۱۳۸۷ آذر ۳۰, شنبه

این همانی شعر ونقاشی

ut pictura poesis The Latin phrase Ut pictura poesis is an analogy that Horace introduced in his Ars Poetica to tentatively compare the art of painting with that of poetry. Translated literally, “as is painting, so is poetry,” the ensuing centuries have yielded many varied theories focused around this argument, some of which will be discussed later in this essay. In context, Horace employs the idiom to afford to literature the same broad analysis that painting requires in order to provide viewers aesthetic pleasure. [1] Just as paintings can be enjoyed with a close viewing while others necessitate greater distance, so too should one approach a poem with a close reading or with a broader eye to the piece as a whole.

The concept that poetry and painting might somehow be linked was not original to Horace, though he coined the phrase “Ut pictura poesis.” (see narrative-lyric-drama) Scholars generally agree that Horace would have known the work of Plutarch, who attributed the quotation “Poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silens” [2] to Simonides of Keos in his book De Gloria Atheniesium.[3] Plutarch employed the association to laud historians who wrote such imagistic prose that readers could “see” the moments they were reading. [4] As we will explore later, this idea has recently been revived in exploring analogies between portraiture and biography.

Plato, in his Republic, makes it explicit that he accepts neither painting nor poetry as a source of knowledge. [5] Both endeavors provide not the reality that precipitates knowledge but mimetic representations that deceive as they try to emulate truth. For Plato, both arts of painting and poetry give us a false simulation [see simulation-simulacrum, (2)]of the real, since neither provides the immediacy nor unmediated knowledge that comes from the study of philosophy. [see reality-hyperreality, (2)]

The same mimetic representation of life in painting and poetry is central to Aristotle’s Poetics but yield very different results. [6] (see mimesis, representation) Rather than discard illusions, Aristotle views poetic and artistic representations of the world as part of human nature. For him, those arts provide a way to get to the real.

Aristotle’s arguments concerning the structure of structural elements in tragedy and painting (plot and design, respectively) provided a springboard for the Renaissance discussion of Ut pictura poesis. [7] While both painting and poetry were popular, arguments of this era focused mainly around which should have precedence. Leonardo da Vinci recognized the imitation of nature in both arts but, not surprisingly, affirmed painting as the more noble art. [8] This paragone, or competition, between media of painting (and sometimes sculpture) and poetry placed primacy on painting because vision was regarded as superior to hearing, the sense on which poetry depended. [9] The supremacy of painting that da Vinci claimed was a crucial discussion in Italy, and one that gained substantial followers. In 16th Century Italy the dialogue concerning painting and poetry was divided into two distinct camps. Florentines employed the relationship to contrast painting to poetry while the Venetian debate centered on the unity of the two arts. [10] Concentrating on what painters might learn from poets and vice versa, both camps agreed that the imitation of nature was a key issue addressed by both arts.

Charles-Alphonse du Fresnoy’s poem, De arte graphica (1668), proved seminal in expanding the discussion of Ut pictura poesis beyond Italy. His opening passage, “Ut pictura poesis erit; similisque poesi/sit pictura…" [11] inspired both arguments and commentary as well as new avenues of exploration. [12] English poet John Dryden translated the poem into English in 1695, with an introductory essay “A parallel betwixt painting and poetry.”

A wider audience for discussion of the Horatian ideology also meant more criticism of the concept. Abbe Jean-Baptiste Dubos, making a distinction between the natural act of seeing and the arbitrary signs necessary for reading, argued for the primacy of painting. [13] This was supported and expanded in 1744 by James Harris in his Three Treatises. Particularly appropriate to an exploration of media and mediation, Harris distinguished between painting and poetry, “Poetry is forced to pass through the medium of compact, while painting applies immediately through the medium of nature." [14] The double mediation that occurs when writing is inscribed and then read depends on decoding the symbolic whereas figurative painting has immediacy with the viewer.

Much more critical than those who simply argued for the supremacy of one art over another, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Laocoön, originally published in 1766 and aptly subtitled “An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry,” attacked the very theoretical core of Ut pictura poesis. Lessing considers poetry and art of time and painting an art of space; poetry addresses the ear and is played out successively in time while painting speaks to the eye and everything is laid out in one space. [15] To transgress the border between time and space too frequently is dangerous, Lessing asserts, and leads to confusion of media. Instead painting and poetry should be “as two equitable and friendly neighbors,” trying to avoid each other, knowing that small transgressions are unavoidable, and at the boundaries making small concessions if absolutely necessary. [16]

Ut pictura poesis took on new meaning in the 19th Century when John Ruskin and the Romantics applied it to their conception of art, based not on imitation but expression. In Modern Painters, Ruskin made the distinction between painting and poetry, “Both painting and speaking are modes of expression. Poetry is the employment of either for the noblest purposes." [17] Although there were artists who still aligned figurative painting with poetry, the art world was moving away from what had previously been a polemical debate. The painting academies had given artists the status they once used poetic forms to achieve, and the art world was looking toward less representational art. Lessing’s work influenced the early growth of semiotics, sparking discussions of how humans learn, see, and understand. Still focusing on Ut pictura poesis, we can look at the seminal works of C.S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Sausseure. In “Symbol, Index, Icon” Peirce outlines the triad that makes meaning possible: symbol, icon, and index. In our exploration of the relation between painting and poetry, this reinforces the connection of an image (icon) to the word that represents that image in language (symbol). In opposition the Peirce’s treatment of the elements of language as three signs, in his “Nature of the Linguistic Sign” Sausseur concentrates more on the atomic unit of symbol, index, and icon. The symbol, or linguistic sign, is always a double articulated form and requires both icon and index to create meaning. In his 1940 essay, “Towards a Newer Laocoön,” Clement Greenberg changes the terms of the dialogue by investigating abstract art as a reaction to a confusion of the arts, and how it might deal with that confusion. “There has been, is, and will be, such a thing as a confusion of the arts." [18] He surveys the history of art as artists attempting mimic the dominant prototype of art, which serves to unite or combine (his word is “confuse”) the arts. Mimesis is attainable by artistic ability to create the illusion that their representation is real, an illusion fundamentally based in literary values. According to Greenberg, we can find in abstract art a rejection of earlier artistic denial of the materiality of painting. [19] He argues that value of art lies in emphasizing and the possibility of overpowering the medium. [20] More recent work in the field of Ut pictura poesis has explored variable permutations of the original painting/poem relationship. Published in 1983, Richard Wendorf’s “Ut Pictura Biographia: Biography and Portrait Painting as Sister Arts” seeks to extend the general relationship of painting and poetry to a more specialized definition of portraits and biographies. He expands Aristotle’s assertion that a portrait can create something at once an ideal of beauty and a real likeness and links it to later writers such as Socrates and Dryden. Recognizing Lessing’s strict differentiation between time and space in literary and artistic forms, Wendorf argues that a portrait does engage in temporal movement. Factors such as “a ‘time of contemplation’… ‘intrinsic time’ [are] inherent in the texture itself of a picture, in its composition, or in its aesthetic arrangement." [21] Wendorf allows for a discourse less binary than Lessing’s, recognizing the limitations inherent in both literary and artistic practices while providing for a diffuse boundary between the two. Ten years later, W.J.T. Mitchell’s “Ut Pictura Theoria: Abstract Painting and Language” deals with the question of whether abstract art has in fact escaped all traces of verbal form and what it means if it has. While criticizing Tom Wolfe’s superficial reading of abstract art, Mitchell builds on his recognition that abstract art does depend on a sort of “verbal contamination” in the form of theory. [22] The notion that art rests on theory is not a new one, and Mitchell traces it from early artists (such as Turner, Blake and Hogarth) to early European and later American abstract painters. He deftly answers potential objections that theory is outside the realm of the painter by presenting two answers; even figurative art depends on viewers knowing a narrative that exists outside the painting and abstract art still has content and subject, though representations may be absent.

