Pub Date : 2022-09-22DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10015
Hüseyin Ongan Arslan
This article examines the life and activities of ʿAli al-Aʿlā (d. 1419/822), the principal successor of the founder of Horufism, Fazlollāh Astarābādi (d. 1394/796), and early Horufi history. Widely known as “Khalifatollāh (Vice-gerent of God)” in Horufi literature, the prolific ʿAli al-Aʿlā compiled five Persian books in the first two decades of the fifteenth century, namely the Korsi-nāma, Towhid-nāma, Qeyāmat-nāma, Ferāq-nāma, and Mahshar-nāma. By principally working on ʿAli al-Aʿlā’s corpus, I construct his biography, as well as explore Fazlollāh’s life and his Horufi doctrine. By critically engaging with the modern scholarship on Horufism, I discuss the crisis among Horufis following the execution of Fazlollāh, their political positioning among different political entities in western Asia, e.g., the Timurids and Qara Qoyunlus, and Horufi missionary activities in Syria, Anatolia, and the Ottoman Balkans in the first decades of the fifteenth century. By doing so, I attempt to add another dimension to the existing Horufi literature.
本文考察了胡鲁菲派创始人Fazlollāh Astarābādi(1394/796年)的主要继承者、胡鲁菲派早期历史的生平和活动。在霍鲁菲文学中被广泛称为“Khalifatollāh(上帝的代理人)”,多产的al- Ali al-A - lha在15世纪的头二十年里编写了五本波斯语书籍,分别是Korsi-nāma, Towhid-nāma, Qeyāmat-nāma, Ferāq-nāma和Mahshar-nāma。通过主要研究他的文集,我构建了他的传记,以及探索Fazlollāh的生活和他的霍鲁菲主义。通过批判性地参与现代关于霍鲁菲主义的学术研究,我讨论了在Fazlollāh执行之后霍鲁菲人之间的危机,他们在西亚不同政治实体中的政治定位,例如帖木儿和卡拉·乔云卢斯,以及15世纪头几十年霍鲁菲人在叙利亚、安那托利亚和奥斯曼巴尔干地区的传教活动。通过这样做,我试图为现有的霍鲁菲文学增加另一个维度。
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Pub Date : 2022-09-22DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10023
Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed
While Fakhr al-Din Rāzi’s (d. 1210/606) works of philosophical theology are well known, his poetry has been largely ignored by scholars to date. This article provides a translation and analysis of Rāzi’s previously untranslated Persian panegyric ode (qasidat al-madh) entitled “Fi al-manteq va-ʾl-tabiʿa va-ʾl-elāhi va-madh al-soltān (On Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics, and Praise of the Sultan).” Combining a historical and literary approach, I argue that Rāzi strategically employs both the didactic and the panegyric genres in his attempt to regain the favor of the Khvārazmian crown prince, Nāser al-Din Malekshāh (d. 1196–7/593). In addition to demonstrating Rāzi’s belief in the soteriological value of knowledge, the poem adds further evidence for elite support of Islamic philosophy after Ebn Sīnā—in this case, in the eastern lands of the Islamic empire.
虽然Fakhr al-Din Rāzi(公元1210/606年)的哲学神学著作是众所周知的,但迄今为止,他的诗歌在很大程度上被学者们所忽视。这篇文章提供了对Rāzi之前未翻译的波斯颂歌(qasidat al-madh)的翻译和分析,题为“Fi al-manteq va- l-tabi al- a va- na l-elāhi va-madh al-soltān(论逻辑、物理、形而上学和对苏丹的赞美)”。结合历史和文学的方法,我认为Rāzi在他试图重新获得Khvārazmian王储Nāser al-Din Malekshāh (d. 1196-7/593)的青睐时,策略性地使用了说教和颂歌两种体裁。除了展示Rāzi对知识的救赎价值的信仰,这首诗还进一步证明了精英们对伊斯兰哲学的支持,在Ebn Sīnā-in之后,在伊斯兰帝国的东部土地上。
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Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10002
V. Dmitriev
According to Ammianus Marcellinus, elephants substituted, to some extent, siege towers; he describes wooden towers on the backs of the animals, armed with Persian warriors who attacked the defenders of a fortress. Certainly, elephants may have served as an element of ancient psychological warfare. But, at the same time, it appears that the Sasanians employed elephants in their battle fighting, bearing warriors who attacked their enemies with various missiles. In open-field battles, elephants, as a rule, were introduced into the battle in an offensive situation. Ammianus Marcellinus does not offer any evidence as to elephants functioning as beasts of burden or draught animals; on the contrary, he always stresses the fact that they were military animals who posed a real danger to the Romans in battle.
