Pegah Shahbaz | University of Göttingen (original) (raw)

Papers by Pegah Shahbaz

The conversation, Feb 24, 2017

Lush tropical scenery of evergreen flora surrounded by turquoise-blue coral gardens. Smiling, hea... more Lush tropical scenery of evergreen flora surrounded by turquoise-blue coral gardens. Smiling, healthy and athletic people consuming real food and living in perfect harmony with their natural environment. No cars, no telephone nor internet, no air conditioning, no tourists. This is the scene set by Australian filmmakers Martin Butler and Bentley Dean for their exotic romance movie, Tanna, which takes place on the island of the same name. Tanna may look like paradise but the film’s protagonists deal with a serious problem: true love and one of its most fatal consequences, to die of a broken heart. Having done anthropological fieldwork on Tanna over a period of 25 years, I have been invited to attend public screenings of the film, in order to contextualise the life of the actors who appear in it. In discussions with audiences, my comments about real-life Tanna always provoked the same refrain: “the dream has been shattered”. The fact is that the tribal groups featured in the movie have been among the most filmed and also the most visited by tourists. Like other Tannese people they have mobile phones, drive cars, watch movies and football games, eat rice and instant noodles. Those who migrate to the capital of Vanuatu, Port-Vila, often live in slums and work as security guards. However, when they live on their home island, they still maintain relative autonomy. There, money is not yet the most important good, so people are glad participate in the shooting of a movie. That’s why the end result is pretty good. This story, set in a remote corner of the world, has become a world success. Sadly, since the movie was shot, Cyclone Pam has very severely damaged the island. After the disaster, there are no more leaves on trees and of course no more fruit, no more food, no more traditional houses, and perhaps no more smiling people ready to participate in a cinematic adventure about tropical paradise.

JAIS, 2024

The present article introduces a fourteenth-century Persian retelling of the story of Bilawhar wa... more The present article introduces a fourteenth-century Persian retelling of the story of Bilawhar wa Buyūdhas(a)f(a), produced for the Jalāyirid court in Baghdad between 790-800/1389-1397, and highlights its stylistic and structural characteristics as an important representative of Persian prose in the post-Mongol period. The article examines the dynamic role of the framing structure in the classification of fictional and non-fictional content, and elaborates on its semantic significance in the transmission of relevant messages to the target audience according to the needs and necessities of that particular historical period. The article demonstrates how the flexibility of the framing structure along with the adaptability of the embedded narrative content on subjects such as religious tendencies and standards of governance turned this story of Buddhist origin into a text in the mirror for princes genre in accordance with the Perso-Islamic culture.

Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques, 2020

The present article aims to study the translation and rewriting process of Indian narratives in P... more The present article aims to study the translation and rewriting process of Indian narratives in Persian during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and the Mughal period (1526–1858), and to examine their cultural adaptations and strategies of adjustment to the Muslim recipient culture involving a reciprocal exchange of literary and cultural elements and religious interpretations. In the first stage, the features of Indo-Persian narrative tradition are briefly introduced with regards to structure and integral themes and in the second, the acculturation of Indian elements will be analysed according to Islamic principles and mystical thoughts in a selection of literary texts produced by Muslim Persian scholars. The article will focus on the representations of gender in stories and the perception of justice in the Perso-Islamic context to see, in particular, how narratives carried across Indian rituals and women’s codes of conduct to the Muslim readership; in other words, we try to shed ligh...

