Oral Narration in Iranian Cultures (original) (raw)
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Oral history in Iran is the title of a book by Abolfazl Hassan Abadi in 200 pages which was debuted in 2005 by the Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documenters Center of Astan-e Quds Razavi. Besides being a scientific research, the work is a suitable and practical guidebook for oral history interviews and data collection for the involved researchers and scholars. Also, the book explains historical interviews scientifically and applicably, in addition to conveying the significance of oral resources and providing the theoretical principles and basic definitions of oral history. It also contains pictures, forms, usage notes for audiovisual equipment and questionnaires, all are needed in oral history research. "Oral History in Iran" comprises an introduction, five chapters, appendixes, references, and index.
Introduction to Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World
Introduction to Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World, 2022
KREYENBROEK, Ph. and OMARKHALI, Kh., Introduction to OMARKHALI, Kh. and KREYENBROEK, Ph.G. (special eds.), Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World, Special issue of Oral Tradition, vol. 35, Number 2, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2022. E-ISSN 1542-4308, pp. 193–198. Whilst the study of “oral verbal art” in the literary sphere is now receiving a certain amount of academic interest, much less attention has so far been paid to the dynamics of orality in the sphere of religion, not least in non-Western traditions. Many specialists in such fields as religious studies and theology were trained as philologists, and some regard arguments based on orality with suspicion. This relatively discouraging academic environment, combined with the hazards of embarking on a novel approach and, in the case of the “great world religions,” the vastness of the terrain to be covered and the minute contribution even the most successful piece of “oral” research could make, have led to a comparative lack of academic curiosity about the role of the spoken word in the history of religious traditions and the dynamics of their current developments. In several branches of Iranian studies, however, demand created supply: in the study of smaller religious traditions in the Iranian-speaking world, the role of orality became so evident that a growing number of scholars are now seriously engaged in the study of various aspects of orality in religious traditions. Several cultures in the Iranian-speaking world were either very slow to accept the use of writing when it came to religious texts, or did not have the means to develop a strong written culture. Points of focus in current research include the orally transmitted religious/cultural heritage informing the life of religious communities and the modes and implications of oral transmission of sacred texts, as well as those of the process of scripturalization that is currently taking place in some traditions. As will be seen from the articles in this volume, both research questions and methodologies represented here are varied and exploratory.
Orality and Textuality in the Iranian World
2015
Part 3 Iranian Epic Tradition 6 ʻThe Ground Well Trodden But the Shah Not Found. . .ʼ Orality and Textuality in the ʻBook of Kingsʼ and the Zoroastrian Mythoepic Tradition 169 Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina 7 ʻThe Book of the Black Demon,ʼ or Shabrang-nāma, and the Black Demon in Oral Tradition 191 Gabrielle R. van den Berg 8 Why So Many Stories? Untangling the Versions of Iskandar's Birth and Upbringing 202 Julia Rubanovich 9 Some Comments on the Probable Sources of Ibn Ḥusām's Khāvarānnāma and the Oral Transmission of Epic Materials 241 Raya Shani 10 Professional Storytelling (naqqālī) in Qājār Iran 271 Ulrich Marzolph Part 4 Oral and Literary Traditions as Channels of Cultural Transformation 11 The Literary Use of Proverbs and Myths in Nāṣir-i Khusrau's Dīvān 289 Mohsen Zakeri 12 Classical Poetry as Cultural Capital in the Proverbs of Jews from Iran Transformations of Intertextuality 307 Galit Hasan-Rokem
This paper discusses the present state of oral traditions in three Balochi dialects spoken in Iran: Coastal, Koroshi and Sistani Balochi. These dialects differ in respect of preserving oral traditions. The paper concludes that Coastal Balochi society, which is composed of a hierarchy of social groups, shows orality as a living art. On the one hand, singing songs is considered a source of income for the lower-status group, and on the other hand, reciting epic poems is considered a very prestigious activity of the higher-status group. Koroshi Balochi preserves only the prose tradition, and the language of narration has shifted from Koroshi to Qashqai (a Turkic language) or Persian. Sistani Balochi has shifted from oral to written style. Storytelling has almost disappeared in here, and the oral traditions are only preserved by elderly people who can sing both in Sistani Persian and Balochi; however, they have a strong tradition of telling and interpretation of dreams.