{"title":"The Sasanian Elephant Corps Revisited: Ammianus Marcellinus on the Tactics of Persian Elephantry","authors":"V. Dmitriev","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 According to Ammianus Marcellinus, elephants substituted, to some extent, siege towers; he describes wooden towers on the backs of the animals, armed with Persian warriors who attacked the defenders of a fortress. Certainly, elephants may have served as an element of ancient psychological warfare. But, at the same time, it appears that the Sasanians employed elephants in their battle fighting, bearing warriors who attacked their enemies with various missiles. In open-field battles, elephants, as a rule, were introduced into the battle in an offensive situation. Ammianus Marcellinus does not offer any evidence as to elephants functioning as beasts of burden or draught animals; on the contrary, he always stresses the fact that they were military animals who posed a real danger to the Romans in battle.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46396533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10016
C. Cereti, Mehdi Mousavi Nia, Mohammad Reza Neʿmati
Ray—located near present-day Tehran—is among the most important historical areas in Iran and the plains to the south of Tehran have always been densely inhabited and intensely cultivated thanks to the waters coming from Mount Tochal and the Alborz Mountains. Historical records and archeological data for the early history of the city in the Median, Achæmenid, Seleucid, and even Parthian periods are not exhaustive. In the present study, an attempt is made to bring together primary and secondary sources to define better the role that the province of Ray played during the Sasanian period, during which it was host, among others, to a huge military camp crucial to manning the northern and eastern frontier. Combined archeological and historical evidence shows that Ray has played an important and pivotal role in the history of Iran from the first years of the formation of the Sasanian Empire to the very last years of the empire, leaving a lasting memory in the Islamic literary tradition.
{"title":"Ray and Pahlaw in the Context of Sasanian Iran","authors":"C. Cereti, Mehdi Mousavi Nia, Mohammad Reza Neʿmati","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Ray—located near present-day Tehran—is among the most important historical areas in Iran and the plains to the south of Tehran have always been densely inhabited and intensely cultivated thanks to the waters coming from Mount Tochal and the Alborz Mountains. Historical records and archeological data for the early history of the city in the Median, Achæmenid, Seleucid, and even Parthian periods are not exhaustive. In the present study, an attempt is made to bring together primary and secondary sources to define better the role that the province of Ray played during the Sasanian period, during which it was host, among others, to a huge military camp crucial to manning the northern and eastern frontier. Combined archeological and historical evidence shows that Ray has played an important and pivotal role in the history of Iran from the first years of the formation of the Sasanian Empire to the very last years of the empire, leaving a lasting memory in the Islamic literary tradition.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48810011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10022
Mojtaba Doroodi, F. Hajiani
The terms dakhma (open-air tomb) and astodān (ossuary) are often used interchangeably despite the fact that they refer to two distinct structures with different meanings in pre-Islamic Iranian burial practices. The present study explores the differences between the two structures, along with burial-related terms used by ancient Persians, by examining ancient and medieval Iranian manuscripts and by conducting a field study of surviving artifacts from ancient times. The results show that dakhma (or dakhmagāh) was a general term referring to the entire burial site and its constituent elements—as opposed to the specific astodān. Both of these structures should be differentiated from small hollowed ledges on the edges or surfaces of mountains, which were engraved as late as the early Islamic period (seventh to ninth centuries), even though the terms dakhma and astodān appear in their inscriptions. Although the latter have led some scholars to conflate the terms, the present study finds that these small stone structures and hollows are neither dakhma nor astodān, but rather served as a symbolic memorial to the departed. Furthermore, other burial-related structures in the environs of the dakhma, including mortar-shaped hollowed stones (sang-ābs) and cascade-like stone grooves (called sor-sor-e hāy-e sangi), which have received scant attention, can be traced back to Zoroastrian rituals in Avestan texts and point to the presence of a dakhma. Finally, the present field study, which explored ancient burial sites in the Marvdasht plain in Fars Province, includes unique information and details that are presented here for the first time.
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Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10013
Gianfilippo Terribili
Similarities between the two celestial entities, the Zoroastrian Srōš (or Sraoša) and the Christian St. Sergius, have occasionally been mentioned in studies on late-antique and medieval Iran. Comparing the Zoroastrian and Syriac Christian traditions, the study will deal with evidence describing a phenomenological complex that includes the manifestation of celestial entities through a revelatory dream or vision and the consequent awakening of the individual consciousness. The parallelisms will be viewed in the perspective of historical and cultural dynamics that characterized the socio-political horizon of the late Sasanian Empire, especially during the reign of Khosrow II Parviz (Husraw II Parvēz). The heterogeneous society of the frontier zone between Rome and Iran determined the development of trans-cultural elements fostering dialogue among different components of the population. This phenomenon, along with the increasing integration of the Christian community in late Sasanian society, favored processes of assimilation and hybridization of narrative motifs connected to the representation of salvific and protective figures extremely popular at that time.
