Middle Persian literature and language Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Zoroastrianism, Middle Persian literature and language
- by Shadi Davari and +1
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- Languages, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics

The present proposal deals with the emergence of three reflexive pronouns in Modern Persian namely, xiš, xištan,and xod (=enclitic pronouns) from possessive adjectives and adverb of emphasis in Old and Middle Persian. Presenting the corpus data, this contribution explores the role of possession as an intensive experience of human in the development, reinforcement and renovation of reflexivity in Old and Middle Persian in addition to the intensification and veracity meaning in Middle Persian which extends to reflexivity both in Middle and Modern Persian. We have concentrated, almost exclusively, on attesting the universal characters of grammaticalization strategies including metaphorical extension, semantic bleaching, and decategorization. Compiling the full range of reflexive constructions in Old Persian and based on Kent (1950:67) the first manifestation of reflection, namely the prefix h uvâ-is a possessive-reflexive adjective of the third person which is found in a few compound words such as: uvâmaršiyuš " owner of self-death (dies by his own hands) " and uvâipašiyam " his own possession ". Further evidence for the assumption that strategies of reflexivization in Persian develop from the nominal source of an owner comes from the second marker of reflexivity attested in Early Middle Persian, the possessive-reflexive xweš with the behavior of possessive adjectives again of the third person (through genitive –eš). Based upon König and Vezzasoi (2004:230) this supports the typological scale of interaction with person: 3>2>1. The extant Old and Early Middle Persian texts provide direct evidence neither on the object (argument) position of transitive verbs filling a valency position through reflexive pronouns, nor on the adjuncts to some noun phrase not expressing co-reference or binding but intensification. However, in order to portray coreferentiality and object position, Late Middle Persian recruits the body term tan in combination with xweš resulting xweštan " body of his own " which in turn depicts the cognitive and linguistic processes at work, metaphorical extension, during the grammaticalization from 'body' to a reflexive marker. Furthermore, the findings of the present analysis indicate that the bleaching of adverbial meaning in the adverb of emphasis xod " truly " in Late Middle Persian (the process of decategorization) leads to a purely syntactic meaning, indicating an emphatic reflexive with both adnominal and adverbial readings. On the basis of New (10 th to 13 th century) and Modern Persian texts, the intensifier xod also comes to be used as a reflexive anaphor. We argue that in order to mark local binding unambiguously in Modern Persian, enclitic pronouns are added to xod. This new strategy (the use of xod-compounds) both in object positions and intensifiers becomes so frequent and ultimately obligatory as a paradigm of inflectional forms (obligatorification, paradigmaticization) that the older ones narrow to literary and formal texts. Finally and concerning different periods of Persian, we propose the following grammaticalization schemata for the development of reflexive pronouns and intensifiers: 1)affixal possessive-reflexive adjective (OP. h uva) > possessive-reflexive adjective (EMP.xweš)>

- by Ahmad Reza Qaemmaqami
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- Etymology, Iranian Studies, Iranian Languages, Pahlavi

یادداشتی دربارهٔ نسخهٔ ۸۰۱ در نشریهٔ رود

- by Maryam Musharraf
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- Hafiz, Middle Persian literature and language
- by Rahim Shayegan
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- Persian Literature, Persian Language, Achaemenid Persia, Sasanian History

In this interdisciplinary multi-author volume, scholars from diverse areas of research (European history, Indology, Sinology, Japanology, Tibetology, Oriental studies, anthropology) will examine the uses of mercury in a number of medical and alchemical traditions from the early modern period to the present. Drawing upon the primary textual sources of each respective tradition (European, Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Arab and Persian) as well as on colonial and trade company records, the authors will explore why, when and how mercury was used in the different medical traditions. A comparison of processing methods, recipes and applications will serve to identify possible links between the various medical and alchemical systems and to create a detailed and comprehensive picture of connections both in trade as also in medical theory and techniques.
Contributions will further examine the role of the shifting colonial networks of trade and the inner workings of European markets in the development and global transmission of mercury products,
locating the different medical traditions and their cultural, political and economic contexts within a global history of iatrochemistry.

- by Dagmar Wujastyk
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- History of Medicine, History of Science, Chinese Medicine, Japanese History
- by Domenico Agostini and +1
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- Religion, Zoology, Anthropology, Literature

Geus, Klaus: 'Alexander' and 'Caesar' in a Middle Persian text: interpreting some names in the Šahrestānīha ī Ērānšahr. In: Külzer, Andreas and Popović, Mihailo (eds.): Space, landscapes and settlements in Byzantium: studies in hist¬or¬ical geography of the Eastern Mediterranean; presented to Johannes Koder. Novi Sad; Vienna: Akademska Knjiga, 2017 (Studies in historical geography and cultural heritage; 1), pp. 131-141, 467. [ISBN: 978-86-6263-191-6].

