for Afro Asian Literature subject

1. PERSIAN
LITERATURE

2.  Derives from Latin “Persia” deriving
from Greek “Persis”
In the bible it is referred as “Paras”
-(within the books of Esther, Daniel,
Ezra and Nehemiah)

3.  “Islamic Republic of Iran”
- Second largest country in Middle East
- South of the Caspian Sea and north of
the Persian Gulf
-Multicultural country
-17th most populous country
-One of the world’s oldest civilizations

4. ABOUT PERSIA/IRAN
 Land Area – 1,648,195 sq. km.
 Population – (2014) 81,840,713
 Life expectancy – 70
 Capital and largest City – Tehran
 Government – Islamic Theocracy
 Monetary unit – Rial

5.  Elburz Mountains and Mount
Damavand in the north
 From northwest to southeast, crossed
by desert (1,287 km.)
 Shares borders with Iraq, turkey,
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Armenia,
Afghanistan and Pakistan

6. RELIGION
 633 AD- Indigenous faiths of
Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism
1501 – Shite Islam as the official religion

7. LANGUAGE
 Khwarezmian language
 Mazanderani language
 Old Azeri language
 Persian language

8. HISTORY
 1500 BC – Occupied by MEDES and
PERSIANS
 525 BC- King Cyrus the Great became
ruler of the Achaemenid Empire
overthrew MEDES
 331 BC – Persia fell to Alexander
 312 BC – Seleucids

9.  247 BC – Greek speaking Parthians
 224 BC – The Sasanians
 641 – Arab Muslims
 12th century – Invaded by the Mongols
 1501-1722 – Safayid Dynasty
 1794-1925 – Qajar Dynasty

10. ARTS
Carpet-weaving, pottery, mosaic,
miniature painting, calligraphy, music,
textile design and illustrated manuscripts
CULTURE
Recognized, incorporated, adopted or
celebrated

11. LITERATURE

12.  One of the world’s oldest literatures
 Not all Persian literature is written in
Persian language, as some works written in
Arabic and Greek
 Not all literature written in Persian is
written by Persians/Iranians as Turkic,
Caucasian and Indic writers also used
Persian language

13.  Main issue of Pre- Islamic culture was
wisdom and a kind of rationalism
 Goodness and evil was a principle issue
-Appeared in books and independent
treatises
 Classical Persian poetry is always
rhymed

14. FAMOUS TYPES OF PERSIAN POETRY

15. Gosan folk songs
– Oral traditions
- A kind of Iranian minstrels

16. Qasidah or ode
– Long poem in monorhyme
- Usually panegyric, didactic or religious
nature

17. Divan
– Collection of poets ghazals and other
verse arranged alphabetically according to
rhymes

18. Ghazal (ode or lyric)
– Poetic form consisting of rhyming
couplet and refrain
- Poetic expression of both pain of loss or
separation and the beauty of love
- Written by Persian mystics and poets

19. Masnavi
– Written in rhyming couplets for heroic,
romantic and narrative verse
- A poem based on independent, internally
rhyming lines
- Followed a meter of eleven or
occasionally ten

20. Rubaiyat
- Poetry style
- Used to describe Persian quatrain
- Rhyming AABA, AAAA
- Contains only four lines
- All lines rhyme, except the third line

21. EXAMPLE:
1 Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
2 The Winter garment of Repentance fling
3 The Bird of Time has built a little way
4 To fly and Lo! The Bird in on the Wing.

22. EARLYLITERATURE
 Saada and Rumi – two poetic geniuses
 Hamdullah Mostofi – produced notable
works of history, geography, epic, the
ZafarNameh or Book of Victory
 Nasir ud-Din Tusi – wrote about
philosophy and logic

23. Three Stages of development in Persian
short story:
- Formative period
- Growth and Development Period
- Period of diversity

24. FORMATIVE PERIOD
 Mohammad AliJamalzadehs
- First writer of modern short stories
– collections of “Yak-I Bud Yak-I Nabud”
and “Gained Momentum”

25. Sadeq Hedayat – Introduced modernism
in Persian Literature
“Buf-e kur” and “Haji Aqa” – masterpiece
“Se Gathra-ye Khun” (Three drops of
blood)
“Zenda be Gur” (Buried Alive)

26. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT PERIOD
 Jalal Al-e Ahmad
-Shows awareness of the new generation of
third world writers concerned with the
problems of cultural dominations by
colonial powers

27. PERIOD OF DIVERSITY
- Influence of the western literature
- New and modern approaches in writing
specially in the short stories
- Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, Simin Behbahani,
Aref Ghazvini and Shahriar

28. CLASSICAL PERSIAN POETRY
 Mohammad Taghi Bahar
-“King of poets”
- Theme of his poets was social and
political situation of Iran

29.  Parvin Etesami
- Greatest Persian Poetess
- “Mast va Hoshyar”(The Drunk and the
Sober)
- Admired by those involved in romantic
poetry

30. MODERN PERSIAN POETRY
 Nima Yushij
- “Father of modern Persian poetry”
-Introduces many techniques and forms to
differentiate the modern from the old
- Sepid poetry

31.  Ahmad Shamlu
-Adopted Nima’s methods and tried new
techniques of modern poetry
- Discovered the inner characteristics of
poetry
- Recognized the role of prose and music
hidden in the language

32.  Forough Farrokhzadis
-Among the first generation to embrace
new style of poetry
- First Iranian who graphically articulate
private sexual landscapes from a woman’s
perspective
- She transcended her own literary role
and experimented w/ acting, painting and
documentary film-making

33.  Hafiz – A term used by Muslims for
people who have completely memorized
the Qur’an
 Hafiz – A Sufi poet, expressed in poetry
love for the divine, the intoxicating
oneness of union w/ it. Uses wine as
symbol for love. Spoke out about the
hypocrisy and deceit that exists in society

34. List of Poems
All the Hemispheres
From the Large Jug, Drink
I have learned so much
Let thought become you beautiful lover
School of truth
Laughing at the Word Two
I know the way you can get
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
Tired of speaking sweetly
No more leaving

35. “Muqaddame-ye Shahname-ye Abu
Mansuri”
-The oldest surviving work Persian
literary
- Written during the Samanid period
- Deals with the myths and legends
-The oldest example of Persian prose