1.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
2.
Shiraz
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Shiraz is the sixth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province. At the 2011 census, the population of the city was 1,700,665, Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river. It has a climate and has been a regional trade center for over a thousand years. Shiraz is one of the oldest cities of ancient Persia, the earliest reference to the city, as Tiraziš, is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BC. In the 13th century, Shiraz became a center of the arts and letters, due to the encouragement of its ruler. It was the capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1750 until 1800, two famous poets of Iran, Hafez and Saadi, are from Shiraz, whose tombs are on the north side of the current city boundaries. Shiraz is known as the city of poets, literature, wine and it is also considered by many Iranians to be the city of gardens, due to the many gardens and fruit trees that can be seen in the city, for example Eram Garden. Shiraz has had major Jewish and Christian communities, the crafts of Shiraz consist of inlaid mosaic work of triangular design, silver-ware, pile carpet-weaving and weaving of kilim, called gilim and jajim in the villages and among the tribes. In Shiraz industries such as cement production, sugar, fertilizers, textile products, wood products, metalwork, Shirāz also has a major oil refinery and is also a major center for Irans electronic industries, 53% of Irans electronic investment has been centered in Shiraz. Shiraz is home to Irans first solar power plant, recently the citys first wind turbine has been installed above Babakoohi mountain near the city. The earliest reference to the city is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BCE, found in June 1970, the tablets written in ancient Elamite name a city called Tiraziš. Phonetically, this is interpreted as /tiračis/ or /ćiračis/ and this name became Old Persian /širājiš/, through regular sound change comes the modern Persian name Shirāz. The name Shiraz also appears on clay sealings found at a 2nd-century CE Sassanid ruin, by some of the native writers, the name Shiraz has derived from a son of Tahmuras, the third Shāh of the world according to Ferdowsis Shāhnāma. Shiraz is most likely more than 4,000 years old, the name Shiraz is mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions from around 2000 BC found in southwestern corner of the city. According to some Iranian mythological traditions, it was erected by Tahmuras Diveband. The oldest sample of wine in the world, dating to approximately 7,000 years ago, was discovered on clay jars recovered outside of Shiraz, in the Achaemenian era, Shiraz was on the way from Susa to Persepolis and Pasargadae. In Ferdowsis Shāhnāma it has said that Artabanus V, the Parthian Emperor of Iran. Ghasre Abu-Nasr which is originally from Parthian era is situated in this area, during the Sassanid era, Shiraz was in between the way which was connecting Bishapur and Gur to Istakhr
3.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
4.
Akbar
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Abul-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad, popularly known as Akbar I and later Akbar the Great, was a Mughal Emperor from 1556 until his death. He was the ruler of the Mughal Dynasty in India. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, a strong personality and a successful general, Akbar gradually enlarged the Mughal Empire to include nearly all of the Indian Subcontinent north of the Godavari river. His power and influence, however, extended over the country because of Mughal military, political, cultural. To unify the vast Mughal state, Akbar established a system of administration throughout his empire and adopted a policy of conciliating conquered rulers through marriage. To preserve peace and order in a religiously and culturally diverse empire, Mughal India developed a strong and stable economy, leading to commercial expansion and greater patronage of culture. Akbar himself was a patron of art and culture, holy men of many faiths, poets, architects and artisans adorned his court from all over the world for study and discussion. Akbars courts at Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikri became centres of the arts, letters, perso-Islamic culture began to merge and blend with indigenous Indian elements, and a distinct Indo-Persian culture emerged characterised by Mughal style arts, painting, and architecture. A simple, monotheistic cult, tolerant in outlook, it centred on Akbar as a prophet, for which he drew the ire of the ulema, many of his courtiers followed Din-i-Ilahi as their religion as well, as many believed that Akbar was a prophet. One famous courtier who followed this religion was Birbal. Akbars reign significantly influenced the course of Indian history, during his rule, the Mughal empire tripled in size and wealth. He created a military system and instituted effective political and social reforms. By abolishing the tax on non-Muslims and appointing them to high civil and military posts, he was the first Mughal ruler to win the trust. He had Sanskrit literature translated, participated in festivals, realising that a stable empire depended on the co-operation. Thus, the foundations for an empire under Mughal rule was laid during his reign. Akbar was succeeded as emperor by his son, Jahangir, defeated in battles at Chausa and Kannauj in 1539–40 by the forces of Sher Shah Suri Mughal emperor Humayun fled westward to Sindh. There he met and married the then 14-year-old Hamida Banu Begum, daughter of Shaikh Ali Akbar Jami, a teacher of Humauyuns younger brother Hindal Mirza. Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar was born the year on 15 October 1542 at the Rajput Fortress of Umerkot in Sindh
5.
Dehkhoda Dictionary
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The Dehkhoda Dictionary is the largest comprehensive Persian dictionary ever published, comprising 16 volumes. The complete work is an effort that entails over forty-five years of efforts by Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda. Although Dehkhoda covers a big part of literary terms and words in Persian language, it lacks most of scientific. Many of those words were added after his death and it was first printed in 1931. Dehkhoda also was helped by prominent linguists Mohammad Moin, Jafar Shahidi, Dehkhoda Institute & International Center for Persian Studies Dehkhoda in Jazirehdanesh Online version of the Dehkhoda Dictionary Dehkhoda Online Dictionary
6.