This volume, the third in the series on Daghestan, contains thirteen papers enhancing awareness of Daghestans rich heritage as a major center of Islamic scholarship and of the immense quantity of manuscripts. The book opens with a more general review on Daghestan philology, a memorial essay to Prof. Gammer, who sadly passed away in 2013. The other articles introduce the reader not only to the manuscripts and printed publications in Arabic, but also in other Islamic languages used in Daghestan. For example, Persian and Turkic inscriptions and manuscripts have hardly been studied before this publication. Local languages written in the Arabic alphabet, known as '3fajam, are of great interest to Daghestani scholars. The final part of the volume is dedicated to the history of the study of Arabic culture in Daghestan.

- by Stefano PELLO'
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- Religion, Persian Literature, Middle East Studies, History of Religion

Biblia Manichaica is a reference work citing all biblical quotations and allusions in edited Manichaean and anti-Manichaean sources. This second volume of the series covers the New Testament gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, and Diatessaron... more

- by Nils Arne Pedersen and +3
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- Greek Literature, Arabic Literature, History of Religion, New Testament
- by Iraj Bashiri
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- Persian Literature, Persian Culture, Persian, Middle Persian literature and language

This book is a translation of the Middle Persian work on Chess and Backgammon

The fact that quite a number of Middle Iranian texts regarding Jesus are still unpublished, or in need of revision, induced me to collect and publish all the texts from the Berlin Turfan collection, both published and unpublished, dedicated to, or related to, the figure of Jesus. The aim of the present work is therefore to give a diplomatic edition of these texts.

- by Enrico Morano
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- Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Jesus, Middle Persian literature and language

This chapter looks at the evolution of Persian, the only language to be substantially documented in all three periods of Old, Middle, and New Iranian on account of its close association with political centres over the centuries: Old and Middle Persian with the Achaemenids and the Sasanians, New Persian with Islamic powers. The chapter includes two parts, preceded by a survey of research on the three stages of Persian. The first part presents the documentation of Old and Middle Persian, discusses the innovations of Old Persian, and considers the transition from Old to Middle Persian. The second part deals with the rise of New Persian by taking into account Early Judaeo-Persian, Persian in Syriac script, Manichaean New Persian, and the early texts in Arabic script. It then discusses the main changes of the language in its literary and non-literary varieties until Contemporary New Persian.

- by Domenico Agostini
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- Anthropology, Classics, Zoroastrianism, Sanskrit language and literature

Franklin Lewis, "A Book of Kings as the King of Books: The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi,”
commissioned article for A Companion to World Literature, edited by Ken Seigneurie, with Susan Andrade, Chris Lupke, B. Venkat Mani, Wen-chin Ouyang, and Dan Selden (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020), 13pp. Covers the Middle Persian pre-history, and Persian as a vernacular language, Ferdowsi's role in the composition of the narrative, the literary reception history over a millenium, the iconographic (miniature painting) traditions and their reception, the political significance, the traditions of scholarship, etc. .

- by Franklin Lewis
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- World Literatures, Comparative Literature, Medieval Literature, Medieval Studies
- by Khodadad Rezakhani
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- Historical Geography, Iranian Studies, Manuscript Studies, Sasanian History

One of the main features of Sasanian era was the philosophical movement through which Iranian
thinkers became familiar with new ideas. Xusrow The First ordered some philosophical texts, such as
Aristotle’s Book of Logic, to be translated from Greek into Pahlavi. They also introduced some texts
from India and translated them from Sanskrit into Pahlavi. Through the process of translation, many
Pahlavi philosophical terms were coined. They are scattered among the Pahlavi texts such as
Dēnkard, Bundahišn, Wizīdagīhā ī Zādsparam and so on. The aim of this paper then is to introduce
one of the well-known terms called čahār zahagān or four elements. In addition to other meanings
mentioned in the article the term čahār zahagān denotes to the four elements of soil, wind, water and
fire by which the whole world is constructed. This idea was borrowed by Iranian translators
presumably from Greek and Roman philosophers. During the Islamic period the term čahār zahagān
has a more broad meaning. From their point of view the Greater World or gēhān ī wuzurg was
comparable to the human body or gēhān ī kōdak.
Keywords: philosophical terms; four elements; Čahār zahagān; Sasanid era; Middle Persian

the verb abāz-handāxtan is used in Dēnkard IV. Different definitions of the verb caused
two divergent interpretations of the history of the Zoroastrians scriptures during
Sasanian era. This article does not attempt to provide a third category of meaning, but
tries to suggest a kind of modification to the traditionally accepted meaning of ‘to
collate’. The new proposed meaning is derived from New Persian texts, which include
similar usage of the verb and were written not much later than Middle Persian ones.
The suggested meaning is ‘to (re-)measure’.