The dialectic between painting and poetry evidenced in Ut pictura poesis reveals what I see as an inability for humans to create using only one sense. The question of which sense is more ‘natural’ and less arbitrary is an endless one, yielding often predictable results. A more pressing and provocative problem is that of the vibrations between poetry and painting, indeed between our senses themselves.

Judith Harvey

Winter 2002

Ut pictura poesis is Latin, literally "As is painting so is poetry." The statement (often repeated) occurs most famously in Horace's Ars Poetica, near the end, immediately after the "other" most famous quotation from Horace's treatise on poetics, "bonus dormitat Homerus", or "even Homer nods" (an indication that even the most skilled poet can compose inferior verse):

Poetry resembles painting. Some works will captivate you when you stand very close to them and others if you are at a greater distance. This one prefers a darker vantage point, that one wants to be seen in the light since it feels no terror before the penetrating judgment of the critic. This pleases only once, that will give pleasure even if we go back to it ten times over. (Quoting from English translation)

Horace meant that poetry (in its widest sense, "imaginative texts") merited the same careful interpretation that was, in Horace's day, reserved for painting. Horace's formula, equating the "sister arts," has proved more often a stimulus for dissent than for any useful theorizing on the resemblance between images and texts.

Lessing opens the Laocoön (1766) by observing that "the first who compared painting with poetry [Simonides] was a man of fine feeling," though, Lessing makes it clear, not a critic or philosopher. Lessing argues that painting is a synchronic, visual phenomenon, one of space that is immediately in its entirety understood and appreciated, while poetry (again, in its widest sense) is a diachronic art of the ear, one that depends on time to unfold itself for the reader's appreciation. He recommends that poetry and painting should not be confused, and that they are best practiced and appreciated “as two equitable and friendly neighbors.”

W. J. T. Mitchell trenchantly observed that "We tend to think that to compare poetry with painting is to make a metaphor, while to differentiate poetry from painting is to state a literal truth."

Rensselaer W. Lee, UT PICTURA POESIS. THE HUMANISTIC THEORY OF PAINTING, New York: Norton, 1967[1]

SALTANA (2001), "Ut pictura poesis", [2]

آفریبنش جهان در اساطیر ایرانی

Persian Myths

"The Creation of the World"

Bar

In ancient Persia (Iran), it was believed that the sky was the first part of the world to be created. It was described as a round empty shell made of rock crystal, passing beneath as well as above the earth. Water was created next, followed by the earth. In its original state, the earth was flat, with no valleys or mountains and the sun stood still at the noonday position. Then came plants and animals. Human beings were the sixth creation, and fire probably the seventh and last. Thus the cycle of life started and the sun moved creating night and day and the first Noe-Rooz came to pass.

***

The Persians believed that the world was divided into seven regions or karshvar (keshvar in modern Persian, which means country). These regions were created when rain first fell upon the earth. Humans inhabited the central region (Khvanirath), which was as large as the other six put together. The Bundahishn 1 describes it as follows:

On the nature of the earth, it says in revelation, that there are thirty and three kinds of land. On the day when Tistar [god of rain] produced the rain, when its seas arose therefrom, the whole place, half taken up by water, was converted into seven portions; this portion, as much as one-half, is the middle and six portions are around; those six portions are together as much as Khvaniras. The name keshvar is also applied to them and they existed side by side .... [XI, 1-6]

It is in Khvaniras (Khvanirath) that the Peak of Hara (Alborz) was believed to have grown from the roots of the Alborz Mountains; Mount Hara or Harburz is described in the Avesta (ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism 2) [Yasht 19,1] as the first mountain in the world, which took 800 years to grow, its roots reaching deep into the ground and its peak attached to the sky. The stars, the moon and the sun were thought to move around this peak. Alborz is described thus in the Bundahishn:

On the nature of mountains, it says in revelation, that, at first, the mountains have grown forth in eighteen years; and Alborz ever grew till the completion of eight hundred years; two hundred years up to the star station, two hundred years to the moon station, two hundred years to the sun station, and two hundred years to the endless light. The other mountains have grown out of Alborz, in number 2244 .... [XII, I-2]

While Alborz or Mount Hara was the source for both light and water, the Vourukasha Sea is described in the Avesta as the gathering point of water. This important sea occupied 'one third of the earth, to the south, on the skirts of the Harburz' [Vendidad 3 21, 66], and was fed by a huge river, the Harahvaiti. Forming the boundaries of the inhabited world were two great rivers, which flowed out from the sea to the east and the west. The rivers were cleansed as they passed around the earth and, when they returned to the Vourukasha, their clean water was taken back up to the Peak of Hara.

In the middle of the Vourukasha grew the very first tree, the source of all plants, described in the Avesta (Yasht 12, 17) as the Saena Tree, Tree of All Remedies or Tree of All Seeds. This tree held the nest of Saena (Senmurv in Pahlavi, Simurgh in Persian), the legendary bird. Growing nearby was another important plant, the 'mighty Gaokerena', which had healing properties when eaten and gave immortality to the resurrected bodies of the dead.

The first animal in the world was the 'bull'. It was white and as bright as the moon. According to Zoroastrian tradition Angra Mainyu, the Evil Spirit, killed it, and its seed was carried up to the moon. From this seed, once thoroughly purified, came many species of animals. It also sprouted into plants when part of it fell to the ground.

