نشریه پژوهش های ایرانشناسی
سال ششم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1395)

Geographical concept of “Haft karšvar” could be traced back to the Proto-Indo-Iranian period. After the separation of Indians and Iranians, due to geographical circumstances and religio-political changes, original Indo-Iranian narrative of seven part of the Earth, turned into its current versions. A comparison of old Iranian and Indian texts, specially Avesta and vīspā̊ŋhō Purāṇa, shows that in outline of original Indo-Iranian narrative, the Earth was divided into seven parts which contained a central part surrounded by other six parts. In the middle of central land, there had been a heavenly mountain and a miraculous tree. In the beginning, amongst these seven parts which had been separated from each other by some obstacles, only central part was inhabited by mankind. After mankind’s divergence from the prototypical progenitor, the other six parts were also inhabited. In the Avestan tradition – same as Indian – due to climate conditions of eastern Iranian plateau, original names of seven parts were replaced by the new ones. Furthermore, it seems that from the perspective of older Yašts composers, Bactria was considered to be central part of the Earth. Afterwards, with the expansion of Mazdaean religion and transmission of political center to the western part of Iranian plateau, Avestan concept of “Haft karšvar” also changed. In the middle Persian texts, since the central part was considered in the western Iran, direction of the Avestan western part was turned into the east and vis versa. The heritage of septet division of the Earth, can be seen independently, also in the Achaemenid sources which we can see a fading trace of septet division in the organization of Achaemenid satrapies.

The script and orthography system which are used for the zoroastrian middle Persian (= Pahlavi) texts because of their many shortcomings and difficulties have always caused many misunderstandings and misinterpretations by the ancient users and modern researchers. This indeterminacy of the script and the lack of a complete and accurate understanding of the contents of the texts have caused the past writers and scribes of these texts and modern researchers make unfounded legends in order to legitimize their readings. In this article after surveying the different written forms of the name of Sogdiana in Pahlavi texts and offering a transcription for one of them, the hapax epithet of this land, haft-āšyan “with seven nests” is studied. This epithet is recorded in a Pahlavi text, šahestānīhā ī ērānšahr, and a persian history work, Gardizi’s Zain al-Axbār. At the end “haft-āšyān” is considerd as a distorted rendering of the Avestan form suγδō.šayana-. The Avestan form is reached to Middle Persian as suwdōšayan, but this middle Persian form is finally abandoned in pahlavi manuscripts and Islamic texts due to the unawareness of the scribes and also its similarity to haftāšyān.

This paper studies two ancient seasonal festivals which were celebrated on summer and winter solstices. Because of misconceptions regarding Sasanian calendar, these two festivals, known as Ābrīzgān and Āḍarjašn, have remained unnoticed in modern researches. A sound interpretation of the Old Iranian calendar as described by Biruni would uncover the true character of these festivals. This paper demonstrates that these two old festivals, probably like a few other seasonal festivals, go back to very old times, and the custom of celebrating these festivals predates the time of month-naming in Old Iranian calendar. Customs associated with these two festivals in Sasanian Era and the mechanism for celebrating these seasonal festivals in vague year of the Sasanian calendar are also studied here. According to this research, these two festivals have been main reasons behind the naming of the first month of summer and the last month of autumn in Old Iranian calendar. This paper explains the reasons for creation of both non-seasonal alternatives of these two festivals and the festivals which were celebrated with the coincidence of the names of the day and the month. Later developments in these two festivals after the fall of Sasanian dynasty, both before and after the introduction of Jalali calendar in 11th century is the last of object the paper.

So far, about poet Samnamh has overwhelmed much discussion between scholars. Some compose it the eighth-century poet, khajavi attributed Kermani and others have cast doubt on this difficult assignment. In this paper, the assumption is that someone in the sixteenth century namesake Khajoo called "khajavi creatinine Shahnameh" Samnamh system from the Homa and August khajavi Kerman other poems written about Sam's perspicacious poetry or others. In addition, this person also named two other heroic poem Framrznamە both small and Shbrngnamh, probably written in the sixth century and they are not stipulated in the text is a poet, is assigned to.

One of the oldest medical schools in the world is Ayūrvedic school or Indian traditional medicine whose history goes back to five thousand years ago. This school, which was formed and came to maturity in India, has affected on other medical schools in the world and Iranian medical school has been affected by it. In remnant texts of one of the Eastern Middle Iranian languages, Khotanese, in East Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang of China, effect of this school is clearly obvious. Some of the most important Ayūrvedic texts has been fully or patially translated into Khotanese and a small amount of them are still extant. Among the most important surviving medical texts in Khotanese, which in fact are rendering of original Indian medical texts, may be noted Siddhasāra and Jīvakapusta. The present paper aims at presentation these texts and reviewing their content.

Among Sanayi’s works, Haghighat al haghigha is of significant importance and has been traditionally noticed and admired by many poets and scholars. In this long verse, there are a lot of social- cultural- religious information expressed in an artistic language with an extended vocabulary of which its true understanding is not so simple to everybody. Some difficulties, however, does not lie in the complexities of the work itself, rather in the text corruptions occurred by the scribers and editors faults and misreading. This article is dealt with some of those faults and is an attempt to correct them.

In Middle Persian (Pahlavi), like many Other languages, one aspect of subjunctive verbs in the present tense and the past tense is used, but the evidence in the literature that is available only from some Syghhhay. Middle Persian is bound by the obligation Kmkarbrdtr of past and present verb root is apparently limited to some of the material or Ben hung verbs and auxiliary verb hād made. However, a different form of subjunctive verbs used in the literature that Article past and present verb root verb būdan mere mention of it has not been, in the order books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showed.been, in the order books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showedorder books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showed.been, in the order books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showed.

In Middle Persian (Pahlavi), like many Other languages, one aspect of subjunctive verbs in the present tense and the past tense is used, but the evidence in the literature that is available only from some Syghhhay. Middle Persian is bound by the obligation Kmkarbrdtr of past and present verb root is apparently limited to some of the material or Ben hung verbs and auxiliary verb hād made. However, a different form of subjunctive verbs used in the literature that Article past and present verb root verb būdan mere mention of it has not been, in the order books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showed.been, in the order books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showedorder books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showed.been, in the order books. The construction of the new Persian (or Farsi, Dari) and its origin can also find the continuation of the current structure combines the ancient Iranian languages ​​(ie Avesta and ancient Persian) showed.