Topic of the Day: Parallel Traditions: Early Judaeo-Persian and its literary heritage.
During the first centuries of the Islamic era, when the New Persian language was barely starting to gain its ground among various other Iranian languages and their literatures, there were a couple of New Persian literary traditions that were current in those times.
One of them was the Persian literary language of the Jewish communities of Iran. The earliest attestations of New Persian can be traced back to the 8th century Early Judaeo-Persian letters found in Dandan-Uiliq, in modern Xinjiang (China).
Later, the Early Judaeo-Persian rose to become a language of literature and religion, and several literary monuments were added to the letters. Their language presents interest to us because they were written in a different alphabet (Hebrew), and the specimens that survived did not lose their authenticity through the intermediary of scribal tradition. Secondly, they present us with more archaic language features and probably preserve some dialectic features.
Text Editions:
Habib Yaγmāyī, Tarǰome-ye Tafsir-e Tabari, dar 7 moǰallad, Entešārāt-e Tus, 1356 (čāp-e dovvom).
Ja’far Modarres Sādeqi, Tarǰome-ye Tafsir- Tabari (qesse-hā), Našr-e Markaz, 1398 (čāp-e šešom).
Chapters (from Sādeqi’s edition):
Tarǰumat-ul-Kitāb bi-l-fārsiyya
Hadis-i Iblis
Yusif wa Zulaixa
Qissa-yi Šāristān wa Taxt-i Sulaymān
Qissa-yi Hārut wa Mārut
Qissa-yi Xizr
Hadis-i Parviz
Hadis-i ristāxīz
Classroom activities: reading the text; discussion of grammar and style of the text; Q&A.
Recommended readings: Annabel Keeler, “EXEGESIS iii. In Persian”. From: Encyclopaedia Iranica (Online).
Vocabulary:
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