1.
Radif (music)
–
Radif is a collection of many old melodic figures preserved through many generations by oral tradition. It organizes the melodies in a number of different tonal spaces called Dastgah, the traditional music of Iran is based on the radif, which is a collection of old melodies that have been handed down by the masters to the students through the generations. Over time, each masters own interpretation has shaped and added new melodies to this collection, the preservation of these melodies greatly depended on each successive generations memory and mastery, since the interpretive origin of this music was expressed only through the oral tradition. To truly learn and absorb the essence of the radif, many years of repetition, a master of the Radif must internalize the Radif so completely to be able to perform any part of it at any given time. The Radif contains several different dastgahs which are distinguished from each other by their relationship of note intervals, a dastgah portrays a specific sonic space. A dastgah may contain approximately from 10 to 30 goushehs, the principal goushehs of the dastgah specify the different scales within that dastgah. The note, upon which the gousheh is based and often is the center of the gousheh, is called the shahed, the shahed moves when we modulate between principal goushehs, and this movement creates a new sonic space. Rhythm in these melodies takes three different forms, symmetric, asymmetric, and free form, the rhythm is greatly influenced by the rhythm and meter of the Persian poetry. The instrumental and vocal radif are different from the point of view, however. The radifs for tar are one of the most famous radifs associated, the Radifs of Mirza Hossein-Qoli and Mirza Abdollah are the oldest radifs which are still in use for many students who wish to carry on learning Persian music. It is very famous as it consisted many melodies collected from them time and his work is still used by many Masters and are now some directions which are followed by many Tar players. This can minimize mutations and keep the radif in line, the Radif of Mirza Abdollah was published in notation by Jean During in 1970s based on Nour Ali Boroumand who recorded the redif by heart. On the other hand, the Radif of Mirza Hossein-Qoli was first published in notation by Dariush Pirniakan in 2001, though the radif is not popular with many young students it still is the consistute and basic of Persian music. It can be related to Classical music of western music that is not much popular, avaz Tasnif Radif Radif at Wayback
Radif (music)
–
Aka polyphony
2.
Persian traditional music
–
Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music is the traditional and indigenous music of Iran. Persian traditional music is appreciated and enjoyed by all different ethnic groups across Greater Iran, the history of musical development in Iran dates back to the prehistoric era. King Jamshid of Persia, a figure of Shahnameh, is credited with the invention of music. Fragmentary documents from various periods of the countrys history establish that the ancient Iranians possessed a musical culture. Archeological evidence reveals musical instruments that were used in Persia during the Elamit era around 800 BC, little is known about the Persian music of the ancient world, least of all about the music of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great is said to have witnessed many melodies and instruments upon his invasion, Music played an important role in the courts of the kings of the much later Sassanid Empire. Of this period, we know the names of court musicians like Barbad. Under Sassanid rule, modal music was developed by a significant court musician, Barbad. Under the later Qajar Empire, the system was restructured into its present form mostly through the efforts of two legendary musicians of that time, Agha Hossein-Ghoul and Mara Abdullah. Persian traditional music relies on both improvisation and composition, and is based on a series of scales and tunes which must be memorized. Apprentices and masters, ostad, have a relationship which has declined during the 20th century as music education moved to universities and conservatories. The common repertoire consists of more than two hundred short melodic movements called gusheh, which are classified into seven dastgāh or modes, two of these modes have secondary modes branching from them called āvāz. Each gusheh and dastgah has an individual name and this whole body is called the Radif of which there are several versions, each in accordance to the teachings of a particular master or ostad. A typical performance consists of the following elements pīshdarāmad, darāmad, āvāz, taṣnīf, Chahārmeżrāb, a performance forms a sort of suite. Unconventionally, these parts may be varied or omitted, towards the end of the Safavid Empire, more complex movements in 10,14, and 16 beats stopped being performed. Today, rhythmic pieces are performed in beats of 2 to 7 with some exceptions, rengs are always in a 6/8 time frame. Many melodies and modes are related to the maqāmāt of the Turkish classical repertoire and Arabic music belonging to various Arab countries and this similarity is because of the exchange of musical science that took place in the early Islamic world between Persia and her neighboring countries. The vocalist plays a role, he or she decides what mood to express
Persian traditional music
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Persian arts
Persian traditional music
–
Karna, one of the ancient Persian musical instruments, 6th century BC,
Persepolis Museum.
Persian traditional music
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Ancient Persians attached great importance to music and poetry, like today. Post
Sassanid era silver plate. 7th century. The British Museum.
Persian traditional music
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Wall painting depicting a scene from 17th century Persia.
3.
Persian jazz
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Iranian jazz refers to jazz music composed by Iranian musicians, occasionally influenced by Iranian classical music. Jazz music emerged in Iran along with the development of pop music in the 1960s and 1970s, alfred Lazaryan, a 1960s Iranian singer and dancer, was one of the pioneers of jazz music in Iran. His first recorded song Venus, which was frequently broadcast by the Iranian national radio, was one of the very first jazz songs composed with Persian lyrics, viguen, a prominent singer of the same period, was known as the Sultan of Jazz. He created some of the most memorable Iranian songs, including collaborations with Delkash, a music group named Ijaz was the first officially sanctioned jazz band to be formed in post-revolutionary Iran. They produced jazz fusion, with influences from Iranian classical music, rana Farhan, a popular Iranian jazz and blues singer living in New York, combines classic Persian poetry with modern jazz and blues. She has established a model to the fusion project that she continues to incorporate in her work. Bomrani, founded in 2008 by Behzad Omrani, is one of the first country blues bands formed in post-revolutionary Iran and they began with several experimental performances in cafes, and gradually developed with their theater music projects and performances at the City Theater of Tehran. Pallett Band, established in 2009, is a successful Iranian band composing jazz fusion of clarinet, cello and their album Mr. Violet achieved big success within the country in 2015. They have also performed in several European countries, there are several other artists, inside and outside of the country, who have composed jazz music. Ziba Shirazi, an Iranian-American singer, poet and storyteller, sings jazz protest songs with mainly feminist concepts, music of Iran Persian pop music
Persian jazz
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In 1963,
Duke Ellington composed a jazz song with the title 'Isfahan', in honor of the
Isfahan city.
Persian jazz
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Viguen Derderidan, known as the king of Persian pop and Persian jazz.
4.
Iranian pop music
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Iranian pop music refers to pop music originated in Iran, with songs mainly in Persian and other regional languages of the country. The origin of Iranian pop music back to the time of the 19th-century Qajar dynasty. Following the invent of radio in 1930, and after World War II, Persian pop music grew and developed during the 1950s. Different types of pop music, including rumba, tango and waltz music, were developed during this period. Viguen, known as the Sultan of Persian Pop and Jazz, was one of the most prominent and he was of Armenian origin, and sang in both Persian and Armenian. By the 1970s, a new wave was formed in Iranian pop music, using instruments and adding electric guitar. Parviz Maghsadi and Varoujan Hakhbandian were among pioneer composers who wrote and composed songs for singers such as Viguen, Googoosh, Dariush. After the 1979 Revolution, pop music was banned and completely disappeared from the scene in Iran, many Iranians immigrated to foreign countries, especially to Los Angeles in the United States, and many continued to sing in exile. Since then, several popular Iranian TV channels and radio stations operate outside of the country and these broadcast companies play an important role in promoting and connecting Iranian pop artists to Iranians living all over the world. In the 1990s, officials of the new government decided to produce and promote a decent pop music, in order to compete with the abroad, ali Moallem and Fereydoun Shahbazian headed a council at the IRIB that supervised the revival of domestic pop music. Shadmehr Aghili was one of the first post-revolutionary Iranian singers who received significant support, including promotion by national television and he was highly skilled at playing violin and guitar, and was a very talented singer. He became a successful and popular musician and singer in Iran. Under the presidency of Khatami, as a result of easing cultural restrictions within Iran, since the new administration took office, the Ministry of Ershad adopted a different policy, mainly to make it easier to monitor the industry. The newly adopted policy included loosening restrictions for a number of artists. However, the number of album releases increased, arian, the first officially sanctioned pop music band with female singers in post-revolutionary Iran, started a new chapter of Iranian pop music. In late 2009, Sirvan Khosravi became the first domestic Iranian artist to achieve high-rotation airplay on a regular European radio station and he made his debut with the song Saat-e 9, which also made headlines in Iranian online media. In August 2010, Farzad Farzin made his debut European chart with the song Chike Chike from his third legal album Shans. 1971, Googoosh, first prize and golden record at the MIDEM in Cannes,1972, Googoosh, first prize at the Carthage Music Festival
Iranian pop music
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Viguen Derderian, king of Persian pop and Persian jazz.
Iranian pop music
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Haydeh and
Anoushirvan at the National Iranian Radio and TV, Tehran, 1975
Iranian pop music
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Irish pop singer
Chris de Burgh joined
Arian band on their 2007 Album.
5.
Blues
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Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also a part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove, Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times, Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles experienced in African-American society. Many elements, such as the format and the use of blue notes. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later and it is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century, the first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues, World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a form called blues rock evolved. The term blues may have come from blue devils, meaning melancholy and sadness, the phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, by the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, in lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The lyrics of traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. Two of the first published songs, Dallas Blues and Saint Louis Blues, were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times, the lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody
Blues
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John Lomax (left) shaking hands with musician "Uncle" Rich Brown in Sumterville,
Alabama
Blues
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Charley Patton, one of the originators of the Delta blues style, playing with a
pick or a
bottleneck slide.
Blues
–
Sheet music from "
Saint Louis Blues " (1914)
Blues
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Bessie Smith, an early blues singer, was known for her powerful voice.
6.
Zoroastrian music
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Zoroastrian music is a genre of religious music that accompanies religious and traditional rites among the Zoroastrian people. Historical texts prove that prior to the arrival of Islam in Persia, Zoroastrians knew choral, the majority of these songs are no longer performed, although Zoroastrian religious songs still do remain. The wording of these songs are attained from either the Avesta or from the Gathas, islamic influence can be seen in the melodies of the Naderi method of prayer recitation and pilgrims songs. The ancient tambourine music of Kermanshah is similar to kinds of Zoroastrian music. Due to the death of the mobeds, many Zoroastrian customs have been forgotten and only a few remain
Zoroastrian music
–
The
Faravahar, believed to be a depiction of a
fravashi
7.
Sufism
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Sufism or Taṣawwuf, which is often defined as Islamic mysticism, the inward dimension of Islam, or the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam, is a mystical trend in Islam characterized. These orders meet for sessions in meeting places known as zawiyas, khanqahs. They strive for ihsan as detailed in a hadith, Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, if you cant see Him, Rumi stated, The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr. Sufis regard Muhammad as al-Insān al-Kāmil, the perfect man who exemplifies the morality of God. The orders largely follow one of the four madhhabs of Sunni Islam, classical Sufis were characterized by their asceticism, especially by their attachment to dhikr, the practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers. According to William Chittick, In a broad sense, Sufism can be described as the interiorization, historically, Muslims have used the Arabic word taṣawwuf to identify the practice of Sufis. In this view, it is necessary to be a Muslim to be a true Sufi. However, Islamic scholars themselves are not by any means in agreement about the meaning of the word sufi, Sufis themselves claim that Tasawwuf is an aspect of Islam similar to Sharia, inseparable from Islam and an integral part of Islamic belief and practice. Classical Sufi scholars have defined Tasawwuf as a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else, two origins of the word sufi have been suggested. Commonly, the root of the word is traced to ṣafā. Another origin is ṣūf, wool in Arabic, referring to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, the two were combined by the Sufi al-Rudhabari, who said, The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity. Scholars generally agree that ṣūf or wool is probably the word of Sufi. This term was given to them because they wore woollen garments, the term labisal-suf meant he clad himself in wool and applied to a person who renounced the world and became an ascetic. Others have suggested that the word comes from the term ahl aṣ-ṣuffah and these men and women who sat at al-Masjid an-Nabawi are considered by some to be the first Sufis. Al-Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun both rejected all other than ṣūf on linguistic grounds. Sufi orders are based on the bayah that was given to the Prophet Muhammad by his Sahaba, by pledging allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad, the Sahaba had committed themselves to the service of God. According to Islamic belief, by pledging allegiance to Prophet Muhammad and it is through the Prophet Muhammad that Sufis aim to learn about, understand and connect with God. Such a concept may be understood by the hadith, which Sufis regard to be authentic, in which Prophet Muhammad said, I am the city of knowledge, eminent Sufis such as Ali Hujwiri refer to Ali as having a very high ranking in Tasawwuf
Sufism
Sufism
–
The tomb of
Sheikh Rukn-ud-Din Abul Fath located in
Multan, Pakistan. The city of Multan is known for various Sufi Saint tombs, as they call it the City of Saints
Sufism
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Entrance of Sidi Boumediene mosque in
Tlemcen,
Algeria, built to honor 12th century Sufi master
Abu Madyan
Sufism
–
The tomb of Khoja Afāq, near
Kashgar,
China.
