40 results in Studies on the Iranian World
Foreword
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- By Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Studies on the Iranian World
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Summary
We are pleased to present the second of the two volumes of the ECIS7 proceedings dedicated to studies on the Medieval and Modern Iranian World.
The papers in this volume were presented in Cracow in September 2011 on the occasion of the Seventh European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS7). European Conferences of Iranian Studies (ECIS) are organized every four years under the auspices of the Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE), a learned international society, which was founded in 1983, with the aim of promoting, developing and supporting Ancient, Middle and Modern Iranian Studies in all subject areas of these fields, including philology, linguistics, literature, history, religions, art, archaeology, philosophy, ethnology, geography and human sciences.
Following the previous SIE conferences, which were held in Turin (1987), Bamberg (1991), Cambridge (1995), Paris (1999), Ravenna (2003), and Vienna (2007), the seventh conference in 2011 was organized by the Iranian Studies Department of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. Over 300 participants, not only from Europe, but also from Asia, North America and Australia (30 countries altogether) made the conference truly international in scope and representative, at least to some degree, of the current trends prevailing in the field of Iranian studies.
For publication purposes, the editors have decided on a traditional chronological division of the papers into two volumes: the Pre-Islamic period and the Classical and Modern periods. The latter one, Studies on the Iranian World: Medieval and Modern, was supposed to cover the span of time from the beginnings of Islam to the present day; yet, as can be seen, the focus of the contributors was, with a few exceptions, on the centuries from the Mongol period on, and the majority of fields are dominated by contemporary issues. The papers included in the second volume have been arranged in six thematic groups: linguistics, literature, religion, history, art, social sciences and culture. The variety of themes presented in the volume reveals, to some extent, new tendencies in Iranian studies. Its content shows how the range of interest in Iranology is broadening, exceeding far beyond the borders of ‘high culture’. Classical Persian literature, once the most important field of Iranian studies, is poorly represented (as it was at the Conference), film raises no less interest than modern literature, and linguistics is looking for new methods and approaches.
Laughing at Adultery in Persian Literature and Culture
- from Literature
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- By Pegah Shahbaz, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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SUMMARY
The current essay tries to shed light to a complicated and challenging aspect of Iranian culture, also reflected in Persian literature. The cliché image attributed to women focuses rather on their infidelity and untrustworthiness. A large series of Persian anecdotes talk of women's guiles and tricks. Meanwhile, although the act of adultery is an unforgivable sin and it is punished to death in Iran, retelling it brings laughter to the audience. Such mocking look over the matter has resided in Iranian culture up to our modern times. This paper is an endeavor to discover the causes of laughter and what it hides behind itself.
Iranian people mostly appreciate irony and sense of humor in their mode of life and of course, express it by means of their language. Living under social and political pressure, they make numerous jokes about daily challenges and inject them regularly into Iranian live culture. The satiric view reflected in Persian language is not a matter of modern time, but an aspect that has lasted for hundreds of years. We still perceive the sense of humor concealed in works of Iranian literary masters, as in poems of Hâfez or anecdotes from Sa'di and ’Obeyd Zâkâni.
A tangible example on this issue (not willing to be offensive to anyone) could be Rashti jokes. Rasht is a city of the northern province of Gilan, near to the Caspian Sea and its residents are called Rashti. In Iranian contemporary folk culture, people make fun of the imaginary stereotype of Rashti men whose wives get involved into affairs with paramours, while the husbands are either ignorant to their wives’ betrayal, or they are unable to react ‘properly.’
The Persian adjective used to describe a cuckold man is bigheyrat. We may not be able to find a precise equivalent for gheyrat in English language as its meaning concerns zeal, jealousy and honor all at once.
To present a more perceptible instance showing the significance of gheyrat as a virtue for Iranian men, I would refer to a very popular movie from Iranian cinema, Hâmoun, directed by Dâriush Mehrjouyi in 1990. The film tells the story of Hamid Hâmoun, a man belonging to the Iranian middle class – played by Khosro Shakibâee – and his resistance to his wife's demand for divorce.
