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A History of Persian Literature

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A History of Persian Literature CONTRIBUTORS .......................... xv FOREWORD ............................. xxl CHAPTER !: CLASSICAL PERSIAN LITERATURE AS A TRADITION (J.T.P. de Bruijn) ................ 1 1. Preliminary Remarks. ..................... 1 2. Documentation ......................... 10 3. The Birth of a Tradition .................... 13 4. Writers, Poets, Minstrels, and Patrons ............ 16 Writers ............................ 16 Poets ............................. 18 Minstrels 20 Patronage........................... 22 Alternatives to Court Poetry ................ 28 5. Religious Inspiration ...................... 29 6. The Transmission of Literature 31 7. The Individuality of the Writer and the Poet. 35 8. Views on Poetry ........................ 38 CHAPTER 2: THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY PERSIAN (J. Perry). ............... 43 1. The Fall of Middle Persian and the .Rise of Persian ..... 43 2. The Language Arena, ca. 570-900 .............. 44 3. Parsi and Dari.......................... 48 4. Arabic and Persian: A Fortunate Conjunction. ....... 54 5. Building a Literary Language ................. 58 6. Expansion and Standardization 63 7. Classical Persian ........................ 64 VI1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO PERSIAN LITERATURE CHAPTER 3: THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE {W, Hanaway) 71 CHAPTER 4: PROSODY: METER AND RHYME (B. Utas). 96 1. Meter m Persian Poetry .................... 96 2. Rhyme in Persian Poetry. ................... 98 3. The Pre-Islamic Prosodic Heritage .............. 99 4. Khalil's Analysis of Arabic Metrics. ............. 101 5. The Persian Version of the aruz System. 104 6. Scansion 108 7. Caesura ............................. 109 8. Pitch and Stress Ill 9. Special Features of Persian Rhyme and Verse Forms .... 112 10. The robd'i and the Prosody of Folk Poetry. ......... 119 11. The Role of Meter and Rhyme in Persian Poetical Genres . 121 CHAPTER 5: TRADITIONAL LITERARY THEORY: THE ARABIC BACKGROUND (G.J. van Gelder) ....... 123 1. Arabic Theory and Persian Literature 123 2. Origins and Early Developments 125 3. The Scholastic Study of haldgha 133 4. From Arabic Legacy to Persian Theory 136 5. The Deficiencies of Arabic Theory 137 CHAPTER 6: PERSIAN RHETORIC: ELM-E BADE AND ELM-E BAYAN (N. Chalisova) 139 1. The Persian Theory of Rhetoric Embellishment. ...... 139 2. Raduyani's Tarjomdn al-baldgha 144 3. Vatvat's Hadd'eq al-sehr 151 4. Shams-e Qeys' Mo'jam 158 5. The qaside-ye masnu' 165 6. Commentaries of the Hadd'eq 166 7. Hoseym's Baddye' al-sandye' . 167 8. Postclassical Treatises 169 9. Concluding Remarks 170 Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER 7: POETIC IMAGERY (R.Zipoli) .......... 172 Inventory of Persian Poetic Imagery ............... 179 The Natural World. ....................... 179 Animals. ........................... 179 Plants and. Flowers. ..................... 187 Precious Substances ..................... 193 The Sky, Planets, Stars, and Constellations ........ 194 Other Natural. Elements .................. 196 Colors. ............................ 199 The Measurement of Time ................. 201 The Human World. ....................... 202 The Body. .......................... 202 Other Bodily Components . 205 Actions and Emotions. ................... 206 The Social Context. ....................... 207 Life at Court ......................... 207 War. ............................ 207 Feasting .......................... 207 Games 211 Hunting .......................... 212 Fabrics and clothes .................... 212 Perfumes and cosmetics .................. 21.3 Wounds and medicine 213 Various objects 214 Writing .......................... 215 Numbers ......................... 216 Characters. 217 Places around the Court .................. 218 Countries and Peoples. 219 The Cultural Tradition 219 Islam ............................. 219 Characters and Motifs Mentioned in the Qur'an . 219 Other Characters from the Qur'an ........... 226 Other Characters and Motifs from Islamic Culture. 227 Ritual Elements . 228 Ancient Persian Traditions ................. 229 Flouting Islamic Values ................... 231 IX GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO PERSIAN LITERATURE CHAPTER 8: GENRES OF COURT LITERATURE (J.Meisami). .............................. 233 1. Introduction. .......................... 233 2. Panegyric and Related Types of Poetry. ...,.,.,... 237 3. "Informal" Lyrics. ....................... 244 4. History ............................. 246 5. Epic and Romance ....................... 