نشریه فرهنگ و ادبیات عامه
پیاپی 53 (آذر و دی 1402)

Folk songs have been popular among Iranian people. These songs contain beliefs, rituals, affections and historical references and are popular all over the plateau of Iran, including Guilan. The most important feature of local songs is oral transmission from generation to generation. One of the most famous popular songs in the land of Guilan, which has attracted the attention and interest of the people, is the happy and romantic song "Ranaa". Ranaa's story has always been welcomed by the readers and listeners of Gil and Daylam, but also different regions of Iran, due to the charms hidden in its narrative text. The historical references in the story of the discovery of this song and the research and supplementary clauses in it have caused various readings, in such a way that some researchers consider the foundation of Ranaa's song to be extracted from two fascinating political, social and love stories. To illustrate, they believe that the origin of the song "gradually accompanied a group of Eshkevari immigrants to some places in the plains - east of Guilan and West of Mazandaran - and in later years by groups of skilled workers in carpentry. It has been transferred to a wider area than the mentioned points, that is, from Astara to Astarabad (Gorgan) -the two important centers of the wood industry and attracting cheap human labor at that time" (Sadr Eshkevari, 2010, p. 13).It seems that one of the most important reasons for the survival of this song is the variety in the narration and the way of expressing its events. Since many years ago, various narratives have been expressed and recorded about Ranaa's song. During the field research in the land of Eshkevar, it was found that most of the old people of this region still sing this song with special enthusiasm in expressing the sufferings and hardships of the times. The historical and social origin of Ranaa's song has received less attention and discussion over time; one of the reasons for this is the chain of double narration from the beginning of the formation of the song until today. Ranaa's song has reached today's generation with two main narratives, and distinguishing right from wrong is complicated and difficult. This issue, along with other reasons, such as the political-social atmosphere prevailing the region of its composition, the hidden protest aspect of the song, includes the conflict between the singers of the region and the view of the lord and the serf. Also, the lack of attention in knowing the elements involved in the incident has caused injustice towards its main character, "Ranaa".

The current research is the result of analyzing and verifying the written data related to Ranaa song in Eshkevar region with field research and personal observations of the authors from 2017 to 2020. Since many of the narrators of the song are no longer alive, an attempt was made to analyze the tapes and audio files remaining from the native singers of Eshkevar and they were compared with the sources and data recorded in the library to make a more realistic analysis of the problem. To have interviews and conversations with native and local researchers of Eshkevar region, another way in obtaining and collecting information about Ranaa's song was established.

There are two famous narratives about Ranaa: 1. Ranaa, the daughter of "Sargalash Hasan Khanesari" around the beginning of 1920, fell in love with a young man named Hadi from Sargalshan Surchani in the suburbs of Shuil village in the east of Guilan, but her father plans to send her to marry with a man named "Nowruz" from the people of "Kshaye Eshkevar" village. Rana is not satisfied with this forced relationship and does not agree with it. Hadi and Ranaa's affection is not far from the public eye, this issue causes conflict and chase between Nowruz and Hadi. In the meantime, the people of Nowruz's hometown (Lashkan) also support him, to the point that the conflict is extended to clans and settlements. Hadi along with his friends set fire to the wheat crop of the people of Lashkan. 2. In this group of narrations, Ranaa is nominated and represented by a Kolrodi shepherd named Nowruz. According to some Kurdish researchers, Aghjan, one of the fugitive rebels of the region, entered the village of Kolrod and, relying on his fighting abilities, provided the conditions for the formation of a group of "Ayars" who were known among the rebels and thieves of Eshkevar region. Among them is a person named "Hadi Sorchani" who is mentioned in the song as Hadi. Meanwhile, Kordaghjan accidentally falls in love with Ranaa and with the advice and help of his companion, Hadi, tries to possess Ranaa. "Therefore, Hadi, after consultation and confidential conversation, decided to steal Ranaa from her house and take her to Aghajan's residence by the order of Kurd Aghajan.