The Historical Novel in Early Modern Persian Literature
- from Literature
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- By Claus V. Pedersen, University of Copenhagen
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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The article is a short analysis of Rahim-Zâde Safavi's Dâstân-e Shahr Bânu (published in 1931) a historical novel. The historical novels of the period, i.e. the period of the reign of Rezâ Shâh Pahlavi, are often thought to be part of a nationalist discourse, in which a strong adherence to pre-Islamic times and a certain anti-Islamic and anti- Arabic sentiment was predominant. We shall see, however, that Dâstân-e Shahr Bânu is not just a reproduction of the Rezâ Shâh Pahlavi discourse but something more: An attempt to reconcile the Iranian pre-Islamic past with the nation's (Shi'a) Islamic past and thus an attempt to forge a new Iranian-Islamic national identity.
INTRODUCTION
The Iranian historical novel is richly represented in the first four or five decades of the 20th century. The first one was probably Mohammad Bâqer Khosravi's Shams va Toghrâ (published between 1908 and 1910 in three parts). Later on, in the Rezâ Shâh period (reign 1925–1941), other, and one might say, more sophisticated forms of the historical novel were written. One of those is Rahim- Zâde Safavi's Dâstân-e Shahr Bânu (published in 1931) which I will present in this paper. My presentation will focus on the ways in which the historical novel attempts to interpret the Iranian past – in this case the late Sasanian period – and how this interpretation is a contribution to (in my opinion) creating a ‘new’ Iranian national identity along the guidelines formed by the new regime under Rezâ Shâh's command. A main part of these guidelines were a strong adherence to pre-Islamic times and a certain anti-Islamic and anti-Arabic sentiment. We shall see, however, that Dâstân-e Shahr Bânu is not just a reproduction of the Rezâ Shâh Pahlavi discourse but something more: An attempt to reconcile the Iranian pre-Islamic past with the nation's (Shi'a) Islamic past and thus an attempt to forge a new Iranian-Islamic national identity.
I will begin my presentation of Dâstân-e Shahr Bânu with some reflections on both the historical novel as a genre and on its Iranian setting in the early 20th century.
Anatomy and Therapy of Eye-Diseases in Esmā῾īl Gorgānī Compared to Syriac Sources
- from Social and Cultural Studies
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- By Philippe Gignoux, France
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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SUMMARY
In the Proceedings of a congress held in Beirut in 2004, I published an article on « La transmission de l'héritage grec aux Arabes par les Syriaques » (pp. 53–65), and I briefly compared the three parts of eye in the treatise of E. Gorgānī (1042–1135/1140), who distinguished three humours, to those of one anonymous Syriac treatise edited by E.A. Wallis Budge. This work would be necessarily prior to the Persian ophtalmologist's book. First it is interesting to note that the two treatises attest the same anatomic theory. Though the author of the anonymous Syriac was not particularly aware of the eye anatomy, I would like to add some other points of comparison, namely in studying the names of medicinal plants and products mentioned in both of authors.
INTRODUCTION
On ne doit pas oublier en effet que, de même que la civilisation russe s'est développée à partir de Byzance, de cette merveilleuse cité où nous sommes réunis aujourd'hui, – et je profite de cette allusion pour remercier vivement les organisateurs d'y être si bien accueillis –, de même la culture arabe est largement redevable à la médecine grecque et à la pharmacopée, depuis Dioscoride, Galien et la tradition hippocratique.
Mais, – et je tiens à le souligner –, il n'y a pas eu comme trop d'arabisants l’écrivent, un passage direct du grec à l'arabe. C'est pourquoi il n'est pas pertinent de comparer directement les 133 produits de la liste de Gorgānī à ceux connus chez Dioscoride, comme le fait T. de Crussol, le traducteur du Discours sur l'oeil d'Esmā īl Gorgānī, qui estime que 126 de ces médicaments sont déjà présents chez Dioscoride. N'ayant pas vérifié cette assertion à partir des données du médecin grec, je me suis attaché, comme je le montrerai dans la seconde partie de mon exposé, à l'appellation proprement linguistique des noms de médicaments, pour constater qu'un très petit nombre dans le traité arabe (12 seulement) proviennent du grec sans intermédiaire.