Persian literature
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Persian literature is one of the worlds oldest literatures. It spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the material has been lost. For instance, Mowlana Rumi, one of best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh or Vakhsh, wrote in Persian, the Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, not all Persian literature is written in Persian, as some consider works written by ethnic Persians in other languages, such as Greek and Arabic, to be included. The bulk of surviving Persian literature, however, comes from the following the Islamic conquest of Iran c.650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power, the Iranians became the scribes and bureaucrats of the Islamic empire and, increasingly, also its writers and poets. The New Persian literature arose and flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana because of political reasons——the early Iranian dynasties such as Tahirids and Samanids were based in Khorasan, Iranians wrote in both Persian and Arabic, Persian predominated in later literary circles. Persian poets such as Ferdowsi, Sadi, Hafiz, Attar, Nezami, Rumi, very few literary works of Achaemenid Iran have survived, due partly to the destruction of the library at Persepolis. Most of what remains consists of the inscriptions of Achaemenid kings, particularly Darius I. Many Zoroastrian writings were destroyed in the Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, the Parsis who fled to India, however, took with them some of the books of the Zoroastrian canon, including some of the Avesta and ancient commentaries thereof. Some works of Sassanid geography and travel also survived, albeit in Arabic translations, no single text devoted to literary criticism has survived from Pre-Islamic Iran. However, some essays in Pahlavi, such as Ayin-e name nebeshtan, some researchers have quoted the Shoubiyye as asserting that the Pre-Islamic Iranians had books on eloquence, such as Karvand. No trace remains of such books, there are some indications that some among the Persian elite were familiar with Greek rhetoric and literary criticism. While initially overshadowed by Arabic during the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphates, New Persian soon became a literary language again of the Central Asian, in short, the ability to write in verse form was a pre-requisite for any scholar. For example, almost half of Avicennas medical writings are in verse, works of the early era of Persian poetry are characterized by strong court patronage, an extravagance of panegyrics, and what is known as سبک فاخر exalted in style. The tradition of patronage began perhaps under the Sassanid era. The Qasida was perhaps the most famous form of panegyric used, khorasani style, whose followers mostly were associated with Greater Khorasan, is characterized by its supercilious diction, dignified tone, and relatively literate language. The chief representatives of this lyricism are Asjadi, Farrukhi Sistani, Unsuri, panegyric masters such as Rudaki were known for their love of nature, their verse abounding with evocative descriptions
7.
Old Persian
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The Old Persian language is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages. Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, recent research into the vast Persepolis Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago have unearthed Old Persian tablets. This new text shows that the Old Persian language was a language in use for practical recording. As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions and it is an Iranian language and as such a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The oldest known written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscriptions. Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages which is attested in original texts, the oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. Their language, Old Persian, became the language of the Achaemenid kings. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash are first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III. The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. Old Persian belongs to the Iranian language family which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, the common ancestors of Indo-Iranians came from Central Asia sometime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The former are the languages in that group which have left written original texts while Median is known mostly from loanwords in Old Persian. Old Persian subsequently evolved into Middle Persian, which is in turn the ancestor of New Persian. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and modern, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Pashto, Old, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same language at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars and is differentiated by dialectical features, Middle Persian, also sometimes called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of old Persian, and was used as the written official language of the country. Comparison of the evolution at each stage of the shows great simplification in grammar. However, New Persian is a descendent of Middle and Old Persian. Old Persian presumably has a Median language substrate, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were peculiar to Old Persian. Median forms are only in personal or geographical names and some are typically from religious vocabulary
8.
Behistun Inscription
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The Behistun Inscription is a multilingual inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran. It was crucial to the decipherment of cuneiform script, Darius the Great proclaimed himself victorious in all battles during the period of upheaval, attributing his success to the grace of Ahura Mazda. The inscription includes three versions of the text, written in three different cuneiform script languages, Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. The inscription is to cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs, the inscription is approximately 15 metres high by 25 metres wide and 100 metres up a limestone cliff from an ancient road connecting the capitals of Babylonia and Media. The Old Persian text contains 414 lines in five columns, the Elamite text includes 593 lines in eight columns, and the Babylonian text is in 112 lines. The inscription was illustrated by a life-sized bas-relief of Darius I, the supine figure is reputed to be the pretender Gaumata. Darius is attended to the left by two servants, and nine one-meter figures stand to the right, with hands tied and rope around their necks, faravahar floats above, giving his blessing to the king. One figure appears to have been added after the others were completed, as was Dariuss beard, the inscription is mentioned by Ctesias of Cnidus, who noted its existence some time around 400 BC and mentioned a well and a garden beneath the inscription. He incorrectly concluded that the inscription had been dedicated by Queen Semiramis of Babylon to Zeus, tacitus also mentions it and includes a description of some of the long-lost ancillary monuments at the base of the cliff, including an altar to Herakles. What has been recovered of them, including a dedicated in 148 BC, is consistent with Tacituss description. Diodorus also writes of Bagistanon and claims it was inscribed by Semiramis. A legend began around Mount Behistun, as written about by the Persian poet and writer Ferdowsi in his Shahnameh c. 1000, about a man named Farhad, who was a lover of King Khosrows wife, Shirin. The legend states that, exiled for his transgression, Farhad was given the task of cutting away the mountain to find water, if he succeeded, he would be given permission to marry Shirin. After many years and the removal of half the mountain, he did find water and he went mad, threw his axe down the hill, kissed the ground and died. It is told in the book of Khosrow and Shirin that his axe was made out of a tree, and, where he threw the axe. Shirin was not dead, according to the story, and mourned upon hearing the news, in 1598, the Englishman Robert Sherley saw the inscription during a diplomatic mission to Persia on behalf of Austria, and brought it to the attention of Western European scholars. His party incorrectly came to the conclusion that it was Christian in origin, french General Gardanne thought it showed Christ and his twelve apostles, and Sir Robert Ker Porter thought it represented the Lost Tribes of Israel and Shalmaneser of Assyria. Italian explorer Pietro della Valle visited the inscription in the course of a pilgrimage in around 1621, German surveyor Carsten Niebuhr visited in around 1764 for Frederick V of Denmark, publishing a copy of the inscription in the account of his journeys in 1778
9.
Ganjnameh
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Ganj Nameh is an ancient inscription,5 km south-west of Hamedan, on the side of Alvand Mountain in Iran. The inscriptions were carved in granite in two sections, the one on the left was ordered by Darius the Great and the one on the right by Xerxes the Great. Both sections were carved in three ancient languages, Old Persian, Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Elamite, the inscriptions start with praise of the Zoroastrian God and describe the lineage and deeds of the mentioned kings. Later generations who could not read the Cuneiform alphabets of the ancient Persian assumed that they contained the guide to an uncovered treasure, the name literally means treasure epistle, but it has also been called Jangnameh whose literal translation is war epistle. Two modern contemporary carved tablets have been placed in the parking lot with Persian explanation
10.
