Initially drawn to anthologies as a methodology to tell a social history of Isfahan, Babayan encountered in maj-mu`ah s and muraqq`as a discursive world that allowed for a new reading of social interaction and intimacy in the early modern Persianate urban environment. The City as Anthology , although slightly unwieldy at times as it shifts from detailed case study to detailed case study, is none-theless extremely effective in its careful approach to a unique and complicated genre of archival material; the implications of these innovative readings are, in turn, powerfully conveyed by Babayan in an intricate prose and style of argumentation. In addition to introducing and reha-bilitating this genre of anthologies, this study provides a “ fresh take ” and effectively re-aligns how we understand and interpret the constructs of gender and sexuality in Safavid Iran.
{"title":"Kamran Talattof. <i>Nezami Ganjavi and Classical Persian Literature: Demystifying the Mystic</i>, Palgrave MacMillan, Switzerland, 2022, ISBN 978-3-030-97989-8, 284 pp.","authors":"Zhinia Noorian","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.52","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.52","url":null,"abstract":"Initially drawn to anthologies as a methodology to tell a social history of Isfahan, Babayan encountered in maj-mu`ah s and muraqq`as a discursive world that allowed for a new reading of social interaction and intimacy in the early modern Persianate urban environment. The City as Anthology , although slightly unwieldy at times as it shifts from detailed case study to detailed case study, is none-theless extremely effective in its careful approach to a unique and complicated genre of archival material; the implications of these innovative readings are, in turn, powerfully conveyed by Babayan in an intricate prose and style of argumentation. In addition to introducing and reha-bilitating this genre of anthologies, this study provides a “ fresh take ” and effectively re-aligns how we understand and interpret the constructs of gender and sexuality in Safavid Iran.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135981919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract As a practice and experience, ta'zieh lies at the crossroads between ritual and performance, collective lament and recollection, literature, and folklore. Focusing on the experience of the spectator, this paper discusses ta'zieh's liminal status and diverse functions in Iran today. This study is based on observations gathered during fieldwork in the fall of 2017 in Tehran (Grand Bazaar), Isfahan (Falāvarjān), and Kashan (Nushābād). By way of comparison, we further reflect on a video installation by Abbas Kiarostami presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2003, which challenges common assumptions about the aesthetic and religious effectiveness of ta'zieh. The contrast allows us to elucidate how, by renovating ancient narrative forms, contemporary Iranian performing arts partake in the shaping of individual affects as well as communal emotions.
作为一种实践和体验,打子戏处于仪式与表演、集体悲叹与回忆、文学与民俗的十字路口。本文以观众的体验为中心,探讨了ta’zieh在当今伊朗的有限地位和多种功能。本研究基于2017年秋季在德黑兰(大巴扎)、伊斯法罕(Falāvarjān)和卡尚(Nushābād)实地调查期间收集的观察结果。通过比较,我们进一步思考Abbas Kiarostami于2003年在巴黎蓬皮杜艺术中心(Centre Georges Pompidou)展出的一件录像装置,它挑战了人们对塔齐耶的审美和宗教效果的普遍假设。这种对比使我们能够阐明,当代伊朗表演艺术如何通过翻新古老的叙事形式,参与塑造个人情感和公共情感。
{"title":"From ritual to performance: Ta'zieh in Iran today","authors":"Yassaman Khajehi, Christian Biet","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.43","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As a practice and experience, ta'zieh lies at the crossroads between ritual and performance, collective lament and recollection, literature, and folklore. Focusing on the experience of the spectator, this paper discusses ta'zieh's liminal status and diverse functions in Iran today. This study is based on observations gathered during fieldwork in the fall of 2017 in Tehran (Grand Bazaar), Isfahan (Falāvarjān), and Kashan (Nushābād). By way of comparison, we further reflect on a video installation by Abbas Kiarostami presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2003, which challenges common assumptions about the aesthetic and religious effectiveness of ta'zieh. The contrast allows us to elucidate how, by renovating ancient narrative forms, contemporary Iranian performing arts partake in the shaping of individual affects as well as communal emotions.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82439393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ali Gholipour, Parvaresh-e zogh-e āmme dar asr-e pahlavi: tarbiyat-e zibashenakhti-ye mellat dar siyasatgozari-ye farhangi-ye dolat [Cultivating the Public Taste in the Pahlavi Era: Aesthetic Upbringing of the Nation in the State's Cultural Policy] (Tehran, Iran, Nazar Publishing, 2019)","authors":"Ali Papoliyazdi","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.48","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.48","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81794882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mahnaz Talebi-Dastenaei, Hamideh Poshtvan, Erik Anonby
Raji is a Central Plateau (Iranic) language spoken in Kashan district, in the north-west corner of Esfahan Province, Iran. Here, we investigate the nature of Persian influence on the lexicon of two closely-related Raji dialects: that of Abuzeydabad, a desert outpost at 947m above sea level, and Barzok, a well-watered farming community at 2080m in mountains nearby. As expected, our analysis shows many inherited similarities due to linguistic relationship among the three Iranic varieties; cases of difference and innovation that distinguish them; and profound impact of Persian on both Raji dialects. Nonetheless, the degree and patterning of convergence with Persian is uneven, with the dialect of Abuzeydabad showing greater wholesale borrowing from Persian, as well as evidence of structural hybridization. To account for the divergent effects of Persian influence, we review social and geographic dynamics in the language contact situation. Key factors such as population, distance from the nearby Persian-speaking city of Kashan, language identity, and the impact of media and education are equivalent. However, a stark contrast between the towns’ geographic settings defines their social networks and patterns of mobility, and in turn how speakers of each linguistic code respond to Persian influence.
