Orality and textuality in the Iranian world : : patterns of interaction across the centuries.

• Superior document: Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture, Volume 19
• TeilnehmendeR: Rubanovich, Julia,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands : : Koninklijke Brill,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Jerusalem studies in religion and culture ; Volume 19.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (476 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

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.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction: New Perspectives on Orality in Iranian Studies / Julia Rubanovich -- 1 Memory and Textuality in the Orality-Literacy Continuum / Karl Reichl -- 2 Orality and Esotericism / Shaul Shaked -- 3 Irano-Talmudica iii / Reuven Kiperwasser and Dan D.Y. Shapira -- 4 The Islamic Ascension Narrative in the Context of Conversion in Medieval Iran / Maria E. Subtelny -- 5 The Motif of the Cave and the Funerary Narratives of Nāṣir-i Khusrau / Jo-Ann Gross -- 6 ʻThe Ground Well Trodden But the Shah Not Found . . .ʼ / 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 Khāvarānnāma and the Oral Transmission of Epic Materials / Raya Shani -- 10 Professional Storytelling (naqqālī) in Qājār Iran / Ulrich Marzolph -- 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 / 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 / Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur -- 15 Aramaic Incantation Texts between Orality and Textuality / Charles G. Häberl -- 16 Between Demons and Kings / Naama Vilozny -- 17 Between Written Texts, Oral Performances and Mural Paintings / Frantz Grenet -- Index.