8.
Tazieh
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Tazieh or Tazïye or Tazīya or Tazīa, means comfort, condolence. It comes from roots aza which means mourning, depending on the region, time, occasion, religion, etc. In reference to Iranian Shiism it is a kind of Passion Play on the killing of Hussein. In South Asia and in the Caribbean it refers specifically to the Miniature Mausoleums used in processions held in the month of Muharram. It dates from before the Islamic era and the tragedy of Saiawush in Shahnameh is one of the best examples, in Persian tradition, Tazieh and Parde-khani, inspired by historical and religious events, symbolize epic spirit and resistance. The common themes are heroic tales of love and sacrifice and of resistance against the evil, while in the west the two major genres of drama have been comedy and tragedy, in Persia, Tazieh seems to be the dominant genre. Considered as Persian opera, Tazieh resembles European opera in many respects, Persian cinema and Persian symphonic music have been influenced by the long tradition of Tazieh in Iran. Abbas Kiarostami, famous Iranian film maker, made a movie titled A Look to Tazieh in which he explores the relationship of the audience to this theatrical form. Nasser Taghvaee also made a documentary on Tazieh titled Tamrin e Akhar, the appearance of the characteristic dramatic form of Persia known as the tazïyeMuizz ad-Dawla, the king of Buyid dynasty, in 963. As soon as the Safavid Dynasty was established in Persia in 1501 and the Shiism of the Twelvers adopted as the official sect, Shia Muslims take out a Tazīya procession on day of Ashura in South Asia. The artwork is a colorfully painted bamboo and paper mausoleum, during the colonial era in British India, the tazīya tradition was not only practiced by Shia Muslims and other Muslims but joined by Hindus. Like Western passion plays, tazia dramas were performed outdoors at crossroads. Performances later took place in the courtyards of inns and private homes, the takias varied in size, from intimate structures which could only accommodate a few dozen spectators to large buildings capable of holding an audience of more than a thousand people. Often the takias were temporary, having been erected specially for the mourning of Muharram, all takias, regardless of their size, are constructed as theaters-in-the-round to intensify the dynamic between actors and audience. The spectators are literally surrounded by the action and often become physical participants in the play, in unwalled takias, it is not unusual for combat scenes to occur behind the audience. Takia-ye Dawlat, the Royal Theater in Tehran, was the most famous of all the performance spaces. Built in the 1870s by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Royal Theaters sumptuous magnificence surpassed that of Europes greatest opera houses in the opinion of many Western visitors and this takia was later destroyed by Reza Shah. Hosay Taziya By Dāūd Munšī-Zadah Passion play an article by Encyclopædia Britannica online The passion of Husayn ibn Ali by Peter Chelkowski, an article of Encyclopædia Iranica
Tazieh
–
A shot from Ta'zieh
Tazieh
–
Indian
Shia Muslims take out a Ta'zīya procession on
day of Ashura in
Barabanki, India, Jan, 2009.
Tazieh
–
Tabuiks being lowered into the sea in
Pariaman, Indonesia
9.
Azerbaijani Music
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Azerbaijani music is the musical tradition of the Azeri people, from Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan. It builds on folk traditions that reach back nearly 1,000 years, for centuries, Azer music has evolved under the badge of monody, producing rhythmically diverse melodies. Music from Azerbaijan has a branch system, where chromatisation of major and minor scales is of great importance. In 1920, Azerbaijani classical music had undergone a renaissance and Baku Academy of Music was founded to give classical musicians the same support as folk musicians, modern day advocates of Western classical music in Azerbaijani include Farhad Badalbeyli, Fidan Gasimova and Franghiz Alizadeh. Beginning in 1900, opera troupes toured Baku on a yearly basis, most songs recount stories of real life events and Azerbaijani folklore, or have developed through song contests between troubadour poets. Corresponding to their origins, folk songs are played at weddings, funerals. Regional folk music generally accompanies folk dances, which vary significantly across regions, the regional mood also affects the subject of the folk songs, e. g. folk songs from the Caspian Sea are lively in general and express the customs of the region. Songs about betrayal have an air of defiance about them instead of sadness, as this genre is viewed as a music of the people, musicians in socialist movements began to adapt folk music with contemporary sounds and arrangements in the form of protest music. Other instruments include the garmon, tutek, and daf, due to the cultural crossbreeding prevalent during the Ottoman Empire, the tutek has influenced various cultures in the Caucasus region, e. g. the duduks. The zurna and naghara duo is also popular in rural areas, Ashiqs are traveling bards who sing and play the saz, a form of lute. Their songs are semi-improvised around a common base and this art is one of the symbols of Azerbaijani culture and considered an emblem of national identity and the guardian of Azerbaijani language, literature and music. Since 2009 the art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs has been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, meykhana is a distinctive Azerbaijani literary and folk rap tradition, consisting of an unaccompanied song performed by one or more people improvising on a particular subject. Meykhana is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat, performers also incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands. Meykhana masters may write, memorize, or improvise their lyrics, Mugham is one of the many folk musical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrast with Tasnif, Ashugs. It is a complex art form that weds classical poetry. Unlike Western modes, mugham modes are associated not only with scales but with an orally transmitted collection of melodies, Mugham is a compound composition of many parts. The choice of a particular mugham and a style of performance fits a specific event, the dramatic unfolding in performance is typically associated with increasing intensity and rising pitches, and a form of poetic-musical communication between performers and initiated listeners. Three major schools of mugham performance existed from the late 19th and early 20th centuries - the region of Garabagh, Shirvan, the town of Shusha of Karabakh was particularly renowned for this art
Azerbaijani Music
–
Music of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani Music
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Scene from Ballet of "
The Maiden Tower " by
Afrasiyab Badalbeyli
Azerbaijani Music
–
Scene from Ballet of "Leyli and Majnun" by
Gara Garayev
Azerbaijani Music
10.
Bakhtiari people
–
The Bakhtiari are a southwestern Iranian tribe, and a subgroup of the Lurs. They speak the Bakhtiari dialect, a southwestern Iranian dialect, belonging to the Lurish language, Bakhtiaris primarily inhabit Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari and eastern Khuzestan, Lorestan, Bushehr, and Isfahan. In Khuzestan, Bakhtiari tribes are concentrated primarily in the part of the province. A small percentage of Bakhtiari are still nomadic pastoralists, migrating between summer quarters and winter quarters, numerical estimates of their total population vary widely. In Iranian mythology, the Bakhtiaris are considered to be descendants of Fereydun and they are also considered to be directly descended from Cyrus the Great. The Southwest Eurasian haplogroups F, G, and T1a also reach substantial frequency among Bakhtiaris. The term bakhtiari can be best translated as companion of chance or bearer of good luck The term has deep Persian roots and is the result of two smaller words bakht and yar complied together. Bakht is the Persian word for chance and yar, iar, the latter designation largely relates to the nature of the tribes annual migration. This has to do with the nature of Bakhtiari life. In this sense, Bakhtiaris view themselves as a tribe, facing numerous obstacles everyday. Nevertheless, the origins of Bakhtiaris are ancient and it may have well been the case that the tribe underwent a series of name changes throughout its history. However It is mostly claimed that the designation Bakhtiari came largely into use some time in antiquity, Constitutional Revolution, In Irans contemporary history, the Bakhtiari have played a significant role, particularly during the advent of the countrys Constitutional Revolution. This event was largely secured through the Bakhtari campaign, which eventually deposed Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar. The Bakhtiari tribesmen, under the leadership of the Haft Lang khans Sardar Assad and his brother Najaf Qoli Khan Bakhtiari- Saad ad-Daula, captured Tehran and, as a result and these events eventually led to the abdication of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar in 1909 and his exile to Russia. This incident secured Saad ad-Daula the position of Prime Minister in the period followed the abdication of the Qajar Shah. Nonetheless, with Russian backing, the Shah would soon return in 1911 by landing with a coalition of forces at Astarabad, however, his efforts to reclaim his throne would bear no fruit. In this sense, the Bakhtiaris played a role in saving the revolution from the Qajar forces. Pahlavi Period, With the expansion of Bakhtiari influence, urban elites began to worry in regards to a potential Bakhtiari takeover of Persias affairs, prior to this point, the Bakhtiari had largely remained within their own territorial boundaries
Bakhtiari people
–
A Bakhtiari nomad family
11.
Gilaki people
–
The Gilaki people or Gilaks are an Iranian people native to the northern Iran province of Gilan and are one of the main ethnic groups residing in the northern parts of Iran. Gilaks, along with the closely related Mazandarani people, comprise part of the Caspian people and they speak the Gilaki language, which is closely related to Mazandarani. The Mazandarani people once called their language Geleki or Gilaki, but now call it Mazani or Mazandarani, Gilaki people live both alongside the Alborz mountains, and in the surrounding plains. Consequentially, those living along the side of the Alborz mountains tend to raise livestock. Gilaks play an important role in provincial and national economy, supplying a large portion of the agricultural staples, such as rice, grains, tobacco. Other major industries include fishing and caviar exports, and the production of silk, the population of Gilaki people is estimated to be between 3 to 4 million. They mainly live along the southwest coasts of the Caspian Sea and are one of the ethnic groups that reside in the northern parts of Iran. The Gilaki are closely related to the neighboring Mazandarani, and other groups of Caucasus descent, such as Georgians, Armenians, the Gilaki language, is a member of the Northwestern branch of the Iranian languages. It is the language spoken amongst the Gilaki people, although various regional and local dialects of the Gilaki language are common. Gilak people are fluent in both the Gilaki language and standard Persian, Persian is the official language of education in Iran, and since teachers are discouraged from using regional dialects and accents in class, the Gilaki language is taught to children at home. The Gilaki and Mazandarani languages share certain features with Caucasian languages. However, with the growth of education and press, the differentiation between Gilaki and other Iranian languages are likely to disappear, Gilaki is closely related to Mazandarani and the two languages have similar vocabularies. These two languages retain more than Persian does of the declension system that was characteristic of older-Iranian languages. The Gilaks and their closely related Mazandarani occupy the South Caspian region of Iran and it has been suggested that their ancestors came from the Caucasus region, perhaps displacing an earlier group in the South Caspian. Linguistic evidence supports this scenario, in that the Gilaki and Mazandarani languages share certain features with Caucasian languages. There have been patterns analyzed of mtDNA and Y chromosome variation in the Gilaki, based on mtDNA HV1 sequences, the Gilaks and Mazandarani most closely resemble their geographic and linguistic neighbors, namely other Iranian groups. However, their Y chromosome types most closely resemble those found in groups from the South Caucasus, concomitant replacement of language and mtDNA may be a more general phenomenon than previously recognized. Iranians from Tehran and Isfahan are situated more distantly from these groups, the Gilaks display a high frequency of Y-DNA haplogroups R1a1a, J2a, J1, and G2a3b
Gilaki people
–
Gilani traditional attire
Gilaki people
Gilaki people
Gilaki people
12.