Routledge, 2022

The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation, pp. 229-246. Following a millenarian poet... more The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation, pp. 229-246. Following a millenarian poetic tradition, experts of Classical Persian Literature have constantly and consciously privileged poetry over prose in their studies and translations. This pattern changed, to some extent, in the nineteenth century when the British learners of Persian language approached popular narratives and read them fully or partially, according to the European standards of appreciation for prose, in particular in English. The British educational institutions in colonial India played an effective role in the introduction and translation of Persian prose literature to the English readership. This chapter aims to examine the systematic shift of view in the rendering of the nineteenth-century most popular Persian narrative texts in India: the Ḥātam-nāma, the Ṭūṭī-nāma by Żīā Nakhshabī, the Anwār-i Suhailī by Vā‘iẓ Kāshifī, and the Bahār-i dānish by ‘Ināyat Allāh Kanbuh. We will see how the methods and goals of translation evolved from language acquisition and knowledge transmission to literary appreciation and production, and how the aesthetics of language and style in Persian prose were perceived and adapted to the literary aesthetic criteria in English culture. Above all, we will discover how free translation allowed the translators to create a fantasized image of the “Orient” despite the translators’ familiarization and association with the East in real life.

PERSO-INDICA. AN ANALYTICAL SURVEY OF PERSIAN WORKS ON INDIAN LEARNED TRADITIONS, 2022

Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques. Volume 74, Issue 2, pp. 387-412 , 2020

https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2020-0030

Perso-Indica Articles, 2020

http://perso-indica.net/work/candayan

Journal of Iranian Studies, 2019

From the seventeenth century, Mosleh al-Din Saʿdi Shirazi (d. 1291), a key figure in Persian clas... more From the seventeenth century, Mosleh al-Din Saʿdi Shirazi (d. 1291), a key figure in Persian classical literature, became the center of Europeans' attention: his name appeared in travelogues and periodicals, and selections of his tales were published in miscellaneous Latin, German, French, and English works. To follow Saʿdi's impact on English literature, one needs to search for the beginning of the "Saʿdi trend" and the reasons that led to the acceleration of the translation process of his works into the English language in the nineteenth century. This article examines the role of the British educational institutions in colonial India in the introduction of Saʿdi and his Golestān to the English readership, and, in parallel, it uncovers the role of the Indo-Persian native scholars (monshis) who were involved in the preparation of translations. The article discusses how the perception of the British towards Saʿdi's literature developed in the first half of the nineteenth century and how their approach towards the translation of the "text" and its "style" evolved in the complete renderings of the Golestān.

Http Www Theses Fr, Sep 30, 2014

The current essay deals with a complicated and challenging aspect of Iranian culture, also refle... more The current essay deals with 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. Suck mocking look over the matter has resided in Iranian culture up to our modern times. This paper is an attempt to discover the causes of laughter and what it hides behind itself.

When speaking of fables or tales, one inevitably thinks of India. Indian culture enjoys a vast an... more When speaking of fables or tales, one inevitably thinks of India. Indian culture enjoys a vast and ancient tradition of narration. The Indian tales have travelled through the continents and have influenced the world's literature. Meanwhile the reciprocal effects of both Persian and Indian literature on each other are undeniable. A major part of Persian literature, prose and poetry, has been formed and developed through the support of the Indian governors. Thereafter the invasion of the Qaznavid (1020-1206 A.D.) to the sub-continent up to the decay of the Tymourid Dynasty (1526-1837 A.D.), the Persian language flourished in India and notable literary works were composed in Persian prose or poetry during centuries. The tradition of narration widely spread in India both at court, where professional narrators were always in search of new stories, as well as in the oral lore of the population. Thus many accounts and narratives of Persian origin were presented in several Indian versions, and a great quantity of Sanskrit stories were borrowed and translated into Persian. i You may have heard of Indian narratives such as A Thousand and One Nights, The Book of Sindbâd or Sindbâd-Nâma, Shukâ Saptati (The Seventy Tales of The Parrot), Panchatantra, Sanghâsin Bettisi, etc. in which much of the ancient sub-continental rituals, anthropological codes and thoughts are reflected and registered up to the present time.