Clash or Compromise? Mongol and Muslim Law in the Ilkhanate (1258–1335)
- from History
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- By Florence Hodous, Soas, University of London
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Summary
SUMMARY
With the Mongol invasion of Persia and the founding of the Ilkhanate in 1258, the stage was set for the sometimes difficult encounter between Islamic and Mongol law, which has often been described as a ‘clash.’ This paper will look at factors which smoothed the encounter by allowing co-existence and compromise between Mongol and Islamic law. While many Mongols were willing to allow Muslims to practice their own law, Muslim objections to Mongol legal practices were also tempered by several factors, including the previous acceptance of ‘secular’ forms of trial such as the mazalim; the source of law being in religion rather than the ruler, which allowed Islamic legal practices to easily continue; and the possibility interpreting events in moral rather than strictly religious terms. Thus, the attitudes of both the conquerors and the conquered contributed to Mongol rule creating relatively small and painless ripples in the Persian legal landscape.
INTRODUCTION
When the Mongols invaded and came to rule Persia, they brought with them their own legal norms, but also had to confront the fact that in Persia there existed already a functioning legal system. How the Mongols reacted to this legal system, and how Muslims reacted to Mongol laws, is the subject of this paper.
The Mongol and Islamic legal systems were very different. Not only did they represent different cultures, they were also representative one of a sedentary way of life and the other of a nomadic way of life. The Muslims had a class of legal specialists and a voluminous literature surrounding the legal system; the Mongols initially had neither legal specialists nor writing, although they assiduously and even religiously respected certain norms and taboos, while serious disputes were more often than not solved by the aggrieved ‘taking the law into their own hands’ in vengeance.
Therefore it is not at all surprising that the encounter between Mongol and Muslim law is often described as a clash. Many authors simply assume the basic incompatibility of Islamic and Mongol law, and suggest that the influence of Mongol law faded with time. The idea that there existed a ‘Great Yasa’ i.e. codification of Mongol customary law to which the Mongols held strongly has reinforced the idea of the fundamental incompatibility of Mongol and Islamic law.
Linguistics
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Some Comments on a Parallel Text in Dari, Tojiki and Farsi
- from Linguistics
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- By Tomasz Gacek, Jagiellonian University
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Summary
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An analysis of multilingual texts is an important tool in linguistic research. It is particularly valuable in the case of dead and forgotten languages, however, this is certainly not the only situation, in which this method is of use. In the present article, translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into Dari, Farsi and Tojiki are analyzed. Historically, the three idioms are derived from one source, however, their present status is worth discussing, especially when considering the relationship between Tojiki and Farsi. The analysis presented in the article is focused primarily on differences in the lexica, phraseology, morphology and syntax.
DARI, FARSI AND TOJIKI
Dari, Farsi and Tojiki are three closely related idioms that belong to a vast continuum of varieties of Persian. Farsi (henceforth FA) and Tojiki (TJ) form the opposite extremities of this continuum, while the dialects of Afghanistan (i.e. Dari (DA) in particular) have an intermediary position.
Historically, the three idioms are derived from one source, however, their present status is worth discussing, especially when considering the relationship between Tojiki and Farsi. As Perry notes, the emergence of spoken TJ as a separate ethnolect started around the 16th century, although the common literary standard was preserved well into the modern times.
Whether or not the twentieth century concluded the process of the emancipation of TJ as an independent language is a question that cannot be solved in this short article. We may only note that the problem is not restricted to the field of linguistics as is the case with all the language vs. dialects controversies. This is why we will use terms like ‘idiom’ or ‘ethnolect’ instead of ‘language’ or ‘dialect.’
THE ANALYSED TEXTS
An analysis of multilingual texts is an important tool used when studying languages, particularly those that are forgotten. However, reading texts in dead and forgotten languages is not the only situation, in which an analysis of multilingual texts may be of use. We shall hopefully see that it can reveal interesting facts in relation to idioms which are still spoken and are well known.
The texts we will analyse are three translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Persian Cookbooks, the ‘Myth’ of National Cuisine and the Process of Modernisation
- from Social and Cultural Studies
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- By Bert G. Fragner, Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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There is hardly any doubt to be found that nutrition and culinary aspects play an essential role in debates referring to the process of modernization. In this paper, texts of three Persian cookbooks – one from Iran, one from Afghanistan and one from Tajikistan – will be presented as indicators and even as circumstantial proofs for different ways into modernity, in three different countries: Tabbâxi-ye Nejât, by Nejâto d-doule (Tehran, early 20th century), Tabx-e ta’âm barâ-ye maktab-e fonun-e harbiye, written by General as-Sayyid Mahmud Sâmi (Kabul 1337 h.), and Taomhoi tojikî, by S.A. Aminov (Stalinobod 1959).