Van Fortress
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The Fortress of Van is a massive stone fortification built by the ancient kingdom of Urartu during the 9th to 7th centuries BC, and is the largest example of its kind. It overlooks the ruins of Tushpa the ancient Urartian capital during the 9th century which was centered upon the bluff where the fortress now sits. A number of fortifications were built throughout the Urartian kingdom, usually cut into hillsides and outcrops in places where modern-day Armenia, Turkey. The ancient fortress is located just west of Van and east of Lake Van in the Van Province of Turkey, the lower parts of the walls of Van Citadel were constructed of unmortared basalt, while the rest was built from mud-bricks. Such fortresses were used for control, rather than as a defense against foreign armies. The ruins of this fortress sit outside the city of Van. A stereotyped trilingual inscription of Xerxes the Great from the 5th century BC is inscribed upon a section of the rock face. The niche was carved out by Xerxes father King Darius. The inscription survives in perfect condition and is divided into three columns of 27 lines written in Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite. It is the only known Achaemenid royal inscription located outside of Iran, other cuneiform inscriptions are typically off limits unless to large tour groups. Burnoufs reading of the Van trilingual inscription had made a significant contribution to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform, silva Tipple New Lake led an American expedition to the ruins in 1938-40. Cuneiform Inscription at Van Extensive picture site of the Kale area and the old town
11.
Middle Persian literature
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Middle Persian was the prestige dialect during the era of Sassanid dynasty. These compositions, in the Aramaic-derived Book Pahlavi script, are known as Pahlavi literature. The earliest texts in Zoroastrian Middle Persian were probably written down in late Sassanid times, the surviving manuscripts are usually 14th-century copies. Pahlavi literature traditionally defines the writings of the Zoroastrians in the Middle Persian language and Book Pahlavi script which were compiled in the 9th, the literary corpus in Middle Persian in Book Pahlavi consists of, translations and commentaries of the Avesta. Other exegetical compositions on religious subjects and these divisions are not mutually exclusive. Several different literary genres are represented in Pahlavi literature, zand texts The zand corpus include exegetical glosses, paraphrases, commentaries and translations of the Avestas texts. Although such exegetical commentaries also exist in other languages, the Middle Persian zand is the only to survive fully, with the notable exception of the Yashts, almost all surviving Avestan texts have their Middle Persian zand, which in some manuscripts appear alongside the text being glossed. These glosses and commentaries were not intended for use as theological texts by themselves, in contrast, the Avestan language texts remained sacrosanct and continued to be recited in the Avestan language, which was considered a sacred language. The Bundahishn, Original Creation, is an important source of information on Zoroastrian cosmogony, Manushchihrs Dadestan i Denig and Epistles the Vichitakiha i Zatsparam, the Treatises of Zatsparam, by Manushchihrs brother Zatsparam. The Arda-Viraf Namag relates the dream-journey of a devout Zoroastrian through the next world, the Shikand-gumanic Vichar, a partly apologetic and partly polemic review of other religions. The Shayast ne-shayast, Proper and Improper, a compilation of laws and customs regarding sin and impurity, with other memoranda about ceremonies. The Shahrestaniha i Eranshahr, is a catalogue of the four regions of the Sassanid empire with mythical and/or historical stories related to their founding, several andarz texts, the Iranian type of wisdom literature containing advice and injunctions for proper behavior. The Drakht i Asurig, the Assyrian tree, is an originally Parthian poem recast into Book Pahlavi but retaining many Parthian phrases, the Abdih ud Sahigih i Sagistan is a description of the Wonders and Remarkable Features of Sistan. The Khusraw va Redag, Khusraw and the Page, is an account of a conversation between the king and a boy who would like to be a page. This work is a source of information on the delights of the Sassanian court. Only a single manuscript of this text survives. Scribes also created several glossaries for translating foreign languages, of these, two have survived, Frahang-i Pahlavig, a glossary of common Aramaic heterograms used in written Middle Persian. Frahang-i Oim-evak, a dictionary of Avestan words and phrases, several other works, now lost, are known of from references to them in other languages. e
12.
Denkard
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The Dēnkard or Dēnkart is a 10th-century compendium of the Mazdaen Zoroastrian beliefs and customs. The Denkard is to an extent a Encyclopedia of Mazdaism and is a most valuable source of information on the religion. The Denkard is not itself considered scripture, accordingly, dēn-kart means religious acts or acts of religion. The ambiguity of -kart or -kard in the title reflects the orthography of Pahlavi writing, the individual chapters vary in age, style and authorship. Of these three books, only a portion of the third has survived, which de Menasce proposes is the result of a transmission through other persons. The first three books were edited by a certain Ādurbād of Ēmēdān of Baghdad, who is also the author of the remaining six books. The manuscript B that is the basis for most surviving copies and translations is dated 1659, of other copies only fragments survive. The Denkard originally contained nine books or volumes, called nasks, the first two and part of the third have not survived. However, the Denkard itself contains summaries of nasks from other compilations, such as Chihrdad from the Avesta, the natural divisions of the books are as follows, Books 3-5 are devoted to rational apologetics, book 4 to moral wisdom, and books 7-9 to exegetical theology. Book 3, with 420 chapters, represents almost half of the surviving texts, de Menasce observes that there must have been several different authors at work as the style and language of the collection is not uniform. The authors are however united in their polemic against the bad religions, the majority of the chapters in book 3 are short, of two or three pages apiece. The topics covered in detail, though rare, frequently also identify issues for which the Zoroastrians of the period were severely criticized, such as marriage to next-of-kin. The last chapter of book 3 deals with the legend of Alexanders destruction of the Avesta, although once considered to be a historical account, it is now accepted that the Avesta was not written before the 1st century CE, and even more likely, not before the 4th. Book 4, the shortest volume in the collection, deals primarily with the arts, Book 4 also contains an enumeration of works from Greece and India, and reveals foreign influence from the 3rd century onward. The last chapter of Book 4 ends with a chapter explaining the necessity for practicing good thoughts, words and deeds, Book 5 deals specifically with queries from adherents of other faiths. The first half of Book 5, titled the Book of Daylamite, is addressed to a Muslim, one Yaqub son of Khaled, a large part of this section is summary of the history of the world up to the advent of Zoroaster and the impact of his revelations. The history is then followed by a summary of the tenets of the faith, the second half of Book 5 is a series of 33 responses to questions posed by a certain Boxt-Mara, a Christian. Thirteen responses address objections raised by Boxt-Mara on issues of ritual purity, the bulk of the remaining material deals with free will and the efficacy of good thoughts, words and deeds as a means to battle evil
13.
