فصلنامه کهن نامه ادب پارسی
سال پنجم شماره 2 (پیاپی 12، تابستان 1393)

Maulana Hussein Vaez Kashefi Sabzevari was one of the skillful Persian writers in the 9th century AH. He was a scholar and author in most of the branches of science and pseudo-science at his time. One of his most important works is Futtowat-nameh-ye Sultani, a highly valuable work, which was corrected over 40 years ago by Mohammad Jafar Mahjoub based on two partial manuscripts. On this basis, due to the lack and shortage of manuscripts, a few deficiencies entered the work. Considering that the present author has managed to discover and prepare three other manuscripts of this work in the recent years, it seems necessary that a new correction of this work be offered. By the new correction of this work, many of the defects of Mahjoub's version will be eliminated, so that readers can have access to a text much more similar to the original one. The authors of this article intend to prove by pointing to a number of reasons that the new correction of this work is an unavoidable issue based on the existing five manuscripts of Fottowat-nameh-ye Sultani.It is obvious that after re-correcting and publishing this work, part of the Sufi folklore culture in the 9th century AH will be available for use and judgment by researchers in this field.

One of the common stylistic features in the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer and Shahnameh by Ferdowsi is the use of epithet. By presenting details about characters, objects and the places in a story, epithets create a powerful descriptive structure in order to develop the character and images in the story. The epithets along with the person’s name form a formula, which fills a part of a verse and play an important role in the poem’s rhythm. Thus, it can be said that epithets help the poet in the description, narration and the music of the poem and help the reader or audience to better understand the story. The present study attempts to define the epithets and mention numerous examples, so as to show the effect of using them in developing the characters, image and the rhythm in Iliad and Odyssey and Shahnameh.

Ghiyath ad-Din bin Humam ad-Din known as “Khandamir” was a historian, scribe, poet and writer during Timurid era. He was the grandson of “Mir Khand”, author of the book “Rawzat as-Safa”. “Nameh Nami” is a beautiful and interesting epistolary with a prose mixed with poetry. It includes a preface and nine chapters, each containing several parts, which are classified as Satr (line) and Lafz (phrase) in present editions. Khandmir wrote these letters when he was 46 or 47 years old; that is, during the years 925 AH or 927 AH, when he was residing in Herat. He wrote these letters for bureaucratic features including aristocratic and common classes of the society on a variety of occasions. Nameh Nami has been compiled in six versions; the original version has the least number of mistakes, and is kept at the Central Library of the University of Tehran with the registration number 3411. Correction of Nameh Nami was done to revive this valuable piece of work. In addition, it contains such merits as fluent letters and information on writing signs and expressions. The book is also of paramount importance to researchers in terms of its historical significance, since it illuminates the dark angles of the history of Timurid and Safavid era. It also touches on such figures as Sultan Hussein Bayqara, his sons and Kamaleddin Behzad.

One of the important but less known eras in the history of Persian literature in the area of scribing and letter-writing was the Timurid era. At this historical period, such great and famous scribes as Abdulwaset Nezami Heravi, Yusef Ahl, Ali bin Jamal al-Islam, Moein ad-Din Esfazari, Molla Hussein Vaez Kashefi, Shahabeddin Abdullah Morvarid (Bayani Kermani), Khajeh Jahan, Jami, Khandmir, etc. appeared and created valuable and significant works in letter-writing and scribing. Some of these works such as Riaz al-Insha' by Qavan and Epistolary of Jami are merely Diwani (administrative) or Ikhwani (freindly) correspondence of the scribes, and a group including Esfazariepistolary and Kashefi Makhzan al-Insha' have discussed the theoretical rudiments of scribing and book writing along with sample letters. In addition to an introduction to the general currents of book writing and scribing in the Timurid era and a description of theoretical and applied principles of epistolary and letter-writing in this era, the present article introduces the content, style and structure of prominent works of epistolary and letter-writing. It is hoped that a general scheme of scribing in this era and the level of imitation or innovation by the scribes will be displayed.

Through the narration of the world of Koosh in an epic genre, Kooshnameh is another opportunity for the readers’ sense of identification and their journey to the world of the story’s hero in a mystical genre. Kooshnameh’s narrative consists of two macrocosms based on the narrative world-making, and a wonderful secret makes a great change to the two worlds of this narration. The art of this secret and mysticism in Kooshnameh is that a. it presents a comprehensive understanding of the final plot of the story; b. it distinguishes the two macrocosms of the story with all the other components; c. it changes the context of the text and provides the grounds for transition from the epic genre to mystical genre; d. it forms a wonderful distinction between the hero of the epic Kooshnameh story and other epic heroes; e. the existence and disclosure of this secret provides the grounds for a sense of identification both for the readers at the time the work was released and the modern readers today. The present study seeks to review the secret of Kooshnameh narration using David Herman’s theory on narrative world-making, Grieg’s theory on traveling to the world of narration and Genette’s theory of narrative time. The dilemma of this narration is finally resolved by the ugly face of Koosh and its change by Pir.

Soroush is one of the most important Avestan gods with different functions in the Gathas, New Avesta and Pahlavi texts and its name and role remains in Iran’s post-Islamic literature. Ferdowsi, Iran’s skilled and unique epic poet, attributes some qualities and functions to Soroush when reporting about ancient Iranians’ religious beliefs. After a comparative study of the features of Soroush in the Gathas, New Avesta and Pahlavi texts such as being a guardian, witch, messenger of Ahura Mazda, savior and functionality after death, this paper compares the above said attributes with Ferdowsi’s report in Shahnameh. It is concluded that Shahnameh report is vaguely in line with Mazda texts. Intentionally or unintentionally, Ferdowsi is influenced by Abrahamic religions as regards the angels, especially by Gabrielle. His report of Soroush is a combination of the attributes in two Iranian and Semitic traditions.

Zoroastrians’ written legacy in the New Persian is a treasure full of religious works in the Persian literature, but little attention has been paid to it. Gradually from the 4th century onward, these texts were created from reproduction of Avestan and Pahlavi texts, and hundreds of treatises in the fields of jurisprudence, traditions, interpretation, mythology, history, kalam, literature, narration, linguistics, astronomy, etc. are left by the Zoroastrianclergy. Kalamis one of the oldest topics in the Zoroastrian Persian literature thanks to the relations between Zoroastrians and the Islamic society. The most important Zoroastrian kalam text in the New Persian is the Islamic Scholars Treatise. Though this work has drawn the attention of the researchers from the early 19th century, its remnants have yet to be known fully. There are two editions of this treatise. By assessing what is left from the above said treatise, this study seeks to present a suggestion for rewriting and compilation of dispersed pieces different selections based on the textual and thematic evidence

Finding a relation between genre and gender, and the effect of gender on genre is the main question of the present study. The poets attitude to compose epic and poetesses desire to compose lyric is investigated in this study between the through a four hundred year period between 4 A.H. and 8 A.H. The collected data revealed that out of 20 poetesses, none of them dealt with epic, and only poets composed epic. The attempt of this research is to find the reasons why men have the tendency toward epic but not women? The result shows that internal and external factors have a significant influence on poets in selecting the genre. Internal and external factors have different effects on men and women. Biology is an internal factor which has great effect on women’s physiology and psychology making them more emotional and sensational compared to men. Society, culture and tradition considered as external factors also have effect on the types of behavior and experience men and women have.