International Journal of Persian Literature最新文献

{"title":"ʻAbd al-Rahim Talebof’s Promotion of Nationality and National Sociopolitical Reform in <i>Kitab-i Aḥmad</i> (1890–1894)","authors":"Mojtaba Ebrahimian","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Scholars of Persian literature approach ‘Abd al-Rahim Talebof’s Kitab-i Aḥmad (1890–1894) either as a pedagogical treatise exemplifying his stance on the importance of modern education for Iranian children or as an informative text presenting modern European-style scientific advances and discoveries to Iranians. Moreover, they look at contemporary European intellectuals and intellectual thought informing Talebof’s work, especially Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Émile, ou de L’Éducation (1763). In this way, they overlook the role of the contemporary Iranian intellectual discourse in forming Talebof’s work and thought. This article demonstrates that Talebof wrote his book in conversation with the works of both his eminent Iranian intellectuals and their European counterparts. Building upon the current scholarship, this article argues that in Kitab-i Aḥmad, Talebof, in addition to promoting his educational mission and informative goals, lays out his most developed social philosophy, in particular, his theorization of “nationality” (millīyat) or allegiance to an imagined nation. Talebof espouses the idea that Iranians need to own moral and religious commitment to a national community and posits “nationality” as the essential framework within which modern educational and sociopolitical reforms can be implemented.","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Laylī and Majnūn","authors":"Allison Kanner-Botan","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0140","url":null,"abstract":"As the story of mad love par excellence, Dick Davis’s translation of Niẓāmī’s Laylī u Majnūn is a welcome addition to world literature. Davis’s translation provides a readable and teachable way for students and scholars of Persian, Middle Eastern, and medieval literature to engage with a canonical work previously only available in Rudolph Gelpke’s prose summation. The introduction, despite its many digressions, effectively contextualizes the work within a broader web of Helleno-Islamic narratives and makes compelling use of literary comparisons with Shakespearean style so as to acquaint the unacquainted reader with the work’s overall narratological and rhetorical force.The translation itself resembles Davis’ other translations—notably of Gurgānī’s Vīs u Rāmīn—in its attempt to balance literary quality with fidelity to the original. Davis acknowledges problems in the manuscript tradition (there is no surviving manuscript within 200 years of Niẓāmī’s death) and comments that he relies almost exclusively on Bihruz Sarvatiyan’s 1984 edited edition. The rhyming couplets give readers a sense of the flavor of a mathnavī (a long narrative poem composed in rhyming couplets) and demonstrate Davis’ own literary feat; some lines, such as the description of Laylī’s beauty as “She seemed life’s hidden beauty and in truth/The best line in a poem praising youth,” are likely to be as memorable in Davis’ English translation as in the Persian. The persistence of rhyming couplets, however, risks lulling the English reader into a state of sedation not necessarily intended by the dialogic encounters of the original. There are operative breaks in the translation that provide the reader with cues to thematic shifts in the text, most usefully signaling metatextual reference from narrative.At times the specialist reader will run into fidelity issues as a result of Davis’s literary choices that risk altering the overall sentiment. For example, in a homily after Majnūn’s father’s death, Davis translates “When you’ve been harmed, this wasn’t done by those/Whom you believe to be your mortal foes/All of the harmful things they seemed to do/Derived in truth from no one else but you,” which leaves the reader with an overall sense of karmic retribution and of evil as self-inflicted. The latter half of the original (bad bā tu nakard har ki bad kard/kān bad bi yaqīn bi jā-yi khud kard),1 however, leaves the sense of external evil intact and is more accurately rendered—“Whoever did you wrong did not do you wrong/For that badness was certainly inflicted upon himself.” Such lapses inevitably result from literary translation, but they need not come at the expense of altering meaning. Davis also overreads Majnūn’s prayer at the Ka’ba as sounding like a Zoroastrian prayer; while this is one option for the term for murmuring (zamzama), its proximity to other Islamic points of reference such as the well of Zamzam are not considered or referenced in the footnotes.2 As such, the reader is le","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The City as Anthology: Eroticism and Urbanity in Early Modern Isfahan","authors":"Sholeh A. Quinn","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0145","url":null,"abstract":"Kathryn Babayan’s The City as