Jamasp Namag
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The Jamasp Nameh is a Middle Persian book of revelations. In an extended sense, it is also a source on Zoroastrian doctrine. The work is known as the Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg or Ayātkār-ī Jāmāspīk. The text takes the form of a series of questions and answers between Vishtasp and Jamasp, both of whom were amongst Zoroasters immediate and closest disciples, Vishtasp was the princely protector and patron of Zoroaster while Jamasp was a nobleman at Vishtasps court. Both are figures mentioned in the Gathas, the oldest hymns of Zoroastrianism, here there occurs a striking theological statement, that Ohrmazd’s creation of the six Amašaspands was like lamps being lit one from another, none being diminished thereby. The question-answer series is a literary technique in Zoroastrian literature. In the past, and among Zoroastrians themselves, this technique was frequently misunderstood to be an indication of a first hand account. The text has survived in three forms, a Pahlavi manuscript, that is, a rendering of the Middle Persian language using an Aramaic-derived script, the Pahlavi manuscript is damaged and fragmented. A transmission in Pazand, that is, a rendering of the Middle Persian language using Avestan script, the Pazend version has survived in its entirety. A Modern Persian translation in Arabic script has also survived and it is slightly younger than the other two manuscripts. The Dēnkard, a 10th-century compendium of the Zoroastrian beliefs and customs, the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of Mazdaen cosmogony and cosmology. The Ayadgar-i Zariran, a Zoroastrian epic story Frashokereti, Zoroastrian eschatology Boyce, BSOS6, 1930–32, pp. 56–68 Bailey, H. W. BSOS6, pp. 581–600 Olsson, Tord, apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East
14.
Ka'ba-ye Zartosht
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Kaba-ye Zartosht is the name of a stone quadrangular and stepped structure in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound beside Zangiabad village in Marvdasht county in Fars, Iran. The Naqsh-e Rustam compound incorporates memorials of the Elamites, the Achaemenids, the distance of Kaba-ye Zartosht from the mountain is 46 meters and is situated exactly opposite Darius IIs mausoleum and is rectangular and has only one entrance door. The material of the structure is white limestone, it is about 12 meters high that becomes 14.12 meters including the stairs. Its entrance door leads to the chamber inside by a thirty-stair stony stairway, also, other theories like a temple for the goddess Anahita or a solar calendar have been mentioned, but been less noticed. Three inscriptions have been written in the three languages Sassanian Middle Persian, Arsacid Middle Persian and Greek on the Northern, Southern and Eastern walls of the tower in the Sassanian era. The Kaba-ye Zartosht building is a beautiful structure considering the proportion of the sizes, the lines, currently, the structure is part of the Naqsh-e Rustam compound and possessed by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran. Alireza Shapur Shahbazi believes that the phrase Kaba-ye Zartosht is new and non-scientific and this does not mean that the place has been Zoroasters mausoleum and there is also no report of the pilgrims travels there for pilgrimage. Act as the best way you see suitable that will delight our gods, there is no more knowledge of the name of the structure in earlier periods. Ibn al-Balkhi has mentioned the name of the area of Naqsh-e Rustam, the word Dezhnebesht or Dezhkatibehs might have been used for the structure Kaba-ye Zartosht. The structure of Kaba-ye Zartosht is a cuboid and has one entrance door that leads inside its chamber by a stairway made of stone. The sizes of the stones vary from 2.90 *2.10 *0.48 to 1.10 *1.08 *0.56 meters, however in the west wall, four large rectangular pieces of stone cover the ceiling with an eastern-western axis. Each of those stones are 7.30 meters long and are sewn to each other by dovetail joints, wherever there was an error or flaw in the main stone, the part was removed and filled with delicate joints, some of which still remain. The structure stands on a platform, and the first stair is 27 centimeters above the main floor below. The base of the structure is square-shaped, with each side approximately 7.30 meters long, the ceiling of the structure is smooth and flat inwards, but has a bilateral slope outside that begins from the line in the middle of the rooftop. The door led to a room that is quadrangular and has an area of 3. 74*3.72 meters and is 5.5 meters high with the thicknesses of its walls between 1.54 and 1.62 meters. The dovetail joints belong mostly to Darius I and Xerxes Is periods, and the style of aligning the stones is related to the primary structures of Persepolis. The entrance door and doorway of the structure is like the doors and doorways of the Achaemenid shahs mausoleums. The style of placing the stones that lacks mortar and order, especially, the inscription in the lower part of the southern wall of Persepolis is almost the sizes of the stones placed on the ceiling of Kaba-ye Zartosht
15.