This contribution is dedicated to the memory of the great master of Iranian Studies throughout the second half of the twentieth century until the year he passed away – the unforgettable professor Iraj Afshar, an incomparable scholar and also a precious personal friend of mine. The services he rendered to the expansion of knowledge concerning cultural affairs of his homeland, Iran, are countless, and his manifold contributions to the field of Iranian Studies as an international and world-wide discipline of learnedness cannot be overestimated.
Among many other themes, he deserves our thankful feelings with regard to his important stimulations for research concerning popular material and everyday's culture of Iran in past and present. It has been roughly more than thirty years ago when I got knowledge about his edition of two manuscripts containing texts of historical cookbooks in Persian language originating from the 16th century – one having been written by a cook who was employed at the court of Shāh Esmā‘īl I – the founder of the Safavid dynasty – and the other one also by a professional courtly cook who worked at the service of Shāh ‘Abbās I. Some years later – at the occasion of the 22nd ‘Deutscher Orientalistentag’ at the University of Tübingen (1983) – I had decided to present a paper on the genre of Persian cookbooks dealing with this kind of texts methodically treating them as sources of important relevance for what had not yet been generally called ‘cultural sciences’, at that time. Subsequently, I had made fascinating experiences in due course by continuously studying and analysing Persian cookbooks from the 16th until the 20th centuries: Jack Goody, Pierre Bourdieu, and Norbert Elias were some of the authors on whom I relied substantially in order to raise serious questions to ‘my’ texts.
The Problem of Subject Clauses versus Complement Clauses in Persian
- from Linguistics
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- By Andrzej Pisowicz, Jagiellonian University
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Where is Anna? What Happened to Elly? – Asghar Farhadi Rewrites and Re-Veils Michaelangelo Antonioni
- from Arts
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- By Elżbieta Wiącek, Jagiellonian University
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Studies on the Iranian World
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The description of the plot of Asghar Farhadi's About Elly might give the impression that Farhadi is gunning for the position of ‘the Iranian Antonioni’. At a closer view, it turns out not to really be the case. Despite lifting its storyline straight from the art cinema classic L'Avventura by Antonioni, unlike the Italian film director, Farhadi uses the situation of a missing woman to make sharp observations about his society, particularly the position of women and marital relationships. The aim of this paper is to use the notion of intertextuality to examine the relations between these two films. Analysing About Elly along the vertical axis, which connects the text/film to other texts/films I would like to compare the similarities and differences in the narrative structure and in the comment on the social world.
About Elly (Darbāre-ye Elly, 2009) is the fourth film directed by Asghar Farhadi. 1 He started his career by making short 8mm and 16mm films in the Isfahan branch of the Iranian Young Cinema Society before moving on to writing plays and screenplays for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).2 He also directed such TV series as A Tale of a City and co-wrote some screenplays. Dancing in the Dust (Raqs dar ghobār, 2003) was his feature film debut, which was followed by A Beautiful City (Shahr-e zibā, 2004) and Fireworks Wednesday (Chahārshanbe-suri, 2006).
As it was in his previous movie, the topic of About Elly is the relationship among some middle class families in contemporary Iran. A group of friends from Tehran go on a three-day vacation near the Caspian Sea. They are former classmates from the Faculty of Law at the university. The three couples include Sepide (Golshifte Farahani) and her husband Amir who have a little daughter. Shohre and her husband Peyman have two children including their little son Arash. Nazi and her husband Manuchehr are the third family. The trip is planned by Sepide, who brings along her daughter's kindergarten teacher Elly (Tarane Alidusti). Sepide's hidden agenda in bringing Elly on this trip is to set her up with Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini), a divorcee who has come back from Germany and is looking for a new wife.
Social and Cultural Studies
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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The Trans-Iranian Railway – History and Socio-Political Implications
- from Social and Cultural Studies
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- By Szczepan Lemańczyk, University of Nottingham
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Studies on the Iranian World
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Summary
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The idea of constructing the Trans-Iranian Railway appeared for the first time in the end of the 19th century. Until the 1920's it was widely discussed by diplomats from different powerful countries (like Great Britain and Russia) who perceived it as an occasion to enlarge their countries’ sphere of influence. However, it was the Iranian government itself led by the Iranian shah that managed to complete the project. The Trans-Iranian Railway connected the Caspian Sea shore with the Persian Gulf and is considered one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 1930's. This paper presents the main aspects of the history of the Trans-Iranian Railway – from the 19th century's debates around the concept of such a connection, through the process of the line's construction during Reza Shah's reign, until the post-war period of railway development in Iran. To the historical part comments are added on some aspects of the social, economic and political consequences of the construction of the railway.
