مجله مطالعات ایرانی
پیاپی 10 (پاییز 1385)

Epic is made of many elements. One of these elements is Myth and because of the importance of this element, in comparison with other elements, some of the researchers believe that epic is another form of myth and is taken from it.Based on Shahname and other Iranian sources. The main reasons for changing myth to epic are: (1) development in human knowledge and moving from mythical believes to more conceptional believes. (2) heroic era and narrating mythical believes according to heroic interests and norms. (3) changing the setting of a story or circulating a special belief or myth in epic. (4) Changes done by narrators while narrating. Considering mythical subjects in stories and epic writtings, differences and relations between epic and myth and also changing myth to epic can be classified into the followings:(1) Chronological limitation, (2) local limitation, (3) Fading away, (4) Dislocation or Metamorphosis, (5) Separation, (6) Transfer, (7) Inversion or change, (8) Composing, (9) Omission and (10) Oblivion.

“Ghalandar” is one of the unknown Persian words that there is no accurate knowledge about its derivation and etymology. This word is not appeared in most of Persian dictionaries and the other dictionaries, Cannot help about the etymology of this word. In some cases an uncritical and vulgar etymology is mentioned that is not trustable.In this research, by using semantic characteristics and specialities attributed to calendars as well as applying linguistic standards, the etymology and connotative meaning of the word “chalandar” is made clear through reaping the benefits of Persian literary works and different usages of this word.

Persian language, throughout the various stages of its history, has enjoyed a reciprocal relationship with other neighboring languages and culturs. The use of Persian borrawing words in Arabic is an evidence and a prominent example of this relationship. For many years, Persian and Arab scholars have paid attention to this subject and many brilliant works have been written about this topic. In order to delineate an accurate picture of the development of this process, a comprehensive historical study of different periods should be embarked on. From this perspective, the present article is going to discuss and review this book which, in spite of it’s importance, has not yet received the attention that deserves.

Islam school possesses a special realistic training order for establishing model Islamic believers and Its practical pattern has been designed and introduced according to the holy prophet’s be haviour. The structure of this model is not mental or mythical but real and human.This educational model, which is called prophetic instruction, should be achieved inside historical sayings and traditions. Principles of prophetic be haviour and instruction, on which we can theorize to carry out, should be found to answer our present needs.At the end of this article, a somple of the holy prophet’s instruction entitled “Character honouring and respect and its method” is noticed and concluded.

No nation has a history without magic or different forms of that. Alongside different knowledges, hidden knowledges, have been common so that many researchers in the field of scionce history believe that magic has been a base for many knowledges. Many scholars have written about this matter and in old Persia different forms of magic such as white magic and black magic had been common. In this research, magic in old Persia and Zoroastrian religion will be shortly studied.

Mithraism is one of the oldest Iranian religions dating back to 2000 B.C. Along with the names of other gods in cuniform inscriptions of 1400 B.C., Mehr or Mithra has been mentioned in ancient Zoroastrian texts.According to the German Dr. Vermazren and some other western scientists, Mithraism was transferred to the far Europe near the end of the first millennium B.C. Temples of Mithra in Italy, Germany, Poland and even England are evidence to this claim.The common feature of these temples which at times hides them from the scientists is that they are cut through the rocks, usually in mountainous and inaccessible areas. These temples are generally known as Mehrabeh, the anagram of Mehraveh, with aveh meaning dome. The study of their architectural designs reveals the secret of the distribution of these cut-in the-rock temples, from Iran to Europe and the India.So far all temples in Azerbayjan have been discovered in dome shape. Over a period of 10 years I have studied these temples and documented the findings with illustrations. The comparison between Iranian and European Mithra temples has been of great advantage.

This article introduces Ghotlogh Tarkan’s (Tarkan Khatoon) cultural measures to complete and expand Tarkan Khatoon School of Kerman in the seventh century A.H. and also provides a brief introduction to Qobeh-e-Sabz.The formation of Qobeh-e-Sabz, along with the establishment and administration of Tarkan Khatoon School and other related buildings, and also a brief account of the scientists and the learned men invited from all parts of Iran to teach at this school are examined in this study.The changes through history of the school and Qobeh and the causes of their destruction will be ststed as far as possible. With a special attention to the past two years, efforts begun with the foundation of “the Supporters of Qobeh-e-Sabz Society” on Tarkan Khatoon’s eight-hundredth birthday, the past seventy years actions undertaken to reconstruct the School and Qobeh are presented. Illustrations and the geographical location of Qobeh and the school are of great benefit to the understanding of their values.Taking advantage from the Iranian calander, some mentioned dutes in the text have been restated according to the Moslem era (Solar and Lunar calander) and the Christian era.