Bundahishn
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Bundahishn, meaning Primal Creation, is the name traditionally given to an encyclopædiaic collections of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known, although the Bundahishn draws on the Avesta and develops ideas alluded to in those texts, it is not itself scripture. The content reflects Zoroastrian scripture, which in turn reflects both ancient Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian beliefs, in some cases, the text alludes to contingencies of post-7th century Islamic Iran, and yet in other cases reiterates scripture even though science had by then determined otherwise. The traditionally given name seems to be an adoption of the word from the first sentence of the younger of the two recensions. Most of the chapters of the date to the 8th and 9th centuries, roughly contemporary with the oldest portions of the Denkard. The later chapters are several centuries younger than the oldest ones, the oldest existing copy dates to the mid-16th century. The Bundahishn survives in two recensions, a shorter was found in India, and is thus known as the Lesser Bundahishn, or Indian Bundahishn. A copy of this version was brought to Europe by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron in 1762, a longer version was brought to India from Iran by T. D. Anklesaria around 1870, and is thus known as the Greater Bundahishn or Iranian Bundahishn or just Bundahishn. The greater recension is about twice as long as the lesser, the two recensions derive from different manuscript traditions, and in the portions available in both sources, vary in content. The greater recension is also the older of the two, and was dated by West to around 1540, the lesser recension dates from about 1734. Traditionally, chapter-verse pointers are in Arabic numerals for the lesser recension, the two series are not synchronous since the lesser recension was analyzed before the extent of the greater recension was known. The chapter order is also different, the Bundahishn is the concise view of the Zoroastrianisms creation myth, and of the first battles of the forces of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu for the hegemony of the world. According to the text, in the first 3,000 years of the year, Ahura Mazda created the Fravashis. He used the insensible and motionless Void as a weapon against Angra Mainyu, the Bundahishn finally recounts the creation of the primordial bovine, Ewagdad, and Gayomard, the primordial human. Following MacKenzie, the chapter names in quotation marks reflect the original titles. Those without quotation marks are summaries of chapters that have no title, the chapter/section numbering scheme is based on that of B. T. Anklesaria for the greater recension, and that of West for the lesser recension, excerpt from Chapter 2, - On the formation of the luminaries. Ohrmazd produced illumination between the sky and the earth, the stars and those also not of the constellations, then the moon
16.
Menog-i Khrad
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Menog-i Khrad is one of the most important secondary texts in Zoroastrianism written in Middle Persian. The book, like most Pahlavi books, is based on tradition and has no known author. According to the preamble, Dānāg, searching for truth, traveled to countries, associated himself with many savants. When he discovered the virtue of xrad the Spirit of Wisdom appeared to him to answer his questions, the first chapter, which is also the longest, deals in detail with the question of what happens to people after death and the separation of soul from body. The oldest surviving manuscripts there are L19, found in the British Library, written in Pazand, one of the characteristics of L19 text is that the word Xrad is spelled as Xard throughout the text. The oldest surviving Pahlavi version of text is K43 found in Copenhagens Royal Library. Menog-i Xrad was first translated to English by Edward William West in book entitled Sacred Books of the East, volume 24, Oxford University Press, in 1885
17.
Zand-i Wahman yasn
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The Zand-i Wahman Yasn is a medieval Zoroastrian apocalyptical text in Middle Persian. It professes to be a work, in which Ahura Mazda gives Zoroaster an account of what was to happen to the behdin. The oldest surviving manuscript is from about 1400, but the text itself is older, written, the work is also known as the Bahman Yasht and Zand-i wahman yasht. These titles are scholastic mistakes, in the case due to 18th century Anquetil Du Perron. The text is neither a Yasht, nor is it in any way related to the Avestas Bahman Yasht, chapter and line pointers to the Zand-i Wahman Yasn are conventionally abbreviated ZWY, and follow the subdivisions defined in the 1957 Anklesaria translation. These subdivisions differ from those used in earlier translations, the text survives in two versions, a Middle Persian version in Pahlavi script, and in a Pazand transliteration with commentary in Avestan script. From the scholastic point of view, the work is interesting for the study of religion. While the text is superficially an Iranian one, there is question whether some of the details are Iranian adaptions from alien sources. Arguments for both an indigenous origin, and vice versa have been put forward, a connection to the Hellenistic Oracles of Hystaspes is generally acknowledged. That text, unlike most works attributed to Pseudo-Zoroastrian authors, was based on genuine Zoroastrian traditions. Structurally, the Zand-i Wahman Yasn is laid out as a conversation between Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda, in which the latter gives his prophet the ability to see into the future, chapters 1,2 and 3 introduce a millennial scheme with seven periods. The first three represent the ages up and including the millennium of Zoroaster. The last four periods, which account for what will occur thereafter, are analogized as a tree with four branches, one each of gold, silver, steel, and impure iron. Chapters 7,8 and 9 prophesy the events of the last 3,000 years of the world, beginning with the eleventh millennium, in the 19th century, James Darmesteter surmised that the Zand-i Wahman Yasn represented a translation of parts of the Avestas lost Bahman Yasht. This notion is no longer followed today, modern scholarship is in agreement that the 6th century work has nothing in common with what is known of the genuine Avestan Bahman yasht texts. The Amesha Spenta Bahman/Wahman does not even appear in the text and that the basic plot draws on Avestan material, and that the work mimics the style of the Avestas authors, are generally acknowledged
18.