{"title":"Two Raji Dialects Converge with Persian: Contrasting Responses to Contact Influence","authors":"Mahnaz Talebi-Dastenaei, Hamideh Poshtvan, Erik Anonby","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.29","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Raji is a Central Plateau (Iranic) language spoken in Kashan district, in the north-west corner of Esfahan Province, Iran. Here, we investigate the nature of Persian influence on the lexicon of two closely-related Raji dialects: that of Abuzeydabad, a desert outpost at 947m above sea level, and Barzok, a well-watered farming community at 2080m in mountains nearby. As expected, our analysis shows many inherited similarities due to linguistic relationship among the three Iranic varieties; cases of difference and innovation that distinguish them; and profound impact of Persian on both Raji dialects. Nonetheless, the degree and patterning of convergence with Persian is uneven, with the dialect of Abuzeydabad showing greater wholesale borrowing from Persian, as well as evidence of structural hybridization. To account for the divergent effects of Persian influence, we review social and geographic dynamics in the language contact situation. Key factors such as population, distance from the nearby Persian-speaking city of Kashan, language identity, and the impact of media and education are equivalent. However, a stark contrast between the towns’ geographic settings defines their social networks and patterns of mobility, and in turn how speakers of each linguistic code respond to Persian influence.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86623622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kian Tajbakhsh, Creating Local Democracy in Iran: State Building and the Politics of Decentralization (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022). x + 303 pp. (GBP)75. ISBN 9781009160919.","authors":"A. Khatam","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.50","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.50","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80511191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract As part of the collective endeavor to explore the modalities and challenges of the narrative in the Persianate world, this article reconsiders Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up (1990), a film characterized by a special cinematographic feature. While accounting for what appears to be a story of swindling and identity theft, Kiarostami keeps the viewer in a state of uncertainty about the nature of what he sees, blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction, truth and lie, through particular narrative and cinematographic choices. Previous scholarship has focused mainly on the aesthetic implications of the staging and its effects on the viewer. The present study proposes a different type of analysis by discussing specific narrative devices from the perspective of cultural anthropology, with particular attention to the recurrence of the zāher/bāten paradigm, suggested as a cipher by Kiarostami himself early on in the film. The examination of the discursive and aesthetic mobilization of these notions brings to light a subtle game of back-and-forth between the desire to disclose deeper meanings and the will to preserve ambiguity and intimacy, allowing for “soft epiphanies” to arise.
