The Oral Background of Persian Epics

The Oral Background of Persian Epics

Author: Kumiko Yamamoto

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9789004125872

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book proposes a set of criteria for determining the extent to which oral tradition influences written Persian epics. The criteria are applied to Persian epics, the Shah-name (c. 1000) and the Garshasp-name (c. 1064-66).


The Oral Background of Persian Epics

The Oral Background of Persian Epics

Author: Kumiko Yamamoto

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9004502688

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume discusses the indirect influence of oral transmission on the genesis and evolution of the Persian written epic tradition. On the basis of formal characteristics of naqqâli (Persian storytelling) performance, a set of formal and thematic criteria is proposed to determine the extent to which written Persian epics show structures ultimately deriving from oral performance. It is applied to the Shâh-nâme of Ferdowsi (c. 1000) and to the Garshâsp-nâme of Asadi (c. 1064-66). The first part of the book examines the Oral-Formulaic Theory and proposes an alternative approach focusing on naqqâli. The book may be relevant to both oralists and Iranists; it demonstrates the complex process where orality interacts with written tradition in the genesis of the Shâh-nâme.


Shahnameh

Shahnameh

Author: Abolqasem Ferdowsi

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2016-03-08

Total Pages: 1041

ISBN-13: 1101993235

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The definitive translation by Dick Davis of the great national epic of Iran—now newly revised and expanded to be the most complete English-language edition A Penguin Classic Dick Davis—“our pre-eminent translator from the Persian” (The Washington Post)—has revised and expanded his acclaimed translation of Ferdowsi’s masterpiece, adding more than 100 pages of newly translated text. Davis’s elegant combination of prose and verse allows the poetry of the Shahnameh to sing its own tales directly, interspersed sparingly with clearly marked explanations to ease along modern readers. Originally composed for the Samanid princes of Khorasan in the tenth century, the Shahnameh is among the greatest works of world literature. This prodigious narrative tells the story of pre-Islamic Persia, from the mythical creation of the world and the dawn of Persian civilization through the seventh-century Arab conquest. The stories of the Shahnameh are deeply embedded in Persian culture and beyond, as attested by their appearance in such works as The Kite Runner and the love poems of Rumi and Hafez. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Shahnama Studies III

Shahnama Studies III

Author: Gabrielle R. van den Berg

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-11-27

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 9004356258

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Shahnama Studies III focuses on the hugely successful afterlife of the Shahnama or Book of Kings, completed by the poet Firdausi around 1010 AD. This long epic grew out to be an icon of Persian culture and served as a source of inspiration for art and literature, leaving its traces in manifold ways. The contributors to this volume each treat an aspect of the rich legacy of the Shahnama and offer new insights in Shahnama manuscript studies, the illustration of the Shahnama, the phenomenon of later epics, and the Shahnama in later texts and contexts.


Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetics

Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetics

Author: Olga M. Davidson

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780674073203

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Olga M. Davidson applies comparative literary approaches to classical Persian traditions of composing and performing poetry and song. She focuses on the eleventh-century ce epic Shahnama and its relationship to other genres embedded in it, including forms of verbal art originally composed without the aid of writing, such as women's laments.


Khwadāynāmag The Middle Persian Book of Kings

Khwadāynāmag The Middle Persian Book of Kings

Author: Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9004277641

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Khwadāynāmag. The Middle Persian Book of Kings Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila analyses the lost sixth-century historiographical work of the Sasanians, its lost Arabic translations, and the sources of Firdawsī's Shāhnāme.


