پژوهش نامه فرهنگ و زبان های باستانی
پیاپی 1 (پاییز و زمستان 1399)

There is a misunderstanding that a part of Iranian is called “Fārs”. According to this thought and mistake, Fārs people oppress and domineer others means Turkish speakers in Azarbayjan and other parts of Iran, Kurdish and Baluch tribesmen, Arab speakers in khouzestan and also Lurs and people of Gilan and Mazandaran and even Zoroastrians. This article tries to explain that such idea is basically incorrect and unfair. This misunderstanding comes from this fact that from long time ago - Achaemenid era- till now people have been living in Iran with different languages but these people have had the same government with formal and legal relations. From that time, this people have used official Persian language first in speech and verbal then, not only in speech and verbal but also in writing and have used it for their communication. In fact most of them have two mother tongue and are considered bilingual. It is not correct, we call those people who have one mother tongue “Fārs” and claim that Fāsrs people who do not have another mother tongue except Persian language are dominant on other people in this widespread part of the world, the area of Norouz culture.

In all religions, testing humans through suffering and difficulties is a way to measure their faith and their trust on God. More patient person is more faithful. Who or what is the source of these sufferings has different answers in different religions. But the more important subject is the knowledge that the goal of the devilish forces is the human life destroyer and those who can keep their soul pure through these hardships, will win the test. This theme is in the story of Job in the Old Testament text. The story of Job is a typical example of religious narratives in which the faith of a true believer is measured by suffering and disaster, and he comes out of this test on the basis of trust in God. This article tries to search for this subject in the religious Zoroastrian literature and, comparing it with the text of the Old Testament, seeks to ascertain whether this worldview to the mankind and his testing is a familiar and repeatable category in Zoroastrian believes? In the context of the Zoroastrian worldview, has such an approach been used for human suffering?

Symbolism is one method for the visual expression and concept transition in artworks. Simorgh is one of the symbolic elements in the arts of Iran. It is a mythical animal that is the symbol and representation of gods and fortune. Sasanian and Safavid eras are two significant historical time from cultural and artistic point of view and are considered two golden ages in art and culture of Iran. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of the Simorgh in artworks of Sasanian and Safavid eras as two remarkable time in the study of art history of Iran which could be studied for this concept. The data is collected in documentation method and then classify, explain and analyze them for answering these questions: what is the difference of Simorgh in these two eras, and what are their similarities and dissimilarities? Simorgh has always a positive meaning not only in the pre-Islamic culture but also in Islamic world in Iran. It only changes somehow its position from myth and story to mysticism and always has a dynamic presence in art of Iran.

There are several literary works in ancient Iranian languages left from Pre-Islamic Iran. Among them there are some poems too. Based on existing document, Iranian poetry goes back to the time of Zarathuštra; his religious poems “Gathas” is the example of the first poems. Also other existing poems like; Derakhte Asoorig, Yadegare Zariran, Jamaspnameh, and Mani poems, which were written in Parthian Pahlavi and Sasanid Pahlavi, are worth noting. Poems in ancient Persia can be divided into two categories: the religious ones and those which are not. Iranologists believe that ancient Iranian poetry has syllabic metre, while others think that the poetry in that era has tonic metre. It is believed that, although, Yashts have tonic metre, Gathas has syllabic metre. Till now there is no information that whether there were any class of poet in ancient Iran or not, the only thing that we are sure is that there were some group of people called “Khonyagaran” and “Gosanan” who were the poet-musician that makes the ordinary people and also royal family happy in the streets. Since they only used poetry and music so there is no written information about them. This article tries to introduce the first Iranian poets. Among the poems that have remained, we only know the poets of some of them e.g. “Gathas” and Manichaean hymns. Although the purpose of this article is to introduce Iranian poets before Islam, our information is very limited for instance, the poet of Yashts is not known. Therefore, we could only introduce the supposed poet.  Sometimes we could be sure more like “Gathas”, but in other times we are not so  like “Biston inscription”, because it is not clear whether Dariush was the poet of “Biston inscription” or only he commended to write it. Hence if we do not know the exact author, only the name of the literary work is mentioned. Several orientalists and scholars are interested in ancient Persia poems among them Henning , Lazard, Utas, Boyce, Benveniste, and Tavadia are noticebale.