In later narratives, the main focus is on the music of words, the destruction of Ranaa's personality, Kurd Aghajan and Hadi's confusion ultimately leads to the distortion of Ranaa's socio-political event in one of the historical crises. In the analysis of the main characters of the song, based on the text of the poems and first-hand narratives, a clearer and more accurate picture of the mentioned names and their role in the formation of the story was displayed. This issue invalidates the later narratives that depict the romantic and lovely side of the story with Kurd Aghajan's love relationship with Ranaa and her rivalry with Sargalash Hadi. The protest elements of Ranaa's song are closely related to the view of the masters towards the status of their subjects and subordinates. In Ranaa's past narrations, we specified how the master's control causes the collapse of pure attachments, and the destructive current, by distorting the narrative of history, erasing the story from the page or making it empty of the main aspects of the theme.

An omen is a sign or a symbol of good or bad future events, and fortune-telling is the prediction of these events based on these signs, which is done with the help of various tools. Fortunes are writings or poems whose sense and content are hints and interpretations based on which the diviner makes people aware of the goodness or badness of what he has decided to do, and for this, he either uses the fortune himself or gets help from fortune-teller.The subject of this article is the correction and review of the Fortune written by Badr al-Din Jajarmi, one of the well-known poets of the 7th century AH (see Kashani, 999 AH, p. 322; Jajarmi, 1958-1971, 2/837; Samarkandi, 1939 AH, p. 219).

So far, the Fortune has not been recognized and published as it should be. Bagheri Hasankiadeh and Heshmati have corrected the text of this Fortune based on the manuscript of the National Library and published it in Farhang and Popular Literature magazine. They did not know the author of the poem and considered it to be taken from Iranian texts of the middle period (Bagheri HasanKiadeh, 2014, p. 1). Regardless of this mistake, due to the faulty manuscript, they could not give a correct and revised form of the text of the Fortune.

 Objectives and questions:

The purpose of this research is to introduce and correct Jajarmi's Fortune and tries to answer these questions: Is the Fortune the work of Badr Jajarmi? What are the surviving manuscripts of it? What is its structure and content? What are its linguistic and literary characteristics?

Jajarmi has explained the method of fortune-telling with his finger in Fortune. In addition to being the oldest Fortune in Persian verse that we know. This work has another advantage, which is a handful of surviving examples of this type of Fortune.
Fortune has a total of 71 verses and was written in Bahr Hazaj. This poem consists of two parts: introduction and text. The introduction of 21 verses is in the form of a Masnavi, and in it, the poet first praises the Lord and then the Holy Prophet.Afterwards, it mentions one or two moral advices and explains his motivation for writing the Fortune. Then, he explained the method of fortune-telling with finger, and finally he praised Baha'uddin Muhammad.The next 50 verses are the explanation of omens.According to Jajarmi's explanation, two people are needed to make a fortune with this Fortune. The first person whose fortune is to be taken, after the intention, shows a number between 1 and 5 with the fingers of one hand, and then the second person does the same. In this method, the numbers are put together in 25 ways. Each of these states are explained in a couplet and indicate the goodness or badness of a work or decision and resolve the doubts of the diviner about that work or decision.Until today, we have known two Manuscripts of Jajarmi's Falnama: 1. Paris National Library Manuscript number 3365 (De slane, 1883-1895: 588; Richard, 2004, p. 72), which is a collection of 198 leaves with 15 lines in Naskh script. An unknown scribe wrote the Fortune in 764 AH; 2. National Library Manuscript number 17816, which was written by a person named Fulad Karb in 1113 in India in Nastaliq script on four pages of different lines.The handwritten of the National Library of Paris has advantages compared to the version of the National Library: it was written 349 years earlier, its recordings are more accurate, it is healthy and it has not suffered from dampness or termites like the Manuscript of the National Library, it is more complete and has the 21-verses preface; therefore, its superiority is obvious and it is based on the correction of the text. Manuscript of the National Library is also useful in reading some verses and in some places where the recordings of handwritten of Paris were distorted or wronged, it has preserved or led to the correct form of the text.

In the 7th century, Badr al-Din Jajarmi arranged a Fortune in 71 verses and explained the method of fortune-telling with the finger. His poem is the oldest Persian Poetic Fortune that we know, and other Persian Fortunes that we have, were written or composed since the 8th century. In addition, the remaining examples of this type of Fortune are few and this doubles the value of Jajarmi's work. Until today, two manuscripts of this Fortune have been obtained, one of which is kept in the National Library of Paris and the other in the National Library of Iran. Of these two, the manuscript of the National Library of Paris is more valid and valuable due to its privileges.