Kurdish music
–
Kurdish music refers to music performed in Kurdish language. Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish Classical performers - storytellers, minstrels and bards, there was no specific music related to the Kurdish princely courts, and instead, music performed in night gatherings is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre, many songs are epic in nature, such as the popular Lawiks which are heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love, lawje is a form of religious music and Payizoks are songs performed specifically in autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other songs, erotic poetry. Another style of singing that originated as practice to recite hymns in both Zoroastrian and Islamic Sufi faiths is Siya Cheman and this style is practiced mostly in the mountainous subregion of Hewraman in the Hewrami dialect. However, some artists, have adopted the style and blended it with other Kurdish music. Siya Cheman can also be classified as çîrokbêj because it is used to for storytelling. Musical instruments include the tembûr, biziq, qernête and bilûr in northern and western Kurdistan, şimşal, cûzele, kemençe and def in the south, zirne and dahol are found in all parts of Kurdistan. The most frequently used song form has two verses with ten syllable lines, Kurdish songs are characterized by their simple melodies, with a range of only four or five notes. The sufi music of the Yarsanî sect with its 72 meqams is thought to be one of the most authentic, the Kamkars from the city of Sanandaj is a leading ensemble in Kurdish music today. They are internationally renowned for their performance of Kurdish folk music and with great dynamism, some members of the group, including Arsalan and Hooshang Kamkar, have also worked individually and produced successful works. Nasir Razazî, who now resides in Sweden, performs Kurdish music from all genres, ali Akbar Moradi is the greatest master of the religious tembûr music of the Yarsan sect to which he belongs. Aras Ibrahim, the violinist, built martyr Karzan music group in 1981 which was the group who could record revolutionary songs in the mountain in the PUK released areas of Kurdistan. The group recorded 5 cassettes and published them, in 1990, the group participated in the First festival of Halabja & Nawroz in Saqz-Iran with the famous coral of Halabja which was about the chemical weapon used against the Kurds there. Despite the lack of any musical educational infrastructure, several famous Kurdish musicians arose from Syria, gerabêtê Xaço was a great classical stranbêj, Muradê Kinê was another great stranbêj and kemençe player. Seîd Yûsif is acclaimed for his virtuosity on the biziq and his authentic teqsîms. Mihemed Şêxo was a master of symbolic nationalistic lyrics who was imprisoned several times for expressing his opinion through his songs
Kurdish music
–
The Kamkars in
Kurdish costume. The Kamkars are a famous group in Kurdish music.
13.
Persian art
–
This article covers the art of Persia up to 1925, the end of the Qajar dynasty, for later art see Iranian modern and contemporary art, and for traditional crafts see arts of Iran. Iranian architecture is covered at that article, the courts of successive dynasties have generally led the style of Persian art, and court-sponsored art has left many of the most impressive survivals. In ancient times the surviving monuments of Persian art are notable for a tradition concentrating on the human figure, Persian art continued to place larger emphasis on figures than Islamic art from other areas, though for religious reasons now generally avoiding large examples, especially in sculpture. Under the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century this style was used across a variety of media. Evidence of a civilization around Susa has been dated to c 5000 BCE. Susa was firmly within the Sumerian Uruk cultural sphere during the Uruk period, an imitation of the entire state apparatus of Uruk, proto-writing, cylinder seals with Sumerian motifs, and monumental architecture, is found at Susa. Susa may have been a colony of Uruk, as such, the periodization of Susa corresponds to Uruk, Early, Middle and Late Susa II periods correspond to Early, Middle, and Late Uruk periods. Shortly after Susa was first settled 6000 years ago, its inhabitants erected a temple on a platform that rose over the flat surrounding landscape. The exceptional nature of the site is still today in the artistry of the ceramic vessels that were placed as offerings in a thousand or more graves near the base of the temple platform. Nearly two thousand pots were recovered from the cemetery most of now in the Louvre. The vessels found are eloquent testimony to the artistic and technical achievements of their makers, painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, regional version of the Mesopotamian Ubaid ceramic tradition that spread across the Near East during the fifth millennium B. C. Susa I style was much a product of the past. Ceramics of these shapes, which were painted, constitute a large proportion of the vessels from the cemetery. Others are course cooking-type jars and bowls with simple bands painted on them and were probably the grave goods of the sites of humbler citizens as well as adolescents and, perhaps, the pottery is carefully made by hand. Although a slow wheel may have employed, the asymmetry of the vessels. Elamite art, from the south and west of modern Iran shared many characteristics with the art of Mesopotamia. Cylinder seals, small figures of worshippers, gods and animals, shallow reliefs, there are a small number of very fine gold vessels with relief figures. Luristan bronzes are small cast objects decorated with sculptures from the Early Iron Age which have been found in large numbers in Lorestān Province
Persian art
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Persian arts
Persian art
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From the yarn fiber to the colors, every part of the Persian rug is traditionally handmade from natural ingredients over the course of many months.
Persian art
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Mihr 'Ali (Iranian, active ca. 1800-1830). Portrait of
Fath Ali Shah Qajar, 1815.
Brooklyn Museum
Persian art
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Mullahs in the royal presence. The painting style is markedly Qajari.
14.
Visual arts
–
The visual arts are art forms such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, filmmaking, literature, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines involve aspects of the arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design. Current usage of the visual arts includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts. The increasing tendency to painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes, training in the visual arts has generally been through variations of the apprentice and workshop systems. Visual arts have now become a subject in most education systems. Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a variety of tools. Digital tools that simulate the effects of these are also used, the main techniques used in drawing are, line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman, drawing goes back at least 16,000 years to Paleolithic cave representations of animals such as those at Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. In ancient Egypt, ink drawings on papyrus, often depicting people, were used as models for painting or sculpture, drawings on Greek vases, initially geometric, later developed to the human form with black-figure pottery during the 7th century BC. Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a carrier, like drawing, painting has its documented origins in caves and on rock faces. The finest examples, believed by some to be 32,000 years old, are in the Chauvet, in shades of red, brown, yellow and black, the paintings on the walls and ceilings are of bison, cattle, horses and deer. Paintings of human figures can be found in the tombs of ancient Egypt, in the great temple of Ramses II, Nefertari, his queen, is depicted being led by Isis. The Greeks contributed to painting but much of their work has been lost, one of the best remaining representations are the hellenistic Fayum mummy portraits. Another example is mosaic of the Battle of Issus at Pompeii, Greek and Roman art contributed to Byzantine art in the 4th century BC, which initiated a tradition in icon painting. Apart from the manuscripts produced by monks during the Middle Ages
Visual arts
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Vincent van Gogh:
The Church at Auvers (1890)
Visual arts
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Mosaic of Battle of Issus
Visual arts
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Nefertari with Isis
Visual arts
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Raphael:
Spasimo (1514-1516)
15.
Persian miniature
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A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts. The tradition continued, under some Western influence, after this, the Persian miniature was the dominant influence on other Islamic miniature traditions, principally the Ottoman miniature in Turkey, and the Mughal miniature in the Indian sub-continent. Persian art under Islam had never completely forbidden the human figure and this was partly because the miniature is a private form, kept in a book or album and only shown to those the owner chooses. It was therefore possible to be free than in wall paintings or other works seen by a wider audience. In Islamic art this is referred to as illumination, and manuscripts of the Quran, in later periods miniatures were increasingly created as single works to be included in albums called muraqqa, rather than illustrated books. This allowed non-royal collectors to afford a representative sample of works from different styles, the bright and pure colouring of the Persian miniature is one of its most striking features. Lighting is even, without shadows or chiaroscuro, walls and other surfaces are shown either frontally, or as at an angle of about 45 degrees, often giving the modern viewer the unintended impression that a building is hexagonal in plan. Buildings are often shown in complex views, mixing interior views through windows or cutaways with exterior views of parts of a facade. Costumes and architecture are always those of the time, many figures are often depicted, with those in the main scene normally rendered at the same size, and recession indicated by placing more distant figures higher up in the space. More important figures may be larger than those around them. The dress of figures is shown with great care, although artists understandably often avoid depicting the patterned cloth that many would have worn. Even when a scene in a palace is shown, the viewpoint often appears to be from a point some metres in the air. This is used in all the manuscripts for the court that constitute the most famous Persian manuscripts. The miniatures normally occupy a full page, later spreading across two pages to regain a square or horizontal landscape format. There are often panels of text or captions inside the picture area, the rest of the page is often decorated with dense designs of plants and animals in a muted grisaille, often gold and brown, text pages without miniatures often also have such borders. In later manuscripts, elements of the miniature begin to expand beyond the frame, another later development was the album miniature, conceived as a single picture rather than a book illustration, though such images may be accompanied by short lyric poems. The withdrawal of Shah Tahmasp I from commissioning illustrated books in the 1540s probably encouraged artists to transfer to these works for a wider circle of patrons
Persian miniature
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Behzad 's Advice of the Ascetic (c. 1500-1550). As in Western
illuminated manuscripts, exquisitely decorated borders were an integral part of the work of art.
Persian miniature
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Camp scene from late in the classic period, with no frame.
Majnun (at top wearing orange) spies on his beloved Layla (standing in tent doorway)
Persian miniature
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Saki, album miniature by
Reza Abbasi, 1609
Persian miniature
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Complex palace scene, 1539-43,
Mir Sayyid Ali
16.
Persian carpet
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Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and art. Within the group of Oriental rugs or Islamic carpets produced by the countries of the rug belt. Persian carpets and rugs of various types were woven in parallel by nomadic tribes, in village and town workshops, as such, they represent different, simultaneous lines of tradition, and reflect the history of Iran and its various peoples. Their patterns and designs have set a tradition for court manufactories which was kept alive during the entire duration of the Persian Empire up to the last royal dynasty of Iran. Town manufactories like those of Tabriz have played an important historical role in reviving the tradition of carpet weaving after periods of decline, Rugs woven by the villages and various tribes of Iran are distinguished by their fine wool, bright and elaborate colours, and specific, traditional patterns. Gabbeh rugs are the type of carpet from this line of tradition. The art and craft of weaving has gone through periods of decline during times of political unrest. It particularly suffered from the introduction of synthetic dyes during the half of the nineteenth century. Carpet weaving still plays a part in the economy of modern Iran. Hand-woven Persian carpets and rugs were regarded as objects of artistic and utilitarian value and prestige from the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers. In 2010, the skills of carpet weaving in Fārs. The beginning of carpet weaving remains unknown, as carpets are subject to use, deterioration, woven rugs probably developed from earlier floor coverings, made of felt, or a technique known as flat weaving. Flat-woven rugs are made by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a surface with no pile. The technique of weaving carpets further developed into a known as loop weaving. Loop weaving is done by pulling the strings over a gauge rod. The rod is then removed, leaving the loops closed, or the loops are cut over the protecting rod. Hand-woven pile rugs are produced by knotting strings of thread individually into the warps, the Pazyryk carpet was excavated in 1949 from the grave of a Scythian nobleman in the Pazyryk Valley of the Altai Mountains in Siberia. Radiocarbon testing indicated that the Pazyryk carpet was woven in the 5th century BC and this carpet is 183 by 200 centimetres and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm²
Persian carpet
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Persian arts
Persian carpet
Persian carpet
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The
Pazyryk Carpet. Circa 400 BC.
Hermitage Museum
Persian carpet
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A Mongol prince studying the Koran. Illustration of Rashid-ad-Din's Gami' at-tawarih. Tabriz (?), 1st quarter of 14th century
17.
