مجله مطالعات ایرانی
پیاپی 19 (بهار 1390)

The present article tries to offer an etymological study to investigate the origin of the word ‘Kerman’ and to discuss the names used for calling the province by adopting a library research methodology. At first, the viewpoints of different historians, geographers and poets have been examined by paying attention to the available documents, inscriptions, myths and legends and the truth or falsehood of each opinion has been stated by offering reasons. Then the process of choosing different names such as: Bardshir, Gavashir, Bardsir and Kerman for this province have been studied. Finally, it has been suggested that the origin of this word is the name of a tribe called ‘Germani’ who were one of the tenfold tribes of the Aryans who migrated to this city from the third millennium up to the first millennium B.C.

Carpet is one of the important signs and symbols of taste, art, beauty and spirit of the Iranian society. Abstract and deceptive designs that traditional scholars and thinkers of the East see, is not only the colourful design but also every colour and every twist which reflects Eastern and specially Iranian world view. The world view emphasizes on ideal, reliance and national and mythical issues.This research investigates the symbolism and semiotics system of signs and their relationship with companion elements and substitution in carpet.

Hymn of Arash-e Kamangir is one of the immanent and valuable works in the Gurani language and literature from Pir Kazem-e Kangavari in eighth century. This hymn is about story of Arash-e Kamangir in king Manouchehr time. This hymn is in six verses and syllabic meter. This hymn has mytological, linguistics and historical valences. This paper presents transcription and philological analyis and a translation of this Gurani hymn.

Fassayi dialect, spoken in Fassa, a town of Fars province, is a variety of Persian language. In different parts of Fassa town, different varieties of this dialect are spoken. This study investigates linguistic description of the sound system of the varieties used in Fassa city, the centre of the town. In this article, after an introduction, in phonemes section, phonemes of the dialect are refined using minimal pairs test, and are described in two groups: consonants and vowels. Then, in sound distribution section, subjects such as: syllable construction, consonantal clusters are analyzed.

The conflict between two views namely the ‘existence of death’ and ‘love for eternal life’ has always preoccupied man’s mind. It has eventually ended with the victory of the second belief that is ‘immortality’and ‘a new birth in another world’.The reflection of attaining eternity in different forms of the myth of ‘the world of the dead’is clearly apparent in different time periods.In this article, the author endeavors to study the trend of evolution in the thought of ‘the world of the dead’and its classification into various stages of paradise, purgatory (inter-world) and hell as conceived by people of ancient Iran based on old and new Avestan texts and Middle Persian scripts.

The great Urartu empire ruled about 900 B.C in parts of Iran and also in confines of present countries such as Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Armenia. There are twelve inscriptions remained from this great civilization in urartu transcript and language in west and east Azarbaijan. Urartu language which is a member of Asiatic languages group in the light of structure has relationship with Assyria and Hori languages. Urartu cuneiform has special signs of vocal, syllables and ideograms. In present research introduces this language with brief explanations about grammatical construction.

The Sacredness of Imamzadehs and their spiritual place is influenced by mythical origins and symbolic values of ‘water and tree’.The connection between imamzadehs and ‘water and tree’ is reasonable since it has made a spiritual place for manifesting ‘the Holy’ and experiencing it. This article tries to express the place of ‘water and tree’ through a mythical approach, rooted in humans’ collective unconsciousness as every universal symbol, while describing their symbolic values through Islamic and spiritual approach. It traces back ‘the sacredness and the attraction’ resulted from ‘water and tree’ as mythical symbols in Iranian & worldly culture, and also as religious symbols and a vision of spiritual world in material world, furthermore it represents an illustration of ‘the paradise’ in the Holy Quran, and eventually it explains the mystic association of the holy mausoleums of Imamzadehs with the two prettiest features of nature i.e. water and tree.