{"title":"Soft Epiphanies: The Multilayered Narratives in Abbas Kiarostami's Film Close-Up (1990)","authors":"A. Devictor, Amélie Neuve-Eglise","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.42","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.42","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As part of the collective endeavor to explore the modalities and challenges of the narrative in the Persianate world, this article reconsiders Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up (1990), a film characterized by a special cinematographic feature. While accounting for what appears to be a story of swindling and identity theft, Kiarostami keeps the viewer in a state of uncertainty about the nature of what he sees, blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction, truth and lie, through particular narrative and cinematographic choices. Previous scholarship has focused mainly on the aesthetic implications of the staging and its effects on the viewer. The present study proposes a different type of analysis by discussing specific narrative devices from the perspective of cultural anthropology, with particular attention to the recurrence of the zāher/bāten paradigm, suggested as a cipher by Kiarostami himself early on in the film. The examination of the discursive and aesthetic mobilization of these notions brings to light a subtle game of back-and-forth between the desire to disclose deeper meanings and the will to preserve ambiguity and intimacy, allowing for “soft epiphanies” to arise.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75953681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper examines Mirza Rahim Khan's Persian translation (1885) of Clement Markham's A General Sketch of the History of Persia (1874) as a historical event. To this end, this article looks at two copies of the translation manuscripts: one written by the translator, which also includes revisions of his first draft, and the other an illuminated copy presented to Naser al-Din Shah, the fourth Qajar shah. A close comparative examination of the texts shows the translation reverberates three distinct voices: the writer, the translator, and his patron, the shah. The translator's shifts of meaning show that the changes, far from being slight and local, affect the whole text, resulting in a different narrative, mostly conforming to the ruling system. However, there are cases where Mirza Rahim expresses his dissident voice in the translation. Furthermore, this examination also reveals the socio-political condition under which the translation took place, shedding light on aspects of Qajar rule only revealed by analyzing translations of the time.
本文将米尔扎·拉辛汗(Mirza Rahim Khan)对克莱门特·马卡姆(Clement Markham)的《波斯历史概论》(A General Sketch of Persia, 1874)的波斯语翻译作为一个历史事件进行考察。为此,本文研究了翻译手稿的两份副本:一份由译者撰写,其中还包括他的初稿的修订,另一份是提交给第四任卡扎尔国王Naser al-Din Shah的插图副本。对文本的仔细比较研究表明,翻译回响着三种不同的声音:作者、译者和他的赞助人——伊朗国王。译者的意义转换表明,这些变化绝不是轻微的、局部的,而是影响到整个文本,导致不同的叙事,大多符合统治体系。然而,也有米尔扎·拉希姆在翻译中表达不同意见的情况。此外,这项研究还揭示了翻译发生的社会政治条件,揭示了只有通过分析当时的翻译才能揭示的卡扎尔统治的各个方面。
{"title":"Translator as Historical Re-Narrator: The Case of the Persian Translation of Clements Markham's History of Persia","authors":"Somaye Delzendehrooy","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.41","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.41","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper examines Mirza Rahim Khan's Persian translation (1885) of Clement Markham's A General Sketch of the History of Persia (1874) as a historical event. To this end, this article looks at two copies of the translation manuscripts: one written by the translator, which also includes revisions of his first draft, and the other an illuminated copy presented to Naser al-Din Shah, the fourth Qajar shah. A close comparative examination of the texts shows the translation reverberates three distinct voices: the writer, the translator, and his patron, the shah. The translator's shifts of meaning show that the changes, far from being slight and local, affect the whole text, resulting in a different narrative, mostly conforming to the ruling system. However, there are cases where Mirza Rahim expresses his dissident voice in the translation. Furthermore, this examination also reveals the socio-political condition under which the translation took place, shedding light on aspects of Qajar rule only revealed by analyzing translations of the time.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85831661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This is a review article of a three-volume book in Persian by Ali Akbar Tashakori on the social history of Yazdi Zoroastrians in medieval and modern times.1 The work goes beyond the history of the Yazdi community, encompassing the broader history of Iranian Zoroastrians. Despite certain novelties, the volumes largely rely on a conventional reconstruction of the history of Iranian Zoroastrians in the second millennium CE. The foundational elements of this reconstruction include the gradual Islamization of Iran and the subsequent “retreat” of Zoroastrians to the “marginal” regions of Yazd and Kerman, the challenging conditions faced by Zoroastrians in medieval and early modern times, the beginning of Iranian Zoroastrians’ social and intellectual “emancipation” in the nineteenth century with Parsi assistance, the community's increasing political and economic influence in the late Qajar and early Pahlavi eras, and the Pahlavis’ exceptional role in elevating the status of Zoroastrians within wider Iranian society. Tashakori's extensive reliance on these narratives offers an opportunity to not only review his own new interpretations, but also to reassess these long-standing assumptions. Additionally, the article highlights neglected primary sources pertaining to the Yazdi community.