Anthology: Eroticism and Urbanity in Early Modern Isfahan is a groundbreaking, original study that sheds new light on many aspects of Safavid history. Babayan introduces and utilizes a wealth of under-studied and under-utilized sources that fall under the category of anthologies, both written (majmūʿa) and visual (muraqqaʿ). She uses these anthologies as a lens through which to “read” urban Isfahan, the Safavid capital established by Shah ʿAbbas I. In particular, she focuses on what household anthologies tell us about human relationships in a city that was undergoing social, cultural, and religious transformations. Through wide-ranging and original analysis of this material, she takes us beyond the Isfahan of kings and clerics to shed light on friendships, families, individuals, and the refined and homoerotic culture that was part of the city. Rather than confining herself to a single, artificially imposed, genre of source material, Babayan effortlessly and brilliantly takes us through her readings of a broad variety of material. This includes poetry, letters, historical chronicles, paintings, individual buildings, and the entire public square of Isfahan. Instead of situating the anthologies “outside” of the urban landscape, she links the formation of these texts to how residents experienced Isfahan itself. As a result, readers themselves will gain a new, richer, and deeper understanding of the city.Chapter 1 of City as Anthology places the city of Isfahan at the center of the book’s analysis, and Shah ʿAbbas in the center of the city. The chapter opens with a description of Safavid chronicler Natanzī’s detailed and fascinating account of Isfahan’s inauguration as the new capital city. Babayan explains how Natanzī’s description likened the colorful spectacle of the inauguration to the “night of resurrection,” thereby making Isfahan the “city of paradise.”Babayan then turns to the built city, reading the Imperial Square (maydān) and paying particular attention to the Shaykh Lutfullah Mosque and the Friday Prayer Mosque. Analyzing not only the inscriptions but also the tilework and colors of the mosque, she argues that the Shaykh Lutfullah mosque may be understood as a non-denominational “God’s Mosque,” representing the sun rising in the east. As for the Friday Prayer Mosque, it also can be read as a book, educating visitors about the Twelver Shiʿi succession and the rewards for the righteous as described in Q: 76 (Time).The notion of Shah ʿAbbas as cupbearer also appears in the mosque, in connection with a story inscribed on its walls about ʿAli as the cupbearer.This motif of Shah ʿAbbas being the cupbearer is carried into a mural in the Chihil Sutūn palace, created during the reign of Shah ʿAbbas II. Here, Babayan takes us through a reading of the various scenes depicted in this famous mural. She shows how the mural reflects many aspects of the politics of eros at the court, including scenes depicting intoxication, t","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Persian Historiography across Empires","authors":"Gianni Izzo","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0134","url":null,"abstract":"During the Islamic Middle Period emerged cadres of Timurid literati, deploying their abilities in the New Persian language in the pursuit of historical and literary writing that became the receptacle for the victories, lore, and virtues of various monarchies and their statesmen. These conventions were imitated by succeeding generations of Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal historians. In their chronicles lives a story of sorts, a narrative featuring conventional elements reiterated and refined according to regional tastes and imperial interests, passed from one historian to another. The theme of movement permeates Sholeh A. Quinn’s Persian Historiography across Empires, an absorbing book that tracks both the physical movement of Persianate chroniclers of history and the movement of ideas animated by the Persian language. Quinn’s work features six chapters, comprising four individual case studies of chronicles, bookended by an introduction and conclusion. Strictly historiographic boundaries prove porous among these cases. Many sources that fit under the broader canopy of historically relevant chronicles are admitted, including poetry, biographical compendia, and works in the style of mirrors for princes. In narrowing the massive field of literature, Quinn is focused on historical works composed in Persian. So, while Ottoman Turkish was the language of choice for most Ottoman works, the fewer Ottoman Persian sources are still illuminative of the use and transmission of Persian literary and cultural influences.Chapter 2, “Continuity and Transformation,” explores how the most salient conventions of this period of Persianate historical writing originated in Timurid texts, principally the Zafarnāma of Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī (d. 1454) and Rawzat al-Safāʾ of Mīrkhvānd (d. 1433/4). Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal authors evince styles and techniques borrowed and adapted from the preceding Timurid epoch. These historians adjusted certain narratives and conventions, while at the same time circumventing or originating others. Quinn accents four such conventions, including the benefits of history, bibliographies, genealogies, and dream narratives. These conventions, however, turn out to be mostly semi-conventions that are either absent in one gunpowder paradigm, such as those of the benefits of history and bibliographies among Ottoman chronicles, or a marginal phenomenon, such as the former category among Mughal chronicles. Quinn nonetheless includes insightful observations about patterns of sixteenth-century Persianate historical writing. These authors ideate history as a form of ʿilm or, per Quinn, a “field of science” (26), whose advantages include preserving a vision of events and figures of the past that bear on the present. Knowing history not only provides empirical and practical advantages but also instills psychological benefits, including cheerfulness and patience vis-à-vis the divine will, exercised in and through time (29).Chapter 3, “Historiography an","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Another Avant-Garde: Rethinking Tondar Kia’s Approach to Poetic Expression in a Transnational Context","authors":"Farshad Sonboldel","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0061","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article explores the concept of avant-garde artistic expression and argues that it should be regarded as a transcultural phenomenon that surpasses geographical boundaries. It emphasizes the importance of adopting a transnational perspective to fully grasp the intricate interactions between diverse avant-garde movements across cultures and regions. To illustrate this point, the article focuses on the Iranian avant-garde poet Tondar Kia, challenging the perception that his work is merely a replication of Western movements. Instead, it proposes that a transnational lens enables a more comprehensive understanding of the distinctive contributions made by Iranian avant-garde poets to the global avant-garde movement. The article extensively examines Kia’s work within the local context of Persian literary evolution while also shedding light on the transnational aspects present in his compositions. It highlights Kia’s critique of established aesthetic norms, particularly the notion of organic unity, and explores his innovative approaches to rhythm, tone, and polyphony in Persian poetry.","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Self-Mockeries of a Mullah: An Overview of the Humorous Autobiography of Āqā Najafī Qūchānī (1878–1944)","authors":"Mahmud Farjami","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0109","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article deals with Siyāḥat-i Sharq, a remarkable self-satirizing autobiography of an Iranian mullah (clergy) called Āqā Najafī Qūchānī (1878–1944). By offering a close reading of Siyāḥat-i Sharq, this article sheds light on “autobiography” as a very rare genre among Muslim clergies and high-ranked Shiʿa ulema. This article also focuses on the techniques of humor used by Āqā Najafī in his autobiography, among which “self-mockery” is the most notable.","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Ethics of Speaking about Pain: A Dialogue between Azar Nafisi and Henry James","authors":"Sara Khorshidi","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article offers some thoughts on the ethical manifold in speaking about others’ stories and pain, where there is an inevitable tension between the need to narrate a traumatic situation and the impossibility of narration. In Reading Lolita in Tehran; A Memoir on Books (2003), Azar Nafisi bears witness to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and its effect on people’s lives, while keeping a close eye on Henry James’s personal life and works. Facing difficulties in narrating suffering in the said period, Nafisi brings Henry James to the scene not merely because of his position as an author, but because, like herself, his life collapses in the face of, and due to, war in his narrations. This essay is a parallel analysis of speakability and unspeakability, thus staking out the framework within which both Nafisi and James unfold their ethical position in speaking about pain in the “other.”","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From the Ancient Persian Court to the Early American Drama: A Discourse Historical Analysis of the Representation of Esther and Persia","authors":"Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari, Mahsa Manavi","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0086","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In efforts to pay homage to the establishment of nationalities, there is precedence in creating a binary opposition of “us” and “them” in some narrative contexts. This discursive construction within the narrative starts with the labeling of