Faramarznāmeh is book of poems with about 9372 couplets based on the corrections made by Mitra Mehrabadi. The poems are based on fights of Faramarz in India. The book of poems similar to other books of Persian literature expresses angles of old Iranian customs. Epics dipict mythological scenes in which heros either fight with eachother or with dragons, demons or bad personalities. In fact such fights are based on fights between good and evil or Izads and Ahremans and occurs in order to observe order in creation. Through investigation in such epic works, it is possible to show their mythological roots. This research investigates mythological basis of some stories of Faramarznāmeh. Undrestanding the mythologies of this epic helps us to better undrestand the history of civilization and culture of the Iranians. Rituals pertaining to prayers and killing of dragon or fighting with demons is in one way or anther in relation to stuggle of human being for existance and seeking help from gods to renew the world.

Armenia used to be a region that was of interest to two ancient empires of Iran and Rome from the early to late centuries AD in the Sassanid’s era. This was because of the existing trade and military routes and asserting dominance over the shores of the Black Sea and also the country benefiting from the ground and underground resources. Therefore, Armenia was invariably like a gem to these two empires. Hence, as a result of the persistent rivalry between the Iranian and Roman empires, it was often under the dominion of either of them. In the late 3rd century, in addition to the tensions between the two ancient powers over territorial issues, religious issues (conversion of Armenia and after that Rome to Christianity) came on the scene to aggravate the tensions. It was after this event that the Sassanids clearly felt the danger of losing dominion over this region and this intensified the conflicts between the two governments of Iran and Rome over Armenia and it was not until three and half a century later (i.e. since 53 until 387 AD) that they worked out a solution to settle the conflicts by dividing Armenia. Whereas, but not precisely, this division was upheld until late in the Sassanid’s era, the conflicts over the complete dominion over this land continued between Iran and Rome.

The scope of Persian word's influence and spread in other languages, both respecting the number of languages and the geographical domain worth researching which only a few aspects of it have been studied. Among the languages, we can refer to European languages which are mostly the indirect borrowers of Persian words. In this regard, any research on the topic involves considering the social, political, cultural, and historical conditions. Thus, in this research, concerning its importance, the Spanish words with Persian origins have been studied and introduced in an analytic and descriptive way based on the authentic resources, in a systematic framework, and without having any biased attitude or resorting to folk etymologies. In addition to introducing the Spanish words and its Persian origins, topics including its transfer, intermediary languages, phonetic changes, semantic shifts, and some examples from the Persian language have been presented.

This is a research on analysis of the role of women in Sasanian court from Ardeshir I to the end of Shahpour I with referece to inscriptions of Shahpour I at Ka’beh Zartosht. It is evident to the historians that tablet inscriptions are the best and most reliable historical evidence that are very useful in decoding historical myths. Inscriptions of Shahpout I is a very valuable source of proper nouns in ancient Persia. Moreover, it is important in knowing the royalties and their roles specially royal women and also other royalties. Most impotantly, this inscription contains names of 16 Sasanian royal women and their titles which throgh studying them, it will become evident who they were in the court.

Yazd region has always been and will be the birth place for the shcolars of literature, religion and science. This is also mentioned in history. The common grounds of these scholars are love of country, belief in Islam and Islamic values. Mohammad Farokhi Yazdi (1267-1318 HS) despite common belife of some researchers of comtomporary history of Iran is one of such scholars. The researcher had provided evidences to prove Farokhi Yazdi’s love of Iran, believe in Islam and religious values in every corner of his peoms.

