{"title":"ʿAli al-Aʿlā and the Early History of Horufism","authors":"Hüseyin Ongan Arslan","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines the life and activities of ʿAli al-Aʿlā (d. 1419/822), the principal successor of the founder of Horufism, Fazlollāh Astarābādi (d. 1394/796), and early Horufi history. Widely known as “Khalifatollāh (Vice-gerent of God)” in Horufi literature, the prolific ʿAli al-Aʿlā compiled five Persian books in the first two decades of the fifteenth century, namely the Korsi-nāma, Towhid-nāma, Qeyāmat-nāma, Ferāq-nāma, and Mahshar-nāma. By principally working on ʿAli al-Aʿlā’s corpus, I construct his biography, as well as explore Fazlollāh’s life and his Horufi doctrine. By critically engaging with the modern scholarship on Horufism, I discuss the crisis among Horufis following the execution of Fazlollāh, their political positioning among different political entities in western Asia, e.g., the Timurids and Qara Qoyunlus, and Horufi missionary activities in Syria, Anatolia, and the Ottoman Balkans in the first decades of the fifteenth century. By doing so, I attempt to add another dimension to the existing Horufi literature.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41938047","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":"Philosophical Poetry and Courtly Appeal: Fakhr al-Din Rāzi’s Didactic Panegyric for the Khvārazmian Prince Nāser al-Din Malekshāh","authors":"Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000While Fakhr al-Din Rāzi’s (d. 1210/606) works of philosophical theology are well known, his poetry has been largely ignored by scholars to date. This article provides a translation and analysis of Rāzi’s previously untranslated Persian panegyric ode (qasidat al-madh) entitled “Fi al-manteq va-ʾl-tabiʿa va-ʾl-elāhi va-madh al-soltān (On Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics, and Praise of the Sultan).” Combining a historical and literary approach, I argue that Rāzi strategically employs both the didactic and the panegyric genres in his attempt to regain the favor of the Khvārazmian crown prince, Nāser al-Din Malekshāh (d. 1196–7/593). In addition to demonstrating Rāzi’s belief in the soteriological value of knowledge, the poem adds further evidence for elite support of Islamic philosophy after Ebn Sīnā—in this case, in the eastern lands of the Islamic empire.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43311739","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 Sasanian Elephant Corps Revisited: Ammianus Marcellinus on the Tactics of Persian Elephantry","authors":"V. Dmitriev","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 According to Ammianus Marcellinus, elephants substituted, to some extent, siege towers; he describes wooden towers on the backs of the animals, armed with Persian warriors who attacked the defenders of a fortress. Certainly, elephants may have served as an element of ancient psychological warfare. But, at the same time, it appears that the Sasanians employed elephants in their battle fighting, bearing warriors who attacked their enemies with various missiles. In open-field battles, elephants, as a rule, were introduced into the battle in an offensive situation. Ammianus Marcellinus does not offer any evidence as to elephants functioning as beasts of burden or draught animals; on the contrary, he always stresses the fact that they were military animals who posed a real danger to the Romans in battle.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46396533","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}
C. Cereti, Mehdi Mousavi Nia, Mohammad Reza Neʿmati
{"title":"Ray and Pahlaw in the Context of Sasanian Iran","authors":"C. Cereti, Mehdi Mousavi Nia, Mohammad Reza Neʿmati","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Ray—located near present-day Tehran—is among the most important historical areas in Iran and the plains to the south of Tehran have always been densely inhabited and intensely cultivated thanks to the waters coming from Mount Tochal and the Alborz Mountains. Historical records and archeological data for the early history of the city in the Median, Achæmenid, Seleucid, and even Parthian periods are not exhaustive. In the present study, an attempt is made to bring together primary and secondary sources to define better the role that the province of Ray played during the Sasanian period, during which it was host, among others, to a huge military camp crucial to manning the northern and eastern frontier. Combined archeological and historical evidence shows that Ray has played an important and pivotal role in the history of Iran from the first years of the formation of the Sasanian Empire to the very last years of the empire, leaving a lasting memory in the Islamic literary tradition.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48810011","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":"A Clarification of the Terms Dakhma and Astodān on the Basis of Literary Records and Archeological Research in Fars Province","authors":"Mojtaba Doroodi, F. Hajiani","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The terms dakhma (open-air tomb) and astodān (ossuary) are often used interchangeably despite the fact that they refer to two distinct structures with different meanings in pre-Islamic Iranian burial practices. The present study explores the differences between the two structures, along with burial-related terms used by ancient Persians, by examining ancient and medieval Iranian manuscripts and by conducting a field study of surviving artifacts from ancient times. The results show that dakhma (or dakhmagāh) was a general term referring to the entire burial site and its constituent elements—as opposed to the specific astodān. Both of these structures should be differentiated from small hollowed ledges on the edges or surfaces of mountains, which were engraved as late as the early Islamic period (seventh to ninth centuries), even though the terms dakhma and astodān appear in their inscriptions. Although the latter have led some scholars to conflate the terms, the present study finds that these small stone structures and hollows are neither dakhma nor astodān, but rather served as a symbolic memorial to the departed. Furthermore, other burial-related structures in the environs of the dakhma, including mortar-shaped hollowed stones (sang-ābs) and cascade-like stone grooves (called sor-sor-e hāy-e sangi), which have received scant attention, can be traced back to Zoroastrian rituals in Avestan texts and point to the presence of a dakhma. Finally, the present field study, which explored ancient burial sites in the Marvdasht plain in Fars Province, includes unique information and details that are presented here for the first time.