Titles have historically been prevalent within the general public since ancient times, and the tradition of conferring titles has been customary across a variety of social classes. In the context of sociolinguistics, the examination of titles introduces novel and innovative perspectives to researchers.

Background of the research:

Based on the investigation, the following research studies have been conducted in Persian on the subject of titles and title attribution:Pourabdollah (1995) on some slangs and their translation. Molaei et al (2019) have focused on the folk literature in the Qajar era. In terms of political titles in the same period, the study conducted by Mirkiaei (2019) could be noted. Zandi and Tusi (2018) analyzed the nicknames among students through a sociolinguistic approach, and finally, Zolfaghari (2015) discussed the typology of molded structures in colloquial language.The limitations observed in the preceding research can be delineated as follows: Pourabdollah's study lacks a data-driven approach and merely presents one or a few examples for each instance. In the case of Ahmadpanahi Semnani's article, it predominantly relies on historical and semantic data related to titles. The article exclusively focuses on titles attributed to rulers, resulting in a lack of comprehensiveness. Zolfagari 's investigation briefly addresses titles within the context of language structures but fails to provide concentrated analysis. The study conducted by Zandi and colleagues is confined to a constrained dataset derived from a small number of boys' and girls' schools. Mirkiaei's work adopts a historical and political perspective, whereas the research undertaken by Molaei and fellow researchers is confined to the scrutiny of specific regional endowment letters.The uniqueness of the present study resides in its investigation into the practice of conferring titles and the process of title creation as constituent components of colloquial word formation during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras in Tehran. This exploration is approached through the lens of sociolinguistics. Previous research has not undertaken an examination of this subject from this specific vantage point.

Research questions:

1. What are the semantic functions of the titles employed in Tehran during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, and how can their semantic categorization be delineated?2. To what extent does gender contribute to the formulation of titles within the context of the examined era?3. In what ways does the pronunciation of titles, characterized by their colloquial essence, diverge from that of formal language?4. From which linguistic sources do the titles from this specific period (13th century AH in Tehran) derive?

In this study, titles from two books, The Old Tehran and Tehran's Social History in the 13th Century' by Jafar Shahri (Baf), 148 titles in total, were extracted and analyzed based on four sociolinguistic components: semantic functions of titles, gender, pronunciation, and language. Regarding semantic functions, the extracted titles were classified into eight distinct categories:Descriptive: in this context, the act of conferring titles serves to portray various aspects, including the individual's occupation and related tools, physical and bodily attributes, moral, spiritual, and personality traits, employment status, geographical location, religious affiliation, and familial lineage. Furthermore, titles may convey verbal endorsements, encompass ceremonial dimensions, involve ritualistic elements, incorporate dramatic and allegorical representations, touch on taboos, introduce humor, and even encompass derogatory connotations.In terms of frequency, descriptive titles hold the primary position during this period, followed by taboos, verbal endorsements, dramatic representations, and subsequently allegorical, derogatory, and humorous titles. Notably, a substantial number of descriptive titles predominantly reflect the prevailing discourse on occupation and economy in this era. Following that, physical and bodily attributes are given precedence, possibly due to their observable nature. Other descriptive functions exhibit lower frequency and significance.The use of taboos in titles originates from their applicability to a wide cross-section of the general population. Additionally, the inclusion of titles that rely on colloquial language, prominent in informal and spoken communication, serves as an indicator of their colloquial nature.The presence of titles emerging from ceremonial events, such as 'ta'ziyeh' (passion play), as well as non-ceremonial practices like 'siyah-bazi' (street performance) and dance, highlights the role and importance of these cultural activities within the broader public sphere. Their influence extends to domains such as title attribution.In allegorical titles, one can discern critiques directed at specific social irregularities, such as theft and ostentation, which reflect a negative perspective. In titles with comedic and derogatory tones, there exists criticism of unprofessional practitioners, playfully satirizing their methodologies.Gender: Among the total of 148 titles examined in this study, only 17 are attributed to women, accounting for approximately ten percent of the entire set of titles. This finding might imply the limited role and presence of women in societal spheres. Fifty percent of the female titles are based on physical appearance and characteristics, while others are related to their profession and religion.Overall, in terms of gender representation, it becomes evident that the investigated female titles primarily revolve around the realm of 'physical appearance.' Beneath this surface layer, there appears to be an underlying theme of illicit relationships with men, which suggests suggestive connotations.Pronunciation: Since titles are categorized within the domain of informal language, their pronunciation undergoes variations in contrast to formal language. Based on the findings of this study, these variations encompass the conversion of the vowel /ɒː/ to /uː/ and involve processes of shortening and omission.Language: In the context of the current study, 37 titles (comprising more than one-fifth of the total titles) have been loaned from four languages: Arabic, Turkish, French, and Greek. Titles formulated in Arabic or in an Arabic-style structure constitute the highest frequency, attributed to the substantial cultural and religious connections between Iran and Islam. Following that, Turkish, French, and Greek languages are prevalent. Notably, for specific titles loaned from Turkish, the loaning process has been adopted as a result of avoiding the use of particular unfavorable forms that could be detrimental to the loaner.

