This is the first systematic examination of the esoteric significance of the bawdy tales and explicit sexual passages present in Rūmī's (d. 1273) Mathnawī, a masterpiece of medieval Perso-Islamic mystical literature and theosophic teachings. Using the relevant features of postmodern theories as strategic conceptual tools, and drawing on the recent interpretations of medieval kabbalistic texts, it is a fascinating examination of the link between the dynamics of eroticism and esotericism operative in Rūmī's Mathnawī. In some of these bawdy tales, the...

This volume is a collection of essays on classical Persian literature, focusing on Persian rhetorical devices, especially imagery and metaphors. The various contributions discuss the origin and the development of debate poetry, the transmission of Persian and Arabic tales to the works of Europeans medieval authors such as Boccaccio and Chaucer, but also the development of Aristotelian poetics and epistemology in Persian philosophical tradition. Furthermore, the baroque style of the Shiʿite author Ḥusayn Vāʾiẓ Kāshifī, the use of wine metaphors by mystics...

The Pahlavi Widēwdād (Vidēvdād), The Law (Serving to Keep) Demons Away, a fifth-century Middle Persian commentary on the Avestan Vidēvdād, describes rules and regulations that serve to prevent pollution caused by dead matter, menstrual discharges, and other agents. It recognizes the perpetual presence of the demons, the forces of the Evil Spirit -forces that should be fought through law-abiding conduct. In spite of its formidable textual problems, the commentary provides an invaluable quarry for the rules of the Zoroastrian community through its...

Bis heute werden die Eroberungen und die Herrschaft der Mongolen von vielen Iranerinnen und Iranern als traumatisches Ereignis oder gar als "Genozid" angesehen. Diese Einschatzung spiegeln auch die im Iran der Pahlavizeit und der Islamischen Republik publizierten Monographien und Artikel zur Mongolenzeit wider, die vor allem als Lehrbucher an Schulen und Hochschulen verwendet werden. Daher besteht der wesentliche Ansatz in Anja Pistor-Hatams Analyse dieser historischen Erzahlungen im Sinn, den ihre Autorinnen und Autoren den kontingenten Ereignissen dieser Epoche geben. Dabei bedienen sie...

In The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality, Denise Aigle presents the Mongol empire as a moment of contact between political ideologies, religions, cultures and languages, and, in terms of reciprocal representations, between the Far East, the Muslim East, and the Latin West. The first part is devoted to "The memoria of the Mongols in historical and literary sources" in which she examines how the Mongol rulers were perceived by the peoples with whom they were in contact. In "Shamanism and Islam" she studies the perception of shamanism by Muslim authors and their attempts to integrate...

This book presents a translation of Bertold Spuler's groundbreaking work on the transformation of Iran from a Persian Zoroastrian Empire to a province of the Arab Muslim Empire to a land divided by a number of Persian and Turkish kingdoms.

Il existe peu de documents originaux pour permettre aux historiens de comprendre comment le coup d'Etat de Seyyed Ziya et de Reza Khan en 1921 s'est deroule. Les journaux de deux diplomates francais, Georges Ducrocq (attache militaire) et Helene Hoppenot (epouse du charge d'affaires) nous donnent des informations de premiere main sur l'opinion publique et sur les activites des Britanniques ainsi que sur la vie quotidienne avant, pendant et apres fevrier 1921. Ils donnent des portraits contrastes de quelques uns des principaux politiciens iraniens et de personnages europeens aussi importants...

In Memories of an Impossible Future: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time Marie Huber traces the quest for a modern language of poetry through different figurations of temporality in the works of one of Iran's foremost poets. Akhavān is placed in dialogue with European thinkers and emerges as an original voice in world literature. Chapters examine aspects of rhythm and metaphor, messianism and historicity, and functions of time in Akhavān's lyric and epic poems. Through a range of close readings Huber seeks to understand Akhavān's texts as...

In Ästhetik, Politik und schiitische Repräsentation im zeitgenössischen Iran zeigt Christian Funke die Verflechtungen von Politik, Protest und schiitischer Materialität auf und legt vielschichtig dar, wie die Grüne Bewegung mit umfassenderen Diskursen über Demokratie, Identität, Geschichte und Gegenwart sowie Religion und Politik verknüpft war. In Aesthetics, Politics, and Shiʿi Representation in Contemporary Iran Christian Funke explores the entangled relationship between politics, protest and Shiʿi materiality and shows how the ‘Green Movement’ was part of larger discourses...

The late Professor Hossein Ziai’s interests focused on the Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) tradition. Dedicated to his memory, this volume deals with the post-Avicennan philosophical tradition in Iran, and in particular the Illuminationist school and later philosophers, such as those associated with the School of Isfahan, who were fundamentally influenced by it. The focus of various chapters is on translations, editions, and close expositions of rationalist works in areas such as epistemology, logic and metaphysics rather than mysticism more generally, and also on specific texts rather than...