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Drakht-i Asurig
''Draxt ī Āsūrīg'' (meaning "The Assyrian Tree" or "The Babylonian Tree") is a Parthian-language poem consisting of about 120 verses and written in Book Pahlavi script. The language shows influences from Middle Persian. It is one of the oldest existing texts in the Parthian language. The poem is framed as a dialogue between a goat and a palm tree. At the end, the goat is proclaimed to be victorious. The Iranians may have adopted this genre from the oral traditions of ancient Mesopotamia. Ahmad Tafazzoli"DRAXT Ī ĀSŪRĪG" ''Encyclopædia Iranica'', December 15, 1995. Some scholars consider the goat and the palm tree to be the symbols of Zoroastrianism and the Babylonian religion, or simply the pastoral life and agricultural life, respectively. The poem is also considered wisdom literature. A similar but less significant story, "The story of the vine and the ewe" ( ''raz o mīš''), has been recorded in Persian literature Persian literature comprises oral composi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asorestan
Asoristan ( ''Asōristān'', ''Āsūristān'') was the name of the Sasanian province of Assyria and Babylonia from 226 to 637. Name The Parthian name ''Asōristān'' (; also spelled ''Asoristan'', ''Asuristan'', ''Asurestan'', ''Assuristan'') is known from Shapur I's inscription on the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht, and from the inscription of Narseh at Paikuli. The region was also called several other names, mostly relating to its indigenous Assyrian inhabitants: Assyria, Athura, ''Bēṯ Nahren'' ( ), ''Bābēl/Bābil'', and ''Ereḫ/Erāq''. After the mid-6th century, it was also called Khwārwarān in New Persian. Although it is difficult to determine the true meaning of the renaming of southern Mesopotamia to "Assyria", it is possible that due to the Assyrian kingdom of Adiabene being in the north, it excluded the Assyrians further south and therefore the Persians named it accordingly to include the few million Semitic Mesopotamian people who were descendants of the ancient Assyri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the world's oldest organized faiths, its adherents exalt an Creator deity, uncreated, Omnibenevolence, benevolent, and List of knowledge deities#Persian mythology, all-wise deity known as Ahura Mazda (), who is hailed as the supreme being of the universe. Opposed to Ahura Mazda is Ahriman, Angra Mainyu (), who is personified as a List of death deities#Persian-Zoroastrian, destructive spirit and the adversary of all things that are good. As such, the Zoroastrian religion combines a Dualism in cosmology, dualistic cosmology of good and evil with an eschatological outlook predicting the Frashokereti, ultimate triumph of Ahura Mazda over evil. Opinions vary among scholars as to whether Zoroastrianism is monotheistic, polyth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dialogues
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is chiefly associated in the West with the Socratic dialogue as developed by Plato, but antecedents are also found in other traditions including Indian literature. Etymology The term ''dialogue'' stems from the Greek (, ); its roots are (, ) and (, ). The first extant author who uses the term is Plato, in whose works it is closely associated with the art of dialectic. Latin took over the word as . As genre Antiquity Dialogue as a genre in the Middle East and Asia dates back to ancient works, such as Sumerian disputations preserved in copies from the late third millennium BC, Rigvedic dialogue hymns, and the ''Mahabharata''. In the West, Plato ( BC – BC) has commonly been credited with the systematic use of dialogue as an indepen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asurestan
Asoristan ( ''Asōristān'', ''Āsūristān'') was the name of the Sasanian province of Assyria and Babylonia from 226 to 637. Name The Parthian name ''Asōristān'' (; also spelled ''Asoristan'', ''Asuristan'', ''Asurestan'', ''Assuristan'') is known from Shapur I's inscription on the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht, and from the inscription of Narseh at Paikuli. The region was also called several other names, mostly relating to its indigenous Assyrian inhabitants: Assyria, Athura, ''Bēṯ Nahren'' ( ), ''Bābēl/Bābil'', and ''Ereḫ/Erāq''. After the mid-6th century, it was also called Khwārwarān in New Persian. Although it is difficult to determine the true meaning of the renaming of southern Mesopotamia to "Assyria", it is possible that due to the Assyrian kingdom of Adiabene being in the north, it excluded the Assyrians further south and therefore the Persians named it accordingly to include the few million Semitic Mesopotamian people who were descendants of the ancient Assyrian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persian Literature
Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan), South Asia and the Balkans where the Persian language has historically been either the native or official language. For example, Rumi, one of the best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh (in modern-day Afghanistan) or Wakhsh (in modern-day Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya (in modern-day Turkey), at that time the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia. The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Tajikistan and other parts of Cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wisdom Literature