In the anthropological literature, the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food are considered to be the main elements of the culture of any community. What and how a person eats varies from period to period, place to place, and community to community. Food binds the personality of individuals and the identity of groups and becomes an important tool for social communication and understanding.In anthropology, local communities, as they provide their food in close connection with nature and with the help of local knowledge, have always been a privileged field for research on food, its related cultural relations and food systems. This indigenous knowledge, which was the result of effective adaptation to the environmental conditions and acquiring knowledge from it, is rapidly being destroyed. In most cases, the current elders of the villages are considered as the last owners of native knowledge in various fields. In such a situation, the need to record and analyze the local food system, the evolution of the food pattern, its local sources and the effects of these changes on the health of the local people is revealed.

Theoretical foundations:

From the viewpoint of functionalism, society is like a living organism, which will ensure the adaptation and connection among its members, the interdependence and survival of the society. In this view, ethnographies are mainly limited to the description and analysis of the food system of societies. But the structuralists have highlighted a wide range of perspectives, such as examining the capacities of human societies in the field of food preparation, processing, distribution and consumption, and most prominently, the semiotics of food in their research. In recent years, rather than following a specific approach in their research, anthropologists have benefited from various viewpoints and opinions and have applied historical, symbolic, material and development analyses in a unified approach.

Literature and food in Mazandaran:

By using the linguistic semiology of food and the habits formed regarding that, it is possible to understand the culture, relations and rituals of a group or society. In fact, food represents distinctions and reinforces social constraints. The manner and cultural content of food, from one table to another, shows many distinctions and social characteristics. These distinctions are caused by beliefs, food ingredients, tastes and different cultural habits in the matter of food. Food beliefs, with their simple appearance, depict a small world of the culture of each society and help us understand human actions. This symbolic world represents itself through the language of cooking in everyday life.In the Mazandarani language, the main adjectives used to describe the quality of food are exactly the same descriptive words used to describe human personality: cold, hot, raw, cooked, sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, sour, tasteless, stale, crisp, pleasant, strong, weak, watery, fresh, corrupted, damaged, etc. Mazandarani language is also very rich in other linguistic forms that create a symbolic link between food and social-emotional situations.In the popular literature of Mazandaran, the use of the language of cooking and food in human interactions shows the position of this phenomenon in the culture. This literature has thousands of years of bitter and sweet experiences and has transferred the lived experiences of previous generations to the next generation in the shortest form. These proverbs direct how to live, think and behave, regulate relationships among people, classes and strata of society and determine its limits and gaps.Beliefs about food in Mazandaran have a state of mind in which there is no empirical evidence, rational or necessarily logical reasons, but it is accepted as a certainty. The origins of these beliefs are different. These beliefs are slowly formed over many years in the context of culture, and the depth of culture can be found in them. Themes such as paying attention to the guest, the other, xenophobia, softening the situation, sanctifying food and paying attention to health are highlighted in Mazandarani proverbs.