INTRODUCTION
The construction of railways has influenced heavily the economical development of various countries and accelerated the political changes in some areas, not only in Europe but also in Africa, Asia and Americas. In Iran, railways the 1930's over 10 thousand kilometres of railway lines have been constructed in Iran, affecting country's economy, politics and society. The most prominent and well known line is the Trans-Iranian Railway, the 1392-km long line that connected the Caspian Sea shore with Persian Gulf. The construction of this line not only led to socio-economic changes in various part of the country but it also played a significant political role in the modern history of Iran. Despite the line's importance for the country's development not too many studies have been focused on its history. This article aims to present the history of the Trans- Iranian Railway and discuss some political, social and economic consequences of its construction. The article is based on the study of a wide range of both Iranian and non-Iranian sources, of which the most important is Rāhāhan-e Sarāsari-ye Irān, published in Tehran in 1940.
Historians of their Time: Mongols, Mamluks and the Treatment of the Past
- from History
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- By Sibylle Wentker, Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Studies on the Iranian World
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- 01 January 2015, pp 219-228
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The article addresses the problem surrounding the reception of literary chronicles with regard to their historiographical value and the ongoing influence of this reception. Since the nineteenth century, literary chronicles have been regarded as less reliable than those written in a seemingly simpler style. In comparing two authors from Iran and from Egypt, Waṣṣāf and Ibn ad-Dawādārī, who have both been discredited because of their literary style, it becomes evident that both, although rooted in their local historiographical traditions, share a similar attitude to their work, namely, to combine seriousness of historical content with elegance of form.
It is a well known and undisputed fact that we can observe a high percentage of literary elements in the rich historiography of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.1 This also applies to Arabic and Persian sources. This insight has been accompanied ever since by the question whether the literary works of historiography written in this period are to be classified as history or literature, or as a combination of both, with decreasing reliability concerning the ‘hard facts’ of past events. Franz Rosenthal was convinced that the integration of literary devices into the hitherto ‘sober’ prose of historiography resulted in the genre's decline.2 This argumentation led to the assumption that more simply written works of historiography are to be regarded as more reliable than those developing a more ‘ornate’ style. This conclusion does not seem plausible.
We owe to Marilyn Waldman and Julie Scott Meisami the observation that the seemingly simple prose of the early period of historiographical writing is indeed composed with deliberately used rhetorical techniques. There can be no doubt that we are confronted with seriously composed historiography using literary elements as rhetorical and stylistic devices. If we follow the idea that not only ‘ornate style’ is composed rhetorically but also the more simple style in prose, we have to challenge the conclusion that a more literary style is a sign of unreliability, and simple prose of reliability. Obviously, the issue of the reliability of literary chronicles and/or historiographies did not occur at the time of their production. The problem seems to rest in a perception of historiography as being totally different from literature. This perception is a result of the nineteenth-century development of professional scholarship which even now has not lost its impact on scholarly assessments.
Timurid Authority and the Ottoman Sultan: Some Notes on Three Jāmi Manuscripts from the Library of Bayezid II (886–918/1481–1512)
- from Literature
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- By Aftandil Erkinov, Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Interrelation between Timurids (1370–1506) and the Ottoman dynasty (1299–1923) was strong, especially in board of Timurid governor Ḥusayn Bāyqarā (1469–1510). Art and literature was developed in the epoch of Ḥusayn Bāyqarā in Hirat. The classic representative of Persian literature ‘Abd al-Rahman Jāmi (1414–1492) lived and created in Hirat's literary environment. Currently there are more than 1,200 manuscripts related to Jāmi's works copied in 15th–19th centuries in the manuscript fund of the library Sulaymaniya (Istanbul, Turkey). Relations between Hirat and Ottoman palaces were strong in Jāmi period too. The poets who came from Ottoman Empire to Hirat met with Jāmi and they carried away the manuscripts with their creative works to Istanbul. Three manuscripts with the personal seal of Bayezid II (1481–1512) of products of Jāmi are stored In Suleymaniya. It means that Bayezid II was especially interested in Jāmi's creative works.