Persian calligraphy
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Persian calligraphy or Iranian calligraphy is the calligraphy of the Persian language. It is one of the most revered arts throughout history of Iran, after the introduction of Islam in the 7th century, Persians adapted the Arabic alphabet to Persian and developed the contemporary Persian alphabet. The Arabic alphabet has 28 characters, an additional four letters were added by Iranians, which resulted in the 32 letters currently present in the Persian alphabet. Around one thousand years ago, Ibn Muqlah and his brother created six genres of Iranian calligraphy, namely Mohaqiq, Reyhan, Sols, Naskh, Toqi and these genres were common for four centuries in Persia. In the 7th century, Hassan Farsi Kateb combined the Naskh and Reqah styles, in the 14th century, Mir Ali Tabrizi combined two major scripts of his time, i. e. Naskh and Taliq, and created a new Persian calligraphic style called Nas’taliq. In the past 500 years Nastaʿlīq has been the predominant style for writing the Perso-Arabic script, history of cursive Nastaliq In the 17th century Morteza Gholi Khan Shamlou and Mohammad Shafi Heravi created a new genre called cursive Nastaʿlīq Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq. Almost a century later, Abdol-Majid Taleqani, who was a prominent artist at the time and this calligraphic style is based on the same rules as Nas’taliq. However, cursive Nas’taliq has a few significant differences, it more flexible movements. Yadollah Kaboli is one of the most prominent contemporary calligraphers within this style, in 1950, the Irans Association of Calligraphers was founded by Hossein Mirkhani, Ali Akbar Kaveh, Ebrahim Bouzari, Hassan Mirkhani and Mehdi Baiani. For an overview of Persian calligraphys development within Afghanistan, see Calligraphy during last two centuries in Afghanistan, by Azizuddin Vakili. Zendeh Roudi, Jalil Rasouli, Parviz Tanavoli, and Nima Behnoud use Persian calligraphy and Rumi poetry in dress designing. this style of work can be classified as post modern
Persian calligraphy
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Calligraphy
Persian calligraphy
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Example showing Nastaʿlīq's proportion rules.
Persian calligraphy
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Persian calligraphy.
Persian calligraphy
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Folio of Poetry From the Divan of Sultan Husayn Mirza, ca. 1490.
Brooklyn Museum.
18.
Decorative art
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The decorative arts are arts or crafts concerned with the design and manufacture of beautiful objects that are also functional. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture, the decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the fine arts, namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture, which generally have no function other than to be seen. The distinction between the decorative and the arts has essentially arisen from the post-Renaissance art of the West. This distinction is less meaningful when considering the art of other cultures and periods. For example, Islamic art in many periods and places consists entirely of the arts, often using geometric and plant forms. The distinction between decorative and fine arts is not very useful for appreciating Chinese art, and neither is it for understanding Early Medieval art in Europe, large-scale wall-paintings were much less regarded, crudely executed, and rarely mentioned in contemporary sources. They were probably seen as a substitute for mosaic, which for this period must be viewed as a fine art. The term ars sacra is sometimes used for medieval Christian art done in metal, ivory, textiles, illuminated manuscripts have a much higher survival rate, especially in the hands of the church, as there was little value in the materials and they were easy to store. Most European art during the Middle Ages had been produced under a different set of values. The lower status given to works of art in contrast to fine art narrowed with the rise of the Arts and Crafts Movement. This aesthetic movement of the half of the 19th century was born in England and inspired by William Morris. The movement represented the beginning of an appreciation of the decorative arts throughout Europe. Many converts, both professional artists ranks and from among the intellectual class as a whole, helped spread the ideas of the movement. The influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement led to the arts being given a greater appreciation and status in society. Until the enactment of the Copyright Act 1911 only works of art had been protected from unauthorised copying. The 1911 Act extended the definition of a work to include works of artistic craftsmanship
Decorative art
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The front side of the
Cross of Lothair (c. 1000), a classic example of "Ars Sacra"
Decorative art
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Surahi,
Mughal, 17th Century CE.
National Museum, New Delhi
Decorative art
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Chinese bowl,
Northern Song Dynasty, 11th or 12th century, porcelaneous pottery with
celadon glaze
19.
Persian embroidery
–
Persian embroidery is one of the Persian arts. It uses mostly floral motifs, especially Persian figures, animals, Persian embroidered womens trouserings, also known as Gilets Persans, have rich patterns, these were in fashion until the late 18th century. The designs are always of diagonal, parallel bands filled with floral ornamentation, Persian embroidery existed from the ancient times and at least from the time of the Sassanids. Numerous designs are visible on rock sculptures and silverware of that period, patterns on the coat of Chosroes II at Taq-e Bostan are in high relief, they may represent embroidery. Roundels, animals, and other familiar motives of Sassanid art were also used, the earlier Persian embroideries are almost all of type in which the design covers the entire work. The reverse is true of the later pieces, in which the plain-coloured background is equally as important as the varied silks of the needlework. Earlier pieces are almost all similar in design to one or other of the types of carpets. These are mainly worked in darning-stitch on cotton or loosely woven linen, carpet-weaving was mainly done by men, and embroidery by women, members of the same family worked at both trades. Victoria and Albert Museum, His Majestys stationery Office, London 1950, history of the Persian embroidery Examples of the Persian embroidery
Persian embroidery
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Persian arts
Persian embroidery
–
Styles
Persian embroidery
Persian embroidery
20.
Persian motifs
–
Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and art. Within the group of Oriental rugs or Islamic carpets produced by the countries of the rug belt. Persian carpets and rugs of various types were woven in parallel by nomadic tribes, in village and town workshops, as such, they represent different, simultaneous lines of tradition, and reflect the history of Iran and its various peoples. Their patterns and designs have set a tradition for court manufactories which was kept alive during the entire duration of the Persian Empire up to the last royal dynasty of Iran. Town manufactories like those of Tabriz have played an important historical role in reviving the tradition of carpet weaving after periods of decline, Rugs woven by the villages and various tribes of Iran are distinguished by their fine wool, bright and elaborate colours, and specific, traditional patterns. Gabbeh rugs are the type of carpet from this line of tradition. The art and craft of weaving has gone through periods of decline during times of political unrest. It particularly suffered from the introduction of synthetic dyes during the half of the nineteenth century. Carpet weaving still plays a part in the economy of modern Iran. Hand-woven Persian carpets and rugs were regarded as objects of artistic and utilitarian value and prestige from the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers. In 2010, the skills of carpet weaving in Fārs. The beginning of carpet weaving remains unknown, as carpets are subject to use, deterioration, woven rugs probably developed from earlier floor coverings, made of felt, or a technique known as flat weaving. Flat-woven rugs are made by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a surface with no pile. The technique of weaving carpets further developed into a known as loop weaving. Loop weaving is done by pulling the strings over a gauge rod. The rod is then removed, leaving the loops closed, or the loops are cut over the protecting rod. Hand-woven pile rugs are produced by knotting strings of thread individually into the warps, the Pazyryk carpet was excavated in 1949 from the grave of a Scythian nobleman in the Pazyryk Valley of the Altai Mountains in Siberia. Radiocarbon testing indicated that the Pazyryk carpet was woven in the 5th century BC and this carpet is 183 by 200 centimetres and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm²
Persian motifs
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Persian arts
Persian motifs
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Persian Silk Brocade. Paisley Left and Right(Bote Jeghe), (Persian Paisley)
Persian motifs
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Persian Silk Brocade. Toranj, Medallion, Torange
Persian motifs
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The Fish (Mahi) with Shah Abbasi Flower
21.
Tile
–
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass, generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. Alternatively, tile can sometimes refer to units made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood. In another sense, a tile is a tile or similar object. The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex mosaics. Tiling stone is marble, onyx, granite or slate. Thinner tiles can be used on walls than on floors, which require more durable surfaces that will resist impacts, the earliest evidence of glazed brick is the discovery of glazed bricks in the Elamite Temple at Chogha Zanbil, dated to the 13th century BC. Glazed and colored bricks were used to make low reliefs in Ancient Mesopotamia, most famously the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, now reconstructed in Berlin. Mesopotamian craftsmen were imported for the palaces of the Persian Empire such as Persepolis, tiling was used in the second century by the Sinhalese kings of ancient Sri Lanka, using smoothed and polished stone laid on floors and in swimming pools. Historians consider the techniques and tools for tiling as well advanced, evidenced by the fine workmanship, tiling from this period can be seen Ruwanwelisaya and Kuttam Pokuna in the city of Anuradhapura. The Achaemenid Empire decorated buildings with glazed tiles, including Darius the Greats palace at Susa. The succeeding Sassanid Empire used tiles patterned with geometric designs, flowers, plants, birds and human beings, early Islamic mosaics in Iran consist mainly of geometric decorations in mosques and mausoleums, made of glazed brick. Typical turquoise tiling becomes popular in 10th-11th century and is used mostly for Kufic inscriptions on mosque walls, seyyed Mosque in Isfahan, Dome of Maraqeh and the Jame Mosque of Gonabad are among the finest examples. The dome of Jame Atiq Mosque of Qazvin is also dated to this period, the golden age of Persian tilework began during the reign the Timurid Empire. In the moraq technique, single-color tiles were cut into small geometric pieces, after hardening, these panels were assembled on the walls of buildings. But the mosaic was not limited to flat areas, Tiles were used to cover both the interior and exterior surfaces of domes. Prominent Timurid examples of this include the Jame Mosque of Yazd, Goharshad Mosque, the Madrassa of Khan in Shiraz. Other important tile techniques of time include girih tiles, with their characteristic white girih. Mihrabs, being the points of mosques, were usually the places where most sophisticated tilework was placed
Tile
–
Mid-16th-century decorative tilework on the
Dome of the Rock,
Jerusalem
Tile
–
Blue Turkish tiles
Tile
–
Imam Mosque in Iran
Tile
–
Topkapi Palace
22.
Persian handicrafts
–
Iranian handicrafts are handicraft works originating from Iran. Ghalamkar Iranian Termeh Termeh is a cloth which is woven since the Safavid era in Iran, there is an argument between researchers about its origin. In the past, the first step in termeh weaving was preparing its raw materials, so it was very important to be careful while preparing wool, washing and drying it. Weaving termeh needs proper wool which has long fibers, usually the designs of Iranian termeh were the result of the co-operation between two main persons – an expert and a worker. Weaving termeh was a careful, sensitive and time consuming work that a good weaver could produce only 25 to 30 centimeters in a day. The background colors which are used in termeh are mostly red, light red, green, orange. Termeh as a valuable textile has many different usages and patterns such as, stripped pattern which is of two models – narrow and wide striped. Atabaki pattern which was one of the kashmiri’s termeh used for expensive fabric because it was a finely woven termeh, usually nobles and aristocrats used it as costly and nice cloth. Zomorrodi pattern in which the color was used more than the others. Kashmiri in which the shape of deer’s horn was used for its design, Termeh is a very durable cloth in which fixed colors are used so it can be washed and dried easily. Nowadays termeh is mostly used for collectible tablecloth. These tablecloth are decorated with elaborative Persian embroidery called “sermeh doozy”. This is done by a goldsmith or forger using hands, press machine or both and this part around the intended form is a so-called wall standing two or three millimeters above the surface of the container. This is usually done by or sometimes the turquoise inlayer himself and this both makes the work more beautiful and makes the turquoise inlaid surface stronger. Turquoise Inlaying First of all, the turquoise inlayer buys waste turquoise chips from turquoise forming workshops or turquoise mines in Mashhad, since such turquoise chips are usually accompanied by some earth and ordinary stone chips, they are first separated and cleaned. Then, the chips are graded based on their sizes so the right size turquoise chips are used in making each Turquoise Inlaying object in proportion to the surface area. While the lac is still soft and sticky on the object surface, the chips must be placed in a way so that no space is left between them as far as possible. This is usually done by pressing the turquoise chips by hand onto the surface so that they stick fast to it, after the object is cooled, the lac covered parts become rigid. After that stage, the covered by lac and turquoise chips are polished with emery so the extra lac
Persian handicrafts
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Persian arts
Persian handicrafts
–
A sample of Iranian Khatamkari
Persian handicrafts
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A sample of Iranian Termeh
Persian handicrafts
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Persian metal Engraving (golden plate),depicting King
Anushirvan
23.