Orality and textuality in the Iranian world : patterns of interaction across the centuries
2015
The volume demonstrates the cultural centrality of the oral tradition for Iranian studies. It contains contributions from scholars from various areas of Iranian and comparative studies, among which are the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition with its wide network of influences in late antique Mesopotamia, notably among the Jewish milieu; classical Persian literature in its manifold genres; medieval Persian history; oral history; folklore and more. The essays in this collection embrace both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, both verbal and visual media, as well as various language communities (Middle Persian, Persian, Tajik, Dari) and geographical spaces (Greater Iran in pre-Islamic and Islamic medieval periods; Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan of modern times). Taken as a whole, the essays reveal the unique blending of oral and literate poetics in the texts or visual artefacts each author focuses upon, conceptualizing their interrelationship and function.
Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World
Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World, 2022
OMARKHALI, Kh. and KREYENBROEK, Ph.G. (special eds.), Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World, Special issue of Oral Tradition, vol. 35, Number 2, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2022, pp. 183-468. E-ISSN 1542-4308. https://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/35ii/volume-35-issue-2/ The contribution that various branches of “Oral Studies” could make to the study of non-Western scriptural religions is as yet largely unexplored. In the Iranian cultural sphere—where languages are spoken that belong to the Iranian branch of Indo-European, such as Persian and Kurdish—we find a number of religious traditions that were transmitted orally for a large part of their existence. First, there is Zoroastrianism, the dominant religion of the Iranian world before Islam, whose relatively well preserved sacred texts in the Avestan language originated over 2,000 years before an adequate script was developed in the early-first millennium CE. The texts, therefore, have been transmitted orally for a very long time. Cognate with Zoroastrianism are three religions that originate in the Kurdish-speaking lands. Until recently the Yezidi religion forbade the use of writing for religious purposes. The sacred texts of Yarsanism were mainly handed down orally until a few decades ago. Finally, certain Iranian-speaking groups of Alevis in Turkey have long cultivated much of their cultural and religious heritage without the use of writing. Whilst influences from Islam can be detected to varying degrees in these traditions, their prominent non-Islamic components show a surprising similarity. Furthermore, orality plays a key role in the traditions of the Khaksar Order of Islamic mystics in Iran. The shared cultural elements of certain Kurdish-speaking Muslim and Neo-Aramaic-speaking Christian communities are currently being researched. Philip Kreyenbroek, Special Editor Georg-August University Göttingen Khanna Omarkhali, Special Editor Free University of Berlin
2007
This is a dialogic ethnographic study of Jahleh, Shayde, and Ozra, three women living in Iran. Of the numerous approaches available, this study engages performance theory and oral history as its methodology. Viewed as performative acts, the oral histories in this project transposes narratives from a purely constative plane, to a plane whereby the “meaning” of narrative utterances is the very act by which they uttered. Centering on the process of meaning making rather than foraging for finite denotations or “Truths,” this research considers stories as constituting that which they represent. As such, in this project Jahleh, Shayde, and Ozra are situated as agents of action, shifting history from a recounting of what happened to an interpretation of what that happening meant. This work locates the women’s stories within their understandings of their life experiences, and their interpretations of how these stories related to collective membership in Iran’s social, political, and histori...
An Analysis of the Socio-cultural Implications of Orality in Iran
Journal of Developing Societies, 2023
This article relies on a leading line of anthropological research on the socio-cultural implications of orality in Iran. The analyses reveal that the prevalence of oral language in Iran is associated with a wide range of implications, such as redundancy, emotionality, ambiguity, high-context culture traits, the lack of critical thinking, the gap between speech and writing, the importance of poetry, restricted scientific and technical knowledge, religiosity, traditionalism, the centrality of negotiating, old-fashioned entrepreneurship, and authoritarian governance and leadership. The article examines the practical consequences of orality on Iranian culture, social relations, and politics.