The Persian Illustrated manuscripts are one of the glamorous treasures of Persian cultural herita... more The Persian Illustrated manuscripts are one of the glamorous treasures of Persian cultural heritage. These masterpieces, the majority of which are considered as literary, are often presented by the calligraphers and the painters of the court by order of patrons as Kings or Sultans. The study of the aesthetic evolution of Persian painting as a book art, in constant relation with the literary content of treatises and the art of calligraphy for producing texts, would reveal the importance artistic interactions, influences and confluences between text and illustration from semantic point of view. this paper tries to shed light to the competitive role picture and text play for occupying central spaces or margins of the page in manuscripts. Are ornamental floral motives merely occupying the margins? How do they change roles within historical evolution and establish themselves as a norm of expression? We'll figure out how "word " and "picture" compete with one another for expressing sense in Persian manuscripts.

Conference Presentations by Pegah Shahbaz

Pañcatantra, a far-reaching narrative work of Indian literature, is acclaimed as a representative... more Pañcatantra, a far-reaching narrative work of Indian literature, is acclaimed as a representative model for the “Fable genre” in the world. Among numerous Persian
renderings of Pañcatantra, Naṣr Allāh Munšī’s Kalīla wa Dimna (1159-1161) is of high relevance due to the literary values it introduces to Persian ornate prose. Translated from the Arabic Kalīla wa Dimna of Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (d. 756), which was in it’s turn a translation of the Pehlevi Kalīlag wa Dimnag by Burzūya Pizišk, Munšī’s rendition became a prime inspiration to later miscellaneous works of this genre as Anwār-i Suhaylī by Wā’iẓ Kāšifī (d. 1531) and Abu al-Fażl ‘Allāmī’s ‘Ayār-I Dāniš (d. 1602). Besides, during Akbar’s reign (1556-1605), Ḫāliqdād ‘Abbāsī carried out a direct translation from Sanskrit Pancakhyana which displayed more cohesion and congruity to the original text compared to the previous indirect translations. Juxtaposing ‘Abbāsī’s Pancakhyana and Munšī’s Kalīla wa Dimna as samples of direct and indirect translation, will reveal contrasting peculiarities on the perception of the content as well as distinctive linguistic features in their narrative style. The translators’ personal stance over their own interpretation along with their patrons’ understanding and recognition of the work will also be worthy of attention, the study of which this paper will focus on, in order to elucidate the aims and approaches of translation in the 12th century in Iran compared to the 16th century in India.

Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Suka... more Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Sukasaptati (Seventy tales of the parrot) realized in 713-715 /1313-1315 by a secretary named „Imād ibn Muḥammad Ṯaġarī at the court of „Alā al-Dīn Ḫaljī (r.1290-1316). Jawāhir al-asmār could be the same Persian verbose rendering that Ẓiyā‟ al-Dīn Naḫšabī (d. ca. 751/1350-51) mentions in the introduction to his popular Ṭūṭī-nāma, as the most prominent source he used for preparing his Persian version of the tales of the parrot. For this presentation, we will focus on the study of Ṯaġarī‟s
translation, of which only one incomplete manuscript has resided up to the present time. A comparative analysis of Jawāhir al-asmār and the other Ṭūṭī-nāma with the Sanskrit text will pursue to shed light on the significant variations of themes and the composition of tales in different versions through the time. To what extent was the translator loyal to the original text? What Indian elements were received in the
Persian version without any adjustment or modification? How differently were these tales perceived according to the socio-cultural standards of the Sufi Muslim milieu? These are the questions to which this paper will intend to supply a reply.

Manifold translations and adaptations of Pañcatantra in Persian literature demonstrate remarkabl... more Manifold translations and adaptations of Pañcatantra in Persian literature demonstrate remarkable significance of this narrative reflecting didactic, political and social matters through allegorical form of fables. Some of the Persian versions are indirect translations from Arabic language as Naṣr Allah Munšī’s Kalīla wa Dimna (1159-1161), and ’Abd Allah Buḫārī’s Dāstān-hā-yi Bīdpāy (1162-1165) while some others are variants of the previous Persian versions as Anwār-i Suhaylī by Wā’iẓ Kāšifī (d. 1531) and Abu al-Fażl ‘Allāmī’s ‘Ayār-I Dāniš (d. 1602). In one case, Pancakhyana is known as a direct translation from Sanskrit realized by Ḫāliqdād ‘Abbāsī in the sixteenth century. The present paper will introduce diverse versions of the text in Persian language and will discuss through a comparative approach, how and to what extent these versions vary in both form and content.

Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Ś... more Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Śukasaptati (Seventy tales of the parrot) realized in 713-715 H. /1313-1315 A.D. by a secretary named ‘Imād ibn Muḥammad Ṯaġarī at the court of ‘Alā al-Dīn Ḫaljī (r. 1290-1316). Jawāhir al-asmār could be the same Persian verbose rendering that Ẓiyā’ al-Dīn Naḫšabī (d. around 751/1350-51) mentions in the introduction to his popular Ṭūṭī-nāma, as the most prominent source he used for preparing his Persian version of the tales of the parrot. This presentation will focus on female characters in Ṯaġarī’s translation. Women’s inherent role in tales and their noteworthy strategies for overcoming the norms of male-dominated societies will be studied in detail. By means of concrete examples, we’ll discover how the use/misuse of imaginary by women could appear as a defensive tool for and against them in narratives.

The conversation, Feb 24, 2017

JAIS, 2024

Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques, 2020

Routledge, 2022

PERSO-INDICA. AN ANALYTICAL SURVEY OF PERSIAN WORKS ON INDIAN LEARNED TRADITIONS, 2022

Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques. Volume 74, Issue 2, pp. 387-412 , 2020

https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2020-0030

Perso-Indica Articles, 2020

http://perso-indica.net/work/candayan

Journal of Iranian Studies, 2019

Http Www Theses Fr, Sep 30, 2014

A collaboration of Cluster of Excellence 2020 «Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global... more A collaboration of Cluster of Excellence 2020 «Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective»-Research Area 3, «Future Perfect» and the ERC funded project Kalīla and Dimna-AnonymClassic. This series of events invites discussions on how to theoretically engage with the concept of narrative framing in premodern Arabic literature and adjacent literary traditions. Our aim is to develop a comprehensive definition of «framing narratives» beyond a merely descriptive perspective and to interrogate its function within textual production. The events will be held in English. The workshop will be held online.

The Presence of the Europeans in South Asia and their interest in learning local languages was ce... more The Presence of the Europeans in South Asia and their interest in learning local languages was certainly not hindered nor limited to the purpose of becoming acquainted with Indian creeds and culture; it envisaged going further expeditiously by producing texts in local languages as Persian, about western religious culture as well as European scientific knowledge. The present communication will deal with the ways and levels of knowledge transmission by European authors via translation. For more precisions, we will focus on a Persian manuscript of this kind entitled Mir’āt al-ḥukamā (The mirror of wise men), written by a certain Yunus Beg Angerizi preserved at Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad.

This Presentation will bring up the study of Persian narratives of Indian origin, translated dire... more This Presentation will bring up the study of Persian narratives of Indian origin, translated directly from Sanskrit or other South Asian vernaculars from the 14th century onwards; the stories which, retold and modified according to the recipient culture, helped to form a forthcoming exchange of knowledge between Muslims and Hindus, during the realm of Sultanates in Delhi (1206-1526) and later Mughal period (1526-1858). We will pursue the case study of Suka-saptati and Pañcatantra as two examples of Sanskrit narrative tradition and will follow their transmission and insertion into Persian literature along with the multiple specificities and changes they accepted within centuries, from the receiving culture.

AAS-in-Asia 2020 Asia at the Crossroads: Solidarity through Scholarship , 2020

https://aasinasia.org/programme/

Ninth European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS 9) of the Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE), Freie Universität Berlin, 2019

Members and abstracts:

2ème Congrès du GIS ‘Moyen-Orient et monde musulman’, 2017

http://www.inalco.fr/actualite/deuxieme-congres-gis-moyen-orient-mondes-musulmans-inalco

INDIAN NARRATIVES AND PERSIAN LITERATURE, 2016

Female Characters in Śukasaptati and its Persian Versions, 2015