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This paper investigates premodern conceptions of spaces of otherness, particularly within the context of Persian Sufi poetry. Abbasid-era travel literature describing monasteries, as well as real hostilities between Muslims and Christians, gave symbolic dimensions to spaces of antinomian activity in thirteenth-century eastern Iran. Making use of Edward Soja's thirdspace , as well as Jorge Luis Borges's the Aleph , this paper pays particular attention to the pseudo-hagiographical narrative of the "Shaykh of Ṣanʿān" in the poem Manṭiq al-Ṭayr (Speech of the Birds). In this account by the Persian poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 1221), Byzantium contrasts with the Kaʿba in Mecca, just as the wine-house, the Christian church, and the ruins contrast with normative spaces wherein expectations of decorum can lead to ostentatious and insincere modes of worship. By creating magical spaces of infidelity, spaces devoid of piety, ʿAṭṭār conveys themes of losing oneself to a carnal and ultimately divine Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deconstructs the ways the image of Fāṭima Zarrīn-Tāj Baraghānī, known as Tahirih Qurrat al-ʿAyn (d. 1852), has been distorted in academic works and in anti-Bahā'ī polemics. The misrepresentations of Tahirih in these works range from disconnecting her from the source of her inspiration, to accusations of immorality, to denying her knowledge, to denying her poetry, to depicting her as a militant figure. It is suggested that misogyny, religious prejudice, selective as well as uncritical use of primary sources, and agenda driven scholarship explain the misrepresentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The paper reconsiders the apocryphal stories regarding the Shahnama's initial reception to propose that it was only after long narrative poems gained currency that the Shahnama was recognized as a masterpiece. The paper analyzes the structure and themes of several histories written before and during the Samanid period and compares them with the Shahnama and the content of histories and epics produced immediately afterwards, to argue that the initial reception of the Shahnama did not depend on Sultan Mahmud Ghazni alone. It further argues that the Shahnama's aim, content, and execution differed from the histories and poetry produced in the decades immediately preceding and succeeding it, which would account for the lag in its acceptance and popularity. This led later biographers to superimpose their regret over Firdausi's treatment onto Sultan Mahmud Ghazni, who by their accounts denied him the fame and glory he deserved in his lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"love" is one of the most frequent words, in Iran and world literature. Because most people, experience love, One of the most common themes in art and literature is love. Persian literature, from the beginning until today, has expressed the love in forms such as Couplet-poem, Ghazel, story. Persian literature before the form of "lyric" has used "Tashbib" of ode's to express the emotion of love. Although the poets of odes have written about various topics such as description of nature, youth, wind, etc., but "love" is one of the most important themes of odes, especially in Farrokhi Sistani's odes. Among Khorasani style poets, Farrokhi Sistani has more romantic Tashbib poems And more than other poets of this era, is known as tashbib poetry. Considering these factors, the present article try to examines different aspects of love in Farokhi's tashbib poems. First, The relationship between love and literatur, Farrokhi's position in Persian lyrical poetry, the effect of relationship with the court on praised's preference for the beloved expressed. Then, the "Turkic race" of the beloved and his dual duty, military and charming, is examined. Pederasty and pedophilia and its causes are the subject of the next study. In the following, the reduction of love to mere sexual desire and sometimes even its tendency towards sexual deviations such as sexual addiction in Farrokhi's tashbib poems has been studied. The article ends with mentioning other important features of love in this period, such as realism, rationalistic view to love, simplicity of language and thought. The present article, which is written by descriptive-analytical method, In the end, concludes that Farrokhi, in his tashbib poems, expresses physically, happily, pederasty and hedonistically love, under the influence of personal and political-socio factors, such as hedonistic nature, luxury and prosperity, the abundance of Turkish beauties and the "tradition" of pedophilia in that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, a chain of traumatic events in Iran, from an eight-year war to post-revolution political turmoil, forced hundreds of thousands of people to escape their homeland during a wave of mass imprisonment and executions. The exodus included a substantial number of artists, writers, and academics, targeted for their work and beliefs. Their experience gave rise to an important, and woefully overlooked, canon of exilic Persian literature that offers a nuanced and complex documentation of forced displacement, exilic transnational identity, and the troublesome concept of 'home.' This essay explores the work of first-generation exiled poets and the ways in which temporal fluctuations of memory and emotion interact with the geographical and corporeal impact of displacement. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of home, migration, and diaspora, the essay challenges 'home versus exile' as an oppositional binary, offering a broader definition of exile that rearticulates the meaning of home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twentieth century Persian poetry is marked by the tensions between modernity and traditionalism. The classical school adhered to the traditional modes of expression and thought and remained aloof from contemporary issues and themes. On the contrary, those influenced by western modernity derived their inspiration in terms of techniques and subject matter from the major trends in modernist movement in arts and culture. However, our contention in this paper is that they do not go much beyond the imitation level to provide any panacea for the sociopolitical problems of their society. Nima Yushij introduced western literary modernism in Persian poetry which in turn influenced many individual writers as well as a number of indigenous movements but could not bring about any significant change in numerous socio-economic problems confronting that society. In that scenario, Iqbal's poetry remained a powerful social and ideological force that invoked many people to action and brought the message of hope and deliverance from the tyranny of the imperial world order. Iqbal rejects both the Eastern parochialism and western godless worldview. His influence on Persian poetry in this regard has been enormous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance context of medieval Arabic and Persian lyric poetry has yet to receive sufficient scholarly attention. This paper attempts to reconstruct the physical context of medieval Islamic poetic performance and (to