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it was disseminated in written form. The earliest known wisdom literature dates back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, originating from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. These regions continued to produce wisdom literature over the subsequent two and a half millennia. Wisdom literature from Jewish, Greek, Chinese, and Indian cultures started appearing around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. In the 1st millennium AD, Egyptian-Greek wisdom literature emerged, some elements of which were later incorporated into Islamic thought. Much of wisdom literature can be broadly categorized into two types – conservative "positive wisdom" and critical "negative wisdom" or "vanity literature": * Conservative Positive Wisdom – Pragmatic, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in the cities. While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. In the 20th century, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monocultures came to dominate agricultural output. , small farms produce about one-third of the world's food, but large farms are prevalent. The largest 1% of farms in the world are greater than and operate more than 70% of the world's farmland. Nearly 40% of agricultural land is found on farms larger than . However, five of every six farm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastoral
The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target audience is typically an urban one. A ''pastoral'' is a work of this genre. A piece of music in the genre is usually referred to as a pastorale. The genre is also known as bucolic, from the Greek , from , meaning a cowherd. Literature Pastoral literature in general Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques to place the complex life into a simple one. Paul Alpers distinguishes pastoral as a mode rather than a genre, and he bases this distinction on the recurring attitude of power; that is to say that pastoral literature holds a humble perspective toward nature. Thus, pastoral as a mode occurs in many types of literature (poetry, drama, etc.) as well as genres (most notably the pastoral elegy) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Religion
Babylonian religion is the religious practice of Babylonia. Babylonia's mythology was largely influenced by its Sumerian counterparts and was written on clay tablets inscribed with the cuneiform script derived from Sumerian cuneiform. The myths were usually either written in Sumerian or Akkadian. Some Babylonian texts were translations into Akkadian from Sumerian of earlier texts, but the names of some deities were changed.Jastrow, Morris; Rogers, Robert W.; Gottheil, Richard; Krauss, Samuel. (1901).BABYLON. '' The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''. The Kopalman Foundation. Mythology and cosmology Babylonian myths were greatly influenced by the Sumerian religion. Sometimes they were written on clay tablets inscribed with the cuneiform script derived from Sumerian cuneiform. The myths were usually either written in the Sumerian or Akkadian language. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the wider Middle East, the Caucasus, Southeastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. The academic reference work will eventually cover all aspects of Iranian history and culture as well as all Iranian languages and literatures, facilitating the whole range of Iranian studies research from archeology to political sciences. It is a project founded by Ehsan Yarshater in 1973 and currently carried out at Columbia University's Center for Iranian Studies. It is considered the standard encyclopedia of the academic discipline of Iranistics. The scope of the encyclopedia goes beyond modern Iran (also known as ''"Persia"'') and encompasses the entire Iranian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parthian Language
The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlawānīg, is an extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language once spoken in Parthia, a region situated in present-day northeastern Iran and Turkmenistan. Parthian was the language of state of the Arsacid Parthian Empire (248 BC – 224 AD), as well as of its eponymous branches of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, Arsacid dynasty of Iberia, and the Arsacid dynasty of Caucasian Albania. Parthian had a significant impact on Armenian, a large part of whose vocabulary was formed primarily from borrowings from Parthian, and had a derivational morphology and syntax that was also affected by language contact but to a lesser extent. Many ancient Parthian words were preserved and now survive only in Armenian. The Semnani or Komisenian languages may descend from Parthian directly or be a Caspian language with Parthian influences, but the topic lacks sufficient research. Classification Parthian was a Western Middle Iranian lang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahmad Tafazzoli
Ahmad Tafazzoli (December 16, 1937, Isfahan – January 15, 1997, Tehran) () was an Iranian Iranist and professor of ancient Iranian languages and culture at Tehran University. One of his most important books is ''Pre-Islamic Persian Literature''. Jaleh Amouzegar contributed in editing it. In January 1997, Ahmad Tafazzoli was found dead in Punak, a suburb northwest of Tehran near Jannat Abad. He was known to have contacts with Iranian academics working abroad, and many of his colleagues believed that the authorities were behind his death, as part of the chain murders of Iran. While the precise circumstances remained unclear, Tafazzoli's death created a climate of fear at the university and discouraged criticism of the government. See also * List of unsolved murders *Persian literature Other notable Iranologists: * Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub * Alireza Shapour Shahbazi * Richard Nelson Frye * Ehsan Yarshater Ehsan Yarshater (; April 3, 1920 – September 1, 2018) was an Iran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