Persian pottery
–
Persian pottery or Iranian pottery refers to the pottery works made by the artists of Persia and its history goes back to early Neolithic Age. Through the centuries, Persian potters have responded to the demands and changes brought by political turmoil by adopting and refining newly introduced forms and this innovative attitude has survived through time and influenced many other cultures around the world. Evidence of a civilization around Susa has been dated to c 5000 BCE. Susa was firmly within the Sumerian Uruk cultural sphere during the Uruk period, an imitation of the entire state apparatus of Uruk, proto-writing, cylinder seals with Sumerian motifs, and monumental architecture, is found at Susa. Susa may have been a colony of Uruk, as such, the periodization of Susa corresponds to Uruk, Early, Middle and Late Susa II periods correspond to Early, Middle, and Late Uruk periods. Shortly after Susa was first settled 6000 years ago, its inhabitants erected a temple on a platform that rose over the flat surrounding landscape. The exceptional nature of the site is still today in the artistry of the ceramic vessels that were placed as offerings in a thousand or more graves near the base of the temple platform. Nearly two thousand pots were recovered from the cemetery and now, most of now are located in the Louvre. The vessels found are eloquent testimony to the artistic and technical achievements of their makers, painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, regional version of the Mesopotamian Ubaid ceramic tradition that spread across the Near East during the fifth millennium B. C. Susa I style was much a product of the past. Ceramics of these shapes, which were painted, constitute a large proportion of the vessels from the cemetery. Others are course cooking-type jars and bowls with simple bands painted on them and were probably the grave goods of the sites of humbler citizens as well as adolescents and, perhaps, the pottery is carefully made by hand. Although a slow wheel may have employed, the asymmetry of the vessels. The Samanid period saw the creation of epigraphic pottery and these pieces were typically earthenware vessels with black slip lettering in Kufi script painted on a base of white slip. These vessels would typically be inscribed with benedictions or adages, samarqand and Nishapur were both centers of production for this kind of pottery. Innovations in ceramics from this include the production of minai ware, enamelled with figures on a white background, and use fritware. Metalworkers highlighted their intricate hammered designs with precious metal inlays, one potter, Abū Zayd ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Zayd has 15 signed surviving 15 pieces, more than any other medieval Iranian potter. The study and dating of ceramics under Shah Ismail and Shah Tahmasp is difficult because there are few pieces which are dated or which mention the place of production
Persian pottery
–
Bowl with
Kufic Inscription, 10th century.
Brooklyn Museum.
Persian pottery
–
Persian Pottery from the city Isfahan, 17th century.
24.
Literature
–
Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works. Its Latin root literatura/litteratura was used to refer to all written accounts, developments in print technology have allowed an evergrowing distribution and proliferation of written works, culminating in electronic literature. There have been attempts to define literature. Simon and Delyse Ryan begin their attempt to answer the question What is Literature, with the observation, The quest to discover a definition for literature is a road that is much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they change over time. In fact, the thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature change over time as well, definitions of literature have varied over time, it is a culturally relative definition. In Western Europe prior to the century, literature as a term indicated all books. A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works. The value judgment definition of literature considers it to cover exclusively those writings that possess high quality or distinction and this sort of definition is that used in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition when it classifies literature as the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing. The formalist definition is that literature foregrounds poetic effects, it is the literariness or poetic of literature that distinguishes it from ordinary speech or other kinds of writing. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteratura learning, a writing, grammar, originally writing formed with letters, in spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts. Poetry is a form of art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of. Possibly as a result of Aristotles influence, poetry before the century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition, novel, a long fictional prose narrative. It was the close relation to real life that differentiated it from the chivalric romance, in most European languages the equivalent term is roman. In English, the term emerged from the Romance languages in the fifteenth century, with the meaning of news, it came to indicate something new
Literature
–
The
Classic of Rites (
Chinese: 禮 記;
pinyin: Lǐjì), an ancient Chinese text. Certain definitions of literature have taken it to include all written work.
Literature
–
A
calligram by
Guillaume Apollinaire. These are a type of poem in which the written words are arranged in such a way to produce a visual image.
Literature
–
Egyptian hieroglyphs with
cartouches for the name "
Ramesses II ", from the
Luxor Temple,
New Kingdom
Literature
–
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
German writer and author of the
Faust books
25.
Persian literature
–
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
Persian literature
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Persian arts
Persian literature
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Kelileh va Demnehh Persian manuscript copy dated 1429, depicts the Jackal trying to lead the Lion astray.
Topkapi Palace Museum in
Istanbul, Turkey.
Persian literature
–
A scene from the Shanama describing the valour of Rustam
Persian literature
–
Bahram Gur and Courtiers Entertained by
Barbad the Musician, Page from a manuscript of the
Shahnama of
Ferdowsi.
Brooklyn Museum.
26.
Persian mythology
–
Persian mythology are traditional tales and stories of ancient origin, all involving extraordinary or supernatural beings. Myths play a part in Iranian culture and our understanding of them is increased when we consider them within the context of Iranian history. The geography of this region, with its mountain ranges. This pottery, light grey to black in colour, appeared around 1400 BC and it is called Early Grey Ware or Iron I, the latter name indicating the beginning of the Iron Age in this area. The central collection of Persian mythology is the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the characters of Persian mythology almost always fall into one of two camps. They are either good, or they are evil, the most famous legendary character in the Persian epics and mythology is Rostam. On the other side of the fence is Zahhak, a symbol of despotism who was, finally, Zahhak was guarded by two vipers which grew out from both of his shoulders. No matter how many times they were beheaded, new heads grew on them to guard him. The snake, like in other mythologies, was a symbol of evil, but many other animals and birds appear in Iranian mythology, and, especially. Most famous of these is Simorgh, a beautiful and powerful bird, and Homa. Published by Echo of Iran, Tehran 1965, Iranian Mythology by Albert J. Carnoy Indo-Iranian Mythology Iran Almanac 2006
Persian mythology
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Persian arts
Persian mythology
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The
Chogha Zanbil ziggurat.
Persian mythology
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Relief in
Tus depicting popular mythical stories of Iran.
Persian mythology
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Simurgh (
Phoenix) decoration outside of Nadir Divan-Beghi madrasah,
Bukhara.
27.
Iranian folklore
–
Iranian folklore, also known as Persian folklore, including jokes, folktales, games, folklore heroes and beliefs, is sophisticated and complex. Dāstān in Persian means fable, fiction, story, tale, the genre to which they refer may go back to ancient Iran. It was a popular and folkloric form of story-telling, Dastan-tellers tend to tell their tile in coffee houses. Cehel Tuti, The Forty Parrots, a collection of entertaining stories about the wife of a merchant, Amir Arsalan-e Namdar, popular Persian legend which was narrated to Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar. Wameqh o Azra, derives from the Greek romance of Metiochus and her wish was granted, and that is why this period is called sarmā-ye pīr zan or bard al-ʿajūz. Nāranj o toranj Auntie Cockroach and Mr. Ghoul, Ghoul-e-biabani and it is a hideous monster with a feline head, forked tongue, hairy skin, and deformed legs that resemble the limp and skinny legs of a prematurely born infant. Martyaxwar A legendary creature similar to the sphinx, peri Zār A ritual in some of the south coastal Iranian provinces that is a kind of spiritual trance dance. In some cases it can go for a time, until the dancer drops down of exhaustion Takam The king of goats. Ganjafa Chahâr barg is another fishing game, also known as Pâsur, Haft Khâjor Haft va chahâr. Ye Morgh Darm other folklore games Backgammon folklore Nowruz traditional characters Hajji Firuz traditional herald of Nowruz, mir Nowrouzi Temporary king of Nowruz times Fal-Gûsh, is an act of fortunetelling in Chaharshanbe Suri. Amoo norooz announcer of Noroozs arrival, cheshm-Zakhm, the evil eye, the supposed power of an individual to cause harm, even illness or death, to another person merely by looking at him or complimenting him. As this is done, an ancient prayer is recited and this prayer is said by Muslims as well as by Zoroastrians. Fāl gereftan, Many varieties of divination are attested in Persian folk practice. Not only Muslims, mirror and Quran, when buying a new home, it is customary to place a mirror and a Quran in front of it as the first thing that enters the new house. Patience Stone, is a Persian popular folktale, in the tale, a patient stone, the most empathetic of listeners, absorbs the sorrows and pains of the person who confides in it. It is said that when the stone can no longer contain the pain it harbors, naghali and Pardeh dari, That is narrating of important stories from the Iranian fables, myths and epics which have remained from ancient times with special tone, feelings and expression. The pardeh dar narrates the story with a demonstration of the scenes and this kind of narration is used for epics as well as religious stories. Many naqhāls in the Safavid period specialized in single, though stories, they were accordingly known as Shahname khan, Amīr Ḥamze khan. Naqi Abbas, Volume 1, Issue I, pp. 68-79, mahjub, M. J. ed. Amir Arsalan-e Rumi
Iranian folklore
–
Talisman for warding off co-wife, undated. Harvard Library
Iranian folklore
–
Persian arts
Iranian folklore
–
The Nightmare in European folklore is similar to Iranian "Bakhtak"
Iranian folklore
–
A depiction of Molla Nasr al din
28.
Iranian philosophy
–
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, the chronology of the subject and science of philosophy starts with the Indo-Iranians, dating this event to 1500 BC. The Oxford dictionary also states, Zarathushtras philosophy entered to influence Western tradition through Judaism, Iranian philosophy after Arab invasion of Persia, is characterized by different interactions with the Old Iranian philosophy, the Greek philosophy and with the development of Islamic philosophy. The Illumination School and the Transcendent Philosophy are regarded as two of the philosophical traditions of that era in Persia. See also Ancient Iranian Philosophy The teachings of Zarathustra appeared in Persia at some point during the period 1700-1800 BCE and his wisdom became the basis of the religion Zoroastrianism, and generally influenced the development of the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian philosophy. Zarathustra was the first who treated the problem of evil in philosophical terms and he is also believed to be one of the oldest monotheists in the history of religion. He espoused an ethical philosophy based on the primacy of good thoughts, good words, the works of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism had a significant influence on Greek philosophy and Roman philosophy. Several ancient Greek writers such as Eudoxus of Cnidus and Latin writers such as Pliny the Elder praised Zoroastrian philosophy as the most famous, plato learnt of Zoroastrian philosophy through Eudoxus and incorporated much of it into his own Platonic realism. In the 3rd century BC, however, Colotes accused Platos The Republic of plagiarizing parts of Zoroasters On Nature, Zarathustra was known as a sage, magician and miracle-worker in post-Classical Western culture, though almost nothing was known of his ideas until the late eighteenth century. By this time his name was associated with lost ancient wisdom and was appropriated by Freemasons and he appears in Mozarts opera The Magic Flute under the variant name Sarastro, who represents moral order in opposition to the Queen of the Night. Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it was a form of rational Deism, in 2005, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy ranked Zarathustra as first in the chronology of philosophers. Zarathustras impact lingers today due in part to the system of ethics he founded called Mazda-Yasna. The word Mazda-Yasna is avestan and is translated as Worship of Wisdom in English, the Persian philosopher Osthanes was also under the influence of Zarathustras ideas and philosophy, which afterwards affected the Greek philosophy through Democritus, his student. Zoroastrianism likely had as much influence on the formation of Christianity as did Judaism, little is known of the situation of philosophy during the ancient Greek philosophers. Manichaeism, founded by Mani, was influential from North Africa in the West, an important principle of Manichaeism was its dualistic cosmology/theology, which it shared with Mazdakism, a philosophy founded by Mazdak. Under this dualism, there were two principles of the universe, Light, the good one, and Darkness, the evil one. These two had been mixed by an accident, and mans role in this life was through good conduct to release the parts of himself that belonged to Light. Mani saw the mixture of good and bad as a tragedy, while Mazdak viewed this in a more neutral. Mazdak was a proto-socialist Persian reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanian king Kavadh I and he claimed to be a prophet of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs
Iranian philosophy
–
Persian arts
29.