The home of the bull was on the bank of the River Veh Daiti (Veh Rod), which flowed to the east from the Vourukasha Sea. On the opposite bank lived Gayomartan (Gayomard in Pahlavi, Kiyumars in the Shahnameh). In Yasht 13, 87 he is described as the first man, as wide as he was tall and as 'bright as the sun'. Gayomartan was slain by Angra Mainyu, but the sun purified his seed and, after forty years, a rhubarb plant grew from it. This plant slowly became Mashya and Mashyanag, the first mortal man and woman. The Evil Spirit, Angra Mainyu, deceived them and they turned to him as the creator, thus committing the first sin. Their world was now filled with corruption and evil, instead of peace and harmony. It was only after fifty years that they were able to produce offspring. However, the first twins were eaten by their parents. After a long period of childlessness another set of twins was finally born, and from these sprang not only the human race, but also specifically the Iranian peoples.


1) The Bundahishn, which means 'the Creation', is one of the great Pahlavi texts, Zoroastrian sacred literature written in the middle-Persian language. It was probably compiled in the eighth and ninth centuries, though it reflects ancient Zorastrian (and pre-Zorastrian) teachings.

2) Zoroastrianism is the oldest of the revealed world-religions. It has a long oral tradition. Its prophet Zarathushtra (known in the West as Zoroaster) lived before the Iranians started to use writing, and for many centuries his followers refused to use this alien art for sacred purposes. That is the reason why there are very few written vestiges of this religion. Finally, during the end of the fifth and beginning of the sixth century CE (Common Era), the Zoroastrian collection of holy texts called the Avesta was set down in a specially invented alphabet. The Avesta was a massive compilation of twenty-one books. Except for the Gathas, seventeen hymns composed by Zoroaster, all parts of it are anonymous, the composite works of generations of priestly poets and scholars. Its language known simply as Avestan, is unrecorded. The very few copies made of the Avesta were destroyed during the many invasions that occured and the surviving Avesta consists of liturgies, hymns and prayers.

3) Vendidad is the only part of the Avesta, that is fully preserved to our time. It is marked by repetitious phrases, formulas, and intricate regulations on purity.

۱۳۸۷ آذر ۲۷, چهارشنبه

پارادوكس

In literature, the paradox is a literary device consisting of the anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight. It functions as a method of literary composition - and analysis - which involves examining apparently contradictory statements and drawing conclusions either to reconcile them or to explain their presence.[1] Literary or rhetorical paradoxes abound in the works of Oscar Wilde and G.K. Chesterton. Other literature deals with paradox of situation; Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Borges, and Chesterton are recognized as masters of situational as well as verbal paradox. Statements such as Wilde’s “I can resist anything except temptation” and Chesterton’s “spies do not look like spies” are examples of rhetorical paradox. Further back, Polonius’ observation that “though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” is a memorable third.[2] Also, statements that are illogical and metaphoric may be called "paradoxes", for example "the pike flew to the tree to sing". The literal meaning is illogical, but there are many interpretations for the this metaphor.

Cleanth Brooks' "Language of Paradox"[3]

Cleanth Brooks, an active member of the New Critical movement, outlines the use of reading poems through paradox as a method of critical interpretation. Paradox in poetry means that tension at the surface of a verse can lead to apparent contradictions and hypocrisies. His seminal essay, "The Language of Paradox," lays out Brooks' argument for the centrality of paradox by demonstrating that paradox is “the language appropriate and inevitable to poetry." The argument is based on the contention that referential language is too vague for the specific message a poet expresses; he must “make up his language as he goes." This, Brooks argues, is because words are mutable and meaning shifts when words are placed in relation to one another.[4] In the writing of poems, paradox is used as a method by which unlikely comparisons can be drawn and meaning can be extracted from poems both straightforward and enigmatic. Brooks points to William Wordsworth's poem “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free.” He begins by outlining the initial and surface conflict, which is that the speaker is filled with worship, while his female companion does not seem to be. The paradox, discovered by the poem’s end, is that the girl is more full of worship than the speaker precisely because she is always consumed with sympathy for nature and not - as is the speaker - in tune with nature while immersed in it. In his reading of Wordsworth's poem, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge,” Brooks contends that the poem offers paradox not in its details, but in the situation which the speaker creates. Though London is a man-made marvel, and in many respects in opposition to nature, the speaker does not view London as a mechanical and artificial landscape but as a landscape comprised entirely of nature. Since London was created by man, and man is a part of nature, London is thus too a part of nature. It is this reason that gives the speaker the opportunity to remark upon the beauty of London as he would a natural phenomenon, and, as Brooks points out, can call the houses “sleeping” rather than “dead,” because they too are vivified with the natural spark of life, granted to them by the men that built them. Brooks ends his essay with a reading of John Donne’s poem "The Canonization," which uses a paradox as its underlying metaphor. Using a charged religious term to describe the speaker’s physical love as saintly, Donne effectively argues that in rejecting the material world and withdrawing to a world of each other, the two lovers are appropriate candidates for canonization. This seems to parody both love and religion, but in fact it combines them, pairing unlikely circumstances and demonstranting their resulting complex meaning. Brooks points also to secondary paradoxes in the poem: the simultaneous duality and singleness of love, and the double and contradictory meanings of “die” in Metaphysical poetry (used here as both sexual union and literal death). He contends that these several meanings are impossible to convey at the right depth and emotion in any language but that of paradox. A similar paradox is used in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” when Juliet says “For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch and palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss.” Brooks' contemporaries in the sciences were, in the 40's and 50's, reorganizing university science curricula into codified disciplines. The study of English, however, remained less defined and it became a goal of the New Critical movement to justify literature in an age of science by separating the work from its author and reader (see Wimsatt and Beardsley’s Intentional fallacy and Affective fallacy) and by examining it as a self-sufficient artifact. In Brooks’s use of the paradox as a tool for analysis, however, he develops a logical case as a literary technique with strong emotional affect. His reading of “The Canonization” in “The Language of Paradox,” where paradox becomes central to expressing complicated ideas of sacred and secular love, provides an example of this development.[5]

