Classical Persian Language and Literature

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NolanusTrismegistus
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Classical Persian Language and Literature

Post by NolanusTrismegistus »

Based on a quick search of the forum, it seems like it's been over a decade since some discussion of Persian... So, here goes.

Has anyone here studied Persian and read the classics of Persian literature? I've been eyeing this language for some time. The impact of Persia on Greece and on the West more generally is quite significant and continues to be felt. For the language, we have the shared PIE roots which should make the language easier than some of the other langauges of Western Asia for the native speaker of an IE langauge, but then there's also the use of an Arabic Abjad for New Persian. What's your experience been like learning Persian for literature? Also, have any of you studied Middle-Persian, Avestanic, or Old Persian?

I'm also curious, what kind of literature exists prior to New Persian? I know that a lot of the canon of Zoroastrian religious texts are written in Pahlavi / Middle Persian, and the Gathas were written in an even older Persian closely related to the language of the Indian Vedas. There are also many inscriptions from the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids. But what other kinds of texts are there before New Persian? There apparently also existed a famous library at Ctesiphon, capital of the Sassanid empire located near modern Baghdad.

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Fletcher
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Re: Classical Persian Language and Literature

Post by Fletcher »

While I am here on Textkit to assist my studies of Greek, I can’t help but be excited at the prospect of other classical languages gaining a foothold here. And although it sounds like you and I may have different reasons for being interested in Persian, we may have to find some common ground in order to build up enough momentum to get this thing off the ground

You mention the Avestan and Parthian languages, and while these do sound fascinating I think it may be too broad if we try to include several different Indo-Iranian Languages, and I’m not sure if there’s even enough material out there to properly study them (correct me if I'm mistaken). In my opinion it’s more fruitful to focus solely on Persian (at least at first) in its Old, Middle, and New forms. And of course we should still make room for the occasional chat about other extinct Iranian languages and see if there is interest for that as well.

While Avestan and Parthian are both Indo-European languages, they are not actually classified in the “Persian” family.

The classification for Old Persian goes as follows:
Indo-Iranian > Iranian > Western Iranian > Southwestern Iranian > Old Persian

(Middle Persian follows the same genealogy)

Now compare that to the other two languages:

Avestan:
Indo-Iranian > Iranian > Avestan

Parthian:
Indo-Iranian > Iranian > Western Iranian > Northwestern Iranian > Parthian

Additionally, there appears to be very little left of their written literature. According to Wikipedia: “Very few literary works of Achaemenid Iran have survived, partly due to the destruction of the library at Persepolis. Most of what remains consists of the royal inscriptions of Achaemenid kings, particularly Darius I (522–486 BC) and his son Xerxes. Many Zoroastrian writings were destroyed in the Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century. The Parsis who fled to India, however, took with them some of the books of the Zoroastrian canon, including some of the Avesta and ancient commentaries (Zend) thereof. Some works of Sassanid geography and travel also survived, albeit in Arabic translations.”

So while it sounds like an utterly fascinating piece of history, I’m not sure there’s enough there for us to really dig into these extinct languages, especially to the point of learning to read and speak them.

But if we at least start out by focusing on Persian, well, it’s a start anyways.

My interest in Persian literature can probably only go as far back as the late-Middle Persian of Ferdowsi (11th century), but what I’m most interested in are the well-known Sufi poets: Umar Khayyam (11th century) Attar of Nishapur (12th century), Jalaluddin Rumi (13th century), Saadi Shirazi (13th century), Hafez (14th century), and Jami (15th century).

There is a treasure trove of Sufi writings in Persian, especially from the late-medieval to early-modern period, and not only in terms of poetry. Some other sufi writers I’m interested in, who wrote on subjects as varied as hagiography, statecraft, and rhyming translations of the Quran include but are not limited to:

Ali Hujwiri (11th century), Al-Nasafi(12th century), Rashid al-Din Maybudi(12th century), Husayn Kashifi(15th century)

In addition, there were more mainstream Sunni scholars such as Al-Ghazali and Abdullah Ansari Al-Harawi who, although the majority of their works are in Arabic, also wrote at least a handful of books in their native Persian tongue.

And then on to the Persian literature of Mughal India, which flourished for a couple of hundred years, until at least the late 19th-century. Shah Waliullah al-Dehlavi is an author of particular interest for me of this era.

To top it all off, the early 20th-century poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal represents perhaps the crowning achievement of Persianate education in the subcontinent with his philosophical engagement with Europe via philosophy and Persian poetry.

So anyways, maybe we could find some common topics of interest and start a thread or two, perhaps going back to Middle Persian if that's a common ground we can both get on board with, and then we'll see if anyone else is interested in joining in the discussion.
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

AndreiosDiscipulus
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Re: Classical Persian Language and Literature

Post by AndreiosDiscipulus »

I'm actually attempting to learn a bit of Persian myself as a hobby at school where my Greek teacher, the legendary Dr Allen, goes through maybe a few lines of Persian each Thursday at lunchtime.

Are there any good resources that I can perhaps access for free either on the internet or as hard copies available at libraries or something similar? He has already given me a handout on the alphabet although it's in French and one year of French class isn't enough to understand it all but I can get the gist.

(Also this is slightly off-topic but I recently got a private message from someone who shall remain unnamed. I do want to reply but I'm not sure what to click to reply or if I need to have an account older than x days to do so. If anyone can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, if this is something I should take up with a moderator, let me know.)

Kevin

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jeidsath
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Re: Classical Persian Language and Literature

Post by jeidsath »

I thought that accounts unlocked for PMs after 2 posts. Send me an email if you're having trouble and I'll get things straightened out.

[The unlock period dates back to a poster who began spamming everyone with YOLO PMs after he unlocked.]
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AndreiosDiscipulus
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Re: Classical Persian Language and Literature

Post by AndreiosDiscipulus »

It's actually cleared up now, it was just that this morning I couldn't reply to the pm but now I can, probably because I made 2 posts.

Kevin

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Fletcher
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Re: Classical Persian Language and Literature

Post by Fletcher »

AndreiosDiscipulus wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 8:33 pm Are there any good resources that I can perhaps access for free either on the internet or as hard copies available at libraries or something similar?
Hi Kevin,
Although I haven't used it, I've had my eye on Wheeler Thackston's "An Introduction to Persian". It looks to be somewhat similar to a traditional grammar-style introductory text, and he also wrote introductory books for classical Arabic and Syriac, so it seems that he knows his stuff. I'd imagine that most big libraries would have his books available.
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

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