a lesser extent) the social setting and human dynamics of such gatherings, with a view to enabling modern-day readers to better appreciate how contemporary audiences enjoyed and understood lyric poetry. This article focuses on the convivial majlis, the primary performance context for lyric poetry in both 'Abb&asline;sid Baghdad and medieval Iran (c.1000-1450), two key milieux in which lyric poetry flourished. Information on maj&asline;lis at which poetry was performed is scattered through a variety of medieval Arabic and Persian prose sources (primarily works of adab and histories), and is largely anecdotal. The poetry itself, insofar as it reflects the context in which it was performed, is also a valuable source of information which can aid our understanding of the medieval majlis. Reference has also been made to art historical studies inasmuch as they provide material evidence to further illustrate what is found in the written sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quatrain is one of the most popular forms of Persian folk poetry. In the early literary works and in different regions in Iran, various names are used to refer to Quatrain: Fahlavi, Tarāne, Hājiyāni, Qaribi, Faryād, Šarve and so forth. The question is if these different names correspond to different genres with distinct characteristics, or they are merely different names that all belong to one autonomous genre, based on the generic and literary criteria. To answer this question, the structure and content of approximately five thousand three hundred Persian Quatrains were studied, including Čārbeiti, Seytak, Šarve, Ferāqi, Faryād, Falaki, Kallegi, Hazāragy, Hoseinā, Najmā, and Šarbe. The results show that, based on the generic and literary criteria, all of the above-mentioned have the same structural and content features and should be classified under the Quatrain genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special issue, not only is the human-environment relationship addressed with a few types of environmental adaptations in rural and urban contexts, including governmental measures and disaster situations, but also the process of culture making is explored through the use of vocabularies in forming mind sets. In this way, a wide spectrum of ideas and situations is portrayed, and the role of culture in making these processes meaningful is shown. The articles in this issue concern Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and they also consider migration. While environmental problems are partial causes for migration, yet symbolic reference to parts of that same environment can symbolise the lost land. The role of poetic language is seen here, while poetry itself becomes a means of better adaptation for a migrant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study focused on religious groups the Iranian Muslim and Armenian Christian with respect to dignified care at the bedside and on the real meaning of patients' dignity preservation from various religious perspectives in order to provide professional cross-cultural care in a diverse setting. Findings suggest that dignity preservation indicates "exigency of respective human nobility" and providing person-centered care based on 2 varying cultural and religious perspectives.

The basis for success of Iranian Gnostics, poets and scientists were moral teaching, attention to origin and searching for specific goals in creation of human and creatures as well as finding some of his essence in studying all phenomena regarding the creation of universe by divine attitude. There is no surprise that such relationship was bilateral and according to his promise to those who truly follow him such that he will show the right path of learning to human in order to obtain the secrets of life. This relationship has resulted in growth of famous Iranian scientists such as Rhazes, Ahvazi, Avicenna, Ferdousi and... at the beginning of the second millennium. Thus, goal of this research is to study the style of writing in original resources of traditional medicine. In order to increase the accuracy of this study, an electronic database version of traditional medicine resources has been prepared. Writing style of Alhavi book (by Rhazes), Kamel-al-Sanaah (by Ahvazi), Canon of Medicine (by Avicenna) and Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi (by Jorjani) was considered. This task was accomplished by searching using related key words such as God, creator, magnificent, omnipotent, transcendent, omniscient and many other similar words and then encoding them. Finally, content analysis of these words was performed. Hundreds of monotheistic words and many small and great texts related to monotheistic literature have been encountered in the literature, and some are mentioned in the following. Rhazes has started some parts of Alhavi by remembering the name of merciful God and saluting his prophets and has mentioned 'God' for more than 570 times and the word 'God willing' for more than 215 times. Ahvazi has written his book called Kamel-al-Sanaah by using monotheistic literature, so that both volumes of book are started by remembering the name of God and saluting his prophets. In the introduction of first volume of his book, he has acknowledged God due to conferring logic and wisdom to human and has used the word 'God' more than 230 times in his book. He has also referred to a famous testimony of Hippocrates and added some more issues in relation to medical ethics. Avicenna has started the Canon of Medicine in five volumes by remembering God and saluting his prophets. When referring to points related to having specific goal in structure of body organs, he immediately has praised God. Jorjani also has followed up the same attitude of three mentioned writers. We have found out that any of the Iranian poets, Gnostics and scientists who have studied nature have reached to the same conclusion from their own point of view, meaning, they all have observed permanent emergence of God in all phenomena of universe. Poets considered the beauties of nature, Gnostics studied mental issues and scientists of natural sciences explored the physiology and anatomy of human body; however, all of them referred to beauty, magnificent, discipline and having goal in creation of universe and all of its phenomena in their books. They have written their valuable books by benefiting monotheistic literature and have published their research results by inference of seeking God and paved the way for next generations. They experienced the usefulness of cumulative effects of spirituality, religion and health on performance and thereby emphasizing the need to incorporate spirituality and religion in teachings curriculums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features Iranian author Ahmad Reza Ahmadi. Ahmadi experienced the rise of nationalism as a teenager and entered adulthood during the rise to power of Iran's clerical establishment under Ayatollah Khomeini. He is considered by the Iranian Artists' Center as the founder of New Wave Poetry and a pioneer of surrealism in children's literature. His themes juxtapose alienation to a reunion of friendship and freedom. He won the Flying Pen award in 2009 for his contributions to children's literature.