Performance art
–
Performance art is a performance presented to an audience within a fine art context, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated. The performance can be live or via media, the performer can be present or absent and it can be any situation that involves four basic elements, time, space, the performers body, or presence in a medium, and a relationship between performer and audience. Performance art can happen anywhere, in any type of venue or setting, the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. Performance art is a contested concept, any single definition of it implies the recognition of rival uses. As concepts like democracy or art, it implies productive disagreement with itself, the meaning of the term in the narrower sense is related to postmodernist traditions in Western culture. The ideal had been an ephemeral and authentic experience for performer, the widely discussed difference, how concepts of visual arts and concepts of performing arts are utilized, can determine the meanings of a performance art presentation. It therefore can include action or spoken word as a communication between the artist and audience, or even ignore expectations of an audience, rather than following a script written beforehand, some kinds of performance art nevertheless can be close to performing arts. Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and unconventional ways, break conventions of traditional arts, and break down conventional ideas about what art is. Some artists, e. g. the Viennese Actionists and neo-Dadaists, prefer to use the terms live art, action art, actions, as genres of performance art appear body art, fluxus-performance, happening, action poetry, and intermedia. Performance art activity is not confined to European or American art traditions, notable practitioners can be found in Asia, Performance artists and theorists point to different traditions and histories, ranging from tribal to sporting and ritual or religious events. There are also accounts of Renaissance artists such as itinerant poets putting on performances that could be said to be ancestors of performance art. Western cultural theorists often trace performance art activity back to the beginning of the 20th century, to the Russian constructivists, Futurists, Dada provided a significant progenitor with the unconventional performances of poetry, often at the Cabaret Voltaire, by the likes of Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara. Russian Futurist artists could be identified as precursors of performance, such as David Burliuk, abstract expressionism and Action painting preceded the Fluxus movement, Happenings and the emergence of Performance Art. Performance art was anticipated, if not explicitly formulated, by Japans Gutai group of the 1950s, in the late 1960s Earth artists as diverse as Robert Smithson, Dennis Oppenheim, Michael Heizer and Carl Andre created environmental pieces that predict the performance art of the 1970s. Works of conceptual artists in the early 1980s, like Sol LeWitt, who converted mural-style drawing into an act of performance by others, were influenced by Yves Klein and the Earth artists as well. In the 1960s a variety of new works, concepts and the number of artists led to new kinds of performance art. Kaprow had coined the term Happening describing a new artform, at the beginning of the 1960s, a Happening allows the artist to experiment with body motion, recorded sounds, written and spoken texts, and even smells
Performance art
–
Yves Klein and
Dino Buzzati engaged in the ritual transfer of immateriality, January 26, 1962
Performance art
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Conceptual work by
Yves Klein at Rue Gentil-Bernard, Fontenay-aux-Roses, October 1960, photo by Shunk Kender. Le Saut dans le Vide (Leap into the Void)
Performance art
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Chris Burden during the performance of his 1974 piece Trans-fixed where he was nailed to the back of a
Volkswagen
Performance art
–
Performance artist
Joseph Beuys in 1978: Jeder Mensch ein Künstler — Auf dem Weg zur Freiheitsgestalt des sozialen Organismus - Every person an artist — On the way to the libertarian form of the social organism
30.
Persian dance
–
Persian dance or Iranian dance refers to the dance styles indigenous to Iran. Genres of dance in Iran vary depending on the area, culture, and language of the local people, each group, region, and historical epoch has specific dance styles associated with it. Raghs is the Arabic word for dance, and is almost exclusively the word used for dance in Persian, as the Persian word for dance and its also the word in Azerbaijani for dance. The Kurdish word for dance is Halperke, and the Lurs from Lorestan use the word Bākhten for dance, the earliest researched Persian dance is a dance worshiping Mithra in which a bull was sacrificed. This cult later became highly adhered in the Roman Empire and this dance was to promote vigor in life. Ancient Persia was occupied by foreign powers, first Greeks, then Arabs, throughout these changes a slow disappearance of heritage dance traditions occurred. Religious prohibition of dancing in Iran came with the spread of Islam, religious prohibition to dancing waxed and waned over the years, but after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 dancing was no longer allowed due to its frequent mixing of the sexes. The Islamic Revolution of 1979, was the end of an era for dancing. The Iranian national ballet company was dissolved and its members emigrated to different countries, according to the principles of the “cultural revolution” in Iran, dancing was considered to be perverse, a great sin, immoral and corrupting. Iran possesses four categories of dance and these genres are, chain or line dances, solo dance, war or combat dances. Chain or Line dances are named for the region or the ethnic groups with which they are associated. Solo dance includes usually reconstructions of Safavid and Qajar Court Dance and these often are improvisational dances and utilize delicate, graceful movements of the hands and arms, such as wrist circles. War or Combat dances imitate combat, or help train the warrior, ritual or spiritual dances, are often Sufi are known as sama and also a type of zikr. There are various types of dancing in a trance for healing practices in Iran, there is a term in Balochi gowati for psychologically ill patients who have recovered through music healing, music as medicine. The word sama, from the Arabic root meaning “to listen, ” refers to the practice of listening to music and achieving unity with the Divine. This is a list of some of the ancient and contemporary Persian dances, the distinct feature of this dance is the way performers wave their hands in a unique manner that resembles the cooperation of a group of fishermen at the sea. Basseri dance is a dance performed by the Basseri tribe who live in the Fars province. The dancers wear their traditional. Bojnordi dance, Bojnord is a village in the northeast section of Iran inhabited by a Turkic people, men and women dance separately or together in Bojnordi dance, snapping their fingers in the method known as peshkan
Persian dance
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Persian arts
Persian dance
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Dancing is historically entwined with many cultures around the world. Here, 17th century
Persian women dance in a ceremony in
Iran.
Persian dance
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Basseri dancers in their colorful clothes
31.
Cinema of Iran
–
The cinema of Iran or cinema of Persia refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered fame and now enjoy a global following. Along with China, Iran has been lauded as one of the best exporters of cinema in the 1990s, some critics now rank Iran as the worlds most important national cinema, artistically, with a significance that invites comparison to Italian neorealism and similar movements in past decades. A range of film festivals have honored Iranian cinema in the last twenty years. The earliest examples of visual representations in Iranian history may be traced back to the bas-reliefs in Persepolis, bas relief is a method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. Persepolis was the center of the ancient kingdom of Achaemenids. Iranian visual arts maybe said to have peaked about a years later during the Sassanian reign. A bas-relief from this period in Taq Bostan depicts a hunting scene. Similar works from the period have been found to articulate movements and it is even possible to see the progenitor of the cinema close-up, a wounded wild pig escaping from the hunting ground, among these works of art. After the conversion from Zoroastrianism to Islam — a religion in which symbols were avoided — Persian art continued its visual practices. Persian miniatures provide great examples of such continued attempts, the deliberate lack of perspective in Persian miniature enabled the artist to have different plots and sub-plots within the same image space. A very popular form of art was Pardeh Khani. Another type of art in the category was Naqqali. Popular dramatic performance arts in Iran, before the advent of cinema, include Marionette, Saye-bazi, Rouhozi, Cinema was only five years old when it came to Persia at the beginning of the 20th century. The first Persian filmmaker was Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, the photographer of Muzaffar al-Din Shah. After a visit to Paris in July 1900, Akkas Bashi obtained a camera and he is said to have filmed the Shahs private and religious ceremonies, but no copies of such films exist today. A few years after Akkas Bashi started photography, Khan Baba Motazedi and he shot a considerable amount of newsreel footage during the reign of Qajar to the Pahlavi dynasty. The first public screening took place in Tehran in 1904, presented by Mirza Ebrahim Khan Sahaf Bashi and he arranged the screening in the back of his antique shop
Cinema of Iran
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Persia movie theater in
Shiraz,
Iran
Cinema of Iran
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Persian arts
Cinema of Iran
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An Iranian rare cinema equipment while rolling back a
35 mm film stock.
32.
Persian theatre
–
Persian theater or Iranian theater goes back to antiquity. Ancient Persian theatre and dance was significantly researched by the Greek historian Herodotus of Halikarnassos, in his work Book IX, he describes the history of Asian empires and also the Persian wars until 478 BC. These are a few of the performing arts that became popularized in Iran in 7th century AD. The Naqqāli is the performer and recounts stories in prose often accompanied by music, dance and decorative, both men and women can be Naqqāli performers and can perform with mixed-sex audiences, which is unusual in Iran. The performer often wears simple costumes and a piece of a historical but related costume. This art was performed in coffeehouses, private houses and historical venues such as ancient caravanserais. A decline in the popularity of coffeehouses in Iran, and with new forms of entertainment, has resulted in diminishing interest in Naqqāli performance. The aging of master performers, and the popularity among younger generations have caused a steep drop in the number of skilled Naqqāls. Naqqāli was included in 2011 to the UNESCOs Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in need of urgent safeguarding, other similar Iranian story-telling and performance traditions include Naghali, Pardeh-dari, Pardeh-khaani, Ghavali, Shahnameh-khaani, Tazieh. Tazieh, also known as Tazieh, is a form of traditional, religious Persian theatre in which the drama is conveyed through music, narration, prose, Tazieh dates from before the Islamic era. A common theme is the tragedy of Siavash in Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. In Persian tradition, Tazieh and Parde-Khani are inspired by historical and religious events, the common theme is hero tales of love, sacrifice, and resistance against evil. Tazieh resembles the European opera in many respects, kheimeh-shab-bazi is the Persian traditional puppetry which is performed in a small chamber. There are two people involved in the performance, a performer and a person telling the story. The dialogue is between morshed and the puppets, the method of performance, its characters and the techniques used in writing the puppet show make it unique and distinguish it from other types of puppetry. A newer genre of Iranian puppetry emerged during Qajar era, puppetry is still very common in contemporary Iran. Siah-Bazi, also known as Siyah-Bazi is a type of Iranian folk performing art that features a blackface, mischievous, the character with the black face takes on a clown-like role and tries to disgrace the master. Outwardly the master appears to be a person but underneath he is immoral
Persian theatre
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Persian arts
Persian theatre
–
Iranian actor doing Naqqāli
Persian theatre
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Ta'zieh performance as
theater in the round
33.
Art
–
In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art. The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis, expression, communication of emotion, during the Romantic period, art came to be seen as a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science. Though the definition of what art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency. The nature of art, and related such as creativity. One early sense of the definition of art is related to the older Latin meaning. English words derived from this meaning include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, however, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness in the Phaedrus, and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homers great poetic art, in Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, the forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is an imitation of men worse than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankinds advantages over animals. The second, and more recent, sense of the art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. The creative arts are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks that are compelled by a drive and convey a message, mood. Art is something that stimulates an individuals thoughts, emotions, beliefs, works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are considered applied art
Art
–
Clockwise from upper left: a
self-portrait by
Vincent van Gogh; a female ancestor figure by a
Chokwe artist; detail from the
Birth of Venus by
Sandro Botticelli; and an Okinawan
Shisa lion.