The Shahnameh

The Shahnameh

Author: Hamid Dabashi

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2019-01-08

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0231544944

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Shahnameh, an epic poem recounting the foundation of Iran across mythical, heroic, and historical ages, is the beating heart of Persian literature and culture. Composed by Abu al-Qasem Ferdowsi over a thirty-year period and completed in the year 1010, the epic has entertained generations of readers and profoundly shaped Persian culture, society, and politics. For a millennium, Iranian and Persian-speaking people around the globe have read, memorized, discussed, performed, adapted, and loved the poem. In this book, Hamid Dabashi brings the Shahnameh to renewed global attention, encapsulating a lifetime of learning and teaching the Persian epic for a new generation of readers. Dabashi insightfully traces the epic’s history, authorship, poetic significance, complicated legacy of political uses and abuses, and enduring significance in colonial and postcolonial contexts. In addition to explaining and celebrating what makes the Shahnameh such a distinctive literary work, he also considers the poem in the context of other epics, such as the Aeneid and the Odyssey, and critical debates about the concept of world literature. Arguing that Ferdowsi’s epic and its reception broached this idea long before nineteenth-century Western literary criticism, Dabashi makes a powerful case that we need to rethink the very notion of “world literature” in light of his reading of the Persian epic.


Routledge Handbook of Post Classical and Contemporary Persian Literature

Routledge Handbook of Post Classical and Contemporary Persian Literature

Author: Kamran Talattof

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-05

Total Pages: 748

ISBN-13: 1351341677

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Routledge Handbook of Post Classical and Contemporary Persian Literature contains scholarly essays and sample texts related to Persian literature from the 17th century to the present day. It includes analyses of free verse poetry, short stories, novels, prison writings, memoirs, and plays. The chapters apply a disciplinary or interdisciplinary approach to the many movements, genres, and works of the long and evolving body of Persian literature produced in the Persianate World. These collections of scholarly essays and samples of Persian literary texts provide facts (general information), instructions (ways to understand, analyze, and appreciate this body of works), and the field’s state-of-the-art research (the problematics of the topics) regarding one of the most important and oldest literary traditions in the world. Thus, the Handbook’s chapters and related texts provide scholars, students, and admirers of Persian poetry and prose with practical and direct access to the intricacies of the Persian literary world through a chronological account of key moments in the formation of this enduring literary tradition. The related Handbook (also edited by Kamran Talattof ), Routledge Handbook of Ancient, Classical, and Late Classical Persian Literature covers Persian literary works from the ancient or pre-Islamic era to roughly the end of the 16th century.


Traditional Storytelling Today

Traditional Storytelling Today

Author: Margaret Read MacDonald

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 1135917140

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Traditional Storytelling Today explores the diversity of contemporary storytelling traditions and provides a forum for in-depth discussion of interesting facets of comtemporary storytelling. Never before has such a wealth of information about storytelling traditions been gathered together. Storytelling is alive and well throughout the world as the approximately 100 articles by more than 90 authors make clear. Most of the essays average 2,000 words and discuss a typical storytelling event, give a brief sample text, and provide theory from the folklorist. A comprehensive index is provided. Bibliographies afford the reader easy access to additional resources.


Routledge Revivals: Medieval Islamic Civilization (2006)

Routledge Revivals: Medieval Islamic Civilization (2006)

Author: Josef Meri

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-12

Total Pages: 1238

ISBN-13: 1351668137

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Islamic civilization flourished in the Middle Ages across a vast geographical area that spans today's Middle and Near East. First published in 2006, Medieval Islamic Civilization examines the socio-cultural history of the regions where Islam took hold between the 7th and 16th centuries. This important two-volume work contains over 700 alphabetically arranged entries, contributed and signed by international scholars and experts in fields such as Arabic languages, Arabic literature, architecture, history of science, Islamic arts, Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies, Near Eastern studies, politics, religion, Semitic studies, theology, and more. Entries also explore the importance of interfaith relations and the permeation of persons, ideas, and objects across geographical and intellectual boundaries between Europe and the Islamic world. This reference work provides an exhaustive and vivid portrait of Islamic civilization and brings together in one authoritative text all aspects of Islamic civilization during the Middle Ages. Accessible to scholars, students and non-specialists, this resource will be of great use in research and understanding of the roots of today's Islamic society as well as the rich and vivid culture of medieval Islamic civilization.