Paradox and irony

Although paradox and irony as New Critical tools for reading poetry are often conflated, they are independent poetical devices. Irony for Brooks is “the obvious warping of a statement by the context” [6] whereas paradox is later glossed as “a special kind of qualification which involves the resolution of opposites.” [7] Irony functions as a presence in the text – the overriding context of the surrounding words that make up the poem. Only sentences such as 2 + 2 = 4 are free from irony; most other statements are prey to their immediate context and are altered by it (take, as an example, the following joke. "A woman walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre. The bartender gives it to her." This last statement, perfectly acceptible elsewhere, is transformed by its context in the joke to an innuendo). take their effect from it. Irony is the key to validating the poem because a test of any statement grows from the context – validating a statement demands examining the statement in the context of the poem and determining whether it is appropriate to that context.[8] Paradox, however, is essential to the structure and being of the poem. In The Well Wrought Urn Brooks shows that paradox was so essential to poetic meaning that paradox was almost identical to poetry. According to fellow New Critic Leroy Searle, Brooks’ use of paradox emphasized the indeterminate lines between form and content. “The form of the poem uniquely embodies its meaning” and the language of the poem “effects the reconciliation of opposites or contraries.” While irony functions within the poem, paradox often refers to the meaning and structure of the poem and is thus inclusive of irony.[9]. This existence of opposites or contraries and the reconciliation thereof is poetry and the meaning of the poem.

Criticism

R.S. Crane, in his essay "The Critical Monism of Cleanth Brooks," argues strongly against Brooks’ centrality of paradox. For one, Brooks believes that the very structure of poetry is paradox, and ignores the other subtleties of imagination and power that poets bring to their poems. Brooks simply believed that “’imagination’ reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities.”[10] Brooks, in leaning on the crutch of paradox, only discusses the truth which poetry can reveal, and speaks nothing about the pleasure it can give. (231) Also, by defining poetry as uniquely having a structure of paradox, Brooks ignores the power of paradox in everyday conversation and discourse, including scientific discourse, which Brooks claimed was opposed to poetry. Crane claims that, using Brooks’ definition of poetry, the most powerful paradoxical poem in modern history is Einstein’s formula E = mc2, which is a profound paradox in that matter and energy are the same thing. The argument for the centrality of paradox (and irony) becomes a reductio ad absurdum and is therefore void (or at least ineffective) for literary analysis.

References

1. ^ Rescher, Nicholas. Paradoxes: Their Roots, Range, and Resolution. Open Court: Chicago, 2001. 2. ^ ibid. 3. ^ Literary Theory: An Anthology, 2nd Ed., Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. 4. ^ Brooks, Cleanth. . New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947. 5. ^ ibid. 6. ^ Brooks, Cleanth. “Irony as a Principle of Structure.” In Critical Theory Since Plato, edited by Hazard Adams. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971. 7. ^ Crane, R.S. “Cleanth Brooks; Or, The Bankruptcy of Critical Monism.” In Modern Philology, Vol. 45, No. 4 (May 1948) pp 226-245. 8. ^ Brooks, "Irony as a Principle of Structure." 9. ^ Searle, Leroy. “New Criticism.” In The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, 2nd edition. Edited by Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. 10. ^ Crane.
A literary technique or literary device may be used in works of literature in order to produce a specific effect on the reader.

Elements of fiction

Literary techniques are important aspects of an author's style, which is one of the five elements of fiction ..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section may contain a proseline.
Please help [ convert this timeline] into prose or, if necessary, a . ()
Oscar Wilde Born: September 16 1854(1854--) ..... Click the link for more information.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton Born: 29 May 1874(1874--) London, England 1 Died: 14 May 1936 (aged 62) Beaconsfield Occupation: Journalist, Novelist ..... Click the link for more information.
François Rabelais (c. 1494 - April 9, 1553) was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor and humanist. He is regarded as an avant-garde writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, dirty jokes and bawdy songs. ..... Click the link for more information.
Cervantes portrait of Cervantes[a] by Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar (c. 1600), reportedly apocryphal Born: September 29 1547(1547--) ..... Click the link for more information.
Jorge Luis Borges Born: July 24 1899(1899--) Buenos Aires, Argentina Died: May 14 1986 (aged 88) Geneva, Switzerland Occupation: writer, poet, critic, librarian ..... Click the link for more information.
Cleanth Brooks (October 16, 1906 - May 10, 1994) was an influential American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-twentieth century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher education. ..... Click the link for more information.
In logic, a contradiction consists of a logical incompatibility between two or more propositions. It occurs when the propositions, taken together, yield two conclusions which form the logical inversions of each other. ..... Click the link for more information.
For the death metal band, see Hypocrisy (band).
Hypocrisy is the act of condemning or calling for the condemnation of another person when the critic is guilty of the act for which he demands that the accused be condemned. ..... Click the link for more information.
William Wordsworth Born: March 7 1770(1770--) Cockermouth, England Died: March 23 1850 (aged 80) Ambleside, England Occupation: Poet Literary movement: Romanticism ..... Click the link for more information.
William Wordsworth Born: March 7 1770(1770--) Cockermouth, England Died: March 23 1850 (aged 80) Ambleside, England Occupation: Poet Literary movement: Romanticism ..... Click the link for more information.
London Canary Wharf is the centre of London's modern office towers London shown within England Coordinates: Sovereign state United Kingdom Constituent country England ..... Click the link for more information.
Cleanth Brooks (October 16, 1906 - May 10, 1994) was an influential American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-twentieth century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher education. ..... Click the link for more information.
John Donne John Donne Born: 1572 London, England Died: March 12 1631 Occupation: Poet Nationality: English Genres: Satire, Love poetry, Elegy Subjects: Love, Sexuality, Religion, Death Literary movement: Metaphysical Poetry ..... Click the link for more information.
Metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject]. ..... Click the link for more information.
William Shakespeare The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London. Born: April 1564 (exact date unknown) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England Died: 23 March 1616 Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England ..... Click the link for more information.
Romeo and Juliet Author William Shakespeare Country United Kingdom Language Unstandardised English Genre(s) Tragedy Publisher Publication date ..... Click the link for more information.
Affective fallacy is a term from literary criticism used to refer to the supposed error of judging or evaluating a text on the basis of its emotional effects on a reader. The term was coined by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley as a principle of New Criticism. ..... Click the link for more information.
Cleanth Brooks (October 16, 1906 - May 10, 1994) was an influential American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-twentieth century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher education. ..... Click the link for more information.
A double entendre is a figure of speech similar to the pun, in which a spoken phrase can be understood in either of two ways. This can be as simple as a phrase which has two mutually exclusive meanings, and is thus a clever play on words. ..... Click the link for more information.
Cleanth Brooks (October 16, 1906 - May 10, 1994) was an influential American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-twentieth century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher education. ..... Click the link for more information.
This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia® - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the Wikipedia® encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