The subject matter of ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, his observation of the contemporary needs, his humanistic idealogy, association of potency and fineness in language. constitute the features that distinguish shahnameh from the works of other poets. Shahnameh, in comparison with other nations’ literary masterpieces, is of a privileged standing and no study would ever suffice dealing with its values. The present article aims to focus on one part of Iran’s national epic.The first part of the study reveals the similarities between the story of Zahhak and other stories such as Faust, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Faust and Zahhak’s seduction by Satan, their committing inevitable murders, Zahhak’s fear of confrontation with kaveh, and claudiu’s fear of watching the play. Despite all these similarities, Ferdowsi’s masterpiece is more delicate and wise.The other part of the article, discussing the meaning, traces two axes within the story: recurrence of the motifs of darkness and light, and the punishment of the guilty. Zahhak’s other face in Shahnameh, represented as a mighty king, is finally explained.

In this article, the author is going to study the etymology and meaning of some Persian words with reference to the most distinguished and authentic Persian lexicons such as “loghatname-ye-Dehkhoda” (Dehkhoda encyclopedia), “Farhang-e-farsi-e-Moein” (Moein’s Persian dictionary) and Moein’s comments and interpretations on “Borhan-e-Ghate” and also attempts to clarify the blind spots, shortcomings and ambiguous words of these lexicons. To achieve this goal, the opinion of different linguists and orientalists have been quoted omd analyzed. Mean while, the author, in expressing his opinions, has relied on the authentic and classical Persian texts and since all changes in language have originated from culture and believes of its speakers, they have been endeavored throughout these analysis.It should be noted that to attain this aim, the author has also made a comparison between some words of other Indo-European languages such as English and French. It is highly obvious that with such detailed analysis, one can write more complete and fruitful Persian lexicons and this will help us to have a better understanding of texts. The words and phrases studied and analyzed in this article are “pārsa” (pārsi), “choobdār” (choopān, shabān), “parkhān” (sokhan, pāsokh, khonyāgar), “shoghāl” (sag), “deamār barāwardan”, (maghz, demāgh, mokh), “āftāb” (ābād, ābādān, ābādāni)… and “hamganān”.

The aim of this article is to examine and explain the manner of translating Arabic poems into Persian ones. A library method has been used to collect the necessary information, then for presenting the information an explanatory and analytic method has been applied. The important achieved results of the article show that free and interpretive translation methods were the first used strategies for poetry translation. Latter on, aesthetic aspects of poems received much less attention and translators tried to benefit the application of a scientific method instead. Furthermore, it was found that religious and instructive poems had the highest frequency of being chosen for translation.

The utilization of arithmatics whose advanced method appears in accounting today is as old as human civilization and has expanded in proportion to development of the societies and increase in commerce. Due to the absolute dominancy of the governments over a great part of the wealth in the society and their administration of the military, social and economical domains, the application of some methods for financial checking seemed inevitable.Researches show that in the ancient times, extraordinary financial methods have been practiced. In this study the counting method, the documents of orok temple and the signboard of Amarsin have been examined and Hamurabi petrography has been considered as a historical document. The information related to the Elamite civilization and the accountancy methods in Achaemenidae period have been finially dealt with.The results of the study indicate that contrary to the present conception, as to the appearance of accounting as a science during the age of industrialization, complicated financial methods have been practiced since the ancient times. Administrative accountancy, sampling, financial statements and statement of accounts are some of the historical truths about this science.

In this article the myth of the flight and traverse in the heavens of keykavoos, the second king of the keyan dynasty has been discussed in there parts. In the first part entitled “keykavoos’ flight (Traverse) In pre- Islamic sources”, the oldest Persian works of the Midde Era such as Dinkart have been studied. In the second part, entitled “keykavoos’ flight (Traverse) In the sources of Islamic Era”, the Persian and Arabic Islamic historical sources, and the alterations to and variations of the story in such works as Shahnameh, Tabari history and Solabi history have been examined. The third part deals with the Mesopotamian myth of Etane: after introducing Etane, the king of Soomer, and narrating the myth of flight with eagle from different sources, the two stories have been briefly compared and the influence of the Mesopotamian myth on such stories as Nimrod and Keykavoos’ flight has been investigated.

Soroosh is one of the Zoroastrian angels that like many concepts and beliefs of pre Islamic Period has slipped in beliefs and literary works of Islamic Period and has revealed in different manners and ways. In literary works, Soroosh is often used as an angel and divine messenger which depicts magnificence.To discover the antecedent of believing in angels such as Soroosh in old Persian culture and religion and also the way this subject is presented in the “national epic of Iran”, which is one of the most prominent works of Persian literature and contains the old belifs of this country, Avesta and some other old texts will be compared with Ferdousy’s Shahnameh so that the character of this angel and the way it is presented in Shahnameh will be cleared as much as possible.

One of the most important and interesting discussions in historical geography and cultural researches is the etymology of the names of cities, towns and hamlets in Iran. In this research the position of Mithra (khorshid or khor) will be made clear in ancient Persia and the cities, towns and hamlets that their names are made or combined with the word “Khor” (Mithra) will be introduced.