پژوهش نامه فرهنگ و زبان های باستانی
سال دوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 2، بهار و تابستان 1400)

In recent years a new realm of studies has emerged among the Talmudists that examines Talmud in its Iranian context. This area of research leads to the emergence of a rather new field called Irano-Talmudica. However, Iranian Studies scholars- especially Scholars from Iran- are somehow absent in this new field. Even though, Iranologists would contribute to the field from a point of view that is surely different from the Western Talmudists' perspective. This article is a comparative study between Gittin 56b-57a and Arda-Viraz-Namag. The present article's approach unlike the common approach among Irano-Talmudica scholars -that is examining Talmudic narratives in their Iranian context- is to look at the possibility of the composition of Arda-Viraz-Namag based on the Talmudic narrative from Gittin. This new approach needs to find its way into Irano-Talmudica Studies as well, and the influence of Talmudic- or even Jewish- narratives on Middle Persian source materials need to be examined by Irano-Talmudica scholars.

Behdini dialect is one of the central dialects of Iran also known as Dari or Gavruni. This dialect has two varieties, Yazdi and Kermani, which in contrast to many similarities, have some differences. There seems to be many loan words and religious terms from Avestan and Middle Persian in this dialect. In the present research, the verbal system in Behdini dialect of Kerman has been studied. Using questionnaire and indirect elicitation techniques the data has been gathered and recorded, analyzed and studied. Sentences for each verb has been gathered in order to show an example for the use of the verb. The results show that the main important characteristic of the verbal system in this dialect is that it has retained ergativity in the past tense of verbs. Also, there are some special characteristics for the structures of present and past stems and the infinitive is made using the suffix “-mon”.

Manichean prayers are mostly in Middle Persian and Parthian. These extant prayers are mainly about the rescue of Light and salvation of man’s soul mingled with darkness and ignorance. Manichean prayers are often poetic and were recited as hymns along with composed music in specific halls allocated to prayer in Manichean temples (mānēstān). Considering these prayers, we can find out that Manichean prayers have both Personal and social aspects. Manichean daily prayers were practiced both individually and socially with special ceremonies and customs. This article aims to review the concept and place of prayers in Manichaeism through the case study of three Manichean manuscripts. In this article via applying descriptive-analytic method, I have studied 3 Middle Persian Manichean prayers: Mb, M20 and M174. The study of these prayers reflects that the Manichean prayers generally contain the fundamental principles of Manichean thoughts and mysticism. Contents such as the opposition of Light and Darkness, the salvation of captive spirit or Light, human redemption, prayers to the father of Greatness, asking for the help from gods and seeking for the savior are the main issues stated in Manichean prayers. The prayers are sometimes in the form of advice or sometimes are expressed as a request.

Paying attention to the importance of dreams has its roots in the long history of mankind and is one of the indisputable sources of knowledge in religions. The subject of this paper is which role has the dream played in Mazdeyasn'i thought. Research shows that one of the oldest religions that its religious texts mentioned dreams and explained its importance in proving religious claims is Zoroastrian religious texts. Numerous dreams have been mentioned in Mazdeyasn'i texts, which show that this divine religion, like all major religions, paid attention to dreams and based on them, important issues such as the legitimacy of the Prophet of Zoroastrianism. This attention to the dream, which continues in divine philosophies and mystical texts, points to the need to pay attention to that important human event. The inattention to the dream by scholars of the history of religions and scholars of religious texts is an oppression to this epistemological source. In the contemporary period, research on dreams has been assigned to some scientific disciplines, which have completely emptied it of the content of transcendental knowledge and reduced it to psychological and neural activities. Referring to the importance of dreams in religious texts is a step to serious reflection on this Mystical intuition and source of knowledge.