۱۳۸۷ آذر ۱۳, چهارشنبه

تاثیر زبان فارسی بر عربی

Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(I) In the early days of the Prophet’s mission, there were only seventeen men in the tribe of Quraysh, who could read or write. (Professor Edward Browne, A Literary History of Persia, Vol. I, p. 261) It is said that Mo’allaqat, the seven Arabic poems written in pre-Mohammedan times and inscribed in gold on rolls of coptic cloth and hung up on the curtains covering the Ka’aba were selected by the Iranian Hammad who seeing how little the Arabs cared for poetry urged them to study the poems. In this period, Hammad knew more than any one else about the Arabic poetry. Before the advent of Islam, the Arabs had a negligible literature and scant poetry. It was the Iranians who after their conversion to Islam, feeling the need to learn the language of the Qur’an, began to use that language for other purposes. The knowledge of Arabic was essential and indispensable for religious worship, and the correct reading of the Qur’an was impossible without it. In the first century of Islamic ascendancy, the Arabs did not produce anything of literary value. If any poetry was composed, it was on the old pagan models and celebrated the poets’ amatory adventures, in stereotyped fashion, rather than the victories of Islam. They adopted the pattern of the Sassanians for the administration of their state. They took the postal system of the Sassanids, and with these adoptions went many Farsi (Persian) terms into the day-to-day vernacular of the Arabs and they were arabicized. In time, they were unrecognizable. Farsi (Persian) words abounded everywhere. Inside the houses as outside they had to make use of "Persian means of comfort" and with them went the Persian terms for them. (The Legacy of Persia) As Professor Ed Browne says: Politically, it is true Persia ceased for a while to enjoy a separate national existence, being merged in that great Mohammedan Empire which stretched from Gibraltar to the Jaxartes but in the intellectual domain she began to assert the supremacy to which the ability and subtlety of her people entitled her. (Professor Edward Browne, opt. cit. Vol. I, p. 204) Even the form of State Organization were largely from Iranian models. Al-Fakhri, speaking about the organization of divans or Government offices states: In the year 636 A.D. during the caliphate of Umar, he seeing how conquest succeeded conquest and how the treasures of the Persian Kings were passing into their possessions and how the loads of gold, silver, precious stones and sumptuous raiments continually followed one another, deemed it good to distribute them amongst the Muslims and to divide these riches between them, but knew not how he should do or in what manner affect this. Now there was in Madina a certain Persian Marzuban who seeing Umar’s bewilderment said to him, ‘0, Commander of the Faithful, Verily the Kings of Persia had an institution, which they called the divan, where was recorded all their income and expenditure, nothing being excepted therefrom and there, such as were entitled to pensions were arranged in grades so that no error might creep in, and Umar’s attention was aroused, and he said, Describe it to me. So the Marzuban described it, and Umar understood and instituted the divans. (ibid. p. 205) In the finance department not only was the Iranian system adopted, but Farsi (Persian language) and notation continued to be used till the time of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (about 700 A.D.) when as al-Balazuri tells us: Salih the scribe, son of a captive from Sistan, boasted to Zadan the son of Farukh, another Iranian who was the chief scribe and accountant of the Revenue Office of Sawad that he could, if he pleased, keep the accounts in Arabic and Hajjaj when heard about this ordered him to do so. Zadan’s son, Mardan Shah, is reported to have said to him: "May God cut off thy stock from the world, as thou hast cut the roots of the Persian tongue." It is at this time that Abdul-Malik and his lieutenant, Hajjaj, tried to repress and curtail the foreign influence, especially the Iranian, which was already so strongly at work, and to expel non-Arabs from the Government Offices. (ibid. p. 205-206) Continue.... Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(II) The Farsi words and terms started to enter into Arabic language and Arabicized in strange ways. Below we mention only few very common ways of Arabicization of Farsi (Persian) words: 1. By omitting one or several letters from either the beginning, the middle or the end of the original Persian words. For example Bimarestan becomes Maristan, Pishpareh becomes Shafaraj and Noshkhwar becomes Noshwar, Hazardastan becomes Hazar etc... 2. By adding letters to the original Persian words. For example rah becomes torrahat, panjeh becomes fanjaz, pacheh becomes balgha and Setu becomes setuq. 3. By changing letters and these are many. (n) and (r) to (l) and (g) to (j) and they change (kh) to (h), (p) to (f) or (b), and (k) to (gh) and (ch) to (sad) or (sh) and (sin) to (sad) and (t) to (ta) and (alif) to (ayn) or (h) and (sh) to (z) and (zi) to (zal). For example they change zaryun to jaryal, kerdehban (a loaf of bread) to jardabil, shabanak (a game) to shaflaqa, and gandeh-pir (and old man) to qandefil and zaghar (a bird) to zaghala and garm (warm) to jarm and khorba to al herba and parand to farand or barand and kartah (a dress) to qartaq, Chuba to Subaj or Subaq and obrah to hobary etc... 4. By changing k to ( j ) or ( gh ). For example luzinak (a kind of sweet) is changed to luzinaj or luzinagh and gorbak (cat) becomes ghor-bagh or ghorbaj. 5. By writing one sole word in various ways differing little or much from the original Persian. For example zavankal (a small man) is written in the following ways in Arabic zavankal, zavarak, zavanak and tanparvar (a lazy man) becomes tanbur, tambal, tanbal, tendal and kehtar (smaller) becomes jaytar, ja’dur, jaydary ja’bar ja’zar etc... 6. By conjugating not only the arbicized words but also, in some cases, the original Persian version. For example from Persian jandara, they conjugate jandara, yojandaro from zinhar, zanhara yozanharo, from bussidan (to kiss), bassa yabusso and from kushidan (to try) kasha, yakusho. (Addi Shirr, Persian Arabicized words in Arabic, 1965) 7. There are cases where both the arabicized version of the Persian word and its literal translation are used. For example Golab (rose water) is both used as jallab and as Ma’olvard. Zaban gonjishk (a tree) as Benjeshk zowan and Lessan ol-Asafir, Panjangosht as Banjankosht and as Zu-Khamsato-Asabi’e, sepid ruy as al-Asfidh-ruy and Al-Nahas-al-abyaz, Mahi-ye-Zahreh, as Mahi zahraj and Samm-ol-Samak. 8. Some words are transliteration of the Persian word such as: Khamseh Mostaragheh from Panjeh-ye-Dozdideh, Moshahereh from Mahianeh, Nesf-ol-Nahar from Nim-ruz, al-Namal-al-faress from Mur-cheh-Saveri, Maleeh from Namakeen, Beyt-ol-Nar from Ateshkadeh, Balut-al-Moluk from Shah-balut, Sammol Himar from Khar-zahreh, Lessan-al-thowr from Gav-zaban, Reyhan al-Molk from Shah-Esperam. Many musical terms and the name of many musical instruments were borrowed from the Persian. This continued and later after a lapse of time people forgot the origin of these many words that were borrowed and adopted by the Arabs. The Iranian Nationalist Shu’ubiyya movement led the Arab faction more and more to camouflage the Arab borrowings from the Iranians and so they confused the issue. Today many of the borrowings of the Arabs from the Iranian civilization is surrounded by a haze, because all the pertaining documents have been dastardly and willfully destroyed. Back.... Continue.... Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(III) After the defeat of the Umayyids from the Persian forces under the leadership of Abu-Muslim (from Khurasan), and the advent of Abbassid Caliphate (750 A.D.) and the subsequent change of the capital of the Muslim Empire from Damascus to Baghdad, Iran acquired a position of importance. As Dozy writes: The ascendancy of the Persians over the Arabs, that is to say of the conquered over the victors, had already for a long while been in course of preparation. It became complete when the Abbassids, who owed their elevations to the Persians, ascended the throne. These princes made it a rule to be on their guard against the Arabs, and to put their trust only in Persians, especially those of Khurasan with whom, therefore they had to make friends. The most distinguished personages at court were consequently Persians. The famous Barmakides were descended from a Persian noble, who had been superintendent of the Fire-Temple of Balkh. Afshin, the all-powerful favorite of the Caliph al-Mu’tasim was a scion of the princes of Usrushna in Transoxania. (Professor Edward Browne, opt. cit, Vol. I, p. 252) Sir William Muir writes that: With the rise of Persian influence, the roughness of Arab life was softened and there opened an era of culture, toleration, and scientific research. The practice of oral tradition was also giving place to recorded statement and historical narrative, a change hastened by the scholarly tendencies introduced from the East. To the same source may be attributed the ever increasing laxity at Court, of manners and morality and also those transcendental views that now sprung up of the divine imamate, or spiritual leadership, of some member of the House of Ali, as well as the rapid growth of free thought. (ibid. p. 251-252) Arabic remained the official language of state-correspondence and also of theology and science, with the result that many of the eminent scientists and theologians of Islam (as we have already seen) were Iranians. These Iranians began to bring Farsi terms into the Arabic language. Many Arabic philosophical and scientific terms are those coined by Iranian scientists and philosophers who published their work in Arabic. Von-Kremer tells us about this influence of Iran which so largely molded not only the organization of the Church and State but, in "Abbassid" times, even the fashion of dress, food, music, and the like. He says: Persian influence increased at the Court of the Caliphs, and reached its zenith under al-Hadi, Harun al-Rashid, and al-Ma’mun. Most of the ministers of the last were Persians or of Persian extractions. In Baghdad Persian fashions continued to enjoy an increasing ascendancy. The old Persian festivals of Nowruz and Mehrigan were celebrated. Persian raiment was the official court dress, and the tall black conical Persian hats (qalansuwa, pl. qalanis) were already prescribed as official by the second Abbasid caliph in 770 A.D. At the court, the customs of Sassanians were imitated and garments decorated with golden inscription were introduced which it was the exclusive privilege of the ruler to bestow. (ibid. Vol. I, p. 259) Dozy discussing the share of Iran in the formation of Islam says: Mais la conversion la plus importante de toute fut celles des Perses. Ce sont eux, et non les Arabes qui ont donne de la fermete et de la force a l’Islamisme, et en meme temps, c’est de leur sein que sont sorties les sectes les plus remarquables. (Dozy, L'Islamisme, p. 156) Professor Edward G. Browne summarizes the extent of Iranian’s contribution to Arabian science as follows: Take from what is generally called Arabian science from exegesis, tradition, theology, philosophy, medicine, lexicography, history, biography, even Arabic grammar the work contributed by Persians and the best part is gone. (Ed Browne, Vol. I, p. 204) A brief catalogue of names show the debt of Arabic science and art to persons of Iranian descent. Abu-Isshaq, the Iranian was the first biographer of the prophet, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, the Iranian convert, was one of the most brilliant masters of the Arabic tongue who translated from Pahlavi, the Indian work known as Kalilah and Dimina, Ibn Khordadbeh, who was of Iranian descent, was the best Arabic philologist and grammarian, Abul-Faraj-e-Isfahani wrote the great "Book of Songs" in 21 volumes which is called "the Divan of the Arabs". Back.... Continue.... Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(IV) Sibawayh the Iranian, wrote the most authentic and best known Arabic grammar, Ibrahim Musseli, the singer-musician who was born of Iranian parents introduced some of the best music and songs to the court of Harun-al-Rashid. The same is true of Tabari, the greatest historian of the early Islam. Of physicians and philosophers and scientists who have enriched Arabic medicine and thought there is a very long list among whom one can enumerate Al-Biruni, Ibn-Sina, Razi, Ali Abbas, Abu-Mansur Mowafagh, Farabi, Abu-Ma’shar Balkhi, Al Khwarazmi, Al Farghani, al Isfahani, Kashani, Mahani, Tusi, Ghazali, Omar Khayyam Neshaburi, etc... As Professor M. Jan Rypka, the Czech Orientalist, states: The Iranians transformed all Arabism into Persianism and this in turn, thanks to the universal diffusion of Islam, acquired a cosmopolitan character....among the literatures of Islamic people, the Persian literature is reputed as the most beautiful for its poetry. The Persians possess in general a very developed artistic sense. I even say that the Iranians are the French of the East. For both the literary and artistic production is very extensive and has an immeasurable value. He says that: it is not just haphazardly that the Persian literature occupies a place of honor in the poetical productions of the people of Islam. Such illustrious names as Firdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Sa’adi and Hafez, prove well, that this repute is not local matter but it passes over the frontiers of Iran and even those of Islam and penetrates into the world literature. (Rene Grousset, L'ame de l'Iran, p. 102) According to Mr. Rene Grousset: The Mazdean spiritualism has found its crowning in Islam, as in the Occident, the Plutonian spiritualism found its crowning in Christianity. There, as in here, one notices a brief apparent rupture, but a real continuity. Iran enters in earnest into Islam and finds in it Iran. Better still, it finds new means of action, a new emanation because Islamization of Iran had for its counter-attack, in a large measure, the penetration of Iranian spirit into vast sectors of the Islamic world. Besides, history is unanimous in recognizing the capital role that the Iranian thinkers, authors and artists as well as the Iranian administrators have played in the Abbassid civilization