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Orality and Textuality in the Iranian World
Patterns of Interaction Across the Centuries
Series: - Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture, Volume: 19
Volume Editor:
The volume demonstrates the cultural centrality of the oral tradition for Iranian studies. It contains contributions from scholars from various areas of Iranian and comparative studies, among which are the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition with its wide network of influences in late antique Mesopotamia, notably among the Jewish milieu; classical Persian literature in its manifold genres; medieval Persian history; oral history; folklore and more. The essays in this collection embrace both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, both verbal and visual media, as well as various language communities (Middle Persian, Persian, Tajik, Dari) and geographical spaces (Greater Iran in pre-Islamic and Islamic medieval periods; Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan of modern times). Taken as a whole, the essays reveal the unique blending of oral and literate poetics in the texts or visual artefacts each author focuses upon, conceptualizing their interrelationship and function.
Contributors are: Frantz Grenet, Jo-Ann Gross, Charles G. Häberl, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Reuven Kiperwasser, Ulrich Marzolph, Margaret A. Mills, Ravshan Rahmoni, Karl Reichl, Julia Rubanovich, Shaul Shaked, Raya Shani, Dan Y. Shapira, Maria E. Subtelny, Gabrielle R. van den Berg, Yuhan S.-D. Vevaina, Naama Vilozny, Mohsen Zakeri, and Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur.
Contributors are: Frantz Grenet, Jo-Ann Gross, Charles G. Häberl, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Reuven Kiperwasser, Ulrich Marzolph, Margaret A. Mills, Ravshan Rahmoni, Karl Reichl, Julia Rubanovich, Shaul Shaked, Raya Shani, Dan Y. Shapira, Maria E. Subtelny, Gabrielle R. van den Berg, Yuhan S.-D. Vevaina, Naama Vilozny, Mohsen Zakeri, and Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur.
Julia Rubanovich, Ph.D. (2005) is Senior Lecturer in Persian Language and Literature at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has published on classical Persian literature, medieval orality and the Alexander-Romance in the Iranian domain.
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Notes on Transliteration and Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: New Perspectives on Orality in Iranian Studies, Julia Rubanovich
Part 1. Approaching Orality
1. Memory and Textuality in the Orality-Literacy Continuum, Karl Reichl
2. Orality and Esotericism. Reflections on Modes of Transmission in Late Antiquity, Shaul Shaked
Part 2. Sacred Traditions and Oral History
3. Irano-Talmudica III. Giant Mythological Creatures in Transition from the Avesta to the Babylonian Talmud, Reuven Kiperwasser and Dan D.Y. Shapira
4. The Islamic Ascension Narrative in the Context of Conversion in Medieval Iran. An Apocalypse at the Intersection of Orality and Textuality, Maria E. Subtelny
5. The Motif of the Cave and the Funerary Narratives of Nāṣir-I Khusrau, Jo-Ann Gross
Part 3. Iranian Epic Tradition
6. ʻThe Ground Well Trodden But the Shah Not Found . . .ʼ Orality and Textuality in the ʻBook of Kingsʼ and the Zoroastrian Mythoepic Tradition, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina
7. ʻThe Book of the Black Demon,ʼ or Shabrang-nāma, and the Black Demon in Oral Tradition, Gabrielle R. van den Berg
8. Why So Many Stories? Untangling the Versions of Iskandar’s Birth and Upbringing, Julia Rubanovich
9. Some Comments on the Probable Sources of Ibn Ḥusām’s Khāvarān-nāma and the Oral Transmission of Epic Materials, Raya Shani
10. Professional Storytelling (naqqālī) in Qājār Iran, Ulrich Marzolph
Part 4. Oral and Literary Traditions as Channels of Cultural Transformation
11. The Literary Use of Proverbs and Myths in Nāṣir-i Khusrau’s Dīvān, Mohsen Zakeri
12. Classical Poetry as Cultural Capital in the Proverbs of Jews from Iran Transformations of Intertextuality, Galit Hasan-Rokem
13. Gashtak: Oral/Literary Intertextuality, Performance and Identity in Contemporary Tajikistan, Margaret Mills and Ravshan Rahmoni
14. The Tale of ʻThe Old Woman on the Mountainʼ. A Jewish Folktale from Afghanistan, Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur
Part 5. Performative Aspects of Orality in Visual Artefacts
15. Aramaic Incantation Texts between Orality and Textuality, Charles G. Häberl
16. Between Demons and Kings. The Art of Babylonian Incantation Bowls, Naama Vilozny
17. Between Written Texts, Oral Performances and Mural Paintings. Illustrated Scrolls in Pre-Islamic Central Asia, Frantz Grenet
Index
List of Illustrations
Notes on Transliteration and Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: New Perspectives on Orality in Iranian Studies, Julia Rubanovich
Part 1. Approaching Orality
1. Memory and Textuality in the Orality-Literacy Continuum, Karl Reichl
2. Orality and Esotericism. Reflections on Modes of Transmission in Late Antiquity, Shaul Shaked
Part 2. Sacred Traditions and Oral History
3. Irano-Talmudica III. Giant Mythological Creatures in Transition from the Avesta to the Babylonian Talmud, Reuven Kiperwasser and Dan D.Y. Shapira
4. The Islamic Ascension Narrative in the Context of Conversion in Medieval Iran. An Apocalypse at the Intersection of Orality and Textuality, Maria E. Subtelny
5. The Motif of the Cave and the Funerary Narratives of Nāṣir-I Khusrau, Jo-Ann Gross
Part 3. Iranian Epic Tradition
6. ʻThe Ground Well Trodden But the Shah Not Found . . .ʼ Orality and Textuality in the ʻBook of Kingsʼ and the Zoroastrian Mythoepic Tradition, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina
7. ʻThe Book of the Black Demon,ʼ or Shabrang-nāma, and the Black Demon in Oral Tradition, Gabrielle R. van den Berg
8. Why So Many Stories? Untangling the Versions of Iskandar’s Birth and Upbringing, Julia Rubanovich
9. Some Comments on the Probable Sources of Ibn Ḥusām’s Khāvarān-nāma and the Oral Transmission of Epic Materials, Raya Shani
10. Professional Storytelling (naqqālī) in Qājār Iran, Ulrich Marzolph
Part 4. Oral and Literary Traditions as Channels of Cultural Transformation
11. The Literary Use of Proverbs and Myths in Nāṣir-i Khusrau’s Dīvān, Mohsen Zakeri
12. Classical Poetry as Cultural Capital in the Proverbs of Jews from Iran Transformations of Intertextuality, Galit Hasan-Rokem
13. Gashtak: Oral/Literary Intertextuality, Performance and Identity in Contemporary Tajikistan, Margaret Mills and Ravshan Rahmoni
14. The Tale of ʻThe Old Woman on the Mountainʼ. A Jewish Folktale from Afghanistan, Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur
Part 5. Performative Aspects of Orality in Visual Artefacts
15. Aramaic Incantation Texts between Orality and Textuality, Charles G. Häberl
16. Between Demons and Kings. The Art of Babylonian Incantation Bowls, Naama Vilozny
17. Between Written Texts, Oral Performances and Mural Paintings. Illustrated Scrolls in Pre-Islamic Central Asia, Frantz Grenet
Index
The target audience of the volume is researchers and students interested in the interaction of the oral and the textual in the fields of Iranian and Middle Eastern studies, folklore, history, comparative literature and religion.