Persian Language and Literature

Publication Information

Half-Yearly Persian Language and Literature

Man’s Deal with the Devil in Goethe’s “Faust” and Ferdowsi’s “Zahhak”

Samira Bameshki

Masterplot is a group of plots that are widely repeated among different ethnic groups and cultures. The purpose of this paper is to discover the structure of universal masterplot of “deal with the Devil” in two narratives of “Zahhak” in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and Dr. Faust by Goethe. In the present study, we have tried to answer two questions by descriptive-analytical method: First, what is the repetitive structure that governs this masterplot; second, what are the similarities and differences between the narratives of Ferdowsi and Goethe in this masterplot in different sections such as the reasons for dealing with the Devil, the motives of the deal, the actions of the heroes, how the Devil appeared to the heroes and their fate. The results show that the structure of this masterplot has a repetitive pattern in this form: Devil’s deal with individuals having superior characteristics, selling one’s soul to the Devil, performing similar kinds of functions after dealing with the Devil, and a complete downfall or return to salvation after suffering the painful consequences of wrongdoing. The differences between these two narratives from a single story include the motives of making a deal, which in Faust is the full enjoyment of material and worldly pleasures, and in Zahhak’s story is power-seeking (domineering). Another difference is in the actions of the heroes after the deal which in Faust involves false testimony and acceptance of stolen property, but in Zahhak it includes murder and illegitimate sex, which are common in both narratives. How the devil appears to these two is also different. In Faust, the devil appears in the form of a dog, a hippopotamus, and a scholar seeker, and in Zahhak, he appears in the form of a well-wishing man, a cook, and a physician. The end of the deal in Faust, after enduring many difficulties, is salvation and in Zahhak leads to his imprisonment at the bottom of a cave. Based on this research, one can speculate the possibility that Goethe was influenced by Ferdowsi.

The Surveillance-Punitive Function of Prison in the Prison Poems of Ahmad Shamlou: A Discoursal and Sociological Analysis

Mansour Rahimi

The prison poems of Ahmad Shamlou are significantly different from the classical form of prison literature in terms of structure, function, content, and discourse. In the present research, we have tried to study Ahmad Shamlou’s prison poems with an integrated approach using discoursal and semiotic tools. In order to interpret the function of prison as a punitive tool, we have taken Foucault’s views and to explain the relationship between power and disciplinary space and prison punishment, the issue of authority and domination has been briefly discussed based on the ideas of some sociologists and philosophers such as Max Weber and Thomas Hobbes. Lefebvre’s views on space have been used in the interpretation of prison environment. The results indicate that unlike the classical prison poets, Shamlou first discredits the punitive and disciplinary function of the prison by not admitting the charge and considering the punishment illegitimate. Second, the prison environment in Shamlou’s prison poems is a discoursal space in which the poet has tried to use the dialectical capacity of the space by successively escaping to the outside world, emptying the prison of its physical and defined identity as an enclosed space, and portraying it as a required developmental experience in the path to achieve the goal.

An Analytical Study of ‘Boasting’ (Mofakhereh) in Persian Poetry based on Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Theory

Fatemeh Ahmadizade kohan

Boasting (Mofakhereh in Persian) as a poetic theme or as a sub-genre has a strong presence in the books of poems of classical Persian poets. Adopting an analytical approach, this research attempted at analyzing ‘boasting’ in poems of Manouchehri Damghani, Sanaei Ghaznavi, and Khaghani Shervani based on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. To do so, after extracting instances of their ‘boasting’ odes and considering the historical and social issues of their times and their different habitus and mindsets, we tried to analyze the poems based on Bourdieu’s four literary field principles (habitus, capital, struggle, and disinterestedness). The results showed that Manouchehri, due to his inclination to the power filed, and to make a name and a living and to stabilize his position, used his art and poetry for boasting. He did not observe the principle of disinterestedness in the literary field which attempts at purifying literature from personal intentions. As a result, he was pushed to the margin. But as the power field changed during the second Ghaznavid and Seljuk periods and some new problems and instabilities affected poets’ conditions, poets such as Sanaei and Khaghani distanced themselves from the power field, due to their specific habitus, and attempted at purifying literature and fighting the power field. From the two poets, Khaghani was more successful due to his disinterestedness and observance of the rules of the literary field.

Rare Optatives in Shahnameh

Mohammad Hasan Jalalian Chaleshtari

Although many years have passed since its inception, the critical correction of Shahnameh, as one of the greatest literary and epic works of Iran and the world, has a long way to go. The vast volume of this great work and the wide variety of the issues presented in it, alongside its language antiquity, require that in order to reach as close as possible to the poet’s original creation, all the stories, verses and words of it be reviewed and reexamined and scholars with various specialties and approaches comment on its various aspects. From the grammatical pint of view, this article discusses some verses from different parts of Shahnameh. The commonality of these verses is in their optative verbs. In the first part, the pronoun-constructed verbs of Shahnameh are discussed. The second part introduces a rare verb construction in which the optative morpheme of the third person singular is ‘iyi’. The last part is about the optative form of bāyistan “have to, must” which requires an enclitic pronoun complement in some of its constructions. These parts were studied and analyzed by measuring the recordings of the manuscripts and by analyzing the previous readings. In the case of pronoun-constructed verbs, the form ending in ‘ti’ was suggested everywhere, and in the other two cases, based on the manuscript recordings and relying on grammatical points, the correctness of the readings presented before the publication by Khaleghi Motlagh, was emphasized.