Rudaki
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Rudaki composed poems in the New Persian alphabet and is considered a founder of classical Persian literature. His poetry contains many of the oldest genres of Persian poetry including the quatrain, however, rudakis Nahr and Ayn, Khing- but and Surkhbut, and Wamiq and Azra have prospered on the riches of the oral tradition of folklores. Rudaki was born in 858 in Rudak, a located in the Samanid Empire which is now Panjakent. Even though most of his biographers assert that he was completely blind and his accurate knowledge and description of colors, as evident in his poetry, renders this assertion very doubtful. He was the poet to the Samanid ruler Nasr II in Bukhara, although he eventually fell out of favour. Early in his life, the fame of his accomplishments reached the ear of the Samanid Nasr II ibn Ahmad, the ruler of Khorasan and Transoxiana, Rudaki became his daily companion, amassed great wealth, and become highly honored. He was also very adept singer and instrumentalist, the common opinion was that Rudaki was born blind or was blind from his childhood. However, some of early biographies, like Samani and Nezami Aruzi do not emphasis his blindness as natural-born, ferdowsi just mentions in his Shahnameh that they recited Kelileh o Demneh to him and he rendered it into poem. Also using some of his poems we can see that he had sight, The contemporary Iranian scholar, Said Nafisi, has a book about Rudaki called Biography, Environment and Time of Rudaki. This revolt led to the overthrow of the Samanid king and Rudaki, as his companion, was tortured and blinded. After this, Rudaki went back to the town where he was born. Of the 1,300,000 verses attributed to him, only 52 qasidas, ghazals and rubais survived, numerous fragments, however, are preserved in the Persian lexicon of Asadi Tusi. Paul Horn, Geschichte der persischen Literatur, p.73 E. G. Browne, Literary History of Persia, i. C. J. Pickering, A Persian Chaucer in National Review. More recently, in 1963, Saʻīd Nafīsī identified more fragments to be attributed to Rudaki and has assembled them, together with an extensive biography, sample Poetry, Look at the cloud, how it cries like a grieving man Thunder moans like a lover with a broken heart. Now and then the sun peeks from behind the clouds Like a prisoner hiding from the guard, for the 1100th anniversary of his birth, the Iranian government published a series of stamps showing his picture. An international seminar was held at Vahdat Hall, Tehran, Iran on 21 December 2008, to mark his 1150th birth anniversary, with President Ahmadinejad, in this seminar, Rudaki was celebrated as the father of the Modern Persian literature. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, ISBN 90-277-0143-1 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Rūdagī. Sassan Tabatabai, Father of Persian Verse, Rudaki and His Poetry, Amsterdam University Press, Rudaki, Abu Abd Allah, a biography by Professor Iraj Bashiri, University of Minnesota
19.
Ferdowsi
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Abu ʾl-Qasim Ferdowsi Tusi, or Ferdowsi was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh, which is the worlds longest epic poem created by a single poet, and the national epic of Greater Iran. Ferdowsi is celebrated as the most influential figure in Persian literature and he was called The Lord of the Word and The Savior of Persian Language. Except for his kunya and his laqab, nothing is known with any certainty about his full name, from an early period on, he has been referred to by different additional names and titles, the most common one being حکیم / Ḥakīm. Based on this, his name is given in Persian sources as حکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی / Ḥakīm Abul-Qāsim Firdowsī Țusī. Due to the transliteration from Persian into English, different spellings of his name are used in English works, including Firdawsi, Firdusi, Firdosi, Firdausi. The Encyclopaedia of Islam uses the spelling Firdawsī, based on the transliteration method of the German Oriental Society. The Encyclopædia Iranica, which uses a version of the same method. In both cases, the -ow and -aw are to be pronounced as a diphthong, reflecting the original Arabic, the modern Tajik transliteration of his name in Cyrillic script is Ҳаким Абулқосим Фирдавсӣ Тӯсӣ. Little is known about Ferdowsis early life, the poet had a wife, who was probably literate and came from the same dehqan class. He had a son, who died aged 37, and was mourned by the poet in an elegy which he inserted into the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi belonged to the class of dehqans. The dehqans were intensely patriotic and saw it as their task to preserve the traditions of Iran. By the late 9th century, the power of the caliphate had weakened, Ferdowsi grew up in Tus, a city under the control of one of these dynasties, the Samanids, who claimed descent from the Sassanid general Bahram Chobin. Abu Mansur Muhammad, a dehqan and governor of Tus, had ordered his minister Abu Mansur Mamari to invite several local scholars to compile a prose Shahnameh, although it no longer survives, Ferdowsi used it as one of the sources of his epic. Samanid rulers were patrons of such important Persian poets as Rudaki, Ferdowsi followed in the footsteps of these writers. Details about Ferdowsis education are lacking, judging by the Shahnameh, there is no evidence he knew either Arabic or Pahlavi. Although New Persian was permeated by Arabic vocabulary by Ferdowsis time and this may have been a deliberate strategy by the poet. It is possible that Ferdowsi wrote some poems which have not survived. He began work on the Shahnameh around 977, intending it as a continuation of the work of his fellow poet Daqiqi, like Daqiqi, Ferdowsi employed the prose Shahnameh of ʿAbd-al-Razzāq as a source
20.
Shahnameh
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The Shahnameh, also transliterated as Shahnama, is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets, the Shahnameh is the worlds longest epic poem written by a single poet. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. Modern Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and the region influenced by the Persian culture celebrate this national epic. The work is of importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece. Ferdowsi started writing the Shahnameh in 977 A. D and completed it on 8 March 1010, the Shahnameh is a monument of poetry and historiography, being mainly the poetical recast of what Ferdowsi, his contemporaries, and his predecessors regarded as the account of Irans ancient history. Many such accounts already existed in prose, an example being the Abu-Mansuri Shahnameh, a small portion of Ferdowsis work, in passages scattered throughout the Shahnameh, is entirely of his own conception. The Shahnameh is a poem of over 50,000 couplets. It is based mainly on a work of the same name compiled in Ferdowsis earlier life in his native Tus. The Xwadāynāmag contained historical information on the later Sassanid period, Ferdowsi added material continuing the story to the overthrow of the Sassanids by the Arabs in the middle of the 7th century. These verses, which deal with the rise of the prophet Zoroaster, were incorporated by Ferdowsi, with acknowledgment. The style of the Shahnameh shows characteristics of written and oral literature. Some claim that Ferdowsi also used Zoroastrian nasks, such as the now-lost Chihrdad, besides, the text is written in the late Middle Persian, which was the immediate ancestor of Modern Persian. According to one account of the sources, a Persian named Dehqan in the court of King Anushehrawan Dadgar had composed a book in prose form. After the fall of the Iranian Empire, Khoday Nameh came into the possession of King Yaqub Lais and then the Samani king Nuh ordered the poet Daqiqi to complete it, Ferdowsi obtained the book through a friend. The work is not precisely chronological, but there is a movement through time. Some of the characters live for hundreds of years but most have normal life spans, there are many shāhs who come and go, as well as heroes and villains, who also come and go. The only lasting images are those of Greater Persia itself, and of a succession of sunrises and sunsets, the work is divided into three successive parts, the mythical, heroic, and historical ages
21.