as much at the court of the Arab Caliphs as at the courts of Turkish Sultanates. (ibid.) Mr. Arthur Jeffery, Professor of Semitic languages in the School of Oriental studies in Cairo, in an introduction to his book called "The Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran" mentions that: The contact between Arabia and the Sassanian Empire of Persia were very close in the period immediately preceding Islam. The Arab Kingdom centering in al-Hira on the Euphrates had long been under Persian influence and was a prime center for the diffusion of Iranian culture among the Arabs, and in the titanic struggle between the Sassanian and Byzantine Empire, where al-Hira had been set against the Kingdom of Ghassan, other Arab tribes became involved and naturally came under the cultural influence of Persia. The Court of the Lakhmides at al-Hira was in pre-Islamic times a famous center of literary activity. The Christian poet Adi ibn Zaid lived long at this court, as did the almost Christian Al-Asha. Their poems are full of Persian words. (Ibn Qutaiba gives examples of other poets showing how great the Iranian influence was on the poetry of that period) Other poets also, such as Tarafa and his uncle Mutalammis, al-Harith ibn Hilliza, Amr ibn Kulthum, etc... had more or less connection with al-Hira, while in some accounts we find Abid ibn al-Abras and others there. There is some evidence to suggest that it was from al-Hira that the art of writing spread to the rest of Arabian peninsula. (Rothstein, Lokhmides, p. 27) The Iranian influence was not merely felt along the Mesopotamian areas. It was an Iranian general and Iranian influence which overthrew the Abyssinian suzerainty in S. Arabia during Muhammad’s lifetime, and there is even a suspicion of Iranian influence in Mecca itself. How far cultural influence penetrated the peninsula we have little means of telling, but it will be remembered that one of Muhammad’s rivals was a Nadir ibn al-Harith, who frequently drew away the Prophet’s audiences by his tale of Rustam and Isfandiayar. (Nadhr is supposed to be the person referred to in Sura XXXI, verse 5) Professor Arthur Jeffrey enumerates over 40 Farsi words in Quran among them the following: Ebriq (from Abriz), Estabraq, Barzakh, Borhan, Tanur, Jizya, Junah (from gonah) Darasa, Dirham, Din, Dinar, Rezq, Rauza, Zabania, Zarabi, Zakat, Zanjabil, Zur, Sejjil, Seraj, Soradaq, Serbal, Sard and Zard, Sondos, Suq, Salaba, Abqari, Efrit, Forat, Firdaus, Fil, Kafur, Kanz, Maeda, al Majus, Marjan, Mask, Noskha, Harut and Marut, Vareda, Vazir, Yaqut, Qamis. (Professor Arthur Jeffrey, The Vocabulary of the Quran, Introduction) Back.... Continue.... Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(V) According to Ahmad Amin, the Egyptian Scholar the Persian adab (Literature) penetrated Arab adab in several ways: 1. Many of the Iranian converts to Islam learned Arabic language and their children began to write Arabic poetry. Many Iranian poets appeared during the Umayyids who wrote Arabic verses, one of these was Zyad al-A’ajam who was born in Isfahan and resided in Khorasan. Abol-Faraj-Isfahani in Al-Aghani tells us that "the reason why they nicknamed him al-A’ajami was that he talked Arabic without the proper Arabic accent like the Persian language but his poems were very fine. Another family of poets were Yasars who were indeed among the greatest and the most well-known Persian who recited Arabic poetry.Three of the sons of Yasar of Nesa, Esma’il, Mohammed, and Ibrahim, were writing Arabic poetry and yet they were excessively devoted to Iran. 2. Other Iranians who wrote Arabic poetry were Abol-Abbas A’ajami and Musa Shahavat from Azarbaijan. All these poets, although wrote Arabic poetry they were brought up in Iran and were transferring Persian adab into Arabic. They were in fact, used to express Persian adab in Arabic frame. The idea behind these poems were Iranian and it was the Persian soul and Persian idioms and manners of expressions that were being reflected into Arabic and arabicized and so enriched the Arabic language. Ahmad Amin writes "at a glance one can see that the Arabs in every point or every way they turned or for every necessity of life were obliged to use Persian words. Besides the words themselves they adopted the phrase-making ideas and expressions used by the Persians in explaining various matters or in defining things. 3. The third way of the influence of Persian adab in Arabic adab was through the moral sayings of Iranians. The Islamic morals was influenced in three ways: first by the edicts of the religion and verses of Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet, second by the Greek philosophy, and third by the short stories concerning the biography of the ancient kings of Iran and their ministers and philosophers. The Iranian maxims and proverbs were translated in profusion into Arabic. The result of many years of experience were summarized in a few sentences. Hassan Bosry, the Iranian, in Umayyid times translated many of these philosophic sayings of Iranian kings into Arabic. Many Persian axioms and maxims were translated by Ibn - Qotaybeh in "Oyun-al-Akhbar" and by Tartush in "Seraj-al-Moluk" and by Jahiz in "Kitab-al-taj," and by Ibn Abdaryeh in "Al-Iqd-al-Farid". Ibn Moqaffa’ in his "Kitab al Adab al Kabir" propagated the Iranian wisdom and adab into Arabic language. 4. The fourth way by which the Persian adab penetrated into Arabic language was through its music. The Arabs copied their songs from Iranian models and sang their poems to the rhythm of these songs. Iranians had a great influence in Arabic music and songs. (Dr. Ahmad Amin, Partow-i-Iran) The Iranian Bazms or "pleasure parties" influenced Arabic life a great deal. The Iranian Bazms were not only limited to musical entertainments but were literary gatherings. In these parties poetry was recited and they matched verses with songs. Besides these, literary parties had many other advantages. In these parties they told very fine literary tales and delivered fine speeches and told very amusing jokes. Poets and scholars, in the hope of gaining promotion to higher and better positions contested each other in these parties and innovations were offered by these participants whereby enriching the literature of the country. 5. The fifth way through which Iranian adab enriched Arabic was through the style and manner of writing letters and edicts and orders to each official according to his position and status in the hierarchy of the government. How to address Kings, princes, ministers, officials, and in general, how to preface an edict or official proclamation etc... The first scribe of Islam, who tried to create a special style in writing official correspondence, was the Iranian Abdol-Hamid Katib, the scribe of Marvan ibn Mohammed the last Umayyid Caliph. Ibn-Khalakan says that: Abdol-Hamid was a mavali from Anbar. He is the first who increased the size of the letters and began the letters with the praise of God. He is the first who opened the buds of erudition, and simplified the scribes task and freed the poetry from certain set rules and formulas. He was the master of all the scribes and the best teacher and guide for them. Ibn Halale Askary in his book called "Divan al Ma’ani" says: who ever learns the erudition in one language and,then learns another language, can easily transfer that science to the new language. Abdol-Hamid, the well-known Katib who has formulated the principles of the science of composition, has transferred this science from Persian into Arabic. Back.... Continue.... Iranian Influence on Arabic Literature....