This paper is based on my research on the influence of the Timurids (1370– 1506) on the Ottoman cultural milieu. The primary sources for this research come from various manuscript libraries in Istanbul. Although initially I thought that the scope of my research was not so extensive, it turned out that in several libraries of Istanbul there are more than 1,300 relevant manuscripts, i.e. works by major classical poets of the Timurid period, such as, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmi (817–898/1414–1492) and Mir ‘Ali-Shēr Navā’i (844–906/1441–1501). Therefore, I have restricted the analysis to manuscripts produced during the reigns of the Ottoman Sultans Fatih Sultan Mehmed, known as Mehmed II (856–886/1453–1481), and Bayezid II (886–918/1481–1512). This period roughly corresponds to the interval between the beginning of the reign of the Timurid Sultan – Ḥusayn Bayqarā – which lasted from 873/1469 until 911/1506 – and the death of his son Badi’ al-Zamān Mirzā in 920/1514 in Istanbul. It also roughly corresponds to the time of the most intensive creative activity of Jāmi and Navā’i.
It is commonly admitted that the Timurids made a significant impact in the cultural history of the Muslim world, and that Timurid period is characterized by a high level of development in science, art, and literature. Mutual relations between the Timurids and the Ottomans were established in the beginning of the 9/15th century, and personal contacts and travels were quite common.
Quiet Lives and Looming Horrors – Subversive Narrative Strategies in the Earliest Short Stories of Zōyā Pīrzād
- from Literature
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- By Madeleine Voegeli, University of Basel
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Studies on the Iranian World
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- 01 January 2015, pp 107-116
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Summary
SUMMARY
This paper discusses a feature of the narrative style of the Persion fiction writer Zōyā Pīrzād in her first collection of short stories ‘Like all the afternoons’ (1991), namely subversive narrative strategies, i.e. strategies with a potential to counteract the story as it is told expressly by the narrator. The short stories ‘The rabbit and the tomato’, ‘The neighbours’, and especially ‘The stain’ are discussed in view of narrative elements applied to that effect (mise en abyme, parallel settings, title focus, unreliable narrator). The ambiguity of the short stories’ contents resulting from subversive narrative strategies is proposed as a factor contributing to Pīrzād's success with the readers.
The works of the Persian fiction writer Zōyā Pīrzād (born in Ābādān 1952; in the following ZP) have received considerable attention. The many reprints, translations, and prizes awarded to her works2 are all indicators of the favourable reception both by readers and institutions of literary criticism.3 One point of scholarly interest is ZP's narrative style, especially in her later works, but also in her earlier ones, including the one focused on here, her first collection of short stories Mes̱l-e hame-ye ʻaṣrhā ‘Like all the afternoons.’
One typical feature of ZP's style is that protagonists are characterized by hints at mental processes via gestures rather than by naming them. Another feature proposed here is that the characterizations of some protagonists are conveyed even more implicitly: by narratives that subvert the portraits presented on the surface. Such strategies on the level of the narrative that compromise the situations described by the narration are what is referred to here as subversive narrative strategies, and subversive narrative strategies in Mes̱l-e hame-ye ʻaṣrhā will be our object.
Mes̱l-e hame-ye ʻaṣrhā contains (depending on the edition) 15 to 18 short stories; they cover 2 to 7 pages in length and are told by various types of narrators; most of them are realist depictions of fictitious realities, with rare resorts to the fantastic; they evolve around one to four central characters – most, but not all of which are women; the majority is set indoors, but there are also some outdoor settings such as a staircase and an antique store.
Traditional Diet and Allopathic Medicine in Diagnosis and Treatment in Iran
- from Social and Cultural Studies
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- By Agnes G. Loeffler, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Book:
- Studies on the Iranian World
- Published by:
- Jagiellonian University Press
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- 12 January 2018
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- 01 January 2015, pp 357-366
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Traditional conceptualizations of health and disease in Iran are based on the Galenic notions of the ‘humors,’ ascribe therapeutic efficacy to dietary and herbal interventions, and invest the individual ‘constitution’ with the ultimate authority for judging whether a particular therapeutic course is beneficial. Juxtaposed to this is allopathic medicine, which is based on universalizing assumptions about the nature of the human body and on statistical ‘proof’ of the efficacy of pharmaceutical interventions. Although philosophically at variance with one another, in Iran the two systems have become a syncretism, in which allopathic doctors openly accept Galenic principles, occasionally even making these the basis of their treatment recommendations, while arguments using allopathic concepts such as ‘metabolism’ and ‘antitoxins’ give authority to dietary or herbal treatments.