本文是对Ali Akbar Tashakori用波斯语写的三卷本关于中世纪和现代雅兹迪琐罗亚斯德教社会史的评论文章这项工作超越了雅兹迪社区的历史,涵盖了更广泛的伊朗琐罗亚斯德教的历史。尽管有一些新奇之处,但这些卷主要依赖于对公元第二个千年伊朗琐罗亚斯德教历史的传统重建。这一重建的基本要素包括伊朗的逐渐伊斯兰化和随后琐罗亚斯德教徒“撤退”到亚兹德和克尔曼的“边缘”地区,琐罗亚斯德教徒在中世纪和近代早期面临的挑战性条件,19世纪伊朗琐罗亚斯德教徒在帕西人的帮助下开始的社会和知识“解放”,该社区在卡扎尔晚期和巴列维早期的政治和经济影响日益增加,以及巴列维家族在提升琐罗亚斯德教在更广泛的伊朗社会中的地位方面所起的特殊作用。Tashakori对这些叙述的广泛依赖,不仅为他提供了一个回顾自己的新解释的机会,也为重新评估这些长期存在的假设提供了机会。此外,文章强调了与雅兹迪社区有关的被忽视的主要来源。
{"title":"Yazd and its Zoroastrians","authors":"Kiyan Foroutan","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.44","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This is a review article of a three-volume book in Persian by Ali Akbar Tashakori on the social history of Yazdi Zoroastrians in medieval and modern times.1 The work goes beyond the history of the Yazdi community, encompassing the broader history of Iranian Zoroastrians. Despite certain novelties, the volumes largely rely on a conventional reconstruction of the history of Iranian Zoroastrians in the second millennium CE. The foundational elements of this reconstruction include the gradual Islamization of Iran and the subsequent “retreat” of Zoroastrians to the “marginal” regions of Yazd and Kerman, the challenging conditions faced by Zoroastrians in medieval and early modern times, the beginning of Iranian Zoroastrians’ social and intellectual “emancipation” in the nineteenth century with Parsi assistance, the community's increasing political and economic influence in the late Qajar and early Pahlavi eras, and the Pahlavis’ exceptional role in elevating the status of Zoroastrians within wider Iranian society. Tashakori's extensive reliance on these narratives offers an opportunity to not only review his own new interpretations, but also to reassess these long-standing assumptions. Additionally, the article highlights neglected primary sources pertaining to the Yazdi community.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73372102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The tradition of writing in Iran has a long history, and its continuous development has, from time to time, led to new scripts. A most notable case is that of Perso-Arabic's replacement of Pahlavi script when New Persian replaced Middle Persian, resulting in Zoroastrian priests having difficulties reading and understanding their religious texts. The process of changing scripts is well attested by the tradition of Pāzand. Although Pāzand was considered one of the first types of transliteration in Iran, this tradition was also gradually abandoned due to its reliance on Avestan script, which was and continues to be uncommon. Avestan script is now found in Zoroastrian Middle Persian (Pahlavi) manuscripts, just as Pāzand was traditionally used for earlier texts. Pāzand–i.e., transcription of Middle Persian in the Avestan alphabet–was used for some time, but was eventually abandoned for scripts in common use, i.e., Persian in Persia and Gujarati and Devanagari in India. In this paper, the aim is to identify and categorize this tradition's characteristics in Pahlavi manuscripts, drawing on manuscripts from the fifty-three volumes published by the Asia Institute of the Pahlavi University of Shiraz, as listed in the Appendix.
{"title":"Fārsīgraphy in Zoroastrian Middle Persian Manuscripts","authors":"I. Šafiʿī","doi":"10.1017/irn.2023.21","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2023.21","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The tradition of writing in Iran has a long history, and its continuous development has, from time to time, led to new scripts. A most notable case is that of Perso-Arabic's replacement of Pahlavi script when New Persian replaced Middle Persian, resulting in Zoroastrian priests having difficulties reading and understanding their religious texts. The process of changing scripts is well attested by the tradition of Pāzand. Although Pāzand was considered one of the first types of transliteration in Iran, this tradition was also gradually abandoned due to its reliance on Avestan script, which was and continues to be uncommon. Avestan script is now found in Zoroastrian Middle Persian (Pahlavi) manuscripts, just as Pāzand was traditionally used for earlier texts. Pāzand–i.e., transcription of Middle Persian in the Avestan alphabet–was used for some time, but was eventually abandoned for scripts in common use, i.e., Persian in Persia and Gujarati and Devanagari in India. In this paper, the aim is to identify and categorize this tradition's characteristics in Pahlavi manuscripts, drawing on manuscripts from the fifty-three volumes published by the Asia Institute of the Pahlavi University of Shiraz, as listed in the Appendix.","PeriodicalId":46025,"journal":{"name":"Iranian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73604613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}