Classical Persian epics : conscious authorship and tradition

The article explores the concept of authorship in early (10th−11th century A.D.) classical Persian epic poetry, it uses examples of three representative works: Ferdousi’s Šāhnāme, Asadi’s and Gorgāni’s Vis-o Rāmin. As the analyzed passages show, all three authors, in spite of their works being based on the existing, traditional sources, have a strong sense of their individual authorship. They understand their role as saving pre-Islamic Iranian patrimony from oblivion, as a modernization of literary language and style and finally, as a search for their personal fame. An attempt at discovering inner senses of the inherited literary material, beyond its external meaning, seems to be another aspect of their authorial creativity

Classical Persian Epics — Conscious Authorship and Tradition

Polska, uzupełniona wersja artykułu: Classical Persian Epics — Conscious Authorship and Tradition, “Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis” 10 (2015), zesz. 3, s. 195−204.The article explores the concept of authorship in early (10th−11th century A.D.) classical Persian epic poetry, it uses examples of three representative works: Ferdousi’s Šāhnāme, Asadi’s and Gorgāni’s Vis-o Rāmin. As the analyzed passages show, all three authors, in spite of their works being based on the existing, traditional sources, have a strong sense of their individual authorship. They understand their role as saving pre-Islamic Iranian patrimony from oblivion, as a modernization of literary language and style and finally, as a search for their personal fame. An attempt at discovering inner senses of the inherited literary material, beyond its external meaning, seems to be another aspect of their authorial creativity

Čaharšanbe Suri and the cult of ancestral souls

Artykuł jest próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie, w jakim stopniu w obrzędach magicznych odprawianych przez ludy irańskie w ostatnią środę roku solarnego (Čaharšanbe Suri) zachowały się elementy święta zmarłych, które w kalendarzu zoroastryjskim poprzedzało święto Nowego Roku. Pod tym kątem analizowane są relacje dotyczące praktyk magicznych z wielu regionów świata irańskiego.This paper looks for the traces of the cult of ancestral souls in the magical practices of the Iranian solar year's last Wednesday ( Čahāršanbe Suri). In Zoroastrian religious calendar the New Year festival was preceded with the festival of the dead and reports from many regions of modern Iranian world seem to witness for the survival of its relics