From an anthropological point of view, food and what is formed around it is a cultural text that can be read to study the depth of the culture of any society. Classification of foods in Mazandaran culture, cultural identity through food, cultural and biological perceptions of appetite, hunger and overeating among Mazandaran’s shows the cultural meanings of food in Mazandaran. The symbolic roles of food in Mazandaran show how food plays a role in creating or breaking social bonds and opens a way to identify how social cohesion is realized in Mazandaran. Food and technology of preparation, production and consumption contain many messages and speak of various lifestyles. Food is one of the phenomena that has been formed over a long period of time in the indigenous system of the people of each ecosystem and has turned into a complex reservoir of indigenous knowledge.

One of the important branches of literature is comparative literature which compares the literature of different nations.There are characters among the nations that their story of life originated from a single stream as of Köroğli the epic hero of the Turkic nations and Antarat Ibn Shaddad, the epic hero of the Arab nation. Elements like horse and mythical sword, love, generosity, poetry compare the characters of these two heroes. This article compare the personality of these two heroes descriptive-analytical and in a comparative method.

Among the comparable characters that have not been researched so far, it is possible to mention the epic hero of the Turkic nations, Köroğli and the brave Arab rider, Antara, whose poetry contains epic elements.Although according to some researchers, due to the historical, social, cultural and climatic conditions, there is no epic work among the Arabs such as Egypt, etc, Antara's poem - which actually describes the heroism of himself and his tribe - is boastful that can be considered an epic with a little tolerance. Both heroes, having love and taking advantage of their moral virtues, such as self-restraint, tyranny, the fight between good and evil, have expressed bravery and courage, while the mythological elements are prominent in their life stories.

Many articles and works have been written about Köroğli and Antara, like the valuable work of Köroğli in Legend and History (Raisnia, 1987) and several articles such as:''The comparative study of Köroğlu and Rostam's stories''(Rasmi, 2013), ''The dramatic and adaptive aspects of Köroğli s epic'' (Fakhri, 2013), ''Connection of love and epic in Shāhnāmeh and the story of Köroğlu''(Rasmi and Rasmi, 2015). Regarding Antara, there are also articles such as ''Investigating the sense of inferiority in 'Antarat Ibn Shaddad' character in his poems''(AfkhamiAghda et al., 2017), ''A comparative look at the position of horse in the epic of Shahnameh and Antara’s book of epic poetry” (Pirzadania et al., 2018), and ''A study of the elements of epic in Antara’s Ode''(Zibayi, 2016); however, no research has been presented so far regarding the adaptation of these two Turkic and Arabic epic characters, which having similar mythological elements and common characteristics.

This article discusses the mythological elements and common features of two characters from two nationalities in a descriptive, analytical and comparative way. The basis of the story of Köroğli  is the ''epopee of Köroğli '' composed by Sakineh Rasmi, which is published in 206 pages by the Persian Language and Literature Academy and  the basis of the research of Antarat's story is his Divan of poems,

1. Which of the mythological elements is actually used in the stories of Köroğli and Antara? 2. What is the common feature that makes compatible two Turkic and Arabic characters?

There are always heroes and brave men among different nations who, in addition to their bravery, have become popular among the people, and their names have been immortalized on the page of history as epic heroes. Köroğli, the epic hero whose name has crossed geographical and historical boundaries, is one of these heroes who is famous among the nations of Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, etc., the character of this hero, due to the mythological elements of the horse and the hero's sword having heroic and fighting qualities,is comparable to the story of Antarat Ibn Shaddad.

Various studies have been conducted on lullabies, and the lullabies of different ethnic groups have been examined from different aspects, for example, the article "Lullaby, the oldest enchanting whisper of the mother" by Moghaddasi (2013) which deals with the structure and topic of lullabies. The article "Lullaby, the music of woman’s role in the transmission of oral culture" by Vodjani (2004) which refers to the role of woman in the transmission of oral culture. "Investigation of lullabies between three folks of Azari, Kurdish and Gilak" by Haghgou (2013) examines and compares the theme of lullabies among these ethnic groups. In the article "Taking a Look at the origin and themes of Iranian lullabies" by Hasanli (1999) investigates at lullabies as one of the poetic types of children's literature. The article "Motifs in Sabzevari lullabies" by Vahdanifar and Davari (2021) specifies the way of motif formation in Sabzevari lullabies, and introduces the most common motifs used. Studying the background of the research shows that researchers have often collected and categorized lullabies in different dialects and geographical regions, but so far there has been no independent research on Azari lullabies and analysis of their themes and motifs.Research goal and questionsThe present study focuses on the necessity of paying attention to popular literature, especially Azari lullabies, and while protecting this treasure, it examines and analyzes the motifs in the lullabies in order to make the reader more familiar with the cultural, economic and social attitudes and beliefs, religious identity and customs of the people of the region. In this research, we seek to answer these questions:1. What is a motif?2. How are motifs formed in the investigated lullabies?3. What are the most common motifs used in these lullabies?