social elements, then proceeds to generalize the negative attributions, and then culminates elaborately in justifying the exclusion of many and the inclusion of some. Discourse Historical Analysis is a critical attempt to study power relations as reflected in the language of a (literary) text. The Book of Esther in the Old Testament recounts the story of the exiled Jews in Persia and the ill-fated conspiracy of the Persian prince to exterminate them. The most common opinion about the time and date of its composition is that it was composed among the Jewish diaspora in Persia during the reign of Xerxes I. The consolidation of their own Jewish nationality was indispensable while living an exiled life in Persia. As such, they cling to the idea of positive Jew and negative Persian representation in their recounts of the story of Esther in the Persian court. The interest in this biblical story has been maintained in numerous literary works. The focus of the present study is on the six late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American plays that speak to this phenomenon. In light of Ruth Wodak’s DHA (2003), the present article studies the power relations between the Persian regal host and the expatriate Jews in these dramatic texts. Essentially concerned with the study of conflicting ideologies in the social and political spheres, the discursive function of language in the construction of a diasporic nationality is highlighted herein.","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Iraj Mirzā: Women and Their Representation in His Poetry","authors":"Esmaeil Najar","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Iraj Mirzā has a reputation for excessive sexual content in his poetic oeuvre. His “forbidden literature,” so to speak, and to quote Paul Sprachman, has suffered unjustly from charges of frivolity, and while vanity and profanity do indeed feature prominently, these allegations disregard the artistic high-mindedness that is ever-present in the prince’s extensive canon. Recent scholarship has attempted to rehabilitate his reputation by highlighting the formalistic aspects of his poetry as well as by emphasizing the striking intricacies of his particular poetic perspective. In this article, I will delineate Iraj’s line of poetic maturity—especially when interlaced with thoroughgoing thoughts of Constitutional Revolution—and will discuss how, juxtaposing the stylistic decorum of classical Persian poetry with interlocution and colloquialism, he could impact the upcoming movement of new poetry (she‘r-e no) in Iran. More emphatically, I will illuminate how Iraj Mirza’s attitude toward women is self-contradictory—though in some places he seems sympathetic toward women, criticizing the restrictions placed on them in Qajar Iran, he ultimately betrays them by degrading them to the status of sex objects as in ‘Ārefnāmeh, where he depicts the veil as an obstacle to women’s and the country’s progress and he contaminates women’s chastity by justifying his (character’s) raping. Iraj’s boldness in addressing female genitalia and sexual intercourse pushed the boundaries of literature in transitional Qajar era; however, seen from a feminist perspective, his poetry equates the Persian literary woman to the fictionalized demimonde who wished to be sexually abused.","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editor’s Note","authors":"","doi":"10.5325/intejperslite.8.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Editorial| September 01 2023 Editor’s Note International Journal of Persian Literature (2023) 8: 1. https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0001 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Editor’s Note. International Journal of Persian Literature 1 September 2023; 8 1. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/intejperslite.8.0001 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressInternational Journal of Persian Literature Search Advanced Search This is our eighth issue, and we are ecstatic about the articles herein as they are an amalgam of themes, each approaching a less-studied niche in Persian literary studies. Since the publication of our issue 7, a dear friend and scholar has left us. Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani was not just any scholar: a memory as large as the Harvard HOLLIS library system, a heart as wide as the widest plains, and a soul always in flight like the phoenix: truly one of the most revered giants in the field ever and not only in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Professor Mahdavi passed away as he always wanted and where he always wanted: AMONGST HIS BOOKS, intent on poring over the writings of some of the greatest scholars the Persian and Arabic literatures have ever seen. I always dedicate the issues of IJPL to one individual and that, rightfully so, is... You do not currently have access to this content.","PeriodicalId":40138,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Persian Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}