Rabia Balkhi
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References to her can be found in the poetry of Rūdakī and Attār. Her biography has been recorded by Zāhir ud-Dīn Awfī and renarrated by Nūr ad-Dīn Djāmī. The exact dates of her birth and death are unknown, some evidences indicate that she lived during the same period as Rūdakī, the court poet to the Samanid Emir Naṣr II. Her name and biography appear in Awfīs lubābu l-albāb, Attārs maṭnawīyat, and Djāmīs nafahātu l-uns. She was one of the first poets who wrote in modern Persian, when her father died, his son Hāres, brother of Rābia, inherited his position. According to legend, Hāres had a Turkic slave named Baktāsh, at a court party, Hāres heard Rābias secret. He imprisoned Baktāsh in a well, cut the jugular vein of Rābia and she wrote her final poems with her blood on the wall of the bathroom until she died. Baktāsh escaped the well, and as soon as got the news about Rābia, he went to the governor’s office and her love affair with the slave Baktāsh inspired Qājār poet Rezā Qulī-Khān Ḥedāyat to compose his Baktāshnāma. List of Persian poets and authors Persian literature E. G, ISBN 0-7007-0406-X Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Eminent Poetesses of Persian,2010, Iran Society, Kolkata, رابعه بلخي یا حمامهء در حمام خون ذؤیان خرد
22.
Avicenna
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Avicenna or Ibn Sīnā was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, in 1973, Avicennas Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicennas corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry. Avicenna is a Latin corruption of the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā, meaning Son of Sina, however, Avicenna was not the son, but the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina. His full name was Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, Ibn Sina created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a capital of the Islamic world. The study of the Quran and the Hadith thrived in such a scholarly atmosphere, philosophy, Fiqh and theology were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents. Al-Razi and Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and philosophy, Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarezm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan. Various texts show that he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time, aruzi Samarqandi describes how before Avicenna left Khwarezm he had met Al-Biruni, Abu Nasr Iraqi, Abu Sahl Masihi and Abu al-Khayr Khammar. Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana, a village near Bukhara, the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother, named Setareh, was from Bukhara, his father, Abdullah, was a respected Ismaili scholar from Balkh and his father worked in the government of Samanid in the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. After five years, his brother, Mahmoud, was born. Avicenna first began to learn the Quran and literature in such a way that when he was ten years old he had learned all of them. According to his autobiography, Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10 and he learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer, ءMahmoud Massahi and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh under the Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid, Avicenna was taught some extent of philosophy books such as Introduction s Porphyry, Euclids Elements, Ptolemys Almagest by an unpopular philosopher, Abu Abdullah Nateli, who claimed philosophizing. As a teenager, he was troubled by the Metaphysics of Aristotle. For the next year and a half, he studied philosophy, in such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night, he would continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution
23.
Ayyuqi
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Ayyuqi was a 10th-century Persian poet. A contemporary of Mahmud of Ghazni, he wrote the epic Varqa u Gulshāh in 2,250 verses, according to the poet himself, the story is based on the Arabic work ‘Orwa wa ‘Afra. The work survives in a manuscript at Istanbul. No reliable information about Ayyuqi has come down and his works are characterized by paired rhyme interspersed with ghazal. List of Persian poets and authors Persian literature Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, ISBN 90-277-0143-1 See the work of professor A. Ateş
24.
Baba Tahir
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Baba Tahir was an 11th-century Persian poet. His poetry is written in Hamedani dialect of Persian language, according to L. P. Rouben Abrahamian however found a close affinity with the dialect spoken at the present time by the Jews of Hamadan. According to The Cambridge History of Iran, Baba Tahir spoke a certain Persian dialect, Baba Tahir is known as one of the most revered and respectable early poets in Persian literature. Most of his life is clouded in mystery and he was born and lived in Hamadan, the capital city of the Hamedan Province in Iran. He was known by the name of Baba Taher-e Oryan, which suggests that he may have been a wandering dervish, legend tells that the poet, an illiterate woodcutter, attended lectures at a religious school, where he was not welcomed by his fellow-students. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, one source indicates that he died in 1019. If this is accurate, it would make Baba Tahir a contemporary of Ferdowsi and Pour Sina, another source reports that he lived between 1000 and 1055, which is most unlikely. Reliable research notes speculate that Baba Tahir lived for seventy-five years, rahat al-sodur of Ravandi, describes a meeting between Baba Tahir, and the Saljuq conqueror Togrel. According to L. P. Elwell-Sutton, He could be described as the first great poet of Sufi love in Persian literature, in the last two decades his do-baytis have often been put to music. Baba Tahir poems are recited to the present day all over Iran accompanied with setar and they say Pahlaviat to these kinds of poems and they are very ancient. Baba Tahir songs were originally read in Pahlavi, as well as Luri and Hamadani dialects, the quatrains of Baba Tahir have a more amorous and mystical connotation rather than philosophical. Baba Tahirs poems are of the style, a form of Persian quatrains. Classical Persian Music is based on Persian literature and Baba Tahirs poems are the weight that carries a portion of this music. Attributed to him is a work by the name Kalemat-e qesaar, a collection of nearly 400 aphorisms in Arabic, which has been the subject of commentaries, one allegedly by Ayn-al-Qozμat Hamadani. His tomb, designed by Mohsen Foroughi, is located near the entrance of the city of Hamadan in Western Iran, in a park, surrounded by flowers. The structure consists of twelve external pillars surrounding a central tower, list of Persian poets and authors Persian literature Baba Tahir Oryan. A Research Note on Baba Taher Oryan, ISBN 0-7007-0406-X Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K باباطاهر عریان, عارف و شاعر بلند آوازه ایران Bosworth, the rise of the new Persian language
25.