There is a common verb in Manichaean Parthian texts as well as in both Manichaean and Buddhist Sogdian texts with the phonetic transcription of “āžay_” which according to scholars of Iranian Languages means “to be reborn” in Parthian texts and “to be born” in Sogdian texts. In this regard, the simultaneous existence of this verb with the same form and similar meanings in both languages of Parthian and Sogdian led the scholars to hypothesize that the word has been Sogdian originally and has entered the language of Parthian as a loan word. In this regard, the present study will investigate the presence of this verb in Taleshi Language and explore its different meanings and forms in Taleshi as well as Middle Iranian Languages.

Mādayān ī Hazār dādestān is a juridical book of Middle Persian. This text which has been written in Sasanian era is the only book in that era that investigates legal issues. Issues such as slavery, guardianship, warranty, partnership, marriage, divorce, adoption, etc. are discussed in this text. This article studies the juridical laws related to "adoption" and is divided into three parts; in the first part, the concept of adoption and its related terminology are defined; in the second part, the stages of adoption are examined, which included the give of child, acceptance and agreement of the parties, types of give; in the third part, the extracted laws from the text which is related to property, inheritance, duties, guardianship and to provide a successor for adopted is expressed. This research is answering these questions: "how was adoption in Sasanian era" and "what were the laws related to adoption"? The result of this study clarifies that "the father had the right, to give his child to adopter", "the adoptive father had the right to accept the child" and "it also clarifies the agreement between the two". Also different opinions regarding issues such as providing a successor, guardianship and inheritance for adopted are expressed.

There are many discussion and disagreement between researchers especially linguistics and historians about what the religion and ethic of Achaemenid kings were, specifically those who were the first kings of this dynasty. Some of them believe they were Zoroastrian, some others disagree and others choose Indo-Iranian religion. Generally, everything they declare is based on historical evidence or linguistic implications and it seems nobody considers the existing content and concept of Achaemenid inscriptions and compares them based on religious scholarship or the doctrine of Zoroastrian religion nonetheless the Achaemenid’s main and frequency slogan which Dariush left behind on inscriptions to reinforce his legitimacy and introduces earth, sky, people and happiness as creations of Ahuramazda is profoundly based on Zoroastrianism.

Significant and valuable researches in the field of Iranian mythology, about Jam specially, have been accomplished in recent years. Every researcher has seen to one or a few characteristic(s) of this polyhedral character from a point of view. One of the unanswered questions about Jam is the two instruments which Ahura Mazda gave to him to spread and develop of material world. In this article, it is tried to show the reality of these two by documentary reasons; and it is displayed some other unknown phases of this wonderful character through it. Mentioning the notices that are stated about Zolgharneyn in holy Koran, it shows similarities between Jam and Zolgharneyn, and on the basis of it could be proposed the theory of oneness of these two. Proving that Zolgharneyn is the same Indo-Iranian Jam, it could be said that Jam had been a historical character.

Elamites and Persians were approximately in contact since 9 or 8 century BCE. Their broad connection contained diverse cultural, economic, social and linguistic interactions. Like all the contacts, the lexical borrowing was one of the initial consequences of Elamo-Persian contact; therefore, both languages have borrowed lexica form one another. In the pre-Achaemenid era, Old Persian language had a lower position in comparison with Elamite language which was the upper language, however, after a few centuries, in the Achaemenid age, this hierarchy has collapsed, and Old Persian became the upper language and used as the language of royal Achaemenid inscriptions as well as the language of the ruling class. At any positions, lexical borrowing was not one-sided, and both languages received lexica from each other. Apart from loanwords, there are some metonymies and forms of expression in Elamite language, which their origins are not apparent, yet they are comparable with some metonymic phrases in Classical and Middle Persian. This paper focuses on two Achaemenid Elamite metonymic expressions which are identical with metonymic terms in Persian and also tries to provide some instances for elucidating the possible origins of some metonymic Persian phrases and furthering this aspect of language contact between Elamites and Persians.

