which were transported through this waterway. It also reviews the transport routes and the modes of commercial transportation during the Qajar period.