Thematic Features in Iranian National History Writings: The Case of the Dāstān-e Goshtāsp (Tale of Goshtāsp)
01 Jan 2014-pp 13-56
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the image of the ancient Iranian prophet Zoroaster in the Shāhnāme based on a closed reading of the story about the Kaynian king Goshtāsp written by Daqiqi (and continued by Ferdowsi).
Abstract: This paper aims to examine the image of the ancient Iranian prophet Zoroaster in the Shāhnāme based on a closed reading of the story about the Kayānian king Goshtāsp written by Daqiqi (and continued by Ferdowsi). For this purpose it will discuss the thematic properties of the Dāstān-e Goshtāsp (Tale of Goshtāsp) in the light of Iranian historical and epic traditions. Given the religious subject matter of the advent of Zoroaster, my aim is also to explore whether Daqiqi’s account primarily has a religious orientation or is the manifestation of a more secular orientation which represents the taste of kings and nobles with an emphasis on heroic events. The question of the Zoroastrian orientation of Daqiqi’s narrative is especially interesting given that the Shāhnāme was commissioned by an Iranian Muslim monarch and primarily addressed an audience of Persian-speaking Muslims albeit conscious of their national heritage. Of specific interest in my presentation is Daqiqi’s handling of the Sistānian heroic tradition and its hostility to Zoroaster’s patron, and whether there are any important ideological differences between Daqiqi and Ferdowsi in this respect.
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TL;DR: Temur's army of conquest: the Ulus Chaghatay as mentioned in this paper is a famous example of such an army. But it is not a complete account of the history of the army.
Abstract: List of maps Acknowledgements A note on usage and transcription 1. Introduction 2. The Ulus Chaghatay in the mid-fourteenth century 3. Temur's rise to power: the politics of the Ulus Chaghatay 4. Temur's army of conquest: the Ulus Chaghatay 5. Temur's army of conquest: outsiders and conquered peoples 6. Structure and function in Temur's administration 7. The struggle for succession 8. Conclusion Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.
90 citations
TL;DR: The origin of free will in Western thought has been investigated in this paper, where the authors offer a radically new answer to the much discussed question of the origin of the free will.
Abstract: This short but wide-ranging book has an ambitious project: it offers a radically new answer to the much discussed question of the origin of the idea of free will in Western thought. The book is bas...
26 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: In this paper, the major intellectual positions in the philosophical debate on Islamic law that is occuring in contemporary Iran are analyzed and analyzed to what extent these positions and their understanding of questions of epistemology, methodology and hermeneutics are engendered by the cognitive and ontological structures of modernity.
Abstract: This study analyses the major intellectual positions in the philosophical debate on Islamic law that is occuring in contemporary Iran. As the characteristic features of traditional epistemic considerations have a direct bearing on the modern development of Islamic legal thought, the contemporary positions are initially set against the established normative repertory of Islamic tradition. It is within this broad examination of a living legacy of interpretation that the context for the concretisations of traditional as well as modern Islamic learning are enclosed. After the 1979 revolution, the problem of the renewal of Islamic law has acquired great urgency and there is an ongoing debate as to the best legal solutions to many problems facing contemporary society given that there is no clear position under many areas of traditional jurisprudence. Among the pivotal figures who are considered in this respect are primarily Άbdullāh Jawādī-Āmulī (traditionalism), Muḥammad Mujtahid-Shabistarī (modernism) and Άbd al-Karīm Surūsh (postmodernism), but other individuals who belong to the Islamic intellectual elite of Iran are also included. In the main the position of Surūsh is highlighted, since his post-1988 writings on the nature of Islamic law, legal epistemology and hermeneutics accommodate Islam to modernity to an extent unsurpassed in the Iranian context.In light of the relationship between global modernity and the religion of Islam, the purpose of this book is to analyse to what extent these positions and their understanding of questions of epistemology, methodology and hermeneutics are engendered by the cognitive and ontological structures of modernity. The major argument presented is that modernity no longer is categorically conceptualised as an externalphenomenon among many religious intellectuals, but that there is instead an effort on their part to develop indigenous expressions of its driving principles. In an attempt to define some of the contents of a supposed Islamic modernity, this study suggests that Islamic postmodernism has paradigmatic relevance and reflects a thoroughly transitional phenomenon within Shi’i speculation on divine law.
7 citations
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of contemporary Pashto prose writing in a context of war and crisis based on a corpus of digitally published and/or printed short stories from the 1990s onwards is presented.
Abstract: This dissertation is a study of contemporary Pashto prose writing in a context of war and crisis based on a corpus of digitally published and/or printed short stories from the 1990s onwards. Out of ...
5 citations
References
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01 Apr 1983
TL;DR: The rise of the Sasanian dynasty can be understood as the successful struggle of a minor ruler of Persis not only against his Parthian overlord, but also against a multitude of neighbouring rulers.
Abstract: The rise of the Sasanian dynasty can be understood as the successful struggle of a minor ruler of Persis not only against his Parthian overlord, but also against a multitude of neighbouring rulers. The main adversary of the Persians was the Roman empire, and the ambitions of the first Sasanian ruler were soon countered by Rome. It was during the reign of Yazdgard that the Christians of the Sasanian empire held a council in the city of Seleucia in the year 410. Shortly after Bahrāam accession in 421 the persecution of Christians in the Sasanian empire was resumed, probably at the instigation of Zoroastrian priests. The Sasanians inherited from the Parthians a legacy of over two centuries of conflict with the western power. With a Sasanian belief in the destiny of Iran to rule over the territories once held by the Achaemenians, it was inevitable that wars between the two great powers would continue.
159 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1953
TL;DR: 1. Qurʾānic literature.2.
Abstract: 1.2. Qurʾānic literature. History and biography. Pt. 2: Biography, additions and corrections, indexes
101 citations
"Thematic Features in Iranian Nation..." refers background in this paper
...‘Ali Yazdi, the poet, we recall, is credited with a verse Timurnāme, following Ferdowsi’s model (Storey 1970: 228)....
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TL;DR: Temur's army of conquest: the Ulus Chaghatay as mentioned in this paper is a famous example of such an army. But it is not a complete account of the history of the army.
Abstract: List of maps Acknowledgements A note on usage and transcription 1. Introduction 2. The Ulus Chaghatay in the mid-fourteenth century 3. Temur's rise to power: the politics of the Ulus Chaghatay 4. Temur's army of conquest: the Ulus Chaghatay 5. Temur's army of conquest: outsiders and conquered peoples 6. Structure and function in Temur's administration 7. The struggle for succession 8. Conclusion Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.
90 citations
89 citations
Book•
28 Jun 2012TL;DR: Crone's book as discussed by the authors describes a complex of religious ideas that, however varied in space and unstable over time, has demonstrated a remarkable persistence in Iran across a period of two millennia.
Abstract: Patricia Crone's book is about the Iranian response to the Muslim penetration of the Iranian countryside, the revolts subsequently triggered there and the religious communities that these revolts revealed. The book also describes a complex of religious ideas that, however varied in space and unstable over time, has demonstrated a remarkable persistence in Iran across a period of two millennia. The central thesis is that this complex of ideas has been endemic to the mountain population of Iran and occasionally become epidemic with major consequences for the country, most strikingly in the revolts examined here and in the rise of the Safavids who imposed Shi'ism on Iran. This learned and engaging book by one of the most influential scholars of early Islamic history casts entirely new light on the nature of religion in pre-Islamic Iran and on the persistence of Iranian religious beliefs both outside and inside Islam after the Arab conquest.
64 citations