Art
–
Works of art can tell stories or simply express an aesthetic truth or feeling. Panorama of a section of A Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, a 12th-century painting by Song dynasty artist
Wang Ximeng.
Art
–
20th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.
Art
–
Venus of Willendorf, circa 24,000–22,000
BP
34.
Iranian architecture
–
Iranian architecture or Persian architecture is the architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Its history dates back to at least 5,000 BCE with characteristic examples distributed over a vast area from Turkey and Iraq to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and from the Caucasus to Zanzibar. Persian buildings vary from peasant huts to tea houses and garden, in addition to historic gates, palaces, and mosques, the rapid growth of cities such as the capital, Tehran has brought about a wave of demolition and new construction. Iranian architecture displays great variety, both structural and aesthetic, from a variety of traditions and experience, without sudden innovations, and despite the repeated trauma of invasions and cultural shocks, it has achieved an individuality distinct from that of other Muslim countries. Traditionally, the guiding formative motif of Iranian architecture has been its cosmic symbolism by which man is brought into communication and participation with the powers of heaven. This theme has not only given unity and continuity to the architecture of Persia, according to Persian historian and archaeologist Arthur Pope, the supreme Iranian art, in the proper meaning of the word, has always been its architecture. The supremacy of architecture applies to both pre- and post-Islamic periods, traditional Persian architecture has maintained a continuity that, although temporarily distracted by internal political conflicts or foreign invasion, nonetheless has achieved an unmistakable style. In this architecture, there are no buildings, even garden pavilions have nobility and dignity. In expressiveness and communicativity, most Persian buildings are lucid - even eloquent, the combination of intensity and simplicity of form provides immediacy, while ornament and, often, subtle proportions reward sustained observation. g. g. Anahita Temple, Khorheh, Parthian era e. g. Hatra, the compounds at Nysa, Sassanid era e. g. Ghaleh Dokhtar. Chehelsotoon, Ali Qapu, Agha Bozorg Mosque, Kashan, Shah Mosque, available building materials dictate major forms in traditional Iranian architecture. This technique, used in Iran from ancient times, has never completely abandoned. The abundance of heavy plastic earth, in conjunction with a lime mortar, also facilitated the development. Certain design elements of Persian architecture have persisted throughout the history of Iran, the most striking are a marked feeling for scale and a discerning use of simple and massive forms. The consistency of decorative preferences, the high-arched portal set within a recess, columns with bracket capitals, through the ages these elements have recurred in completely different types of buildings, constructed for various programs and under the patronage of a long succession of rulers. Similarly, the dome on four arches, so characteristic of Sassanid times, is a still to be found in many cemeteries, the pre-Islamic styles draw on 3000 to 4000 years of architectural development from various civilizations of the Iranian plateau. Iran is recognized by UNESCO as being one of the cradles of civilization, each of the periods of Elamites, Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids were creators of great architecture that, over the ages, spread far and wide far to other cultures. Although Iran has suffered its share of destruction, including Alexander The Greats decision to burn Persepolis, the Achaemenids built on a grand scale
Iranian architecture
–
Persian arts
Iranian architecture
–
Si-o-se Pol
Iranian architecture
–
The Eram Garden in
Shiraz is an 18th-century building and a legacy of the
Zand Dynasty.
Iranian architecture
–
Persian-style column, as seen in Persepolis.
35.
Iranian cuisine
–
Iranian cuisine, also widely referred to as Persian cuisine, includes the foods, cooking methods, and food traditions of Iranians. Through the Persianized Central Asian Mughal dynasty, aspects of Iranian cuisine were adopted into North Indian cuisine, typical Iranian main dishes are combinations of rice with meat, vegetables, and nuts. Fresh green herbs are used, along with fruits such as plums, pomegranate, quince, prunes, apricots. Characteristic Iranian flavorings such as saffron, dried lime, cinnamon, Iranian cuisine is gaining popularity in multicultural cities such as London, Los Angeles, Washington, D. C. Vancouver, and Toronto, which have significant Iranian populations, the usage of rice, at first a specialty of Safavid court cuisine, evolved by the end of the 16th century CE into a major branch of Iranian cookery. Traditionally, rice was most prevalent as a staple item in northern Iran. Varieties of rice in Iran include gerde, domsia, champa, doodi, Lenjan, Tarom, anbarbu, the following table includes three primary methods of cooking rice in Iran. Second only to rice is the production and use of wheat, the following table lists several forms of flatbread and pastry-bread commonly used in Iranian cuisine. Agriculture of Iran produces many fruits and vegetables, thus, a bowl of fresh fruit is common on Iranian tables, and vegetables are standard sides to most meals. These are not only enjoyed fresh and ripe as desserts, but are combined with meat. When fresh fruits are not available, a variety of dried fruits such as dates, fig, apricots. Southern Iran is one of the worlds major producers, where some special cultivars such as the Bam date are grown. Vegetables such as pumpkins, spinach, green beans, fava beans, courgette, varieties of squash, onion, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers and scallion often accompany a meal. While the eggplant is the potato of Iran, Iranians are fond of fresh green salads dressed with oil, lemon juice, salt, chili. Fruit dolma is probably a specialty of Iranian cuisine, the fruit is first cooked, then stuffed with meat, seasonings, and sometimes tomato sauce. The dolma is then simmered in broth or a sweet-and-sour sauce. Verjuice, an acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes or other sour fruit, is used in various Iranian dishes. It is mainly used within soup and stew dishes, but also to simmer a type of squash dolma, unripe grapes are also used whole in some dishes such as khoresh e qure
Iranian cuisine
–
Persian arts
Iranian cuisine
–
Persian cuisine
Iranian cuisine
–
Tah-chin, a savory saffron rice-cake with a filling, commonly marinated chicken fillets.
Iranian cuisine
–
The ubiquitous Persian Kabab is at most times served with either rice, or bread.
36.
Persian gardens
–
The tradition and style of garden design represented by Persian gardens or Iranian gardens has influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to India and beyond. The gardens of the Alhambra show the influence of Persian garden philosophy and style in a Moorish palace scale, the Humayuns Tomb and Taj Mahal have some of the largest Persian gardens in the world, from the era of the Mughal Empire in India. g. French paradis, German Paradies, and English paradise, the word entered Semitic languages as well, Akkadian pardesu, Hebrew pardes, and Arabic firdaws. As the word expresses, such gardens would have been enclosed, the gardens purpose was, and is, to provide a place for protected relaxation in a variety of manners, spiritual, and leisurely, essentially a paradise on earth. The Common Iranian word for enclosed space was *pari-daiza-, a term that was adopted by Christian mythology to describe the garden of Eden or Paradise on earth, the gardens construction may be formal or casual, following several simple design rules. This allows a maximization, in terms of function and emotion, Persian gardens may originate as early as 4000 BCE. Decorated pottery of that time displays the cross plan of the Persian garden. The outline of the Pasargad Garden, built around 500 BCE, is viewable today, during the reign of the Sassanids, and under the influence of Zoroastrianism, water in art grew increasingly important. This trend manifested itself in garden design, with emphasis on fountains. During the Islamic occupation, the aspect of the garden increased in importance. During this time, aesthetic rules that govern the garden grew in importance, an example of this is the chahār bāgh, a form of garden that attempts to emulate Eden, with four rivers and four quadrants that represent the world. The design sometimes extends one axis longer than the cross-axis, and may feature water channels that run each of the four gardens. The invasion of Persia by the Mongols in the century led to a new emphasis on highly ornate structure in the garden. Examples of this include tree peonies and chrysanthemums, the Mongol empire then carried a Persian garden tradition to other parts of their empire. Babur introduced the Persian garden to India, the now unkempt Aram Bāgh garden in Agra was the first of many Persian gardens he created. The Taj Mahal embodies the Persian concept of an ideal, paradise-like garden, the Safavid Dynasty built and developed grand and epic layouts that went beyond a simple extension to a palace and became an integral aesthetic and functional part of it. In the following centuries, European garden design began to influence Persia, particularly the designs of France, and secondarily that of Russia, western influences led to changes in the use of water and the species used in bedding. Traditional forms and style are still applied in modern Iranian gardens and they also appear in historic sites, museums and affixed to the houses of the rich
Persian gardens
–
Chehel Sotoun 's garden
Persian gardens
–
Eram Garden is a famous historic Persian garden in
Shiraz,
Iran
Persian gardens
–
Shazdeh Garden is one of the largest gardens of
Kerman Province.
Persian gardens
–
AbbasAbad Garden,
Behshahr County,
Mazandaran Province.
37.
Persian language
–
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
Persian language
–
Old Persian
Persian language
–
Ferdowsi 's
Shahnameh
Persian language
–
Kalilah va Dimna, an influential work in Persian literature.
38.
Fertile Crescent
–
The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia, the Nile Valley and Nile Delta. Having originated in the study of ancient history, the concept developed and today retains meanings in international geopolitics. In current usage, all definitions of the Fertile Crescent include Mesopotamia, the land in and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the Levant, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The region saw the development of some of the earliest human civilizations, technological advances made in the region include the development of writing, glass, the wheel, agriculture, and the use of irrigation. It is a region consisting chiefly of mountains in the north, the end of the western wing is Palestine, Assyria makes up a large part of the center, while the end of the eastern wing is Babylonia. This great semicircle, for lack of a name, may be called the Fertile Crescent and this desert-bay is a limestone plateau of some height—too high indeed to be watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, which have cut cañons obliquely across it. Hence we are obliged to coin a term and call it the Fertile Crescent, water sources include the Jordan River. The inner boundary is delimited by the dry climate of the Syrian Desert to the south, around the outer boundary are the Anatolian highlands to the north and the Sahara Desert to the west. As crucial as rivers and marshlands were to the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, the area is important as the bridge between Africa and Eurasia. Coupled with the Saharan pump theory, this Middle Eastern land-bridge is of importance to the modern distribution of Old World flora and fauna. The Fertile Crescent had many diverse climates, and major climatic changes encouraged the evolution of many r type annual plants, the regions dramatic variety of elevation gave rise to many species of edible plants for early experiments in cultivation. The Fertile Crescent has a record of past human activity. The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first known Neolithic farming settlements and this region, alongside Mesopotamia, also saw the emergence of early complex societies during the succeeding Bronze Age. There is also evidence from the region for writing and the formation of hierarchical statelevel societies. This has earned the region the nickname The cradle of civilization and it is in this region where the first libraries appeared, some 5,000 years ago. The oldest known library was found in northern Syria, in the ruins of Ebla— a major commercial center that was destroyed around 1650 BCE, both the Tigris and Euphrates start in the Taurus Mountains of what is today Turkey. Farmers in southern Mesopotamia had to protect their fields from flooding each year, to protect against flooding, they made levees. Since the Bronze Age, the regions natural fertility has been extended by irrigation works
Fertile Crescent
–
The Fertile Crescent at maximum defined extent, with the names of ancient civilizations found there.
39.
Iran
–
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
Iran
–
Cave painting in Doushe cave,
Lorestan, Iran,
8th millennium BC
Iran
–
Flag
Iran
–
A depiction of the united
Medes and
Persians in
Apadana,
Persepolis
Iran
–
Ruins of the
Gate of All Nations,
Persepolis
40.
Persian Empire
–
Persian Empire refers to any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia. The first of these was the Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires and it covered much of the Ancient world when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Several later dynasties claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids, Persia was then ruled by the Parthian Empire which supplanted the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, and then by the Sassanian Empire which ruled up until mid 7th century. It is important to note that many of these empires referred to themselves as Persian, they were often ethnically ruled by Medes, Babylonians. Iranian dynastic history was interrupted by the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia in 651 AD, establishing the even larger Islamic Caliphate, the main religion of ancient Persia was the native Zoroastrianism, but after the seventh century, it was replaced by Islam. Since 1979 and the downfall of the Pahlavi dynasty during Iranian Revolution, Persia has had a Shiah theocratic government
Persian Empire
–
Extent of the first Persian Empire, the
Achaemenid Empire.