这两个天体,琐罗亚斯德教的Srōš(或Sraoša)和基督教的St.Sergius之间的相似之处,在对伊朗晚期和中世纪的研究中偶尔会被提及。比较琐罗亚斯德教和叙利亚基督教的传统,本研究将处理描述现象学复合体的证据,该现象学复合体包括天体通过启示性的梦或视觉的表现以及随之而来的个人意识的觉醒。这些平行主义将从历史和文化动态的角度来看待,这是萨珊帝国晚期社会政治视野的特征,尤其是在Khosrow II Parviz统治期间。罗马和伊朗边境地区的异质社会决定了跨文化因素的发展,促进了人口不同组成部分之间的对话。这一现象,加上萨珊社会后期基督教社区的日益融合,有利于同化和混合叙事主题的过程,这些叙事主题与当时极为流行的救助和保护人物的表现有关。
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Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10020
C. Cereti
The papers published in this volume of the Journal of Persianate Societies were read during the workshop organized at Sapienza University of Rome on 21 November 2019 to celebrate the opening of the Mediterranean regional branch of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) based at the Research Centre for Cooperation with Eurasia, the Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan Africa (CEMAS) at the Sapienza University of Rome and the beginning of a new series of seminars entitled “Parlane con Sapienza, Uno Sguardo Oltre,” dedicated to the societies and history of the Middle East and North Africa. These lectures were meant to foster our university’s “third mis-sion” activities, by targeting diverse audiences. The Mediterranean regional branch will both strengthen the scientific debate and expand the international academic network of ASPS by engaging scholars interested in studying the vast territory stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indo-Gangetic plains from Antiquity to the modern period. At the same time, the cycle of conferences on the Middle East will allow us to better under-stand the complexity of regions and societies in continuous transformation by opening a dialogue that goes beyond the boundaries of the academic world and involves different constituents of the civil society. On the occasion of the first workshop, scholars in the field of Iranian Studies have delivered lectures focusing on religious diversity in late Antique and early Medieval Iran. The multi-faceted approaches characteristic of the paper that were submitted for publication will provide an in-depth perspective on such a challenging socio-cultural context.
2019年11月21日,在罗马萨皮恩扎大学举办的研讨会上,为庆祝位于欧亚合作研究中心的Persiante Society研究协会(ASPS)地中海区域分支机构的成立,阅读了《Persianate Society杂志》这一卷上发表的论文,以及在罗马萨皮恩扎大学举行的题为“Parlane con Sapienza,Uno Sguardo Oltre”的一系列新研讨会的开始,专门讨论中东和北非的社会和历史。这些讲座旨在通过针对不同的受众,促进我们大学的“第三次失误”活动。地中海地区分支机构将通过吸引有兴趣研究从古代到现代从地中海到印度-恒河平原的广大领土的学者,加强科学辩论,扩大ASPS的国际学术网络。与此同时,中东问题会议的周期将使我们能够更好地了解不断转型的区域和社会的复杂性,开启一场超越学术界界限、涉及民间社会不同组成部分的对话。在第一次研讨会上,伊朗研究领域的学者们发表了关于古代晚期和中世纪早期伊朗宗教多样性的演讲。提交出版的这篇论文所采用的多方面方法将为我们提供一个深入的视角来看待这种具有挑战性的社会文化背景。
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Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10018
A. Piras
The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta (fl. 620s) records an exchange of letters with the Sasanian Empire. The correspondence of March 590, from the Iranian shah Khosrow II Parviz (r. 591–628) and addressed to the Byzantine emperor Maurice (r. 582–602), exhibits a particular style, focused on the ideological oppositions of order and disorder and legitimacy and usurpation. This paper suggests that Khosrow’s claims to his kingdom made use of a discourse of catastrophic motifs that reflected common Sasanian apocalyptic beliefs. Thus, the chaotic situation provoked by the inversion of the rightful order elicited, from a Zoroastrian perspective, a response that stressed the dualistic nuance of demonic anarchy in order to stigmatize the risk of deposition. For these reasons, apocalyptic doctrines and royal propaganda share a common language: a political discourse based on the justification of kingship and the demonization of the enemy.