In Iran, customary habits of food and diet are integral to understandings of health and well being, furnishing explanations for states of health and guidance for prevention and treatment of health problems. These traditional conceptualizations of health, disease and therapy are materially, practically and epistemologically at variance with allopathic medical philosophies. Medical pluralisms exist all over the world, and by now every indigenous culture has had to come to terms with allopathic hegemony. While Iranians would argue that, in Iran, the two systems represent a true pluralism, or two fields of knowl- edge that are distinct and separate, and that patients can choose for themselves whether to follow allopathic or traditional advice, I argue that, at a fundamental level, the practice of medicine in Iran is a syncretism of allopathic and traditional concepts. Allopathic medicine answers to Iranian common sense and thereby becomes adapted to traditional conceptualizations of the body, health and disease.
Traditional medicine in Iran generally is comprised of two tightly related systems. One is derived from the Galenic notion of the ‘humors,’and pays attention to maintaining balance between various dichotomous conditions in the body, most prominently ‘hot’ (garm) and ‘cold’ (sard). The other, related to the humoral theory but not entirely corresponding to it, can loosely be called ‘herbal.’ This revolves around qualities inherent in foodstuffs other than their ‘hot’/garm or ‘cold’/sard properties, and requires particular and detailed attentiveness to diet.
Archaeological Survey of Kamar-e Marj Castle in Kermān Province
- from History
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- By Ali Shojaee Esfahani, Art University of Isfahan
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Book:
- Studies on the Iranian World
- Published by:
- Jagiellonian University Press
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- 12 January 2018
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- 01 January 2015, pp 205-218
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Iranian mountain castles were historically invaluable because of their role in protecting borders, routes and natural resources.
This survey concentrates on Kamar-e Marj mountain castle in Kermān province, South-Eastern Iran, located to the North-East of Šahr-e Bābak and near Rafsanjān. The castle's potential in defending its surrounding areas and routes is analyzed on the basis of classical texts and field archaeology accompanied by geographical and linguistic studies. The main aim of this paper is finding why the five-hectare castle was located in such a remote area. Periods of settlement and activity have already been identified by systematic surveys of surface data like slag, lithic and, especially, pottery shards. By considering the available evidence, it is possible to argue that Isma‘ilis once used the castle, mainly before the establishment of the Isma‘ili state in Alamut and Kuhestān. The remoteness could therefore be explained by the sect's need for concealment.
HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
From the remotest times in history until the last couple of centuries, mountain castles and military fortifications in Iran enjoyed a special status. This was mainly due to their important, strategic role in capturing new territories and protecting the sovereignty of the domain. Due to their geographical importance, these structures had different functions and purposes at different eras and locations, which went beyond military functions and included the protection of frontiers, roads, large cities or natural resources.
Spread over an area of 47,650 m2, Kamar-e Marj is among the largest mountain castles in Iran. Considering its special features, and bearing in mind different political and economical conditions of various periods, this castle could have been used for a number of the above objectives.
This article deals with the reasons for the formation and intended function of such a large castle in a region, which is now a remote village in the administrative district of Šahr-e Bābak in the province of Kermān, Iran. However, since there are only a few relics remaining and as it is difficult to determine the castle's dimensions, efforts were made to identify, as far as possible, its various functions and periods of occupation. The dispersion of bricks and mortars over the castle area bear witness to the existence of a building or a number of buildings on the mountain, of which now no data remains.
The Reception and Illustration of Hafiz in Mid-Seventeeth-Century Iran
- from Arts
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- By Michael Chagnon, New York University
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Book:
- Studies on the Iranian World
- Published by:
- Jagiellonian University Press
- Published online:
- 12 January 2018
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- 01 January 2015, pp 231-242
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While an extensive body of scholarship has been devoted to the ghazals of Hafiz, two areas of inquiry that remain under-studied are the historical reception of Hafiz's poetry and the intersection of Hafiz and the visual arts. This paper aims to briefly explore these twin lacunae by focusing on pictures from two illustrated Divan of Hafiz manuscripts, produced in Iran ca. 1640–1650.