The merchants have always required safe and reliable routes for trading; the longest and also the most important route has been ‘Silk Road’ throughout the history. This road would connect a long distance from China to Eastern Rome. The development of this route had been directly dependent on the power of the central government as well as maintaining the road’s safety. During the Parthian time, the Iranian rulers succeeded in making the most of the location of this road; they would prevent a straightforward trade between China and Eastern Rome, consequently, their economic situation improved. The Parthian would use Silk Road for their international commercial purposes. In other words, studying Silk Road means learning about different cultural aspects of Asia, Europe and their bilateral interactions. In the past, this road traversed Asia and Europe and would connect them to each other like a river does. The start point of this road was placed in the East of Japan and it was continued to the West side of the Mediterranean Sea, and the subsidiary branches of it would both culturally and economically intensify the areas located on the North and the South of this route; Iranian Plateau was the main place among these areas.Silk Road, due to its fundamental role in transmitting culture and technology, was considered as an important issue to be argued and focused on across the world over the 20th century. This road has experienced the most substantial events such as wars, invasions, and enormous migrations, and renouned commanders such as Crassus risked their lives to find ascendency over it. So many massive wars have taken place for predominating over the geopolitical spots of this road such as Khorasan, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Syria between Iran and Rome or Iran and the tribes of Central Asia. There has been a time when some cities like Termez, Balkh, Merv, Nishapur, Rey, Babel, Syria, Ctesiphon, Dura-Europos, Hatra, Palmyra and Antioch, which all were situated along Silk Road, extremely developed owing to the high rate of trading. However, most of the above mentioned cities fell into ruin and got damaged during some other periods of time as a result of the wars which happened in them as they were rich cities possessing a lot of properties and wealth. The main aim of this essay is to shed light on the traits of the commercial interrelations carried out between Iran and Central Asia using The Silk Road as well as their communicative ways. Moreover, we would like to find out that how influential the city of Damghan had been in the regional and inter- regional interactions as an essential city on Silk Road based on the archaeological data and evidence.

Ancient city of Jiroft has had a crucial position in south-eastern Iran for centuries. It was winter Capital for rulers of Kerman and also important for mineral and artifacts productions.The main trade road from Hormuz to Kerman passed from Jiroft and so it was important for both internal and external trade. Despite the invades of different people including Kuch, Baluch and Nikuderids, the city maintained its intermediate role and so was important for governors of Kerman. Even incedents such as Mongol invasion and their rule over Iran could not decrease its importance. Present article studies the commercial situation of region during 6th to 8th centuries in which Seljukids, Qarakhataids and Mozaffarids ruled over Kerman.

Giving any remarks on women position in ancient times is very difficult. Whatever is said about women in the olden days is on the basis of tablets, documents, books and writings of Greek historians. In the meantime, writings of Greek historians are far from truth because of their prjudice points of view. Thus, tablets of Persepolis fortifications and law books of Sassanian period can be the best source of historic research, but all of them comprising women of the special class not all of social strata.This article intends to show ups and downs of situations which women faced from prehistoric until the end of Sassanian period. Situation of women in Mesopotamian civilizations is discussed in introduction because of influence of these civilizations on Iranian culture of that time.

In the Achaemenian era, lauding the gods was under consideration and we are aware of them by historian, documents and available inscriptions. The Achaemenian believed in dignity and Godlyness of Ahura Mazda and other gods; it was untill Aredeshir the second, the Achaemenian king, when this sanctity was mentioned in inscriptions and the king sought help from those gods and especially Ahura Mazda in state affairs. Some religious changes occur in the period between 359-405 where names of other gods who were not present previously are mentioned and gain more importance and value; gods such as Anahita and Mehr. Such changes increased by declining of Achaemenian dynasty and invstion of Alexander and the Greeks to Iran. In Parthian dynasty, some gods were lauded which were existent in previous period i.e. Achaemenians. By transferring this religious heritage to Sassanian period, which was a government based on religion and religious temple (Anahita Estakhr Temple), gained a higher position compared to previous periods; this time worshiping and believing in gods which were under consideration in Achaemenian inscriptions and Parthian imperial court found more important position. Sassanian by fulfilling these religious obligations which inherited them from Pathrians, proved their competence to rightfully follow Achaemenians and win more attention from historians. Since Sasanian lauded the same god (Ahura Mazda, Mehr, Nahid, Moon) and sought help from those gods and saw their government under the confirmation of gods which one day the Achaemenian relied on them.