Nasir Khusraw
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He was born in Qabodiyon, a village in middle-age Bactria in the ancient Greater Iranian province of Khorasan, now in modern Tajikistan and died in Yamagan, now Afghanistan. He is considered one of the poets and writers in Persian literature. The Safarnama, an account of his travels, is his most famous work, Nasir Khusraw was born in 1004 AD, in Qabodiyon. He later chose Merv for his residence, and was the owner of a house and garden there. Until A. H.437, he worked as a secretary and revenue collector for the Seljuk sultan Toghrul Beg, or rather for his brother Jaghir Beg, the emir of Khorasan. The minute sketches of Jerusalem and its environs are even today of practical value. D. and he died in Yamagan in present-day northern Afghanistan. Safarnama Safarnama is his most famous work, after 1000 years, his Safarnama is still readable for Persian-speaking people. Gushayish wa Rahayish Another work of Nasir Khusraw is the Persian philosophical work Gushayis wa Rahayish which has translated into English by F. M. Hunzai under the title, Knowledge and Liberation, the work discusses creation, questions related to the soul, epistemology, creation, and Ismaili Islamic doctorines. From a linguistic point of view, the work is an example of philosophical writing in new Persian. It is the strain which runs, although in a somewhat lower key. It concludes with a vision of a beautiful work of spirits who have stripped off the fetters of earthly cares and sorrows and revel in the pure light of divine wisdom. Book on Mathematics Nasir Khusraw wrote a book on mathematics which has now been lost and he states in his other work that he could, not find one single scholar throughout all of Khorasan and eastern lands like myself could grapple with the solutions to these problems. The following poem speaks to this aspect of Khusraws poetry, by Nasir-i Khusrau Translated by Iraj Bashiri Copyright, Iraj Bashiri,2004 Reproach not the Firmament deep and blue, Forget thy stubborn nature to reveal a clue. Neither expect from the Firmament any joy, When your own star you knowingly destroy, Fruitless trees are, at best, fuel for fire, Fruitless men, alike, to oblivion retire. Forget about fragrant tresses and lips sweet, About hedges, lavish not praise on a filthy creature, With dastardly deeds as its only feature. Adore not with verse the Lie or the Greed, Smite down the infidels’ most cherished creed, be not Unsuri, who groveling worshiped Mahmud, Lavished on him all flattery and paean he could. I pledge never to sprinkle before the swine, These precious, the poetry of Nasir Khusraw is replete with advice and wisdom
26.
Al-Ghazali
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Al-Ghazali has been referred to by some historians as the single most influential Muslim after the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Within Islamic civilization he is considered to be a Mujaddid or renewer of the faith and his works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title Proof of Islam. Others have cited his opposition to certain strands of Islamic philosophy as a detriment to Islamic scientific progress, although he argued for the separation of philosophy and he was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, which lies within the Khorasan Province of Iran. Al-Ghazalis contemporary and first biographer, Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, records merely that al-Ghazali began to receive instruction in fiqh from Ahmad al-Radhakani, a local teacher. He later studied under al-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian, after al-Juwaynis death in 1085, al-Ghazali departed from Nishapur and joined the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuq sultans, which was likely centered in Isfahan. He underwent a crisis in 1095, and consequently abandoned his career. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth, macdonald, the purpose of abstaining from scholastic work was to confront the spiritual experience and more ordinary understanding of the Word and the Traditions. After some time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Medina and Mecca in 1096 and this seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, though he continued to publish, to receive visitors, and to teach in the zawiya and khanqah that he had built. He later returned to Tus, and declined an invitation in 1110 from the vizier of Muhammad I to return to Baghdad. He died on 19 December 1111, according to Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi he had several daughters, but no sons. Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a view of Sufism and to its integration. As a scholar of orthodox Islam, he belonged to the Shafii school of Islamic jurisprudence, Al-Ghazali received many titles such as Sharaf-ul-Aʾimma, Zayn-ud-dīn, Ḥujjat-ul-Islām. He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy, however, he chose a slightly different position in comparison with the Asharites, his beliefs and thoughts differ, in some aspects, from the orthodox Asharite school. Al-Ghazali wrote more than 70 books on the sciences, Islamic philosophy and his 11th century book titled The Incoherence of the Philosophers marks a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The Incoherence also marked a point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of Aristotle. The book took aim at the falasifa, a defined group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries who drew intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks. Al-Ghazali gave as an example of the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact that cotton burns when coming into contact with fire. Averroes, by contrast insisted while God created the natural law and this long-held argument has been disputed
27.
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
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Hazrat Shaikh Abu Ismaïl Abdullah al-Herawi al-Ansari or Khajah Abdullah Ansari of Herat also known as Pir-i Herat was a famous Persian Sufi who lived in the 11th century in Herat. He was born in the Kohandez, the old citadel of Herat and his father Abu Mansur, was a shopkeeper who had spent several years of his youth at Balkh. He practiced the Hanbali fiqh, one of the four Sunni schools of law or jurisprudence and his shrine, built during the Timurid Dynasty, is a popular pilgrimage site. He wrote several books on Islamic mysticism and philosophy in Persian and his most famous work is Munajat Namah, which is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. After his death, many of his sayings that had been transmitted by his students along with others that were in his works were included in the Tafsir of Maybudi. This is among the earliest complete Sufi Tafsirs of Quran and has published several times in 10 volumes. He excelled in the knowledge of Hadith, history, and Ilm ul-Ansaab and he used to avoid the company of the rich, powerful and the influential. His yearly majlis-e-waaz was attended by people from far and wide, whatever his disciples and followers used to present to him was handed over to the poor and the needy. He is said to have had an impressive personality. Khwajah Abdullah Ansari of Herat was a descendant of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. The Hanbali jurist Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya wrote a commentary on a treatise written by Ansari entitled Madarij al-Salikin. He expressed his love and appreciation for Ansari in this commentary with his statement Certainly I love the Sheikh, but I love the truth more. F. Haddad Stations of the Sufi Path, The One Hundred Fields of Abdullah Ansari of Herat, translated by Nahid Angha www. archetypebooks. com The Invocations of Abdullah Al Ansari at archive. org