Jami’s Haft Awrang from the Perspective of Social Psychology Components

Masroureh Mokhtari

Analysis of human social behavior and interaction with others is a fundamental issue in social psychology. Since literary works and anecdotes are reflections of interpersonal actions and reactions of the existing realities in human societies, it is possible to analyze social behaviors and interactions in different societies through the analysis of the relationships between characters and their dialogues. Using descriptive-analytical method and the desk research approach, the present study analyzed Jami’s Haft Awrang, a book replete with anecdotes and allegories. We utilized the theories proposed by social psychology theorists such as Otto Klineberg, Elliott Aronson, and Baron. The findings of the study revealed that the five components of mass communication and persuasion, conformity, attraction, aggression, and prejudice are more outstanding than other components in Jami’s Haft Awrang. Consequently, we can say that the structure of many social psychology components corresponds to the traditional concepts and frameworks of anecdotes, and the social beliefs and intellectual forms of society play an obvious role in the emergence of each component.

A Study of Elements of Linguistic Politeness in Qabousnameh Based on the Brown and Levinson Theory

Ebrahim Danesh

Linguistic politeness is a phenomenon that is usually observed in everyday human interaction and shows how to use language to manage the interpersonal relationships of speakers. Qabousnameh is one of the most important texts of Persian didactic literature, which Onsor Al-Ma’āli wrote in forty-four chapters, with the aim of educating his son, Gilanshah, and his learning about social etiquette, knowledge, and techniques necessary for life, government, statehood, etc. Iranians have long cherished this book because of its didactic value and have used its anecdotes for educating their children. In this article the representation of linguistic politeness in Qabousnameh was studied using the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson. The findings showed that politeness was conceptualized as a social and cultural phenomenon in Qaboosnameh, which is the result of constructive interaction of individuals with mental, expressive and behavioral dimensions: in the mental dimension, consideration of audience and measuring the contextual situation and reflection on speech and its various meanings and effects; in the linguistic and expressive dimension, the standards of eloquence and the etiquette of speech; and in the behavioral dimension, the significant or influential negative and positive speech acts in language politeness were introduced and explained. In this paper, out of many cases that were studied in Qabousnameh, 27 examples were presented using the descriptive-analytical method and the pragmatic approach to the Brown and Levinson theory. According to the author of Qabousnameh, speech acts of the parties to the dialogue can save or threaten the face of the speaker and the audience; therefore, he proposed strategies to save or promote the face of the parties. Qabousnameh can be considered as one of the oldest texts in Persian literature, which mentions body language and the need for its proper use in linguistic interaction and interpersonal relationships.

The History of Jahāngushāy-i Juwaynī: The Narrator of the Debate over the Hidden Ideologies of a Text/Culture

javad Dehghanian

If we admit that culture is a kind of text, we must inevitably accept that “The History of Jahāngushā” is a text that is the point of contact of different ideologies, each of which forms a part of Iranian identity and culture. Contrary to formalist approaches, an attempt has been made here to revisit the text based on those approaches of literary criticism that read the text in a dialectical and interactive connection with the material contexts of its production. Therefore, first, the ideologies in the text are introduced and analyzed, and after determining their role in shaping the ideological system of the History of Jahāngushā, their discourse contradictions are revealed, and finally, the impact of these ideologies on the text is discussed. Various factors such as historical context, social, cultural, and ideological institutions have been influential in the composition of this text and its linguistic form. It seems that more than the linguistic and expressive complexities, it is the discoursal, ideological, and cultural contradictions that have caused confusion and complexity of the text. Analyzing and retrieving the ideological currents of the text not only explains the reasons for its different readings but also helps the reader to reach a new and different judgment of the literary, historical, and cultural aspects of the text.

Investigating the Reasons for the Fall of Adam from Paradise in Interpretive, Mystical Texts and in the Divans of Famous Persian Poets up to the Eighth Century A.H.

Maryam Seyedan

According to the Bible and the Holy Quran, Adam who was the first man created by God lived in Paradise but later fell to the earth for some reasons. The story of expulsion of Adam from Paradise has been widely mentioned in Old Persian literature and has been interpreted in different ways. This article aims to investigate the reasons for the Fall of Adam from Paradise in some interpretive, mystical texts and in the divans of famous Persian poets up to the eighth century A.H. The researcher classified, compared, and analyzed these reasons based on their similarities and differences. The findings showed that in Old Persian literature including interpretive, mystical, and poetry works the Fall of Adam was either the result of his sin and God’s wrath upon him, or it was his destiny as decided by God, therefore he had no other choice, or he consciously decided to leave the paradise. In each case, there are some reasons behind Adam’s expulsion from Paradise to the earth.