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45002402","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":"Visitation and Awakening: Cross-Cultural and Functional Parallelisms between the Zoroastrian Srōš and Christian St. Sergius","authors":"Gianfilippo Terribili","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Similarities between the two celestial entities, the Zoroastrian Srōš (or Sraoša) and the Christian St. Sergius, have occasionally been mentioned in studies on late-antique and medieval Iran. Comparing the Zoroastrian and Syriac Christian traditions, the study will deal with evidence describing a phenomenological complex that includes the manifestation of celestial entities through a revelatory dream or vision and the consequent awakening of the individual consciousness. The parallelisms will be viewed in the perspective of historical and cultural dynamics that characterized the socio-political horizon of the late Sasanian Empire, especially during the reign of Khosrow II Parviz (Husraw II Parvēz). The heterogeneous society of the frontier zone between Rome and Iran determined the development of trans-cultural elements fostering dialogue among different components of the population. This phenomenon, along with the increasing integration of the Christian community in late Sasanian society, favored processes of assimilation and hybridization of narrative motifs connected to the representation of salvific and protective figures extremely popular at that time.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44274909","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":"Introduction: Religious Diversity in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iran","authors":"C. Cereti","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"The papers published in this volume of the Journal of Persianate Societies were read during the workshop organized at Sapienza University of Rome on 21 November 2019 to celebrate the opening of the Mediterranean regional branch of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) based at the Research Centre for Cooperation with Eurasia, the Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan Africa (CEMAS) at the Sapienza University of Rome and the beginning of a new series of seminars entitled “Parlane con Sapienza, Uno Sguardo Oltre,” dedicated to the societies and history of the Middle East and North Africa. These lectures were meant to foster our university’s “third mis-sion” activities, by targeting diverse audiences. The Mediterranean regional branch will both strengthen the scientific debate and expand the international academic network of ASPS by engaging scholars interested in studying the vast territory stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indo-Gangetic plains from Antiquity to the modern period. At the same time, the cycle of conferences on the Middle East will allow us to better under-stand the complexity of regions and societies in continuous transformation by opening a dialogue that goes beyond the boundaries of the academic world and involves different constituents of the civil society. On the occasion of the first workshop, scholars in the field of Iranian Studies have delivered lectures focusing on religious diversity in late Antique and early Medieval Iran. The multi-faceted approaches characteristic of the paper that were submitted for publication will provide an in-depth perspective on such a challenging socio-cultural context.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45507944","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 Purpose and Practice of Divorce in Sasanian and Post-Sasanian Texts","authors":"Amin Shayeste Doust, C. Cereti","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Many scholarly works aim to identify and explain the continued survival of pre-Islamic social phenomena and institutions deep into the Islamic age. To understand the historical roots of Iranian social issues more profoundly and accurately, it seems necessary to examine the social structure and institutions of the Sasanian era. Such a study enables us to trace their subsequent development and identify the ways in which they transformed. This paper attempts to clarify the purpose and practice of divorce in late Antique Iran, by reconstructing the rationale for and procedure of divorce in Sasanian society based on extant legal cases using a socio-historical approach. It also tries to show the different types of divorce in Sasanian and post-Sasanian sources, emphasizing the controversy and contradictions among Zoroastrian jurisconsults and legal texts to identify different legally-sanctioned perspectives regarding divorce.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46841293","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":"Linguistic and Religious Continuity in Outer Iran","authors":"Paolo Ognibene","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Classical sources give evidence for the presence of Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans at different times in the region north of the Black Sea. While not all scholars agree with Abaev’s idea of “strict continuity” in the languages of these peoples, none deny the existence of at least some form of linguistic continuity between them. The aim of this article is to investigate whether we can suppose another form of continuity relating to their religious systems. While we know that Zoroastrianism had not spread to these peoples, can we still find common elements in their religious systems? If so, we can imagine that they resembled one another not only in terms of language and way of life, but also in terms of religious belief.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44028206","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":"Apocalyptic Imagery and Royal Propaganda in Khosrow II’s Letter to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice","authors":"A. Piras","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta (fl. 620s) records an exchange of letters with the Sasanian Empire. The correspondence of March 590, from the Iranian shah Khosrow II Parviz (r. 591–628) and addressed to the Byzantine emperor Maurice (r. 582–602), exhibits a particular style, focused on the ideological oppositions of order and disorder and legitimacy and usurpation. This paper suggests that Khosrow’s claims to his kingdom made use of a discourse of catastrophic motifs that reflected common Sasanian apocalyptic beliefs. Thus, the chaotic situation provoked by the inversion of the rightful order elicited, from a Zoroastrian perspective, a response that stressed the dualistic nuance of demonic anarchy in order to stigmatize the risk of deposition. For these reasons, apocalyptic doctrines and royal propaganda share a common language: a political discourse based on the justification of kingship and the demonization of the enemy.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43654817","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}