Topic of the Day: The origins of Classical Persian Literature: An overview of Middle Persian (Pahlavi) Literature.
Although it might appear that classical Persian literature appeared out of the blue, after two centuries of silence, this impression should be considered no longer tenable. The Early and thus also later Classical Persian literature is part of the long Iranian literary tradition and, thus, the direct successor of Middle Persian literature, which provided much of the genres, topoi, and ways of thinking to the newly developing New Persian literature. Thus, to understand the nature of many phenomena in the New Persian literature, one is almost forced to look back and get at least some level of familiarity with the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) literature and the works that survived in that language.
During this short discussion, we will have a look at the literary heritage of Middle Persian. Besides that, we will discuss the most important titles that have survived and their contents.
Text Edition:
Classroom activities: Discussing questions related to the parts of the texts read the day before; a short lecture on the contents of the Middle Persian literature; continuing reading the text of the Muqaddama; discussing the grammar and style of the text; Q&A.
Recommended reading: M. Qazvini, “Moqaddame-ye qadim-e šāhnāme” (from: Dowre-ye kāmel-e bist maqāle-ye Qazvini, Jeld-e 2om). ss. 5-29.
Vocabulary:
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