Lullabies are one of the branches of folk literature and the first songs for children, which are included under the children's literature category in terms of dealing with children. Although the original composers of the lullabies are unknown, the simplicity of the language and the practicality of the lullabies among people is one of the secrets of the durability of these beautiful verses. The themes of lullabies are echoes of thoughts and spiritual reflections, social and political concerns, individual and collective emotions and desires that can be affected by the geographical, cultural, social, and political conditions of the society. In this research, an attempt has been made to analyze 120 common Azeri lullabies using the descriptive-analytical method. The aim was to introduce the lullabies of these people, to reflect on their inner reflections, individual and social emotions, religious thoughts, and social and cultural conditions of the mothers of that time. We divided the lullabies into five categories based on the theme: religious motifs, nature motifs, maternal wishes and threatening their child's enemy’s motifs, cultural and social motifs, and family and relative motifs. Among these motifs, the motif of nature with 42 items and the motif of maternal wishes with 28 items had the highest frequency. The results of the research show that the composers of the lullabies have used various motifs to enrich their lullabies’ themes and without knowing and analyzing these themes, it is not possible to know the main concerns of the concepts of these lullabies."A motif is a word, a sentence, a state, an image or an idea that is repeated in a literary work and plays a special role" (Zeitouni, 2002, p. 69). Since every repetition is of interest in stylistics, the motif as an important repeated element in literature can also be considered for stylistic review and criticism. Motifs that the author is aware of repeating and uses as a literary skill to express an opinion and draw the reader's attention to a specific topic, enriching the creation of atmosphere, characterization, coherence and thematic dimension of his work, are called self-conscious motifs. However, motifs that originate from the individual and collective experiences of the author and appear and repeat in the works of the author or poet in a completely random manner without any preparation, are unconscious motifs. Since the human mind has two conscious and unconscious parts, depending on which part the motif is present in, it is considered a conscious or unconscious element (Dehghan et al. 2011, p. 93-4). While examining the motifs in the lullabies, we noticed that some motifs are repeated accidentally and unconsciously, without their composers having a specific meaning for these repetitions. But in many motifs, the repetitions are purposeful and their composers have consciously used the format of lullabies to impress the audience and promote their ideas and thoughts. In other words, it can be said that: "lullabies carry with them a kind of narrative trick from the perspective of the audience. Because in lullabies, the mother addresses her child, but what she says has nothing to do with the child, and these narratives are her or other mothers' wishes that have been institutionalized in the heart of popular speech" (Salajegheh, 2008, p. 424).

 As a part of the oral literature of the society, lullabies are derived from the mentality of the mass of people and indirectly convey various concepts to the mind of the listener. In the current research, we first investigated the formation of motifs in lullabies using the content analysis method, and then we identified frequent motifs in Azari lullabies and classified them. In this research, 120 Azari lullabies were examined and it was observed that in terms of motifs and recurring themes, Azari lullabies can be divided into five general categories: religious motifs, nature motif, cultural, political and social motifs, maternal wishes and family and divided relatives’ motifs. In examining the motifs, we notice that some of them are repeated accidentally and unconsciously, without their composers having a specific meaning for these repetitions. But in many cases, most of the motifs are purposeful works that their composers have consciously repeated to prove and promote their worldview and beliefs to the readers. Deep thinking about the content of the lullabies shows that most of the lullabies have common features despite the geographical and dialectal differences, among them simplicity and fluency, collective character, imagination, similarity of theme, consecration of beauty and goodness, etc. can be mentioned. Mothers convey their emotions and feelings to the audience through lullabies in the form of simple motifs, and this simplicity of expression makes the audience interested and therefore, the motifs have a greater effect on them.