251 6. Wisdom Literature; Mirrors for Princes ........... 255 7. Didactic, Religious and Philosophical Poetry and Prose . 261 8. Epistolography and Works on Style. ............. 263 9. Satire and Humorous Writing ................. 265 10. Conclusion 268 CHAPTER 9: GENRES OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE (N. Pourjavady) 270 1. Commentaries on the Qur'an and Stories of the Prophets . 270 2. Manuals 276 3. Short Works on Mystical. States and Stages, and on Spiritual Conduct 281 4. Hagiographies. ......................... 284 5. Sermons 290 6. Allegories 293 7. Treatises on Love 298 8. Didactic and Theoretical Works in Prose. .......... 302 9. Didactic Mathnavis. ...................... 308 CHAPTER 10: RIDDLES (G.Windfuhr) ............. 312 1. Pre-Islamic Period 312 2. The Islamic Period . 314 3. Loghaz andmo'ammd 315 4. Indigenous Tradition and Scholarship 317 5. Modern Scholarship 318 6. The Theory of the mo'ammd 320 7. Hesdb-e abjad. 325 CONTENTS 8. Tdnkh .............................. 327 9. The Gnostic-Mystical Factor ................. 330 Appendix 331 CHAP'it t\ Jr-kl 'V KMIC IRANIAN AND INDIAN INFLHf MU ^ >M p{ r.siAN LITERATURE (K de Biois) . 333 1. h, hit ,i«<llMmr> ...................... 335 2. 7^e Book of Kings ....................... 338 3. The Book of Sendbdd. ..................... 339 4. Belawhar and Budbdsaf .................... 341 5. Vis and Rdmm ......................... 342 6. The Letter of Tansar ...................... 343 CHAPTER 12: HELI ENISTIC INFLUENCES IN CLASSICAL PERSIAN LITERATURE (€, van Ruymbeke) 345 1. Surface Traces of Hellenistic Influences 350 Greek Vocabulary in Persian Literature . ......... 350 Greek Names in Persian Literature ............ 351 Greek Characters: The Figure of Alexander the Great. 354 2. Borrowed Greek Themes. ................... 356 Greek Love Theories .................... 356 Wisdom Literature. 358 Historiography 358 The Influence of Greek Science on Persian Poetry .... 359 The Possible Greek Influence on Rhetorical Theory and Poetical Practice ................... 361 Greek Philosophy and Logic Coloring Persian Literature 364 CHAPTER 13: ARABIC INFLUENCES ON PERSIAN LITERATURE (J.T.P. de Bruijn). ........ 369 CHAPTER 14: PERSIAN LITERATURE AND THE ARTS OF THE BOOK (P.P. Soucek) 385 CEIAFTER 15: MANUSCRIPTS IN THE DOMAINS OF THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE (I. Afshar) 408 1. The Oldest Manuscript . 408 XI GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO PERSIAN LITERATURE 2. The Copying of Manuscripts ................. 411 3. Paper. .............................. 415 4. Other Writing Materials .................... 417 5. Decoration 418 6. Bindings ............................. 420 7. The Ownership of Manuscripts ................ 422 8. The Distribution of Manuscripts 424 9. The Most Important Terms for Manuscripts 425 10. Catalogues and Microfilms 426 11. Editing and Printing of Texts ................. 423 CHAPTER 16: PRINTING AND PUBLISHING (I. Afshar). 430 The Printing of Persian Books in Europe and India 431 Printing Offices in Persia 433 Presses in Tehran 435 Publishing in Persia during the Reign of Naser-al-Din Shah (1848-96) 437 The Period of Constitutional Revolution and the First Part of the Pahlavi Era (1896-1941). 441 The Second Period of the Pahlavi Era (1941-78) ......... 442 Publishing in Present-Day Persia 445 CHAPTER 17: LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANSHIP (I. Afshar) 447 1. Libraries 447 Religious Centres 449 Royal Libraries 452 Libraries Established by Dignatarles, Government Officials, and Private Individuals 460 2. Taking Care of Books 461 Locations of Libraries. 461 Storage and Preservation 462 Arrangement and Inventories 464 3. Librarians 466 The Duties of a Librarian 469 4. Ownership and Donations 470 5. Loaning of Books 472 Xll CONTENTS APPENDIX 1: PUBLISHING IN IRAN AFTER THE REVOLUTION. ................... 475 Sales and the Market; Variety of Books.............. 477 Iran and International Copyright ................. 479 The Process of Receiving Permission to Publish ......... 479 Categories of Publishers ...................... 480 1. Government Agencies or those that Aid Publications . 480 2. Charitable Foundations (owqdf, mowqufat) supporting Publications. 483 3. Books Published by Private Publishers .......... 484 Facsimile Printing of Books and Reprints ............ 488 Encyclopaedias ........................... 488 Distribution and Sale of Books .................. 489 Selected Bibliography. ....................... 490 APPENDIX 2: PERSIAN BOOK-PUBLISHING ABROAD . 493 Aspects of Book-Publishing Abroad ............... 494 BIBLIOGRAPHY. .......................... 495 INDEX ................................. 543 Xlll.
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