41.
Sassanid music
–
Sasanian music refers to the golden age of Persian music that occurred under the reign of the Sasanian dynasty. Persian classical music dates to the sixth century BC, during the time of the Achaemenid Empire, music played an important role in prayer, but Persian music had its zenith during the Sasanian dynasty from 224 until 651 AD. In this era, many of Persian musics dastgahs and modes were invented and he employed 30 sounds for music. Naturally he recorded his inspirations and performed them for his audience, since if he did not, dance and chanson were prevalent in court banquets. Another important role that music played was in the reception of foreign diplomats and kings from neighbouring countries, five centuries after Barbods death, Farabi made a record of all the musical pieces of his period and described the ancient note recording method. The history of performance in Sassanid Iran is however better documented than earlier periods. This is specially more evident in the context of Zoroastrian ritual, by the time of Khusro Parviz, the Sassanid royal court was the host of prominent musicians. The relief depicts two boats and the picture shows these boats at two successive moments within the same panel. The musical instruments which appear distinctly on the Sassanid sculptures are the harp, the horn, the Daf, the drum, the harp is triangular, and has seven strings, it is held in the lap, and played apparently by both hands. The drum is of small size, the horns and pipes are too crudely represented for their exact character to be apparent. Concerted pieces seem to have sometimes played by harpers only. A portion of the musicians occupy an elevated orchestra, to there is access by a flight of steps. By the time of Khusro Parviz, the Sassanid royal court was the host of prominent musicians such as Ramtin He was also a remarkable musician, bamshad He was another court musician of Khosrau II. He used to play early morning songs which could please the king and people, Nakisa She was also the court musician of the Sassanid Empire. The main theme of her songs were in praise of King Khosrau II, the main instrument that she played was a harp. Azad Sarkash Though not as renowned as Barbod or Nakisa, he was a remarkable musician, Barbad Barbad is remembered in many documents and has been named as remarkably high skilled. He has been credited to have given an organisation of musical system consisting of seven Royal modes named Khosrovani, thirty derivative modes named lahn and these numbers are in accordance with Sassanids calendar of number of days in a week, month, and year. The theories based on which these modal system was based are not known, there are also some of a descriptive nature like roshan cheragh
Sassanid music
–
Marble mosaic from 260 AD (Sasanian Era). from the aywan of the palace of Shapur at Bishapur, Iran.
Sassanid music
–
Ancient Iranians attached great importance to music and poetry, as they still do today. 7th century plate depicts
Sasanian era musicians.
The British Museum.
42.
Taq-e Bostan
–
This example of Sassanid art is located 5 km from the city center of Kermanshah. It is located in the heart of the Zagros mountains, where it has endured almost 1,700 years of wind, originally, several sources were visible next to and below the reliefs and arches, some of which are now covered. Sources next to the reliefs still feed a large basin in front of the rock, the site has been turned into an archaeological park and a series of late Sasanian and Islamic column capitals have been brought together. The carvings, some of the finest and best-preserved examples of Persian sculpture under the Sassanids, include representations of the investitures of Ardashir II, Sassanid kings chose a beautiful setting for their rock reliefs along an historic Silk Road caravan route waypoint and campground. The reliefs are adjacent a sacred springs that empty into a reflecting pool at the base of a mountain cliff. Taq owsa and its rock relief are one of the 30 surviving Sassanid relics of the Zagros mountains. According to Arthur Pope, the founder of Iranian art and archeology Institute in the USA, art was characteristic of the Iranian people, the Taq-e Bostan complex comprise a rock relief standing on its own and several more reliefs associated with two rock cut arches. They illustrate the investiture ceremonies of Ardashir II, Shapur II, Shapur III and they also depict the hunting scenes of Khosrau II. The first Taq owsa or Taq bostan relief, and apparently the oldest, is a relief of the crowning ceremony of Ardashir II by his predecessor Shapur II or Ahura Mazda. There may be a mixture of the iconography of both identities. The two main figures are standing on the fallen Roman emperor Julianus Apostata, Ardashir played an important role in his defeat during the reign of Shapur II. Exceptional within Sasanian art is the fact that this is a portrait, Ardashir II was installed as interim ruler, awaiting the coming of age of the royal heir Shapur III. The fourth figure is the god Mithra who holds a barsum in his hands and stands on a lotus flower and he is the protector of oaths and is witness to this pact. Local beliefs and Persian folk tale interpreted the scene as the victory of the first Sasanian kings on Artabanus IV, the Mithra figure became the visual inspiration for representations of the prophet Zoroaster. Relief panel measured on 15.08.07 is approx, the smaller arch or iwan has on the upper part of the back wall two Pahlavi inscriptions identifying two royal figures as Shapur II and his son Shapur III. They are shown facing each other, the archs vestibule measures 6 x 5 x 3.6 meters. It has been suggested as having been built during the reign of Shapur III, however, the royal crown of Shapur III does not agree with those on his coins and is closer to that of his predecessor Ardashir II. It has been argued that the texts represent an usurpation of Ardashirs relief by Shapur III
Taq-e Bostan
–
Medieval Sasanian Cataphract, Uther Oxford 2003 06 2(1)
Taq-e Bostan
–
This Taq-e Bostan carving depicts women playing
Chang (instrument)s, while the king is hunting.
Taq-e Bostan
–
An old photo taken at Taq-e Bostan during late Qajar period
Taq-e Bostan
–
Capital of a Sasanian column in Taq-e Bostan complex with geometrical design
43.
Chang (instrument)
–
The chang is a Persian musical instrument similar to harp. It was very popular and used widely during the times of ancient Persia, the chang has appeared in paintings and wall art in Persia since its introduction in about 4000 B. C. In these paintings and mosaics, the chang went from the arched harp to an angular harp in the early 1900s B. C. with vertical or horizontal sound boxes. By the beginning of the Common Era, the chang had changed shape to be less of an instrument and more of a large, Hellenistic. Sassanian courts were enamored with the more Hellenistic chang and increased its popularity, but by the end of the Sasanian period, the chang had been redesigned to be as light as possible. Becoming more elegant, the chang lost much of its rigidity and structural soundness, the chang that is used today resembles the last documented transformation. In medieval Azerbaijan, the chang had 18-24 strings but varies based on how far the chang dates back. In the design of some ancient changs, sheep skin or goat skin was used to amplify the sound making it closer to an eastern harp. In modern days the chang is made out of string or the tail of a horse. The past structure of the chang was typically goat or sheep skin, the skins used on the chang also give it a different sound. The chang was predominantly played by women during ancient times, however, the chang is being revived and is now starting to make its way back into the field of contemporary Persian music. There are records from as far back as 4000 B. C. that depict pictures of the chang being played, along with other instruments and a singer. Since the playing style of the chang does not share any similarities with other Persian instruments, it is an instrument to pick up, play. As a result, the number of players is small. There are a few players of the chang including Mrs. Parvin Ruhi. Today the chang is played in ensembles, such as religious ceremonies and parties. In recent years, the Iranian scholars and instrument makers have been trying to revive the ancient chang back to its former glory, the chang is also a name given to the fangxiang, a Chinese metallophone played in China since ancient times. The Uzbek chang is a dulcimer, similar to the Santur
Chang (instrument)
–
A Sassanid era mosaic excavated at
Bishapur
Chang (instrument)
–
Chang. Museum of musical instruments, Baku, Azerbaijan
Chang (instrument)
–
322.1: Open
44.
Elamite
–
Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites. Elamite was a used in present-day south-western Iran from 2800 to 550 BC. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great, Elamite has no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate. The lack of established relatives is one reason that interpretation of the language is difficult, Elamite cuneiform, adapted from Akkadian cuneiform, was used from ca.2500 to 331 BC. Elamite cuneiform was largely a syllabary of some 130 glyphs at any one time and retained only a few logograms from Akkadian, but over time, the complete corpus of Elamite cuneiform consists of c.20 thousand tablets and fragments. The majority belong to the Achaemenid era, and contain primarily economic records, two earlier scripts of the area remain undeciphered but plausibly have encoded Elamite, Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. It was used during a period of time, clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. It is thought to have developed from early cuneiform and consists of more than 1,000 signs and it is thought to be largely logographic. Linear Elamite is attested in a few monumental inscriptions and it is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, but it cannot be proven. Linear Elamite was used for a brief period of time during the last quarter of the third millennium BC. Elamite was a language, and Elamite grammar was characterized by a well-developed. Animate nouns had separate markers for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, documents from the Old Elamite and early Neo-Elamite stages are rather scarce. Neo-Elamite can be regarded as a transition between Middle and Achaemenid Elamite, with respect to language structure, because of the limitations of the languages scripts, phonology is not well understood. As for the vowels, Elamite had at least /a/, /i/, and /u/ and may also have had an /e/, roots are generally of the forms CV, VC, VCV and, more rarely, CVCCV. Elamite is agglutinative, and predominantly suffixing, the inanimate 3rd singular -me forms abstracts. In noun phrases and pronoun phrases, the suffixes referring to the head are appended to the modifier, sometimes the suffix is preserved on the head as well. g. The suffix -na, which originated from the inanimate agreement suffix -n followed by the nominalizing particle -a. The personal pronouns distinguish nominative and accusative case forms and they are as follows, In general, no special possessive pronouns are needed in view of the construction with the noun class suffixes
Elamite
–
Tablet of Elamite script
Elamite
–
Geography
45.
Achaemenid Empire
–
The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
Achaemenid Empire
–
Standard of Cyrus the Great
Achaemenid Empire
–
Relief of
Cyrus the Great.
Achaemenid Empire
–
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus one of the
Seven wonders of the ancient world was built by Persian satrap of
Caria,
Mausolus (Scale model.)
46.
Dari (Eastern Persian)
–
Dari or Dari Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the officially recognized and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language. Hence, it is known as Afghan Persian in many Western sources. As defined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, it is one of the two languages of Afghanistan, the other is Pashto. Dari is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and the language of approximately 25–50% of the population. The Iranian and Afghan types of Persian are mutually intelligible, with differences found primarily in the vocabulary, in historical usage, Dari refers to the Middle Persian court language of the Sassanids. Dari is a given to the New Persian language since the 10th century, widely used in Arabic. Since 1964, it has been the name in Afghanistan for the Persian spoken there. In Afghanistan, Dari refers to a dialect form of Persian that is the standard language used in administration, government, radio, television. Because of a preponderance of Dari native speakers, who refer to the language as Fārsi. There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari, the majority of scholars believes that Dari refers to the Persian word dar or darbār, meaning Court, as it was the formal language of the Sassanids. The original meaning of the word dari is given in a notice attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, according to him, Pārsī was the language spoken by priests, scholars, and the like, it is the language of Fars. It is obvious that this refers to the Middle Persian. As for Dari, he says, it is the language of the cities of Madāen, is connected with presence at court. Among the languages of the people of Khorasan and the east, in general, Iranian languages are known from three periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and New periods. But it is thought that the first person in Europe to use the term Deri for Dari was Thomas Hyde, at Oxford, in his chief work, ferghana, Samarkand, and Bukhara were starting to be linguistically Darified in originally Khorezmian and Soghdian areas during Samanid rule. Dari Persian spread around the Oxus River region, Afghanistan, and Khorasan after the Arab conquests, the replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khorasan. Persian was rooted into Central Asia by the Samanids, the role of lingua franca that Sogdian originally played was succeeded by Persian after the arrival of Islam
Dari (Eastern Persian)
–
Dari in Persian script (
Nastaʿlīq style)
47.
Roudaki
–
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
Roudaki
–
Bust of Rudaki
Roudaki
Roudaki
–
Rudaki Tomb in Panjkent-after restored
Roudaki