A Sociological Analysis of Ahmad Shamlou’s Poems Using Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of “Practice”

ahmad khiyali khatibi

There is a two-way relationship between society and literature so that each one affects the other. In his theory of practice, Bourdieu deals with the interaction between literature and society and their mutual impact on each other. In the present article using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of “practice”, three concepts of habitus, field, and action have been considered as the basis of analysis to provide a sociological investigation of Ahmad Shamlou’s poems and to clarify the way of thinking and type of action of this contemporary innovative poet. The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical in nature and fundamental-theoretical based on the purpose. The findings indicated that the poet’s habitus, which was based on the type of personal and social education in the family and society, was a fixed and stable habitus and with a special taste (habitus) in the face of the ruling power (field), to the extent that he had the available capital, he chose his lifestyle according to the position (pole of independence) in which he was located, due to the dialectical contradiction (between habitus and field), he chose a difficult and highly negative position. The poet performed different actions, the result of which was composing socio-political poems and, above all, innovating the sub-field of Persian poetry production.

Semantic Interpretation of Persian Onomatopoeic Words Based on Word Formation Patterns

Rahele Gandomkar

The current paper aimed to conduct a corpus analysis of the relationship between Persian onomatopoeic words and their morphological meanings. All onomatopoeic words listed in The Dictionary of Onomatopoeic Words in Farsi (1996) were analyzed. The analysis of the morphological structure of 2570 onomatopoeic words suggests that there is a correlation between echo duplication and the concept of emphasizing. Partial reduplication indicates the continuance of the meaning of words. Total reduplication of words with a final plosive consonant represents the discontinuance of the meaning of onomatopoeic words. Double reduplications that use an interfix carry on the impression of friction. The reduplicated words that have fricative or affricative consonants suggest the idea of slight events. Echo duplication containing the interfix “va” constructs plurality and multitude. Contrary to the findings of previous studies, the intensity accompanies derivation and not reduplication. The data also suggests that Persian onomatopoeic words use phonetic as well as morphological tools to construe the meaning.

Investigating the Role of Zohuri Torshizi in the Development of Persian Culture and Language in Deccan

hosein mohamnmadi

In the seventh to eleventh centuries A.H., Muslim rulers came to power in the Indian subcontinent who were interested in Persian culture and language. Following this change, the Iranians emigrated to India for various reasons and gained a variety of political, military, and economic powers at the court of local rulers, paving the way for the growth and spread of Persian culture and literature in the Indian subcontinent. Maulana Noureddine Mohammad Zohuri Torshizi (944-1025 A.H.) was an Iranian poet from Khorasan who emigrated to India in the tenth century and served the rules of Nizam Shahi and Adil Shahi dynasties and became the poet laureate in Deccan. During his four decades of presence in Deccan (southern India), Torshizi worked hard to spread the Iranian language and culture. In the present article, by descriptive-analytical method and using library sources, an attempt has been made to explain the role of Zohuri Torshizi in the spread of Persian culture and language in the Indian subcontinent. The findings show that Torshizi, despite many obstacles, especially calumnies by the enemies of Iran and of the Shiites in Deccan, with the support and encouragement of the rulers, was able to spread Persian culture and language in the Indian subcontinent by creating valuable literary works. The results of the present article provide a realistic picture of the role of Zohuri Torshizi and his literary works and how to support and encourage Nizam Shahi and Adil Shahi rulers in the development of Persian culture and language.

Aspanwar/Asbanbar: A Description of a Word in the Book of Andarz i Khosraw i Qabadan

Ebrahim Vasheghani Farahani

There is a difference of opinion about the word “Aspanwar” among the translators of Andarz i Khosraw i Ghabadan as well as other scholars of Middle Persian language and literature, lexicographers and encyclopedists at all levels of phonology, transliteration, explanation of meaning and determination of the signified. Aspanwar has been translated as: one of the seven cities of Madain; Isfahan; the horse stable; a place of rest; and a tomb. Due to the placement of this word at the top of Andarznameh and the limitation of Andarznameh to the place of Aspanwar, each reading of this word affects the totality of the audience’s interpretation of the text of Andarz i Khosraw i Ghabadan. In this article, the term Aspanwar will be studied within three domains: first, historical data; second, analysis of the lexical structure of Aspanwar; and third, the evidence of the text for the description of the text, which falls under semantics and speech functions. Also in this article, mythological narratives are used to describe Aspanwar. The result of the study reinforces the explanation that Aspanwar was made by constructing the word aspān (horse) + suffix “-war” (meaning area, border, and boundary) and means neither Isfahan nor tomb, but a structure or area associated with “horse”. Thus, it means a public square, which was the same structure that in the Islamic period had the common name “Shah Square” and has been a constant part of the Iranian palace architecture. With its development, this square has become one of the seven cities of Madain. Therefore, the meaning of Aspanwar in Andarz i Khosraw i Ghabadan was Madain Square and one of its seven cities where the most important structure of the Sassanid court, namely Arch of Madain, was built. This part of Madain is still called Asbanbar on the east bank of the Tigris and south of Ctesiphon.