Perse/pol/is

عید آمد و کار ِ ما نکو کرد آخر خمّار، شراب در سبو کرد آخر افسار ِ نماز و پوزه‌بند ِ روزه عید از سر ِ آن خران فرو کرد آخر The fest (of fiṭr) finally came and made good our affairs The cupbearer finally poured wine into the ewers The bridle of prayer and the muzzle of fasting The fest put down from those donkies' heads. -Ascribed to Omar Khayyām (Lala Ismail Library, Mss. 487, ca. 1340 A.D., Fol. 68v.)

Perse/pol/is pinned «Elementary Pārsīg (Middle Persian/ Pahlavi) Course - Spring 2022 "This course, pārsīg ī āsān / "Easy Pārsīg" consists of 80 hours (60 hours of lesson teaching + 20 hours of writing and speaking workshop) is conducted in three sections of 20 hours, with online…»

Elementary Pārsīg (Middle Persian/ Pahlavi) Course - Spring 2022 "This course, pārsīg ī āsān / "Easy Pārsīg" consists of 80 hours (60 hours of lesson teaching + 20 hours of writing and speaking workshop) is conducted in three sections of 20 hours, with online and recorded sessions, and will be conducted for a Persian-speaking (or familiar with Persian) audience, starting from this spring with the first sessions taking place on April 18th / Farvardin 29th." For more information and enrollment: https://frazanaganhandarz.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/elementary-parsig-middle-persian-pahlavi-course-spring-2022/

Extracts from the article: xrad andar kār, ud xēm andar pādixšāyīh, ud dōst<īh> andar vidang pēdāg. -24 Wisdom manifests in action, character during sovereignty, and friendship during hardship. may xvārišnīh ēd ka abar āštīh ēsted. -108 To drink wine is this: they stand by peace. harv kē xvāhed, vinded. -137 Whoever seeks, finds. hān kē nēst, agar dāned kū: “ne hēm”, hēh. -184 That which is in-existent, if it knows thus: “I shan’t exist”, then it would exist. hazār mard ō mard-ē ped gōbišn ēdōn nē šāyend vurravēnīdan cōn mard-ē ō hazār mard ped kunišn. -E15 A thousand men cannot make one man believe by their words in such manner that a single man can make one thousand men (believe) by action.

“To Drink Wine is to Stand by Peace” – Select Admonitions from the Sixth Book of Dēnkird. https://frazanaganhandarz.wordpress.com/2022/03/13/to-drink-wine-is-to-stand-by-peace-select-admonitions-from-the-sixth-book-of-denkird/

Two articles on ancient Iranian psychology, written by R. Asha and translated by yours truly. On the breath-soul / life-wind in Iranian doctrine: https://frazanaganhandarz.wordpress.com/2021/12/25/iranian-psychology-1-the-life-wind/ The physical winds and humors of the body: https://frazanaganhandarz.wordpress.com/2021/12/25/iranian-psychology-2-frava%E1%B9%A3i-nature/

"ولکنا وان کنا اهل فناء، فان علینا ان نعمل للبقاء ونحتال له الی امد الفناء." Though we are people doomed to perdition, we must strive for survival and find ways to deceive destruction until its proper time arrives. —Letter of Tōsar (Priest of Ardašēr Pābagān) to Gušnasp(King of Tabaristān), Al-Tanbīh wa-l-išrāf, A. Mas'udī, ed. A. Ṣāwī, Baqdad (1967), pp.86.

"Rückblickend fragen wir uns: Welches war nun die besondere, bleibende Leistung dieses Großen der Geshichte? Wir stellen fest: Kyrus hat als erster ein Weltreich begründet. Vor ihm gab es wohl Großreiche wie das der Assyrer, aber kein Weltreich wie das der Perser unter seiner Führung." —Walther Hinz, Darius und die Perser (1976), Baden-Baden, pp. 120. Looking back, we ask ourselves: What was the great, long-lasting achievement of this great historical figure? We deduce: Cyrus was the first to found a world-empire. There had been great empires like that of Assyrians before him, but none were a world-empire, like that of Persians lead by Cyrus. Happy Cyrus the Great day!

Aspects of Self-knowledge in Iranian view. https://frazanaganhandarz.wordpress.com/2021/09/28/aspects-of-self-knowledge-in-iranian-view/

šiyāta ahaniy jīva utā marta artāvā ahaniy. May I be happy while alive; and when dead, may I be righteous. —King of Kings Xerxes I the Great, XPh 47-8

"In a book of the Persians, I read that Ardashir advised his son thus: ...Whatever qualities that exist in a king, he should not have these five: 1-He should not be a liar, for if he's a liar he promises good that he doesn't hope for, and promises evil he does not fear. 2-He should not be miserly, for if he is miserly none shall advise him, and ruleship cannot be fixed except with advice. 3-He should not be wrathful, for if he is wrathful with such power (he holds), the people will die and perish. 4-He should not be envious, for if he is, he honors and esteems no one no one of the people, except for the nobles. 5-He should not be a coward, for if he is, he will lose his border territories and the enemy will dare to attack him." —Ibn Qutaybah Dinavari, ‘Uyūn al-Aẖbār ('Chosen Narratives'), Beirut (1988), vol. I pp. 67.

/battle, the soldiers of Xerxes are still skillful archers and terrific riders who strike horror in the enemy with their bravery: 'For the whole populace of the Asian nation has come and murmurs against its youthful King, nor does any courier or horseman arrive at the city of the Persians, who left behind them the walled defence of Susa and Ecbatana and Cissa's ancient ramparts, and went forth, some on horseback, some in galleys, others on foot presenting a dense array of war. Such are Amistres and Artaphrenes and Megabates and Astaspes, marshals of the Persians; kings themselves, yet vassals of the Great King, they press on, commanders of an enormous host, skilled in archery and horsemanship, formidable to look upon and fearful in battle through the valiant resolve of their souls.' -The Persians, 11-29, (transl. Smyth) 25 centuries afterwards, in our times, these same soldiers are regarded as nothing but 'a flock of Asians whose backs have been bent under the whip.': 'Herodotus finishes his Histories after the battles of Platea and Mycale. The play has ended; the Greek has defeated the Barbarian... When the book finishes, a picture is illustrated in one's mind where one heavily-armed Greek hoplite makes battle with a flock of Asians whose backs have been bent under the whip.' -Henri Berguin, L'Enquête de Hérodote d' Halicarnasse, Paris (1934), Vol. I, XIII It can be said that the difference observed between these two remarks is the difference between historical reality and written 'historiography.' —Amir Mahdi Badi' (1916-1994), late Iranian historian and researcher, "Et Grecs et les Barbares - Tome I, Une erreur de l'histoire", Paris (1963)