- by Yusef Saadat
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- Persian Literature, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Persian Language

The Provincial Capitals of Ērānšahr, a medieval Zoroastrian Middle Persian text, recounts how the daughter of the Jewish exilarch married the Sasanian king Yazdgird I and gave birth to Wahrām Gōr, his successor. While the historicity of the text has been largely undermined, scant attention has been given to its authorship and purpose. This article proposes that the story’s creators were members of the exilarch’s household in the tenth through eleventh century who internalized the broader concern with (invented) Sasanian pedigree during the period known as the Iranian intermezzo in an effort to appeal to Iranian Jews and other elites alike. Studying this text and its origins provides evidence of contact between Jews and Zoroastrians during this period and offers a new suggestion about the cultural context of the Zoroastrians who produced The Provincial Capitals.

A significant political influence of Sasanian Iran on Caucasian Albania gives reasons to consider the spread of Middle Persian language and writing among Albanian nobility and authorities. This process contributed by the existence of close dynastic ties between the Arsacids of Albania and the Sasanian royal family at least since from the reign of King Urnayr (ca. 350–375) up the abolition of Albanian kingdom at the beginning of the 6th century. Written sources provide
the correspondence of the rulers of Albania, Armenia, Iberia with the Sasanians and the written decrees of the shāhanshāhs sent to the Transcaucasian provinces of Iran, which indirectly indicates
the spread of Middle Persian language and writing here.
Currently, there are three known unique gem-seals that date back to the end of the 4th and
the beginning of the 6th century and belonged to the representatives of higher secular and church authorities. These are the seals of the King of Albania Aswahen, Crown Prince Asay and the Great Catholicos of Albania and Balasakan. They are of great interest for the study of cultural and political ties between Sasanian Iran and Albania, Albanian sphragistics. The title inscriptions on these official seals are made in pārsīg (pahlavi), which shows the role of Middle Persian language
and writing among the highest Albanian nobility and the highest Christian clergy of the country, clearly indicates the huge political and cultural influence of Sasanian Iran on Caucasian Albania. These monuments of glyptics show that Middle Persian language and writing had the official
status in Early Medieval Albania.

- by Rodrigo Nunes do Nascimento
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- Persian Literature, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, History of Iran
- by Shervin Farridnejad
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- Ancient History, Papyrology, Iranian Art History, Sasanian History
- by Maria Macuch
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- Legal History, Iranian Studies, Sasanian History, Pahlavi

The Persian garden is claimed to be an “other space,” a place utterly different from yet fundamentally connected to the rest of places. In the light of Foucault’s discussion of “other spaces on one hand, and the representation of garden in the twelfth-century Persian poem Haft Paykar on the other, this paper is concerned with the way the places of everyday life are conditioned by the Persian garden. As a microcosm, the Persian garden bears the image of Paradise, of the perfect place. As an actual place, it is elevated to an earthly paradise, a perfected place. Considering it as a perfect, unqualified ideal place which remains unattainable and, at the same time, an entirely ordered place, which is perfected into an ideal place, the paper considers the interplay of the two forms of the ideal place (the perfect and the perfected) to discuss the way the Persian garden simultaneously contrasts, typifies and nullifies the other places.

- by Solmaz Kive
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- Heterotopia, Utopian Studies, Persian Garden, Middle Persian literature and language

Board games are often used as a plot motif in modern genre fiction, especially in detective and adventure stories. In these types of narrative a well-known pattern of storytelling or literary structure (e.g. the treasure hunt, the detection of serial crimes, the iniatory course, or the medieval tale collection) is reworked and adapted to the rules and phases of a board game such as chess, jeu de l’oie, or the tarot card pack. This literary practice is very ancient and may be traced back to a number of novelistic compositions of the ancient Near East, dating from the first millennium B.C. to late antiquity. In the Demotic Egyptian Tale of Setne Khaemwaset, from the Saite period, the protagonist Setne plays a board game (probably senet) with the mummy of a long dead and buried magician, in order to gain a powerful book of spells. The widespread Near-Eastern story-pattern of the magical competition is here superimposed on the procedure of a celebrated Egyptian game. In a late Hellenistic Greek novella inspired by the Odyssey (Apion of Alexandria, FGrH 616 F36) Penelope’s suitors play an elaborate game of marbles (petteia) in order to determine which one of them will marry the queen. This is a playful rewriting of the famous bow contest of the Homeric epic. A Sasanian novelistic work, the Wizārišn ī čatrang, adapts the age-old legend of the riddle contest of kings; the riddles are replaced with board games (chess and backgammon), which the opponents invent and propose to each other as difficult puzzles for solution. In all these texts the board game becomes a central symbol of the transformative and innovative power of literary narrative.

- by Ela FILIPPONE
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- Iranian Studies, Persian Language, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Indo-Iranian Languages