Independence of Res Politica in Sasanian era enforced the political system of the society to re-regulate its relation with other social systems and gave it this opportunity to dominate them. In so doing, Sasanian kings tried to establish their sovereignty as a highest point of imputation, especially by organizing Zarathustrian religion. The emergence of this element of sovereignty has persuaded some scholars that this kingship is an example of absolute sovereignty, whose most important legal consequence is the supremacy of political power over Law. This research tries to answer again to the question of the relation between Sovereignty and law through analysis of different aspects of the concept of “sovereignty” and illuminate how dualistic political theology of this religion, in which God`s power cannot go beyond of the “impossible” and “evilness”, restricted kings. Furthermore, some theological concepts such as “Khvarenah”, “Asha”, “Ideal kingship” and “Dad” established a kind of natural law which slowly tied to set of jurisprudential and legal norms. Therefore, Sasanian kings are caught in a net, which was knitted by themselves. As a result, the establishment of concept of sovereignty as an inclusive authority became impossible. Furthermore, this research will explain how contradiction between subordination of kings to law and their claim of sovereignty as a highest point of imputation, which demands their infallibility, leads to the distinction of their natural personality from the legal personality of kingship which is embodied in Crown.

The dualism, the belief in the existence of two good and evil power in the world of existence, is one of the ancient Aryan beliefs. In Gathas, the oldest part of the Avesta, dualism emerges as confrontation between twin spirits: Sepanta Mainyu (sacred spirit) opposes to Angra Mainyu (evil spirit). How these two spirits are created is considered as a basic in Zoroastrianism theology and to what extent Ahura-Mazdā is responsible for creation of these two power is one issue that the scholars have different answers for it- some believes that Zoroastrianism is a dualism religion, and others tell that it is a monotheism one. This research by descriptive-analytical method tries to study the ideas of scholars about the creation of evil spirit, oneness or non-oneness of Ahura-Mazdā and the Sacred Spirit, as well as the contradiction of these two spirits. Although ZaraƟuštra identifies Ahura-Mazdā as the supreme god who is the origin of creation, he does not leave the dualistic idea of Aryan beliefs and applies it in his new moral system. Zoroastrianism is monotheism religion in theory but in religious law which is based on the choice of good and evil it is a dualism religion.

The subject of this article is the meaning of the word Pārs. In some dictionaries, in addition to the fact that Pārs is expressed in the concept of the people of Persia and their location, the meaning of "barking dog" is also mentioned. The paper therefore seeks to study the evidence in this case, in the light of available sources to determine the true meaning of the term. The results of the study show that no source documented this concept could be obtained, but Pārs has come from different sources in the meaning of the people and the Persian tribe, Fārs province and the land of Iran. Pārs is the name of the Persian people (Achaemenid), which has been used in the Achaemenid inscriptions in the concept of the "Persian tribe". This name originally referred to the place where the Persian rule was formed, which is around the current Fārs province, and was given to the whole territory of Iran and the Iranian people with the capture of the Achaemenids and the development of their territory. In the course of time, the term "Pārs" has given its place to the Arabic pronunciation of the word "Fārs". In addition to the reliance on the documentation given in the text, it is possible to express these meanings to the term "Pārs": the place of deployment, the warrior, the horseman, the wanderer.

In this paper, we study the semantic and derivative meaning of the term “Wid”, which is used in an attributed poem to Rudaki. In ancient Persian dictionaries there are two meanings of "lost" and "little" for this word, and it is not clear what the original meaning of the word is. We try to find out the correct meaning of the word by studying the manuscripts of the various Persian dictionaries and the poetic evidence in which this word is used. In this way, we reconstruct and identify the old and middle Iranian forms of the word, and show other possible forms of the word in Persian Dari and Tabari Zaidi languages. According to the evidence it is probably the correct meaning of the word is "lost" and the meaning "little" was formed by the writing character of the letter "k" for "g" in the early Persian texts.