Aspects of History and Epic in Ancient Iran

Aspects of History and Epic in Ancient Iran PDF Author: M. Rahim Shayegan
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674065888
Category : Epic literature, Iranian
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
One of the Ancient Near East's most important inscriptions is the Bisotun inscription of the Achaemenid king Darius I (6th century BCE), which reports on a suspicious fratricide and coup. Shayegan shows how the Bisotun's narrative influenced the Iranian epic, epigraphic, and historiographical traditions into the Sasanian and early Islamic periods.

Aspects of History and Epic in Ancient Iran

Aspects of History and Epic in Ancient Iran PDF Author: M. Rahim Shayegan
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674065888
Category : Epic literature, Iranian
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
One of the Ancient Near East's most important inscriptions is the Bisotun inscription of the Achaemenid king Darius I (6th century BCE), which reports on a suspicious fratricide and coup. Shayegan shows how the Bisotun's narrative influenced the Iranian epic, epigraphic, and historiographical traditions into the Sasanian and early Islamic periods.

Shahnameh

Shahnameh PDF Author: Abolqasem Ferdowsi
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101993235
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 1041

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Book Description
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.

History of the Persian Empire

History of the Persian Empire PDF Author: A. T. Olmstead
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226826333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 671

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Book Description
Out of a lifetime of study of the ancient Near East, Professor Olmstead has gathered previously unknown material into the story of the life, times, and thought of the Persians, told for the first time from the Persian rather than the traditional Greek point of view. "The fullest and most reliable presentation of the history of the Persian Empire in existence."—M. Rostovtzeff

The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia

The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia PDF Author: Firdausi
Publisher: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
ISBN: 3986778160
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia Firdausi - The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia (The Shahnameh) is an epic poem by the Persian poet Firdausi, written between 966 and 1010 AD. Telling the past of the Persian empire, using a mix of the mythical and historical, it is regarded as a literary masterpiece. Not only important to the Persian culture, it is also important to modern day followers of the Zoroastrianism religion. It is said that the poem was Firdausi's efforts to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days, following the fall of the Sassanid empire. The poem contains, among others, mentions of the romance of Zal and Rudba, Alexander the Great, the wars with Afrsyb, and the romance of Bijan and Manijeh.

The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History

The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History PDF Author: Touraj Daryaee
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199732159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This handbook is a guide to Iran's complex history. The book emphasizes the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran's past.

The Sistani Cycle of Epics and Iran’s National History

The Sistani Cycle of Epics and Iran’s National History PDF Author: Saghi Gazerani
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004282963
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This work examines the entire corpus of the Sistani Cycle of Epics, both parts included in Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh and those appearing in separate manuscripts. It argues that the so-called “epic literature” of Iran constitutes a kind of historiography, encapsulating reflections of watershed events of Iran’s antiquity. By examining the symbiotic relationship of the texts’ content and form, the underpinning discourse of the various stories is revealed to have been shaped by polemics of political legitimacy and religious conflict. This discourse, however, is not abstract. The stories narrate, within their generic constraint, some of the affairs of the Sistani kingdom and its relationship to the Parthian throne, mainly from the first century BCE to the end of the second century CE.

Orality, Textuality, and the Homeric Epics

Orality, Textuality, and the Homeric Epics PDF Author: Jonathan L. Ready
Publisher:
ISBN: 019883506X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Written texts of the Iliad and the Odyssey achieved an unprecedented degree of standardization after 150 BCE, but what of the earlier history of Homeric texts? This volume draws on scholarship from outside the discipline of classical studies to offer a comprehensive study of Homeric texts from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period.

Essays in Islamic Philology, History, and Philosophy

Essays in Islamic Philology, History, and Philosophy PDF Author: Alireza Korangy
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110383241
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
The articles in this volume are dedicated to Professor Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani for the breadth and depth of his interests and his influence on those interests. They attest to the fact that his fervor and rigorously surgical attention to detail have found fertile ground in a wide variety of disciplines, including (among others) Persian literature and philology; Islamic history and historiography; Arabic literature and philology; and Islamic philosophy and jurisprudence. The volume has brought together some of the most respected scholars in the fields of Islamic studies and Islamic literatures, all his prior students, to contribute with articles that touch on the fields Professor Mahdavi Damghani has so permanently touched with his astonishing scholarship and attention to detail.

A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire

A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire PDF Author: Bruno Jacobs
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119071658
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1744

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Book Description
A COMPANION TO THE ACHAEMENID PERSIAN EMPIRE A comprehensive review of the political, cultural, social, economic and religious history of the Achaemenid Empirem Often called the first world empire, the Achaemenid Empire is rooted in older Near Eastern traditions. A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire offers a perspective in which the history of the empire is embedded in the preceding and subsequent epochs. In this way, the traditions that shaped the Achaemenid Empire become as visible as the powerful impact it had on further historical development. But the work does not only break new ground in this respect, but also in the fact that, in addition to written testimonies of all kinds, it also considers material tradition as an equal factor in historical reconstruction. This comprehensive two-volume set features contributions by internationally-recognized experts that offer balanced coverage of the whole of the empire from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia. Comprehensive in scope, the Companion provides readers with a panoramic view of the diversity, richness, and complexity of the Achaemenid Empire, dealing with all the many aspects of history, event history, administration, economy, society, communication, art, science and religion, illustrating the multifaceted nature of the first true empire. A unique historical account presented in its multiregional dimensions, this important resource deals with many aspects of history, administration, economy, society, communication, art, science and religion it deals with topics that have only recently attracted interest such as court life, leisure activities, gender roles, and more examines a variety of available sources to consider those predecessors who influenced Achaemenid structure, ideology, and self-expression contains the study of Nachleben and the history of perception up to the present day offers a spectrum of opinions in disputed fields of research, such as the interpretation of the imagery of Achaemenid art, or questions of religion includes extensive bibliographies in each chapter for use as starting points for further research devotes special interest to the east of the empire, which is often neglected in comparison to the western territories Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World series, A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire is an indispensable work for students, instructors, and scholars of Persian and ancient world history, particularly the First Persian Empire.

Reading the Sacred Scriptures

Reading the Sacred Scriptures PDF Author: Fiachra Long
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1134792492
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to Written Documents and their Reception examines how the scriptures came to be written and how their authority has been constructed and reinforced over time. Highlighting the measures taken to safeguard the stability of oral accounts, this book demonstrates the care of religious communities to maintain with reverence their assembled parchments and scrolls. Written by leading experts in their fields, this collection chronicles the development of the scriptures from oral tradition to written documents and their reception. It features notable essays on the scriptures of Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Shinto, and Baha'i. This book will fascinate anyone interested in the belief systems of the featured religions. It offers an ideal starting point from which undergraduate and postgraduate religious studies students, teachers and lecturers can explore religious traditions from their historical beginnings.