The importance of the poetry of Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz-i Shirazi (1320s-1390 CE) to Persian culture is difficult to overstate. Since the early twentieth century, Hafiz's poems have generated an extensive body of scholarship, focusing on three main areas: the poet's life and historical context, the establishment of a divan-i sahih (or ‘true Divan,’ trimmed of all its accretions), and the critical analysis of individual ghazals. Two other topics, however, feature less prominently in the scholarly literature: the historical reception of Hafiz's poetry (particularly following the Timurid era) and the intersection of Hafiz and the visual arts. This essay addresses these two lacunae in Hafiz studies by focusing on the ways that artists of the mid-seventeenth century gave pictorial form the poet's ghazals in illustrated manuscripts of his Divan. Regarding reception and illustration as interrelated subjects of inquiry, this paper aims to demonstrate how later Safavid-era artists’ visualizations of Hafiz's ghazals reflect ways that contemporary readers interpreted and appreciated his poems.
Two intact, mid-seventeenth-century Divans of Hafiz (Topkapi Saray Library Museum, H. 1010 and Chester Beatty Library, Per. 299), which form the focus of this study, share several characteristics. The manuscripts have comparable dimensions and share an unusually large quantity of illustrations, with almost one picture per ghazal. In each example, full text pages appearing on the verso (b) side of folios face illustrations on the recto (a) side of the following folios, prompting comparison to muraqqa's (albums), in which calligraphies and pictures often alternate. The illustrative programs of each of the manuscripts, comprised entirely of tinted drawings, appear to be executed in three distinct ‘hands.’ Several pictures from TSMK H.1010 are inscribed with artists’ names, while CBL Per. 299 lacks such inscriptions; nonetheless, the stylistic similarities of the two manuscripts’ illustrations suggest that the same group of artists may have been responsible for both programs.
Literature
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Book:
- Studies on the Iranian World
- Published by:
- Jagiellonian University Press
- Published online:
- 12 January 2018
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- 01 January 2015, pp 57-58
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Female Religious Practitioners in the Context of Contemporary Transformations of Islam in Tajikistan
- from Religion
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- By Anna Cieślewska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
- Edited by Anna Krasnowolska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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- Book:
- Studies on the Iranian World
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- Jagiellonian University Press
- Published online:
- 12 January 2018
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- 01 January 2015, pp 129-148
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This paper analyses the issue of the place of the female informal religious practitioners termed bibi otun/bibi khalifa within the social landscape of Tajikistan. These women play the role of spiritual leaders primarily among the female part of the traditionally sedentary population of Central Asia. Otuns deal with a variety of issues related to spiritual life, teaching children and women religion, and performing rituals and prayers for the female part of the community. They are trained in Arabic as well as Islamic texts. Sometimes otuns, apart from religious activities, assist women in various social matters. In spite of the widespread opinion about the subordinate role of women in Central Asia, otuns have a high social status as religious authorities, and their informal influences often go beyond just the women's domain. Dynamic and continual changes within the social and political life in Tajikistan have also left their mark on the place and role of these religious practitioners.
INTRODUCTION
This paper addresses the function of the female religious figures termed bibi otun in Tajik society. Despite the common view that the participation of women in the lives of these communities is minor, female religious authorities are important social actors. Due to the special status of spiritual and religious leaders in Tajik society, female spiritual authorities enjoy a prestigious position among the people and they wield considerable influence among the female part of the community. Their activities are deeply rooted in the traditional practices of communal life through performing life-cycle rituals and celebrations. Dynamic and continual changes within the social and political life in Tajikistan have also impacted the place and role held by these religious practitioners.
The main purpose of this paper is to present the various aspects related to the role of female religious professionals. It also analyses various theoretical issues regarding the origin and history of otuns, and the contemporary changes within Islam in Tajikistan.
The idea for a project regarding female religious authorities in Central Asia was developed over several years of conducting my academic research and working for the NGO sector in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. During this time, I had the opportunity to participate in religious education classes for women, various rituals, as well as to meet with female religious authorities.