拜占庭历史学家西莫卡塔(Theophilact Simocatta,fl.620)记录了一次与萨珊帝国的书信往来。590年3月,伊朗国王Khosrow II Parviz(591–628年在位)写给拜占庭皇帝Maurice(582–602年在位)的信件展现了一种独特的风格,重点关注秩序与混乱、合法性与篡夺的意识形态对立。本文认为,Khosrow对其王国的主张利用了一种灾难性主题的话语,反映了萨珊王朝常见的启示录信仰。因此,从琐罗亚斯德教的角度来看,合法秩序颠倒所引发的混乱局面引发了一种反应,这种反应强调了恶魔无政府状态的二元细微差别,以污名化沉积的风险。出于这些原因,世界末日学说和王室宣传有一个共同的语言:一种基于对王权的辩护和对敌人的妖魔化的政治话语。
{"title":"Apocalyptic Imagery and Royal Propaganda in Khosrow II’s Letter to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice","authors":"A. Piras","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta (fl. 620s) records an exchange of letters with the Sasanian Empire. The correspondence of March 590, from the Iranian shah Khosrow II Parviz (r. 591–628) and addressed to the Byzantine emperor Maurice (r. 582–602), exhibits a particular style, focused on the ideological oppositions of order and disorder and legitimacy and usurpation. This paper suggests that Khosrow’s claims to his kingdom made use of a discourse of catastrophic motifs that reflected common Sasanian apocalyptic beliefs. Thus, the chaotic situation provoked by the inversion of the rightful order elicited, from a Zoroastrian perspective, a response that stressed the dualistic nuance of demonic anarchy in order to stigmatize the risk of deposition. For these reasons, apocalyptic doctrines and royal propaganda share a common language: a political discourse based on the justification of kingship and the demonization of the enemy.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43654817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10021
M. Vassalli
In his important 1963 study, Marijan Molé (1924–63) argued that Dēnkard VII does not provide an objective and complete biography of Zoroaster, but rather reflects a later Zoroastrian conception of him as a prophet at the time of its writing. Following his approach, the present article examines the text as a cultural product and a narrative fabrication of late Antique Zoroastrianism. This study attempts first to identify the main theme of Dēnkard VII, since, although it is generally considered the book of the “legend of Zoroaster,” the protagonist appears in only five out of eleven chapters—less than half of the material. Furthermore, this paper analyses also some of the main compositional techniques that form the internal structure of the narrative, with the aim of understanding the literary tricks that allow flow from one episode to another and from one chapter to another.
{"title":"How to Develop a Fabula: The Case of Dēnkard VII","authors":"M. Vassalli","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In his important 1963 study, Marijan Molé (1924–63) argued that Dēnkard\u0000 VII does not provide an objective and complete biography of Zoroaster, but rather reflects a later Zoroastrian conception of him as a prophet at the time of its writing. Following his approach, the present article examines the text as a cultural product and a narrative fabrication of late Antique Zoroastrianism. This study attempts first to identify the main theme of Dēnkard\u0000 VII, since, although it is generally considered the book of the “legend of Zoroaster,” the protagonist appears in only five out of eleven chapters—less than half of the material. Furthermore, this paper analyses also some of the main compositional techniques that form the internal structure of the narrative, with the aim of understanding the literary tricks that allow flow from one episode to another and from one chapter to another.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48992730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1163/18747167-bja10017
Amin Shayeste Doust, C. Cereti
Many scholarly works aim to identify and explain the continued survival of pre-Islamic social phenomena and institutions deep into the Islamic age. To understand the historical roots of Iranian social issues more profoundly and accurately, it seems necessary to examine the social structure and institutions of the Sasanian era. Such a study enables us to trace their subsequent development and identify the ways in which they transformed. This paper attempts to clarify the purpose and practice of divorce in late Antique Iran, by reconstructing the rationale for and procedure of divorce in Sasanian society based on extant legal cases using a socio-historical approach. It also tries to show the different types of divorce in Sasanian and post-Sasanian sources, emphasizing the controversy and contradictions among Zoroastrian jurisconsults and legal texts to identify different legally-sanctioned perspectives regarding divorce.
{"title":"The Purpose and Practice of Divorce in Sasanian and Post-Sasanian Texts","authors":"Amin Shayeste Doust, C. Cereti","doi":"10.1163/18747167-bja10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18747167-bja10017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Many scholarly works aim to identify and explain the continued survival of pre-Islamic social phenomena and institutions deep into the Islamic age. To understand the historical roots of Iranian social issues more profoundly and accurately, it seems necessary to examine the social structure and institutions of the Sasanian era. Such a study enables us to trace their subsequent development and identify the ways in which they transformed. This paper attempts to clarify the purpose and practice of divorce in late Antique Iran, by reconstructing the rationale for and procedure of divorce in Sasanian society based on extant legal cases using a socio-historical approach. It also tries to show the different types of divorce in Sasanian and post-Sasanian sources, emphasizing the controversy and contradictions among Zoroastrian jurisconsults and legal texts to identify different legally-sanctioned perspectives regarding divorce.","PeriodicalId":41983,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Persianate Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46841293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}