(VI) The persons who translated the Persian work into Arabic are according to Ibn-Nadim (Al-Fihrist) the following: 1 - Abdullah Ibn Muqaffa’ 2 - Nowbakht 3 - Mussa and Yusef the sons of Khalid 4 - Abol-Hassan Ali-Ibn-Ziyad 5 - Hassan-ibn-Sahl 6 - Balazari 7 - Isshaq-ibn-Jahm-Barmaki 8 - Mohammed-ibn-Qassim 9 - Hasham-ibn-Salim 10 - Jibillat-ibn-Salim 11 - Musa-ibn-Issa Kurdi 12 - Zaduyeh ibn Shahury Isfahani 13 - Mohammed-ibn-Bahram-ibn Motyar Isfahani 14 - Bahram-ibn-Mardan Shah 15 - Omar-ibn-Farkhan Besides these translators, there were other Iranians, who after learning Arabic well, transferred and propagated the Iranian literary and spiritual themes (which they had mastered by studying the Persian works), among the Arabs. Every Iranian writer after studying the Persian works with care took the theme and the idea from them and projected them into Arabic. These indirect Persian works that were projected into Arabic influenced Arabic science, literature, poetry and vocabulary and enriched the language. Many of the Iranians could speak both languages fluently and therefore could enrich the Arabic language by expressing and translating the existent Farsi (Persian) adab into Arabic. At the same time there were many Arabs who learned Farsi and thereby obtained a first hand knowledge of the Persian erudition and transliterated it into Arabic tongue. One of these Arabs who learned Farsi was Etabi. Teyfur tells us about him that he knew Persian and travelled a great deal in Iran and visited Neishabur and Marv and other cities and in various old libraries found old Persian books that he translated into Arabic. Teyfur tells us that "I asked him O’Aba Amr" why are you translating Persian works into Arabic? He replied "Can one find literary styles and meanings and ideas anywhere else but in Persian books. The Arabic words are ours and the meaning and ideas belong to the Persians, who propagate them with a great deal of erudition." Etabi who was educated in Persia, wrote very fine poetry that people loved and recited in the form of songs. He also wrote quite a good number of proverbs and short wisdoms, that were similar to those of Ibn Moqaffa’s. All these helped to enrich the Arabic literature in Abbasid times with the philosophy, science, philology and erudition of Iran. The Iranian poets also wrote Arabic verses. Some of these Persian poets have recited very fine poems in Arabic. Among these one can count Bashar and Abu Navas on the one hand and Abol-Atahiya and Saleh ibn Abdul-Qaddus on the other. Among the books translated from Farsi into Arabic one can enumerate the following two that had far-reaching effects in the literature of various countries both in the East and the West. The first is the famous "Kalileh and Dimna." We are told that this book was brought to Iran in the reign of Khosrow I, Anushirvan, by Borzuya from India and was translated into Pahlavi. The source of this book is supposed to be the Indian "Panca tantra" meaning "the five occassions to be wise." It is said that Borzuya while translating this work into Pahlavi added several chapters and a series of fables to it. This Pahlavi version unfortunately is lost. However, the book was translated by the erudite Iranian convert, Ibn Muqaffa’ into Arabic. Since Iranians were very fond of these types of books, this book was translated several times from Arabic into modern Farsi. Ibn Nadim who wrote his very famous Al-Fihrist about the time when the Kalileh and Dimna was translated from Pahlavi into Arabic by Ibn Muqaffa’ states that: About the origin of Kalileh and Dimna there is a divergence of opinion. Some believe it to have been made in India and this is mentioned in the preface to the book (as translated by Ibn Muqaffa’) but some believe, it was originally made by Ashkani (Parthian) kings and Indians have attributed it to themselves. According to another version, Iranians have made the book and Indians have attributed it to themselves and there are those who have said that Bozorgmehr the philosopher (Vizier of Anushirvan) has made part of it and Allah Knowest best. (Al-Fihrist) The second is the book of Hezar Afsaneh (or a thousand tales) which was translated into Arabic in early Abbassid period. Again the original book is lost but the Arabic version of the book with many additions and alteration that it has received by various editors, appears today in the form of "A Thousand and One Night," better known in English literature as "Arabian Nights". Shahriyar and Scheherzad that are the two personalities around which all the rest of the work is built, as their name fully implies, are Iranians and the theme is indeed absolutely Persian. So are most of the main tales recited by Scheherzad to save her own neck. We will come back to the importance of these two works in Europe, when we discuss the influence of Iran in European literature. According to Professor Edward Browne one could not exclude what Iranians have written in other than their own language from their contribution to science and literature. As he says. Persians have continued ever since the Mohammadan conquest, that is to say for more than twelve hundred years, to use the Arabic language almost to the exclusion of their own in writing on certain subjects, notably theology and philosophy, while during the two centuries immediately succeeding the Arab invasion the language of the conqueror was, save amongst those who still adhered to the ancient national faith of Zoroaster, almost the sole literary medium employed in Persia. To ignore this literature, would be to ignore many of the most important characteristic manifestations of the Persian genius, and to form an altogether inadequate judgement of the intellectual activity of that ingenius and talented people. (Professor Edward Browne, Vol. I, p.3 and 4) Islam brought with it the literary emancipation of the masses in Iran. The literature and bells - letters were no longer the monopoly of a very limited class of religious students and court Scribes. It became the property of all the nation. Everyone who had talent in reciting poetry could do so, and soon people got to know the best poets and their works became known to all and sundry. Once a poet showed his genius, he was acclaimed and as the Persian language became more and more universally accepted as the language of mysticism and fine poetry, the Persian literature was diffused to all part of the Islamic Empire especially in Asiatic countries. As in Pre-Islamic times the Persian was the language of Persian Mithraists, Nestorians and Manicheans who went to India, Turkestan and China, so during early Islamic period also the Persian language (Dary dialect) became the language of Islamic missionaries in India, Turkestan, China and Indo-China and Malayan states. Then followed the rage of Persian mysticism and like bon-fire it spread far and wide and with it went the Farsi language. Back....