Persian Literature

The interactions between languages are very common. The languages that are connected with political power, social dynamics and cultural ability have wider effects on their neighboring ... Read More The interactions between languages are very common. The languages that are connected with political power, social dynamics and cultural ability have wider effects on their neighboring languages. Iranian languages have enjoyed such a position for many centuries, both before and after the arrival of Islam in Iran. The existence of numerous elements of Sogdian, Pahlavi and Persian languages in different languages shows this. The Persian language, as one of the most important and influential languages of the Islamic world, has had a wide impact on other languages of this vast geography throughout its long history. Indeed, after Iranians accepted Islam, the Persian language found a privileged position among the languages of Islamic culture and civilization and became a medium for transferring religious topics and words to other non-Arab Muslim societies. In such a way that even many Arabic words found their way to other languages, not directly but through the Persian language. The role of Iranians in the bureaucracy system of Islamic societies and the formation of a rich literature were other factors that made other Muslims pay attention to this language. The Ottoman Turkish is one of the languages that has received the most linguistic, intellectual and literary influences from Iranian culture and Persian language. Turkic languages are a group of languages that have been influenced by the Persian language to different degrees and have also had some effects on it. When Divan literature, which was based on Islamic culture and Persian language and literature, was formed, the frequency of Arabic and Persian words in the Ottoman Turkish language increased highly. For example, the frequencies of such words in the poetries of Nef’i and Baki have been estimated at 60% and 65% respectively. This increase in Divan poetry reached such a point that sometimes only verbs were expressed in Turkish. With the beginning of the era of reforms and the increase of western and archaistic ideas in Anatolia, especially after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the rejection of eastern values intensified and extensive measures were taken to purify Turkish language in this country. In this way, many Arabic and Persian words were discarded and Turkish equivalents were found or created for them. Despite this, nowadays, many Arabic and Persian words, combinations, grammatical elements and expressions can still be observed in Turkish language; although their frequency has undoubtedly decreased compared to Ottoman Turkish. In this research, in addition to translating the first ten stanzas of the famous Terki̇b-bend of Bağdatlı Ruhî into Persian, we use the statistical analysis and frequency measurement method to calculate the influence of the Persian language on this sample of Ottoman Turkish lyrical poetry at the morpheme level. The findings of this research show that more than one fifth of the morphemes in this text are borrowed from Persian. There are also important intellectual common aspects between Persian literature and the aforementioned poetry.

A Study and Comparison of Common Anecdotes in Attar's Asrarnameh and Tazkirat al-Awliya

Abdolreza Seif; Hamidreza Fahandezhsaadi

Volume 12, Issue 2 , March 2023, , Pages 1-20

Abstract

One of the most common techniques in the works of Persian language poets is to turn prose stories into poetry, especially mystical stories and sayings. In this regard, Attar Neishaburi ... Read More One of the most common techniques in the works of Persian language poets is to turn prose stories into poetry, especially mystical stories and sayings. In this regard, Attar Neishaburi has a prominent position among poets. In order to create his valuable masnavis, Attar took a lot of inspiration from Tazkirat al-Awliya, which is apparently the result of his studies in the sources of Sufism during his youth. One of these masnavis is called Asrarnameh. Asrarnameh is the shortest masnavi of Attar Neishaburi. This Masnavi in the latest critical edition has eighteen sections and a total of 3307 verses. Tazkirat al-Awliya contains stories and sayings of ninety-seven of the most prominent Islamic ascetics and mystics. The Tazkira al-Awliyai that we have today consists of two parts, the first part of which has been attributed to Attar Neishaburi from the past until now, and the second part of which, according to the majority of researchers, cannot be from Attar and is probably added by anonymous authors or scribes. This article is an attempt to explain the commonalities of the content of Tazkirat al-Awliya and masnavis of Attar Neishabouri, which has specially reread and adapted the common anecdotes of Asrarnameh and Tazkirat al-Awliya. The authors studied and compared the two recent works with the motivation to better understand how the masterpieces of the Persian language were created; With the aim of providing quantitative and qualitative statistics of the details of the comparative examples and after giving an introduction about these two books, they have shown that Attâr took at least fifteen anecdotes from Tazkirat Al-Awliyâ to create Asrârnâmeh and regardless of minor additions and deletions, he has been faithful to the core of the narrative in most cases. Most of the anecdotes are related to Bayazid Bastami. The anecdotes under study are used to simplify and express mystical concepts such as demand (Talab), poverty (Faghr) bad ending (Sou al-’Aghebat), consent (Reza), sacrifice (’Isar), unworldliness (Tark-e Ta’alloghat-e maddi), self-purification (Tahzib-e Nafs) and unity of being (Vahdat-e Vojoud). Among them, "unity of being" is the most repeated. Studying the biographies of the characters in these stories, such as Bayazid, Shibli, and Abulhasan Bornouzi, shows that in the cases that Attar took from Tazkirat al-Awliya, he was more interested in the stories of mystics who were inclined to Sokr. We also found that in the majority of these fifteen anecdotes that Attar arranged, he was faithful to the text of Tazkirat al-Awliya and preserved the core of the anecdotes with full skill and elegance. The minor additions and deletions that he included in the verse forms were only to maintain brevity, prosodic limitations and literary attractiveness enhancement or explanation and interpretation of the text.

Cycle and cyclic Meter and the origin of Poetic Choice in cyclic Meter

Abdoreaz Seif; Mohammad Javad Azimi

Volume 5, Issue 2 , March 2016, , Pages 1-18

Abstract

The word “Cycle” (Dowr in Persian) has been used in the old prosody, but cyclic meter has been discussed anymore. Cyclic meters, in modern prosody, refers to a group of ... Read More

Persian Literature

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Author = Abdolreza Seif

Translation and Frequency Measurement of Persian Morphemes in the First Ten Stanzas of the Terki̇b-bend of Bağdatlı Ruhî

Abstract

A Study and Comparison of Common Anecdotes in Attar's Asrarnameh and Tazkirat al-Awliya

Abstract

Cycle and cyclic Meter and the origin of Poetic Choice in cyclic Meter

Abstract